Peanut Butter Days!!!

Our lives are inseparable from food.  We eat to live and we live to eat – that is just how it is!  Food is the focus of our life and this is generally true of everyone.  The person who struggles with overeating focuses on food just as much as the person who doesn’t have enough food; the non-dieter as much as the vegetarian.   And we are all familiar with the concept of “comfort food.”  Comfort food is food that we associate with family, good memories, and seasons; food that brings us a small measure of comfort when life is out of control and when we are sad.  I am no different than any other person in the world.  I think about food – sometimes I even dream about food, and yes, I have my favorite “comfort foods.”

Sometimes I plan ahead for my favorite comfort foods.  It is our family tradition to, every St. Patrick’s Day, have corned beef and cabbage.  It has become one of our favorite meals and we look forward to St. Patrick’s Day because we love corned beef.   (We also either watch The Quiet Man or Leap Year – so much fun!)It is the same with Thanksgiving.  We don’t eat a lot of turkey throughout the year.  We love it, but I just don’t cook it that often.  However, I look forward to Thanksgiving knowing we will have the traditional turkey, stuffing and gravy with various other side dishes, and of course, pie for dessert.  There is comfort in the tradition and anticipation of the meal. 

Everyone has a different list of foods they consider comfort food.  Dark chocolate, popcorn, coffee, Panera’s cream of chicken and wild rice soup, baked macaroni and cheese…these are a few of the comfort foods on my list.  And yes, peanut butter is near the top of the list.  While I like peanut butter in general and do eat natural peanut butter, my favorite peanut butter is Jif.  Preferably extra crunchy, but I will take the creamy if that is all there is.  I love peanut butter and crackers, peanut butter spread on a slice of bread, and sometimes, I will just stick the spoon in the jar and eat it plain. (I don’t double scoop with peanut butter though…thought you might be wondering!)  I love peanut butter!!!  So how does a day become a peanut butter day?

Life has really been life for me lately: confusing, complicated and just plain hard.   I do a lot of praying and reflecting first thing in the morning and some mornings I feel kind of down.  After I have had my morning cups of coffee I start thinking about breakfast and run through my options:  I can eat my very healthy Ezekiel 4:9 cereal (which I do like), I can go the high-protein route and scramble some eggs, or I can make myself a super-healthy fruit smoothie.  I usually choose from one of these options.  But some mornings the only thing that sounds good is a slice of bread with peanut butter.  I start with one piece of bread and generally, that one piece tastes so good I go back for another.   That’s when I know it is going to be a “peanut butter day.”  It isn’t that my eating for that day will be terrible, but my focus that day will be more on foods that sound good rather than what I know I should eat.  Peanut butter days almost always include popcorn and a small to moderate amount of chocolate and other things that are not a regular part of my diet.  Every day includes coffee, so while coffee is a comfort food, it not optional.  It is a necessity. 

I used to beat myself up over my peanut butter days, but I don’t anymore.  In the scope of life and time it is such a small thing.  And guilt (while necessary and good in some situations) is unproductive at best and crippling at its worst in areas that are subjective.  Peanut butter is relatively inexpensive (it is not caviar), and while it is not the healthiest food out there it is also not the worst thing you could eat.  So if a few “peanut butter days” makes life a little more enjoyable, then long live peanut butter days!!! 

“Man cannot live by bread alone; he must have peanut butter.”

~ James A. Garfield