PB...No J

Did you know that November is National Peanut Butter Lovers Month? Since last year's tribute to the creamy and crunchy varieties of such brands like Jif and Skippy, much has changed in the PB category.

For starters, peanut butter has been dominating the news for the past few months. This summer's hot and dry weather, combined with farmers planting less peanuts for the upcoming crop, has led to a shortage of the legume. This has pushed peanut butter prices up for both manufacturers and consumers, making peanut butter one of the priciest items at the grocery store and in your pantry.

Despite this news, peanut butter makers have still been hard at work, creating new kinds of peanut butter for PB lovers across the globe. Skippy recently introduced a line of natural products, including Natural Super Chunk, Natural Creamy, and Natural Creamy with Honey. The 100 percent natural spreads contain no artificial colors or flavorings, and need no stirring.

Additionally, Planters, America's leading snack nut brand, added peanut butter to its line-up once again after a 30-year hiatus. The newly unveiled PB also presented a new animated character, Peanut Butter Doug, the dubious and adventurous stunt double of Mr. Peanut.


According to the National Peanut Board, the average American consumes more than six pounds of peanuts and peanut butter products each year. With peanut butter consumed in 90 percent of U.S. households, Americans combine to eat more than 1.5 billion pounds of peanuty goodness annually, and spend $800 million on peanut butter alone.

How will you love peanut butter this month? Share your favorite peanut butter recipe, craft, or whip up the most creative peanut butter and jelly sandwich you can imagine, and enjoy celebrating National Peanut Butter Lovers Month!

Me Want Cookie

No need to wait until Halloween to get your sweet fix; October is National Cookie Month! Whether your cookie of choice is the healthier kind, like Kashi's TLC Cookies, or you prefer to splurge on Grandma's Cookies from Frito-Lay, take these thirty-one days to enjoy chocolate chip, oatmeal, and peanut butter cookies…and everything in between! Pumpkin Spiced and Iced Cookies, anyone?

Think you know about cookies? Chew on these cookie facts:

• Since its introduction in 1902, Animal Crackers have featured 37 different mammals. Today, each box contains 22 crackers in 17 varieties: bears, bison, camels, cougars, elephants, giraffes, gorillas, hippopotami, hyenas, kangaroos, lions, monkeys, rhinoceros, seals, sheep, tigers, and zebras.
  
• Nabisco welcomed the Oreo in 1912.
  
• The sale of cookies as a way to finance Girl Scout troop activities began as early as 1917. In the 1920s and 1930s, Girl Scouts sold cookies door to door for 25 to 35 cents per dozen.
  
• The Toll House chocolate chip cookie was invented in 1933 by Ruth Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. Today, the chocolate chip cookie is the most popular kind of cookie in the U.S.
  
• Cookie sales top $3 billion annually. Each year, Americans consume roughly 2 billion cookies, and will eat about 35,000 cookies in a lifetime.
  
• Sesame Street's Cookie Monster wasn't always named Cookie Monster; the Muppet used to be named Sid. Arum num num num!

If you're seeking the best cookie recipes on the Internet, check out Mrs. Fields Secrets – tips and advice from the world's smartest cookie! Want to bake a better cookie? Take Domino Sugar's advice on preparing, baking, cooling, storing, and freezing cookies of all types.

This month, indulge on Pepperidge Farm Milano Cookies or go back to your childhood with Keebler Vienna Fingers. No matter how you choose to recognize National Cookie Month, be sure to celebrate in style!

Tell me, what's your favorite cookie? Leave a note, and don't be skimpy on the details!

The Breakfast Club

September is National Breakfast Month! With summer a distant memory, kids heading back to school, and the weather getting cooler, breakfast is definitely the most important meal this month. Check out these creative recipes from top food and beverage consumer packaged goods companies to spice up your mornings through September and all year long.

Smoothies and coffee drinks are a good way to start your day. Coffee-mate's Coffee Breakfast Drink has the right mix of coffee, protein, and calcium, while Nesquick packs a flavor punch with its rich French Vanilla Mocha. Looking for something totally different? Try Nabisco's recipe, a Super Newton Smoothie chock-full of Fig Newtons.

For those seeking a more traditional route, these recipes will help you turn off that alarm and get out of bed:

• Hillshire Farm Overnight Breakfast Casserole
  
• Malt-O-Meal Pancakes
  
• Knorr Country Breakfast Benedict

And finally, think outside of the box with these creative twists on traditional breakfast foods:

• Kashi Breakfast Crunch! Cookies
  
• Classic Campbelled Eggs, complete with Campbell's Cream of Celery Soup
  
• Welch's Pancake 'N Sausage Breakfast Muffins and its key ingredient, Welch's Reduced Sugar Concord Grape or Strawberry Jelly
  
• Last-Minute Omelet Bakes from Kraft, featuring Miracle Whip
  
• Hormel's Baked Apple Pancake with Sausages

What foods get you out of bed? Leave a message and tell me how your morning meal gets you moving, and enjoy September - National Breakfast Month!

Out of the Blue

July is National Blueberry Month, and rightfully so! Those plump, vivid berries are ripe this time of year, with grocers keeping store shelves stocked with this summer fruit. Fresh or frozen, blueberries are tasty any time of year, atop pancakes or mixed in to oatmeal.

The U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council works to promote the growth and well-being of the entire blueberry industry, and the good folks at the organization are undoubtedly excited to celebrate this month.

Find a variety of blueberry-flavored items in stores, including products like True Blueberry Celestial Seasonings Herbal Tea, Hershey's Extra Dark Chocolate Cranberries, Blueberries, and Almond Bar, and Wild Blueberry Quaker Multigrain Fiber Crisps.

Enjoy these additional blueberry recipes to spice up your month!

• Betty Crocker Blueberry-Banana Bread with Bisquick
  
• Blueberry Scones featuring King Arthur Flour
  
• Kraft Blueberry-Cheese Rolls starring Philadelphia Cream Cheese
  
• Land O'Lakes Blueberry Sour Cream Pancakes
  
• Dannon Mixed Berry Smoothie
  
• Ocean Spray Blueberry Cosmo
  
• Blueberry White Chip Muffins loaded with Nestlé Toll House Premier White Morsels
  

What are your favorite blueberry recipes? Have a good one for Wild Blueberry Soup or Blueberry Streusel Cake? Post and share!

I Scream, You Scream

We're halfway through July, which means we still have two weeks to celebrate National Ice Cream Month! Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month in 1984, and for the past 27 years, we've had a full 31 days to formally recognize the frozen treat that keeps us cool all summer.

Since my ice cream post last year, food manufacturers have created new concoctions for consumers to enjoy. Whether you're in the mood for a decadently sweet dessert, a low-fat creamy delight, or something in between, ice cream companies have you covered! Take a look at these new ice cream lines that have hit store shelves so far this year.

In March, Ben and Jerry's launched Late Night Snack, a flavor inspired by a "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" skit. The vanilla ice cream combines a sweet and salty combination with a caramel swirl and crunchy fudge-covered potato chip clusters.

Ben and Jerry's welcomed two more flavors in May, available only at Target. Volun-Tiramisu and Peanut Butter World are intended to promote volunteerism, joining last year's philanthropic ice cream debut of Berry Voluntary and Brownie Chew Gooder.

This company isn't the only one, however, adding a new twist to their tried and true lineup. Klondike is mixing it up with new taste sensations like Mint Chocolate Chip and Caramel Pretzel. Blue Bunny, Hershey's Ice Cream, and Breyers also keep us guessing with new items unveiled constantly.

For kids and kids at heart, Popsicle brand frozen treats introduced Jolly Rancher ice pops. With long-lasting flavors straight from the hard candy, each pop combines cherry, blue raspberry, green apple, and grape flavors.

Looking for a healthier way to celebrate National Ice Cream Month? Reach for one of new Weight Watchers' new ice cream treats. For those on the diet program, the frozen treats range from one to four points to keep your eating plan on track. Try a Strawberry Smoothie Bar, a GIANT Latte Bar, a Dark Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream Bar, or many of the other low-fat varieties the manufacturer offers.

Skinny Cow from Nestlé also provides a lower fat ice cream option. From sandwiches and truffle bars to individual cones and cups in mouth-watering flavors including Strawberry Cheesecake and Caramel Cone, Skinny Cow is another tasty alternative to help ice cream lovers snack smartly.

Of course, you can always visit your nearest Maggie Moo's or Baskin-Robbins or head to your grocer's freezer to enjoy your favorite ice cream flavor this month – and all year! – long.

So tell me, what's your favorite ice cream flavor? Drop me a note and tell me how you're planning to celebrate National Ice Cream Month!

Sugar Rush

It's the sweetest month of the year! June is National Candy Month, a time to celebrate the sweet treats we know and love. With every American eating an average of 20.7 pounds of candy each year, it's only fitting we devote an entire month to delicious sugary sweets.

Last month, a record 556 exhibitors debuted their products to more than 14,000 industry professionals during the National Confectioners Association's Sweets & Snacks Expo in Chicago. Some new products introduced at this event you can expect to see in the coming year include TicTac flavors like Strawberry Fields, Cherry Cola, and Lemon Lime Fizz; Hershey's Air Delight Kisses; and Extra Dessert Delights gum from Wrigley in taste sensations including Apple Pie, Orange Crème Pop, and Smooth Mint.

In honor of National Candy Month, chew on these fun facts:

• Saltwater taffy was invented in Atlantic City in 1883.
  
• About 65 percent of American candy brands have been around for more than 50 years.
  
• The Snickers candy bar was named after the Mars family's favorite horse.
  
• Cotton candy was originally called fairy floss.
  
• It takes 7 to 21 days to make a single Jelly Belly jellybean.
  
• Ice cubes help remove gum from clothing.

What are some of your favorite candies? Whether your preferred confection is old or new, leave a message and let's commemorate National Candy Month!

Egg-cellent

May is known for many exciting events like Mother's Day, proms, graduations, and Memorial Day. One thing not prioritized in the month of flowers and sunshine: eggs. After the hustle and bustle of Easter, eggs sales slow. That's why the American Egg Board has named May National Egg Month, to remind Americans about the many benefits of eggs, which can be enjoyed throughout the year.

Following Easter and through the summer, consumers can find eggs at a great price due to a constant supply of eggs from the holiday, but less demand. Eggs are affordable and packed with protein and nutrients. They can also be prepared in dozens of different ways. In fact, a chef's hat is said to have a pleat for each of the many ways you can cook eggs. Check out these recipes you can enjoy morning, noon, or night:

• Crystal Farms Farmhouse Frittata
  
• Land O Lakes Breakfast Casserole
  
• Horizon Organic Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins
  
• Eggland's Best Chicken Francaise
  
• Egg Beaters Caramel Orange Flan

Fueled by increasing consumer demand for more convenient food products, growth of the egg products industry is expected to continue in the future. Learn more about the egg industry and get additional statistics from the United Egg Producers website.

Celebrate National Egg Month! Leave a comment and share your favorite egg recipe.

We All Scream for Ice Cream

Nothing says summer like an ice cream cone on a hot July day. That's why it makes perfect sense that July is National Ice Cream Month! How will you celebrate and honor this frozen confection?

Many of today's ice creams have jumped from the candy aisle into your grocer's freezer. M&M's now offers such goodies as ice cream sandwiches and character cakes. Snickers produces ice cream bars, cones, and brownie sandwiches. You can find Twix bars and 90-calorie miniatures in the ice cream aisle. Breyer's must also like the idea of marrying candy and ice cream. Its line of fun flavors includes mixes of Oreo cookies, Reese's peanut butter cups, Snickers bars, and Heath candies.

Dove, however, has the opposite story. Founder Leo Stefanos started covering his ice cream bars in rich, creamy chocolate in the 1950s. Dovebars were a hit, and in 1986, M&M/Mars acquired the idea. In 1991, the company started manufacturing the chocolate ice cream covering on its own, introducing it as Dove Promises.

Some ice cream makers sell their products in their shops as well as supermarkets. Patrons to Ben & Jerry's, Carvel, and Friendly's can go into their favorite ice cream boutiques nationwide or just head to the grocery store to pick up a renowned pint, cake, or individualized sundae.

Of course, some ice cream brands you can only find at the supermarket. Blue Bunny, Dreyer's/Edy's, and Häagen-Dazs are staples that continue to crank out creative flavors year after year, like Birthday Party, Nestlé Drumstick Sundae Cone, and Bananas Foster.

Of course, it's always possible to customize your own creation at a place like Coldstone Creamery, Dairy Queen, or Marble Slab.

Ice cream is definitely meant to be enjoyed year-round, but there really is nothing like delighting in a cold treat melting quickly as the mercury rises. When I hear the melodic tune of the Good Humor truck and see that van round the corner, I know we are in the thick of summer. Does it get any better?

What's your favorite ice cream indulgence? Leave a message and tell me how you'll ring in this year's National Ice Cream Month!