Mommy Party: Nutella

I love Nutella. I adore it, could eat it on just about any food you name - or plain if you prefer - not that I would ever dip a spoon or a knife or a finger into the jar of bliss and do so. Nope, not me. I've loved it since I was a child, as I was lucky enough to live in Belgium for awhile where it is a breakfast table standard.

I was thrilled when I went to Germany for two weeks shortly after graduating college and found the breakfast still consisted of many of my favorites: various breads and rolls, cured meats, good tasting yogurt, and Nutella. Ahhh, the Nutella. These days, we always have a Costco sized jar (or more) in our pantry, and we possibly eat a little more than our share.

I've introduced it to many friends over the years, as it's gorgeously nut peanut free (it's made with hazelnuts, which have such a great flavor) and it's like semi-solid truffles - but with a justification you can offer for eating it. There are no artificial ingredients in it - nothing that my family doesn't eat (e.g., no dyes, no high fructose corn syrup, nothing partially hydrogenated) - and a 2 tablespoon serving (which is pretty generous and larger than what we usually use) has only 21g of sugar - less than many other breakfast options from yogurt (go check, you'll be surprised) to many cereals. It does contain 11g of fat, but that's from the nuts, primarily, as only 3.5 of those grams are saturated fats.

Needless to say, there's a lot that we pair Nutella with around here. The focus of the Nutella for Breakfast campaign is of course on using Nutella at breakfast as a complement to other foods to provide a well-rounded breakfast that includes whole grains that works for families. Nutella is great on just about any bread product you can think of, and there are weeks when my husband eats nothing but whole grain toast spread with Nutella, some fruit, and coffee for breakfast. It's quick and easy.

For my mom's party, I brought breakfast to the moms of my PTO who were hard at work stuffing invitations for our gala. They give up their time to sit and work, and many of them have not yet had a chance to eat breakfast - or will happily take the chance of a second breakfast if one is provided. I obliged and provided.

(Yes, those are homemade bagels that I brought for the occasion. Recipe will appear on Tuesday, and it is amazing how easy and quick they are to make - and how many of the moms then asked me for the recipe!)

Bagels and Nutella are a natural combination, and all the moms agreed (as we noshed!) that this was a quick and relatively healthy breakfast for kids. For the moms who had never had Nutella before, I think we've got some converts. It really does taste like a huge treat, even though it's very similar in nutritional content to peanut butter - long a staple of American kitchens. Comparing my 100% natural organic peanut butter to Nutella, the peanut butter has 10 few calories than Nutella per 2 tablespoon serving (200 versus 210), but more fat (15g v 11g for Nutella), less protein (2g v 3g for Nutella), and more sodium (65mg v 15mg for Nutella).

In addition to the breakfast grains campaign that Nutella is currently on, we love Nutella on all sorts of things. I've put it on pretzels - soft pretzels, pretzel rods, waffle pretzels, you name it - apples, pears, bananas, strawberries, oranges (really), and more. For those moms who have kids who also don't like fruit, this is a great way to make it more palatable to them - or to give them a special treat.

All the moms were happy that after our chatting and enjoying of the food - no one disliked the Nutella, and many were pleasantly surprised by what they learned - that they got to take home a Nutella goodie bag that had a sample of Nutella in it, along with a Nutella spreader, a Nutella travel mug, and recipes and information about Nutella.

In fact, the PTO Nutella party was so successful, there were more attendees than gift bags and they all quickly disappeared. As we chatted, there was one more idea that the moms suggested as a way to make the Nutella breakfast even more portable.

Introducing the Nutella rollup. And no, I'd never thought of or done this in all my Nutella-loving years:

Nutella spread on a whole wheat tortilla, and sprinkled with dried cherries and flax seeds before being rolled up. Portable, not messy, and containing all the staples of a good breakfast in my book! (Thanks, Moms!)

That said, I do have a favorite Nutella recipe. Have you seen my s'mores pizza? Y-U-M.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was provided with the jar of Nutella and goodie bags to be used at the Mommy Party by BSM Media. I received no compensation or goodie bag myself, and all opinions expressed are my own.