Peanut Butter Uses: Not Just for Sandwiches

Right out of the jar - This is the quick and easy way to eat peanut butter. Make it a little more healthy by spreading it on apple slices, pear slices, or celery.

Peanut butter and whatever sandwich - Add jelly, bananas, raisins, bacon, or your favorite topping to your peanut butter sandwich. If you are a purist, just make it a plain peanut butter sandwich. Peanut butter on toast is a good, quick breakfast food.

Adding some peanut butter to your sauces instead of butter will give them a nutty flavor.

Peanut sauce for chicken in Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce.

Cream of peanut soup recipe from the Colonial Williamsburg Tavern Cookbook.

My favorite recipe for an entree is peanut butter in an oriental noodle salad. It's a cheap and easy solution when you don't know what to make. These two recipes are good starting points. Then just play with the ingredients using whatever you happen to have in the refrigerator. You can make a quick Thai sauce with peanut butter, coconut milk, and Thai curry paste.

Peanut Sesame Noodles
Late-Night Asian Noodle Recipe

Keeping on the Oriental theme, there's also Peanut Butter Sushi. Don't worry, there's no fish in this recipe. You will need: your favorite bread, peanut butter, sliced fruits and veggies, jam (optional), mini marshmallows and crispy rice (also optional), and honey (again, optional).

A little peanut butter can round out your breakfast menu.

Spread some peanut butter on your toast to boost your protein intake or add a dollop of peanut butter to your smoothie to give it a nutty flavor..

Add a spoonful or two of peanut butter in your oatmeal. Stir to mix it well and add some fruit or drizzle a bit of your favorite fruit preserves on top.

Make peanut butter pancakes.

Peanut butter cookies - Who can't resist a good peanut butter cookie. Her'e is Betty Crocker's Peanut Butter Cookie recipe.

Peanut butter pie - The-Cooking-Mom has a lens on how to make a no-bake peanut butter pie with links to other recipes.

Peanut butter treats - Craftyville has an extensive lens with lots of recipes for peanut butter treats.

Mice love peanut butter, much more than cheese. Use peanut butter on your mouse trap instead of cheese.

Use peanut butter to remove chewing gum from your hair, carpet or fabric. Just rub some peanut butter on the gum and wipe off with a cloth. The oilier the peanut butter, the better it will work.

Likewise, peanut butter can be used to remove adhesive labels from cans and jars.

Hide medicine for your ferret or dog in peanut butter. Ferrets love peanut butter. It's not a good food for them since they are obligate carnivores, but it makes a good occasional treat or flavoring for medicine.

Want your horse to talk like Mr. Ed from the 1960s TV show? Put peanut butter along his gumline. Yes, that's how they got Mr. Ed to move his lips like he was talking. I wonder how much my cat would hate me if I tried it with her.

Use it as a lubricant on mechanical items like axles instead of WD-40.

You can clean leather with peanut butter.

Plumpy'nut is a fortified peanut butter paste used to fight severe malnutrition. It comes in a sealed foil packet with a shelf life of 2 years. (Link goes to New York Times article)

Feed the birds. Mix equal amounts of peanut butter and cornmeal. Spread the peanut butter mixture into the crevices of a pine cone, into holes drilled in a log or board, or just spread it on a tree trunk. Add some bird seed if you want and you have a bird feeder ready to put outside. Peanut butter is also often used in suet cake recipes for birds.

You can make an edible playdough from peanut butter. It can be molded and shaped and eaten.