Junk Food Nation, it’s Monday, and I just finished watching a full weekend of football. My brain is super tired. Here’s what I saw last night:

Quack quack, Peyton. I’ve never seen more arching throws to absolutely no one since…since first half Aaron Rodgers. The weekend was going so well, too – I was 4-for-4 on money line & ATS picks, but by Sunday evening, I was 5-for-8.  Boo. PS: I’m declaring it over for Peyton Manning. I’m not talking about whether he retires or whatever – but even if he plays next year, I’m not drafting him in Fantasy Football, nor Julius Thomas, Demayrius Thomas, CJ Anderson, etc. It’s over, Johnny…IT’S OVER.

Meanwhile, a few of you have asked me to recap what some of my favorite snacks and junk foods for 2014 were, and you’re in luck – because that’s exactly what we talked about on the Nosh Show this week.

EPISODE 46 OF THE NOSH SHOW IS HERE!

For the uninitiated, The Nosh Show is a podcast started by Marvo from The Impulsive Buy, featuring Ryan from GrubGrade, Dubba from On Second Scoop, and, of course, me, your friendly neighborhood Junk Food Guy.  And today marks the release of The Nosh Show, Episode 46: The Best and Worst of 2014:

This week, “we talk about which Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Core Ice Creams and new Girl Scout Cookie flavors we’d nosh. Then we reveal our best and worst of 2014.”  Wanna know which five snacks I LOVED this year, and which three I was MEH on? Then listen embedded here:

You can subscribe to The Nosh Show using various services: iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, RSS, or, you can also download the episode.

TODAY’S JUNK FOOD: Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream!!

Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream! Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream! Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream! Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream! Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream! Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream!

Phew. Now that I got that out of my syst*Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream! Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream! Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream! Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream! Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream! Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream! Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream!

So, Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream is a new addition to the Ben & Jerry’s line, but only for a very very short time.  It was released, apparently, to celebrate the 15th year anniversary of the original Half Baked ice cream.

The original Half Baked, if you’ll remember, was “Chocolate & Vanilla Ice Creams with Fudge Brownies & Gobs of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.” So this is basically the same thing, but peanut butter over vanilla. I FULLY ENDORSE THIS MOVE.

Why must you be limited batch, Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream? WHYYYYY

Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream serving size should be entire pint. Ignore the calories. Concentrate on the peanut goodness.

When I opened this Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream, I could see the mix up of peanut butter ice cream and chocolate ice cream, with the insides barely peeking out.  If I wanted to see the goods, I’d need to dig.  The smell of the ice cream was as expected though – not powerful, but a distinct smell of chocolate and peanut butter.

Ok…Ok, we’re getting somewhere, Ben & Jerry’s….I’m still not seeing brownie or cookie dough pieces YET. But let me tell you this – I placed a spoonful of this Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream into my mouth and ZOMG THIS WAS SO GOOD.  Like, really good. The initial bites, which only kind of had cookie dough and brownie mixed in, were still very delicious.

The ice cream was pretty standard and creamy – a nice, sweet, milky chocolate ice cream, and a equally creamy peanut butter ice cream. When I ate the peanut butter ice cream in particular, it wasn’t as sweet as the chocolate ice cream and provided a nice contrast to the chocolate. The blend of these two ice creams alone was pretty tasty.

OH HERE WE GO. There’s the real money shot of this Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream. As you can see, the right hand clump and the lower left clump are some of the BIG chunks of brownies that were uncovered in this ice cream. They were gooey and chocolaty and AWESOME.  The upper left clump was one of the chunks of peanut butter cookie dough, which was not as gooey, but still soft with a wonderful cookie dough feel to the bite as I chewed. You know how when you chew cookie dough, you can feel the sugar crystals still in there a bit? Yeah. This had that.

BTW, before I go on, IGNORE HOW MUCH OF THE PINT WAS EATEN AT THIS POINT. LEST YE BE JUDGED.

Anyways, here are those same chunks at a different angle. The peanut butter cookie dough pieces were nice and actually sort of salty, in that peanut butter salty-sort-of-way. AMAZING contrast with the brownie chunks. Mixed with the ice cream, my mouth always had competing textures and flavors – the sweetness of the chocolate ice cream, the chewy salty/sweetness of the peanut butter cookie dough, the balance of the peanut butter ice cream and the stick-to-my-teeth brownies that were fudge-y and awesome. Seriously, there was so much going on, and it WORKED.

But more than that – the best part about this Ben & Jerry’s Limited Batch Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream was that once I dug past the surface, this ice cream was LOADED with brownie pieces and cookie dough chunks.  Seriously – almost each bite had one of the two happening. Ben & Jerry’s didn’t skimp, nor would I have expected them to.

So verdict? If you’re an ice cream lover who likes mix-ins, this ice cream was executed perfectly. You HAVE to buy this. Unless you’re allergic to peanuts. Then avoid. Otherwise EAT EAT EAT EAT.

(PS: Enjoy the game tonight, College Football fans! My pick: Oregon wins and covers the -6.)

PURCHASED AT: Safeway, Bethesda, MD

COST: $3.39 on sale

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy