Shadowing Practice: Slow English VLOG | My favorite food (A2-B2) Comprehensible Input - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hello everyone and welcome to English Cozy Chat.

I am Maria and today we are in my kitchen.

I am very excited about today's episode because we are going to be talking about my favorite food.

Now, I feel like most people's favorite food is a real dish,

as in a meal, or something that really has to be cooked.

For example, pizza or a dish that their mom used to make

or a certain meal which is meaningful in your culture.

or maybe it's just a simple dish,

but I just feel like it's usually something like a real meal or maybe it's even a dessert.

Now, I love to cook.

I love all kinds of cuisines.

I love to try new foods and new dishes.

And there are several dishes which I absolutely love, that I love to cook,

and I love to eat.

However, there is one food which always stands at the top of my list for my favorite foods.

So in this episode, I am going to explain to you what my favorite food is,

why I like it so much, and how I like to eat it.

Okay, So are you all as excited to talk about my favorite food as I am?

Let me set you down right here.

Now, drum roll, please.

My favorite food is peanut butter.

Now, this is a jar of peanut butter from Spain, since I live in Spain.

And here, for some reason on the label,

they just have 100% cacahuetes, which means 100% peanuts.

But in English, this would be peanut butter.

So there are many of you watching this video that might not even know what peanut butter is.

Because I think it is originally more of an American food or snack.

But basically, all it is is peanuts,

which have been blended up in a blender until they are kind of liquefied

and smooth and form a butter or a paste.

Now, this is a brand spanking new.

That's a good phrase for you.

This is a brand spanking new.

Brand spanking new means brand new, completely new, but it's a fun way of saying it.

Brand spanking new.

Remember that one.

So this is a brand new jar of peanut butter.

And this is what it looks like.

It's just creamy.

This one is solidified.

Solidified means solid.

It's something that has been liquid and that is now solid.

I guess this isn't completely solid since it is a butter, but this is what it looks like.

Isn't it beautiful and shiny?

Now, some peanut butters, I'm actually going to get a knife to show it to you.

So some peanut butters are completely pure,

as in it only contains peanuts and salt.

Those are my favorite.

But there are many others that have different things in them, like palm oil or different kinds of oils,

stabilizers, different kinds of ingredients that are in there for,

I don't know why, but they are also in there.

but I like peanut butter when it is pure.

So this one, 100% cacahuetes or peanuts.

This is my kind of peanut butter.

So I'm going to show you.

Look at that.

Oh my gosh.

I think I just made a smiley face.

Oh, I messed it up.

Did you guys see?

It was like the eyes and the mouth.

Anyways, that's it.

All nice and smooth.

Yum.

This is making me really hungry.

I'm like smelling it.

So that is it.

And I'm going to move you guys over here.

So another important ingredient in peanut butter is salt.

I don't like peanut butter without salt.

I generally like to use a lot of salt when I cook.

Not a lot, not too much, but I really don't like bland food.

So I like salt.

I like salt in my peanut butter.

And another very important part of good peanut butter,

in my opinion, is that the peanuts are roasted.

Roasted or toasted.

I'm not really sure the difference between those words,

but I think They both mean that they need to be roasted or toasted in the oven.

And by roasting the peanuts, it gives them a much better flavor.

And you will know this if you have ever toasted seeds or roasted nuts and used them in your cooking,

but it makes a big difference in the taste of the peanut butter.

So, for me, that's the most important part.

Roasted peanuts and salt.

And that's it.

No more ingredients.

And you end up with this beauty.

So I have tried to make peanut butter on my own a few times and it has not come out right.

I have a problem with the roasting part.

It's hard for me to roast them enough without burning them.

It can be a little bit difficult.

There's been times I didn't roast them enough and the peanut butter didn't taste good.

And then other times where I accidentally kind of burnt them.

And I think when I burnt them,

I didn't even try to make peanut butter because burnt peanut peanut butter would just not be very good.

Now, on to the reasons why I love peanut butter.

Number one is I'm lazy.

I'm a really lazy person in some ways.

Not in all ways, but sometimes I am kind of lazy and I want to eat,

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but I don't feel like making anything special or that will take me lots of time.

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Or sometimes I just want a quick snack and I want to get full quickly.

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And in all of those cases, or many of those cases, I will reach for my friend right here, this guy.

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So the reason why I like it is because you can eat peanut butter in many ways.

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But the most typical way that you eat it is spreading it on something.

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That may be a piece of bread.

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That may be a piece of toast, which is just bread that has been toasted.

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You may put it on a cracker.

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You could put it on banana, which is delicious.

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Banana-peanut butter combination is amazing.

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Or you could eat it by itself.

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Sometimes when I am hungry and lazy feeling, I just come in the kitchen,

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grab a little stone, and just eat it like this.

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it's actually kind of sticky maybe it wasn't a good idea to just put some in my mouth

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while I'm filming so I'm going to drink some water so

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that is a very easy way that I eat it most people probably do not eat peanut butter plain

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But I do know everyone in my family does.

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So that's another good thing about peanut butter is it fills you up very quickly.

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It's very satisfying because what are the ingredients?

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Peanuts.

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And that's it.

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And peanuts have a lot of fat in them, but they have healthy fats, which is very good.

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And it fills you up quickly. And it's healthy.

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It has healthy fats.

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So I find both of those things very important.

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And with just a little bit of peanut butter,

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you can feel full over a long time.

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So we've gone over two reasons so far why I love peanut butter.

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One is that I'm lazy.

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Two is that it fills me up quickly.

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And another reason why I love it is it reminds me of my childhood.

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This is a nostalgic food for me.

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And nostalgic means to remind you of something in your past in a positive way.

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So whenever I eat peanut butter, it gives me memories of my childhood.

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because when I was a kid, I can't tell you how many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which we'll get to that later.

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I can't tell you how many of these I ate when I was a kid.

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And in the United States, kids in general eat a lot of peanut butter jelly.

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Even now when I give peanut butter or make a peanut butter jelly sandwich for my kids,

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it makes me feel really good.

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Like I'm giving them something that I used to get when I was a kid.

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And for some reason, this just gives you a happy feeling.

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For any of you that have kids, I know you'll be able to relate to me on this he'll say,

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oh, I know what you mean.

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Just the other day, my husband made an apple schäule, which I made actually in my New Year's episode,

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which is basically apple juice and sparkling water.

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But he made this for our kids, and he used to drink this as a little kid.

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And I could just see the smile on his face.

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And he's always like that when he gives this drink to my kids.

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And I was like, that makes you really happy, doesn't it?

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Because that's what you used to drink as a kid.

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He was like, yeah, I guess you're right.

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So peanut butter just brings me back.

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Just brings me back.

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That's another phrase you would say, like if something reminds you of something in the past,

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you could say, yeah, it brings me back just because in your mind, you're like going back to that place that you're remembering.

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Another great benefit about peanut butter is it's cheap.

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I think this is like 250 or 3 euros maybe 3 euros it's pretty cheap

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and there are some peanut butters which are more gourmet

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which are fancy in certain ways

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but I like usually the cheaper versions as long as they are just peanut butter and salt.

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For me, those are the best.

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But then again, those are the ones that I ate when I was little.

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So maybe that's why I think they're the best.

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All right, you guys.

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So now I'm going to present to you a peanut butter jelly sandwich.

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Okay.

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I hope you are all excited and holding on to the edge of your seat.

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Now, holding on to the edge of your seat means like you're really excited about something or you're nervous or you're like,

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oh, what is it?

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what is a peanut butter jelly sandwich?

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Just wait, everybody.

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I'm going to show you.

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Okay.

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So be patient.

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Okay.

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So I have one of my ingredients here, which is cred.

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Have to go get the rest.

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Now got some, you guessed it, jelly.

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Got some jelly.

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And of course I have

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you know what it is peanut butter

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so this is a three ingredient dish right got it all

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prepared right here I guess I gotta really show you guys I gotta I gotta position my camera

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so you can see the amazingness that's about to happen okay here we go this is good all right

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So basically all you do.

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Also, as far as the type of bread that we use.

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Now I do have some bread.

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Actually, hold on.

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I do actually have some bread out that I made.

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This is half of a loaf that I made.

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I actually, we ate some of it here, but this is some of my homemade bread that I made.

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And one day I'm going to do an episode on how I make bread.

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But this is homemade bread that I have, which is delicious.

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And but for the peanut butter jelly,

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the kind of bread that you really need is just the good old slices.

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This is this is tradition.

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this this is the key to a good peanut butter jelly

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it's just just the good old sliced loafed in a package type of bread actually I take

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that back I could make bread like this but I haven't tried yet

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so maybe I'm able to make my own bread and make a peanut butter jelly with that but for now, I just use good faith,

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old faithful, old faithful, meaning like, you know, the stuff that you know is always good.

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This kind of bread is old faithful when making a peanut butter jelly.

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So got my bread.

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And all I'm going to do here is,

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y'all excited i am just going to spread the peanut butter on both sides of my bread

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isn't

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that beautiful you guys let let me let me get in

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the light can i get a good shot of my peanut

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butter being spread you guys are probably like why is she so excited about this well I just am.

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I just am.

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So here we go.

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Got one side done.

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Now, there's a couple different peanut butter jelly recipes out there.

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Okay.

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So my favorite is peanut butter on both sides and jelly in the middle.

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But some people do peanut butter on this side, jelly on this side, and that's it.

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But there's a reason that I like the peanut butter on both sides.

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And that is because one, there's more peanut butter on there.

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And I love that too.

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It helps the bread not get soggy with the jelly because the jelly kind of has water in it, you know?

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So, that is why we're spreading it out here.

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And doing it this way.

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Alright guys, so we have the first part of our sandwich done.

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we have peanut butter over here, peanut butter over here on this side of the bread.

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Now we got to put on the jelly.

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So one important thing

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that you should never do is put the peanut butter knife in the jelly

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because then you get little peanut butter marks all in the jelly.

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And that's not good Because if you want to eat jelly without peanut butter,

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you don't really want peanut butter in there.

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So here we go.

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Oh, that's a good shot of the jelly.

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Looking good.

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Here's our jelly.

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People also call this marmalade.

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I'm not sure is the difference, but I like calling it jelly.

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So we stir it up.

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Important.

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Do a little stir.

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and just put some, I'll show you guys how I'm doing this, just put jelly on there.

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Here we go.

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So, the good thing about peanut butter jelly is the peanut butter is kind of salty,

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and the jelly is sweet.

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So it goes really well together.

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I think I want a little bit more jelly.

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And that, that's when you have a dilemma, right?

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Because you're like, oh, this already has a little bit of peanut butter on there.

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I think, you know what?

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I think I can do it.

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I'm going to do this to get the peanut, you get a little bit of the peanut butter off.

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So I'm not, you know, getting any in there.

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I can get a little bit more jelly on there.

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All right.

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Here we go.

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And then the grand finale,

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you put the other piece of the bread.

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Boom.

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There you go.

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You got it.

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Peanut butter jelly.

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And here, I got to cut it.

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and also I always cut it diagonally diagonally means like you know like not not straight like this

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because that's how my mom used to cut it

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and that's just I it tastes better when it's cut like

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that so look you guys can can I get a good shot of the peanut butter jelly look at

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that beauty yeah I don't know

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if I can um there we go you get the gist

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so how does it look so I almost forgot a very important fun part of

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peanut butter jelly and it is this song

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that is on YouTube I'm gonna link it I'm gonna show you guys what it is

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but it's called it's peanut butter jelly time

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and it's just a banana singing it's peanut butter jelly time it is the best

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so that is it you guys like I love that song

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and it was funny I told my husband I'm like yeah

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I'm gonna talk about my favorite food like being peanut butter

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he was like you have to play the peanut butter jelly song like

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when we make peanut butter jelly for my kids like we like putting on this song

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and they like they love dancing to it it's just the best.

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I'm like, who thought up this banana singing it's peanut butter jelly time and these lyrics,

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which is like, it's peanut butter jelly.

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He sings, he sings, it's peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time.

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Hey, yeah, hey, yeah.

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Peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly in a baseball bat.

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Peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly in a baseball bat.

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Like who thought of that?

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But it's such a hit.

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It's like, I love that song so much.

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Anyways.

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So another thing is a lot of people in Europe, this is kind of interesting.

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So a lot of people in Europe, I've noticed, think that peanut butter is kind of weird

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and they kind of make fun of the Americans for loving peanut butter jelly

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or for loving peanut butter and peanut butter jelly.

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And my husband used to be one of those.

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He would always make fun of me for eating peanut butter.

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And then he started really liking it.

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and now we like find him in the kitchen, like making a peanut butter jelly.

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I'm like, oh yeah, look at you now.

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He's like, yeah, it actually is really good because once you start eating it, you're like, oh, this is good.

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This is convenient.

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This is easy.

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And you start liking it, right?

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So once you try it, you'll be hooked you guys.

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And that's it.

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Now I have my lunch ready

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and I have to take a bite see

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if I like it you know

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but one thing you kind of want to always try to

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eat it from the side one thing the first thing you do you have to lick off those

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you have to lick the jelly off because you don't want it to be falling off so

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then you just take it you just eat it

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there you go I'm actually going to pour a glass of milk because

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peanut butter jelly and milk is a great combination because like I said, peanut butter is really sticky and the milk helps it all go down.

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All right, you guys.

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So what did you think of my favorite food?

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Do you like peanut butter?

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Is there anything like that that you enjoy?

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Or what is your favorite food?

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I would love to know, let me know in the comments.

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Thank you all so much for watching.

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I hope you have a wonderful day and I cannot wait to see you in the next episode.

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Bye!

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing Practice: Slow English VLOG | My favorite food (A2-B2) Comprehensible Input - Learn English Speaking with Video

Speaking Goals for This Clip: Build Confidence in Descriptive Speech

Phrase Bank: Reusable Expressions to Sound Natural

Fix Your Weak Spots: Master Rhythm and Intonation with Shadowing

What is the Shadowing Technique?