Friday, January 29, 2016

DIY Peanut Butter


Recently, I was on Pinterest (as I usually am) and came across some homemade peanut butter recipes. For some reason, it had never occurred to me making it wouldn't be that hard.  I don't know why I thought I would need a ton of ingredients and special machinery.  Because guess what?  It takes very little to make this, and it comes out so delicious!

You can alter yours to your liking, but here we like mostly smooth with a bit of honey.  Here's what I did to achieve that:







I used Planter's peanuts that I found at BJ's on sale.  I have also done this with dry roasted and honey roasted and its come out yummy each time.  How smooth it comes out really depends on you. I add a tbsp of oil to mine for extra creaminess. 

Step 1: Add 1 1/2 cups of peanuts to your food processor, and drizzle the oil over it.  You can skip the oil if you want it crunchier.

Step 2: For my processor that only had two settings, I alternated between them for blending.  First, grind for a couple minutes.  Then chop for a couple minutes.  You'll see it start to do melt down into the peanut butter and it's actually pretty neat to watch.


Step 3: Once it's roughly chopped, add a tbsp of honey. I used a raw local honey because we prefer the taste and texture.  Again, if you don't want a honey kind, just omit this step.  Continue alternating between blending and chopping and it will continue to "butter" the peanuts.

*omitting the honey and oil may mean you have to blend it a little longer.



If you can believe it, that's all there is to it!  To fill this wide mouth mason jar, I did these steps twice.  So one round of the 1 1/2 cups of peanuts, put that aside, and do it again with another 1 1/2 cups. Then take the two batches and blend them together.

If you have a larger or more heavy duty food processor, you could likely just do it all at once, but I found my poor machine was getting a little overworked.  It was getting a bit hot headed, so out of fear of overloading it, I did it in two batches.

I have found this keeps best in the fridge.  My kids have been eating this like crazy.  On sandwiches, with apples as a yummy snack, on it's own by the spoonfull.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!  If you find it isn't getting as smooth as you want (this happened my first batch), keep going with the chopping and grinding.  I thought it had the best consistency when the bit of oil was added.

Have fun, and please let me know if you find any yummy additions to include!

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Wednesday, January 20, 2016

One Week of Toddler Approved Lunch Ideas


Toddlers can be tricky when it comes time to feeding time. If you're reading this, you already know that.  My daughter is almost two and very independent.  She will only accept food if she is feeding it to herself.  I set out to provide her with seven different lunches last week and she loved them all!  My goal was easy, healthy, inexpensive and things she could feed herself. 

Day 1:
All natural turkey breast from the deli (we love Hannaford's selection), strawberries and cucumbers.


Day 2:
White beans (drained), peaches, crackers and cheese dip.

Day 3:
Cheese and crackers (since they were a hit the day before), and banana.


Day 4:
Homemade apple sauce,  Goldfish and Annie's Mac n' Cheese.

Day 5:
Peanut butter sandwich, cherry tomatoes and cheddar cheese.

Day 6:
Deli chicken and cheese, blueberries and Cheerio's.


Day 7:
American cheese, blueberries, rice and diced avocado. 


Some more quick and easy food ideas for toddlers:
-hard boiled eggs
-diced fruit
-sliced peppers
-pita bread and hummus
-sliced and peeled apples
-shredded cheese
-oatmeal
-dry cereal
-grilled cheese sandwiches (cut into four squares and save half for another meal)
-plain pasta
-scrambled eggs

Portions of course depend on your child, but she devoured almost every bite of each of these. The blueberries and any type of cheese were favorites of hers.

I've noticed, with my daughter at least, presentation counts when she's eating lunch. She particularly likes the compartments these plates provide.  I found them at Wal-Mart and they are made from recycled material, and very budget friendly.  They can also be found on Amazon here.

(*not sponsored in any way, we just really enjoy these plates*)
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