New Nut Butter Creation!

I finally did it!!! I made my very own nut butter and I am such a proud nut butter mama!! I can't believe I haven't done this before! I think I mentioned earlier in the week I was getting dangerously close to being out of almond butter (I've been saving the last tiny little bit in the jar for oats in a jar, another first for me). Well no more, I am fully stocked at least for a week... maybe.

A couple of weeks back I had purchased a huge back of raw almonds on sale for $2.99 if you can believe it, and another huge back of pecans for $4.99, these bags have lasted forever and I still have half of each left, so the other day, I stumbled upon this post about homemade pecan butter. And I had never thought about making pecan butter before, but it sounded delicious!! So this morning I decided to make almond/pecan butter. I threw two big handfuls of each into the food processor, set it on the highest setting and let it do it's thing. I have read that it can take up to 15 minutes to start "buttering" but I think within about 5 minutes or so, I could already see it beginning to make butter and within 10 the whole thing had turned to creamy goodness. I opened it periodically to scrape the sides down, and the more it blended, the warmer it got and the creamier it got.

Here's the final product in the food processor.


It filled up one regular sized ramekin, minus some globs I ate off of the spoon and my fingers. This is a really really good combo, if you've got the stuff to make it, give it a go, seriously! I think the almonds offset the richness of the pecans perfectly so it's not too heavy it's just right. This is like yum x 10. And I'm pretty sure I saved some dough considering how expensive nut butters are.


On my last post I got a couple of questions about my brown rice bread, so I thought I'd give it some love. First I should mention that I am gluten intolerant and I don't talk about it all that often because I really don't let it define my eating habits, I don't look at being GF as a restriction, because it has allowed me to try so many different things that I probably never would have, and it is probably the thing that began my journey of a much healthier diet in the first place. So I'm actually thankful for it, but that is a whole other post in itself.

So anyway, I have tried lots of gluten free breads, and there are lots of good ones out there, but as far as just plain old sliced bread for sandwiches and toast, etc, Food for Life gets my vote

Pictured here spread generously with my beloved ABAB mixture :) my favorite way to eat it!




It's usually sold frozen in these little mini loaves and the slices are smaller and have more calories than regular bread. But it's also denser (and tastier if you ask me) than regular wheat bread. It's not soft, but it's not crumbly at all like some GF products can be. And the nuttiness of the brown rice is really good. I usually eat just the brown rice or the brown rice/almond variety. The white rice isn't good at all for whatever reason. Anyway, this bread probably makes the best grilled cheese I've ever tasted because it's so hearty and you can get it really crispy without even using any butter. The only drawback is the price, at about $5-6 a loaf, I can really only justify buying this stuff when it's on sale, but it is quite a bit cheaper at Trader Joes, and it's not frozen there, it's on the shelf because I guess they sell more there. So anyway, there you have it, why I love brown rice bread!

I had another first, this morning, OATS IN THE AB JAR!!! OMG why have I not tried this yet?! So sooo good and filling. I also added some blueberries and a splash of almond milk.


Lunch was enjoyed on the deck at Mitchell's deli and I actually got a photo this time, but am having technical difficulties getting it from my iPhone to the computer :( I will have to share it later. It was pretty much a standard Hugh Jass salad with everything I could pile on plus some sauteed zucchini and yellow squash from the hot bar. These folks have the food thing down, I have never had anything I didn't like from there. Plus you can't beat the atmosphere, lunch outside on a covered deck = happiness.

After work the puppy and I took a lovely evening walk filled with great smells. That's right, I said smells, LoL. I love it when the evening air is just right and all the scents just kind of hang there. A couple of houses must have had laundry going in the dryer because I could smell fabric softener, and someone was grilling out what smelled like burgers and hot dogs, and even though I'd be hard pressed to eat a hot dog these days, the smell takes me back to being a kid and I just love it, and lastly, we passed a house that had the garage door open and they must have been storing old books because there was the very distinct smell of old musty books, I don't know why I love that smell, I just do.

Dinner was this huge fluffy salad made with butter lettuces, avocado and piled high with the rest of the goat cheese that was in the container, this was my clean out the fridge salad. I drizzled it with some balsamic vinegar and Annie's balsamic dressing. I've been supplementing my dressing these days by drizzling my salads first with balsamic vinegar, then I usually end up just using half of the salad dressing as usual. And I LOVE the taste of balsamic vinegar, so it works.


I also had some BURNT sweet potato fries that were actually still pretty tasty (sprayed with olive oil and sprinkled with chili powder and cinnamon), I thought about not posting them because they weren't very pretty, but I'm trying to keep it real here :)


Speaking of keeping it real, I am completely worn out and glad tomorrow is friday, I am going to hit the sack here soon I will see you tomorrow!!