When life gives you peanuts...

So when it comes to condiments around here, we have a slight addiction. Ketchup, salad dressings, barbecue sauce, peanut butter, honey mustard...our refrigerator door runneth over. Well, it DID runneth over - until the massive purge of February 2014 occurred. We started reading the backs of bottles and realized we were in an extremely unhealthy relationship with corn syrup and needed to break up STAT. So with feet dragging and heads hanging low, we begrudgingly tossed half-eaten bottles of preservatives in the trash and filled donation bins with stockpiled containers of coupon-acquired condiment goodness. Remember when I told you how frugal Trey and I are? Yeah, this was hard for us. Really, really hard.

The first thing I had to figure out how to replace was peanut butter, because it's a staple in our world. We use it in smoothies, on English muffins and waffles, on sandwiches, on crackers...breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner, it's consumed in mass quantities. But most peanut butter is far from being just peanuts. The jar of reduced-fat "all natural" peanut butter in our pantry listed corn syrup solids, sugar, salt and hydrogenated vegetable oils as four of the top six ingredients. If that's "all natural," I'm afraid to see what processed looks like!

A few minutes of quick research and I learned I can make peanut butter in my Vitamix. And the ingredient list included one thing - 3 cups of unsalted, roasted peanuts. Thus was born the great peanut shelling project of 2014. Did you know you can buy a MASSIVE bag of unsalted peanuts at Costco for $5.99? You can, but they are in shells. As we stood in the aisle debating what to do, sweet Trey said, "I can shell those, that's no problem." I looked at him a little quizzically but took his word for it and home came the peanuts. A couple batches of peanut butter later I'm not so sure he is sold on his new-found hobby, but he will be the first to tell you this homemade peanut butter is amazing.

So how in the world do you make peanut butter? One very important thing to know: IT'S EASY! Any food processor or high-powered blender should be able to handle this task, just consult the manual so you don't burn up the motor! And if you don't have one of those handy kitchen appliances, I'm betting your local grocery store has a machine that will do it for you. Here's the step-by-step process for those of you that like pictures:

Shell your peanuts (or purchase them shelled - just make sure you are getting unsalted!). You will need 3 cups, and our blender manual is very adamant on not using more than that amount to avoid burning up the motor. So please consult your manual!

Load up the peanuts directly into your blender or food processor container.

Start blending! For our Vitamix, we started at 1 and gradually increased to 10, then flipped to High. You have to keep pressing the peanuts into the blades using the tamper, and about a minute later smooth, creamy peanut butter will start flowing.

And there you go...the smoothest, creamiest, yummiest peanut butter ever.

The shelling process takes some time, but the actual peanut butter-making process takes about five minutes flat. One batch makes a little more than a jar of store-bought peanut butter and lasts us about 3-4 weeks depending how often we are using it.

If you have a peanut allergy in your house, you can do this with all kinds of nuts. Nut butters tend to be a staple for so many of us moms, and this is an easy, affordable way to give our kids that protein in the healthiest way possible. Let me know if you try it and how it turns out!

Getting back to keeping it real

Greetings from the land of the sugar coma!

C turned four a couple of weeks ago and we celebrated in a real way. And by real, I mean real sugary. We did our best to stick to our "no processed" way of life, but low sugar became something of a joke. We indulged in everything from brownies to rice krispie treats to cookies and cakes, and besides gaining two pounds in the course of 10 days (no exaggeration, it happened), I felt TERRIBLE after eating like that! It might taste good on the front end, but it definitely showed us that desserts in moderation are the way to go and we will not be returning to our sneaky snacking way of life. Except for birthday weeks. Because everyone deserves to celebrate their birthday with a little sugar. :)

We have spent the last week or so gradually getting back into the swing of things, and I must say I'm really enjoying the re-discovery process. My energy levels are up (last week I was exhausted, and I am totally blaming sugar for that!) and overall I just feel healthier. Plus C's behavior is back on track (lots of sugar leads to lots of energy...and lots of misbehavior).

Our newest tasty discovery comes to us courtesy of one of my favorite blog finds of 2014, Chocolate Covered Katie. Katie takes delicious recipes, cuts out sugar and replaces them with healthy alternatives, and makes them taste equally as yummy...it's fabulous. I was perusing her blog one day and came across her recipe for a modified version of Disney's famous Dole Whip. Trey and I both LOVE these but I'm quite sure the original version isn't nearly as healthy as Katie's. As is always the case, I modified it slightly to accommodate what I had on hand, and I must say this will definitely become a standby on our menu. Best part: it's healthy and I have no problem giving the girls some when they want a treat. 

Frozen Pineapple Perfection (original recipe found here)

Makes 2 mug-sized servings

1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk (you can use any milk you have on hand)

1/2 Tablespoon lemon juice

Pinch of salt

2 cups frozen pineapple

Throw all the ingredients into your blender (in the order listed if you're using a Vitamix or other high-powered blender). Blend until smooth, using your tamper to push ingredients into the blades if needed. 

We ate it straight out of the blender and it was the perfect consistency, but if you don't have a high-powered blender you may need to increase the amount of liquid and/or freeze it for 20 minutes or so before eating.

A few helpful tips on the preparation process:

• Make sure you are using frozen pineapple in order to get the "ice cream" consistency. Not sure where to get frozen pineapple? Costco sells fresh pineapples for $2.99 each and it takes about 15 minutes to slice one up into chunks. Lay the chunks out on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and flash freeze them for about 45 minutes, then throw the chunks into a ziplock bag and let them freeze the rest of the way. Flash freezing keeps them from freezing together in one large pineapple ice cube.

• Don't keep almond milk on hand? Substitute with whatever you have! Katie suggested using coconut milk for a pina colada type of flavor. I prefer unsweetened vanilla almond milk simply because there aren't any added sugars and it only has 30 calories in one cup.

Hope you enjoy these as much as we have!

The hunt for the perfect granola recipe

If you saw my post a couple weeks ago about breakfast, you already know we eat a lot of yogurt in our house. Not only do the girls eat it daily, but it's also the "go-to" breakfast choice of Trey and me. And what is better with yogurt than some granola and fresh fruit?

I have spent the better part of the last year searching for the perfect granola recipe. And I'm really not exaggerating - it's hard to find a great one! Some are too salty, some are too sweet, some include really odd ingredients or things I don't have on hand (if it isn't easy for me to replicate on a regular basis, I don't even need to try it once). But thanks to Pinterest, I recently stumbled across My Kitchen Addiction's yummy take on granola incorporating dried blueberries and flax seed. Of course, because I can't leave well enough alone I had to tweak the recipe for my own liking...and thus was born what I now affectionately refer to as my Go-To Granola recipe.

Go-To Granola (original recipe found here)
Makes about 10 cups

6 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup chopped almonds
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the oats, almonds, pecans, walnuts, flax seeds, salt, cinnamon and ginger.

In a large measuring cup (makes it easier for pouring, although a bowl would work fine), whisk together the honey and olive oil until well combined. Pour the honey/oil mixture over the oats mixture and stir to evenly coat everything.

Transfer to two large jelly roll pans (read: baking sheets with sides) and spread the granola into an even layer.

Bake for about 45 minutes total, stirring every 10-15 minutes with a spatula. Make sure to watch it the last 10-15 minutes because it can burn easily (thanks to the addition of honey).

Allow the granola to cool completely on the pans, then transfer to an airtight container. I make this batch at the beginning of each month and it easily lasts me close to four weeks. My favorite way to dish it up is with some plain Greek yogurt and frozen blueberries (they thaw quickly). Healthy and delicious!

And here are a few tips on the granola preparation process:

• I totally cheat on the chopped nuts, because buying them chopped is so much more expensive than buying the massive bags of whole nuts at Costco! So here's my super fancy way of chopping nuts...it involves a kitchen mallet and a ziplock bag. :)

Add whole nuts directly into the ziplock bag and seal tightly...

And start pounding out your frustrations with a kitchen mallet! Works perfectly :)

• I also buy my flax seed in bulk at Costco - it's organic and lasts forever. My sweet E has had a hard time with the whole milk transition, so I tend to add flax seed to a lot of stuff (smoothies, oatmeal, baked goods, etc.). It's a great food to have on hand!

• The original recipe called for maple syrup instead of honey, but I modified it to use what I usually have on hand. You could also substitute for a smaller portion of agave if you typically keep that in your pantry - play around with it!

Hope you try it out and enjoy it as much as we have! We'll be taking a brief sugar hiatus hiatus this week as we celebrate C's 4th birthday, but we'll check back in after we resurface from the sugar comas to talk again about real food some more. :) I'm experimenting with ways to make her birthday treats a little less processed this year, so fingers crossed that works...but I'm sure I'll have some disasters to share in a week or so! 

Thanks for reading!