Recipe Review: Fluffy Nut Butter

 

Fluffy peanut butter and carrot sticks…yum! :)

This is a great way to make nut butter less calories and also make it last longer…doubling the amount of nut butter…so it’s frugal too.

 

I’m going to quote Chef Rachel’s recipe here but feel free to see it on her site here:

“Fluffy Nut Butter  
Prep: 10 minutes/ Yield: 1 cup; 8 servings

To make almond butter, peanut butter, and other nut butters more spreadable and less calorie-dense, you can emulsify them with warm water and add a little sea salt. After the mixture chills, it thickens and fluffs up making a delicious spread for bread, waffles, baked sweet potatoes, winter squash, cooked apple compote, or sliced fresh or frozen bananas. For a sweeter taste, see variations below.

Notes: Select a bottled brand of nut butter that doesn’t contain added salt, sugar, hydrogenated oil, or soybeans, or use homemade nut butter.Although it may be tempting to dilute an entire jar of nut butter––don’t do it, unless you plan to freeze most of it. Diluted nut butter will sour in the refrigerator after about 5 days if unsalted; 7 to 10 days if salted. It keeps well frozen.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup roasted, unsalted, unsweetened almond, cashew, or peanut butter  
1/2 cup warm filtered water
1/4 teaspoon finely ground, unrefined sea salt (Celtic, Lima, or Real Salt…)

See sweetener suggestion below if using this with frozen bananas

1. Don’t discard the oil on top of a new jar of nut butter. Process the contents of the jar in a food processor, a Vita-Mix, orin a bowl with a sturdy spoon until smooth. Return nut butter to the original jar and refrigerate what you don’t plan to use immediately.

2. Dissolve the sea salt in warm water. Add the almond butter and mix or blend until smooth. Scrape the mixture into a wide-mouth jar or small bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours (or freeze for 1 to 2 hours) until thick, before serving. Use within 4 days if unsalted, within 1 week if salted, or freeze for up to 6 months in covered glass jars with 1-inch of headspace at the top for expansion.

2 tablespoons: 109 calories, 4 g protein, 3 g carbohydrate (3 g fiber), 9 g fat, 89 mg calcium

Variations:

*  Sweet, Fluffy Nut Butter: To the recipes above add 2 to 3 tablespoons honey or agave nectar, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, and 1/4 teaspoon pure stevia extract powder or clear or vanilla flavored stevia extract liquid.”

 

This is really good! :) Give it a shot! :) I haven’t tried it sweetened yet…but I want to try again soon without salt/less salt. :)

My First “Sweet Milk” Muffins! :)-

      Don’t these babies look good?! Mmm..I wanted to reach out and grab them! Never fear, I won’t (literally make them and grab one) because they are not allowed on my elimination diet (yet.) But, I’ve been meaning to post for a while and thought it was about time I did! :) This is a modified recipe from this source…

Hidden Squash ;) Sweet Milk Raisin Muffins

Dry ingredients:
2 cups flour (GF mix or whole wheat)

2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1+ c. raisins (leftover from sweet milk)

Wet ingredients:
1 egg
1 1/4 cup shredded zucchini or shredded yellow squash (I used the second option!)  
1 T. lemon
1 1/4 cups sweet milk

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Mix the wet ingredients and then add the dry. Mix until just barley combined. Pour into greased (or papered :)) muffin cups. Cook for about 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. :) Enjoy (and glory in the fact that you used a vegetable that’s invisible and un-tastable and sweet milk in the same recipe!) :) Plus, by adding the soaked raisins, you are not wasting a thing! :) Frugality at it’s best!! :)

  

Did you make it? Let me know! :)

Recipe Review: Really Really Quick Single Serving Bun/Bread/Roll! :)

Wow! These beauties are really! as quick as this digital “instant photo” is! I don’t know how I found the link to this recipe, but man, this recipe is certainly a “wonder”!

I played around with it a little bit and here’s what I found:

The seeds really will help the appearance and probably texture too!

These will work probably with any flour you choose…whole grain even! (and that is whether you are GF or not!)

Don’t be intimidated by the almond flour (if you don’t have it on hand.) I didn’t and I just subbed for it with another tablespoon  of flour.

Here’s the recipe with some little alterations/ suggestions:

Ingredients:

1 egg

¾ teaspoon molasses (or try honey or agave)

2 tablespoons flour (try any whole grain flour like teff, sorghum, brown rice, whole wheat, etc)

1 tablespoon almond meal(or another tablespoon of flour)

1 tablespoon ground flax seeds (or try chia seeds)

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon cocoa powder (for a darker color, not taste. Sub with the same amount of flour if you don’t want the color).

a pinch of salt, if you want

1 teaspoon sesame seeds (or cornmeal or finely ground nuts or poppy seeds, etc) Ohhh! I can envision a lemon bun! with poppy seeds! :)

In a cereal bowl, beat the egg and molasses (sweetener) with a fork, for about a minute. Now, add the flour, almond meal, ground flax seed, baking powder, and cocoa powder (if you so choose). Add in the salt (if you are adding it.) Add the egg, stir until smooth. Oil a 10 oz Pyrex custard cup (glass)  and sprinkle seeds (if you like) on the bottom and sides.

Pour the batter into the cup. Top with more seeds if you like.

Microwave for 90 seconds. That’s it! 90 seconds to having bread in your hands! It’s so amazing! I only wish I had thought of it! :)

Slice in half and serve! (Topped with “butter” dairy-free/not, jam, etc!)

 

Double B Muffins (Banana Blueberry Muffins)

I’m taking the time in the airport to catch up on some posting! :) Here’s a fun recipe to start out that I edited from here. Note: I found these a little bland without any sweetener. Next time, I would try subbing 3/4 c. sweet milk for the water or you can use honey/agave if you prefer. :) 

Double B Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or GF blend)
1/2 cup oat flour (make sure it is GF if you have celiacs)
1/4 cups flax seeds
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 T. lemon juice (or 1 t. lemon zest)
3 large ripe mashed bananas
3/4 cup water or sweet milk or honey or agave 
1 large egg
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup fresh blueberries

Steps:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Using a whisk, combine flour, oat flour, flax seeds, baking soda, baking powder, salt and lemon juice in a medium bowl.

In another bowl, mash bananas, add water, egg and applesauce, mix well.  Mix batter until just moistened. Fold in blueberries. Do not overmix.

Fill lined muffin cups 3/4 full.  Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and cool. Makes about 2 dozen normal size and 1 dozen mini. :)

Cornmeal Banana Biscuits

(Topped with natural peanut butter :) )

 

I just tried this recipe from Happy Herbivore tonight. This is really a recipe review but I wanted to change the name for what I thought was a better title in my version. :)  Why? Because there is a light-hint of banana taste and cornmeal goodness throughout. Lindsay is a wonderful cook and I love her recipes. This is just one of the few. Try her others out at her site.

 

Anyway, here is what I used and did.

 

Ingredients:

• ½ cup cornmeal
• ½ cup whole wheat flour (or use GF blend)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ whole banana (or a small banana- as I used)
• ¼ + 2 T. sweet milk or non-dairy sweet milk

Preheat your oven for 425 F.  Mix all dry ingredients together in a food processor. Add banana and mix until crumbly. Add milk and process again in the food processor. Scoop onto a greased cookie sheet. Cook for 7  mins. Serve warm, topped with your favorite condiment such as a nut butter, or jam.

 

Thanks again Lindsay!

Homemade Sweet Potato Chips!

 

I love these homemade sweet potato chips! I like them even better than the ones I used to buy (and these are much less expensive…yeah! for frugality!)

 

So yummy. Original recipe is here----although it won’t allow public access anymore. :(

 

Preheat your oven to 400. Then, slice the sweet potatoes as thinly as possible. Place in bowl. Add about 2 T. olive oil per sweet potato (or less-I made a note that you could get away with less on this recipe) and mix the slices around in the oil. Next, take a cookie sheet and lay all the slices on it. Add salt and pepper (and be careful with that pepper…if you don’t like it spicy, don’t use too much.) Add parmesan cheese too if you like. Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes or so….some will cook faster than others so you might want to keep an eye on it and take them out as they cook…I like mine a little crispy on the edges! :)

 

ENJOY! :)

The Best Kiss….(Of the food variety! :))

My mother sent me this huge kiss for Valentine’s Day……I’ve been meaning to share it because look what is inside!

Dried, unsweetened, delicious pineapple! This is my kind of treat!

 

Thanks mom! :)

 

Thought you all would enjoy seeing a cute alternative to candy and chocolate for valentines or any other special occasion!

How to Slice An Apple and Keep it from Browning (without lemon juice!)

I found the following info at this site. What a great idea! Healthy snacks are always good (especially for kids). Frugal too because you cut down on the amount of waste (ie. picky eaters that won't eat browned apples but still want them cut).

The rest of this post is quoted from the site.

"Slicing An Apple So It Won’t Brown

My daughters love apples with peanut butter for lunch – it is one of the few protein sources I can get my ultra picky 9 year to eat at lunch time – buthow do you keep the apple slices from getting brown?

Check out this technique:

Using an Apple Corer and Divider, cut down 7/8 of the way through the apple. Remove the slicer and reform the apple so it looks “whole” again. Pack in a sealed baggie or container. When your child opens it up at lunch, the apple will still appear fresh and will not have browned."

Mini Easy Little Cheesecakes

 

Don’t these look good? And the best part too is that they are really simple and relatively healthy to make:

• One “slice” of cheese from a box of Original, Laughing Cow, Creamy Swiss (or other flavor),3/4 oz. Soft Cheese Slices OR cream cheese cut up into wedges

 OR  for a DAIRY-FREE OPTION try Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese or Follow Your Heart Organic Vegan Cream Cheese (again, cut up into wedges etc)

• 3 chocolate chips (I used Sunspire Grain Sweetened)
• Chocolate Syrup (cocoa powder, honey, and a little water will do the trick in a pinch)
• Peanut Butter (that’s the tan stuff you see- my pb is made from a powder- it’s not as yummy but anywho…)

Arrange your slice of “cheesecake” on a plate. Top with your favorite toppings or those mentioned above. Relax and enjoy! :)