DIY Peanut Butter (1st Guest Post by Kylie Wolf, a.k.a. Zippaloo)

A staple in many families, perfectly paired with jelly, honey, or chocolate is the one and only PEANUT BUTTER.

Peanut butter is and has been a pivotal ingredient in my life.  Here are some classic ways to enjoy peanut butter:

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (PB&J) - I personally don’t like jelly but the majority of this country does, I just eat it plain, though some of my relatives and my siblings would eat a peanut butter and butter sandwich coined the “butter butter” sandwich.

All the Reeses products – Growing up, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups would get shipped in from the US to the Commissary in Dhahran. My friends and I would beg our parents to buy many more than we needed because we didn’t know the next time they would be available. Sometimes they would be out of stock for months!

Peanut Butter Cookies -  I enjoy these the most right out of the oven, and with a Hershey’s kiss in the center.  YUM!

The list can go on and on and on… with snacks and even more gourmet options like restaurants using peanut sauces on entrees (grilled chicken skewers with a thai peanut sauce is one of my favorites).

But growing up in Dhahran I loved Peter Pan creamy peanut butter (with the yellow cap) it was super smooth, sweet, and would get stuck to the roof of my mouth.

Which is all great except for the ingredients!

Peter Pan Creamy Peanut Butter’s INGREDIENTS:

Roasted Peanuts, Sugar, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (Cottonseed and Rapeseed), Salt, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil.

YIKES!

I care a lot about the food that I put into my body.  I changed my ways and now (thanks to being educated about food) I only buy and eat all natural, organic peanut butter.

Making sure the only ingredient is: Dry Roasted Peanuts.

Over the holidays in Dhahran there was no all-natural peanut butter at the store, so I convinced my dad to do something I had wanted to do for a while:  make my own peanut butter.

If true peanut butter is just ground up peanuts it had to be simple enough and with looking on the Internet and in the Cuisinart cookbook, it was true!

Recipe for Peanut Butter:

Ingredients:

• dry roasted peanuts

(we used raw white peanuts, but I would now recommend buying dry roasted peanuts)

Directions:

• Place peanuts in food processor.
• Process the peanuts for 3-5 mins. Enjoy watching the peanuts turn to powder then form a dough-like ball and roll around the processor. (Dad and I were so amazed I forgot to take pictures!)
• Let the paste sit for about 3 mins for the oils to separate from the peanuts. (You should see the oil bead).
• Process again for as long as you want. The more you process the creamier your peanut butter will be.

With all the excitement and the intensity of the peanut butter (it had a pure peanuts punch!) we skyped Sam to include her on the fun.

The three of us had lots of laughs, oohs and ahhs, and bounced around ideas:

• To decrease the intensity, add honey to the recipe or drizzle honey on the saltines with the PB.

• Try it with ice cream -
  • Vanilla Ice Cream, homemade PB, Hershey’s chocolate sauce.

• Try it with banana slices -
  • Here is an elaborate but delicious snack. Banana sliced, topped with a little PB, sprinkle with cinnamon and coconut flakes.

• Bake it into brownies.

• Try it with oatmeal.
  • I eat oatmeal almost ever day of the week.
    • Cook ½ cup rolled oats with ¾ cup water and a dash of salt in the microwave for 3 mins.
    • Add PB, raisins, generous amounts of cinnamon, and a splash of soy milk.

Health Facts about Peanut butter:

PB should NOT include sugar, HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), salt, or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.

Good, healthy, pure peanut butter is JUST ground up dry roasted peanuts.  No need for extra oil, or extra anything.  Make sure you check the ingredients because even Peanut Butter’s that claim to be “Natural” are still made with some of these intruders.

Sugar and HFCS get put in because the US loves sugar and it enhances the flavor. HFCS is incredibly cheap to produce (it’s made from Corn) and is found in thousands of products. It is really just another form of sugar.  Unfortunately adding these ingredients increases your sugar intake, your calorie intake, and your insulin levels.
Hydrogenated vegetable oils are added to stabilize the peanut butter, make it easier to spread, and to prevent oil separation.  I don’t think any of those things is worth the risks that Trans Fats (trans fatty acids) can cause: atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, or a stroke.
Salt is added to prevent spoilage.

Benefits:

Peanut butter does contain mostly fats, but these fats are monounsatuarated fats and they help protect against the risk of cardiovascular disease and lower levels of LDL (“bad” cholesterol).

Peanut butter (and peanuts) also provide proteins, vitamin B3, folate, vitamin E, magnesium, and fiber.

If you have a peanut allergy:

First, I’m sorry, I have a serious love for peanut butter and can’t imagine a life without it.

Second, please be very be very careful – a reaction to peanut allergy is anaphylactic shock and many factories use the same machinery for peanuts as other things, check labels. Better to be safe than sorry.

I hope this post will make all you readers more excited and aware of America’s simple and classic snack, peanut butter. And be sure to check the ingredients of the peanut butters you now purchase!

If you have a food processor I recommend that you buy 1/4 kilogram of peanuts and try this recipe out!

Its easy and delicious.

Kylie (a.k.a. Zippaloo)

*** Check out Kylie’s new blog here! ***

Avocados for Dessert and Channeling Jason Mraz

So a while back my sister Kylie (aka Zippaloo) told me that the singer Jason Mraz not only has an avocado farm <sigh> but is a raw foodist! I love avocados. I like them with veggies and eggs for breakfast (I’m still eating eggs now and then), in salads, sandwiches, on top of chili or soup, or as a spread or dip.

Around the same time I heard the news about Jason and his avocados my friend Natasha posted about a raw lime pie she had made using avocados. (She had found the recipe here.) I had to try it as I had never thought of avocados as a dessert ingredient and was a bit skeptical. I looked at the recipe and tweaked it as I went along tasting. I’ve got to say that next time I will not be using Coconut Oil. As much as I’m coocoo for Coconut, the tang of the oil over-powered the tartness of the limes and no amount of lime juice and agave could bring the right flavor back. I ended up drizzling it with agave and a bit of lime juice and it was still good, just not perfect.

So I didn’t keep track of all the measurements but the version I’ll make in the future will have look like this:

Raw Key Lime Tart

Ingredients:

• Avocados
• Key Lime Juice (I like it more tart than sweet)
• Agave
• Pistachios (or other nuts if you must)
• Dates
• Shredded Unsweetened Coconut (optional for crust)
  

Directions:

• Blitz up the crust (1 part Pistachios and 1 part Dates).
• Press it into a tart tin and put in the freezer.
• Blitz the rest of the ingredients for the filling (tasting all the way).
• Put the filling on top of the crust and freeze again.
• Note: Can be kept in the freezer, but best to put it in the fridge an hour before serving.

OK, so avocados as an ingredient in sweet dishes not just savory ones blew my mind. I think it’s brilliant that someone thought of this. Avocados really have such a great creamy consistency, taste like whatever you add to it, and are such a great alternative to dairy products. As you know I’m interested in eating more vegetarian/vegan/raw, but I’ve been skeptical about desserts. I am starting to see the light. Tonight I decided I wanted to try to make a chocolate pudding. Here’s what I came up with:

Chocolate Pudding (Serves 2-4)

Ingredients:

• 1 Avocado
• 1/2 cup Agave Nectar
• 1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
• 1/3 cup Water
• 1-2 tablespoons Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt

Directions:

• Place everything but the water in a blender or food processor and blitz.
• Gradually add water until creamy.

This was super delicious! The consistency was somewhere between pudding and mousse. I love chocolate mousse and I must say that I could trade this vegan/raw version for the dairy/cow hoof versions for the rest of my life. Also, Jim really loved it and despite the richness, ate all of it. I hope to feed this to some friends or family and tell them that it’s vegan, raw, and made with avocado afterward. Jim agreed that people wouldn’t be able to tell.

Side Note: Back to Jason Mraz…since moving to Costa Rica Jim and I have listened to Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” a fair bit and often sing it while walking on the beach together. (We’re goobers.) My sister Kylie got to see Jason Mraz live this fall and loved it. Although I can’t catch him on tour this year in person, I can see him (or other people) play his music online. Check out this little guy rock it (even with an itchy nose):

Best of 2009 Blog Challenge: Best New Food

Lychees are a very odd looking yet very sweet fruit! They sell them on the side of the road here in Costa Rica. Jim and I weren’t so sure about them until our friend Pax showed us how to eat one. We bought a sack full at the Farmer’s Market and keep them in the fridge, as they’re even more refreshing when cold.

To eat one all you have to do is hold it between your fingers with the nub (that attached it to the plant) away from you, bite the outer shell off (I know you have to put that funny looking thing in your mouth, but it’s not bad), spit it out, suck out the round white fruit, while squeezing the outer part to pop it out, and enjoy (not eating the almond shaped pit), disposing of the other prickly half and pit when finished.

They are so yummy and have been an excellent after meal treat for us!

(This post entitled “Lychees” was originally published on October 5, 2009.)

Best Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Now that we’ve got all of these great baking items, I thought I’d put some to use. This is only one of the many yummy things I’ve been up to, but I’ll post about the other’s later. These cookies are vegan, refined sugar free, gluten free and were an instant favorite with Jim and I! The recipe below will make about a dozen, which is plenty for two people to eat over a couple days, but double the recipe is you want more! If you want cookies quick, these are the way to go as they only take 20-25 minutes total to make. These cookies stay the perfect consistency even after a day! They’re moist and soft enough, yet don’t fall apart, and they even have a crunch factor! YUM!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Turbinado (Dried Sugar Cane Juice)
• 1/2 cup Peanut Butter (the thicker and more all natural the better, we like chunky)
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 3 Tablespoons Unsweetened Applesauce
• 1/4 cup Brown Rice Flour
• 1 cup Vegan Chocolate, chopped (I use 70% plus cocoa content)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• In a bowl cream together Turbinado and Peanut Butter until well combined. (Can easily do with spoon)
• Add Baking Soda and mix in.
• Add Applesauce and mix until combined.
• Add in Brown Rice Flour until everything is well incorporated and the mixture forms a doughy, texture.
• Fold in Chocolate.
• Roll into one inch balls and flatten slightly on an ungreased cookie sheet.  (I fit 12 on the sheet in 4 rows of 3.)
• Bake for 15-17 minutes.  Cookies will be golden brown and appear very soft. (They will harden up some, so don’t over bake!)
• Let cool for a few minutes before removing them from the cookie sheets.
• Enjoy them on their own or with something warm or otherwise cozy. I like them with Raw Almond Milk.

There are sometimes when I’m too impatient to wait 20 minutes for something sweet. When that happens and I’m craving something nutty, comforting, and with a serious hit of chocolate I make this:

It may not look all that appetizing, but I promise it’s SO GOOD. I throw together Oats, Peanut Butter, Dried Unsweetened Shredded Coconut, a little Turbinado, Apple Sauce, and Chocolate Covered CaoCao Nibs. Divine!

Homemade Raw Almond Milk with Vegan Cookies

I’ve never been a big fan of cow’s milk in anything other than cereal or baking. I however love yogurt, ice cream, and cheese. In my exploration of vegan eating, I wanted to find an alternative to cow’s milk that wasn’t soy milk. Soy milk often has many added sugars and as I’ve earlier,  it tends to upset my tummy. So after asking some vegan friends about it I decided to make Raw Almond Milk. Thankfully a friend brought me Raw Almonds from the US (as they are expensive here)!

I based my recipe off of Natasha’s from The Voracious Vegan. She has it laid out step by step with lovely photos. I didn’t sweeten mine as I was out of agave and didn’t want detract from the almond flavor with maple syrup. I don’t like sweet drinks anyway, unless it’s fresh juice. I also did not have dates, but in the future I will use them. I wanted to make sure that the milk was extra creamy so I used a little less than 3 cups of water, but I’ll probably do the full 3 cups next time. I love that Natasha adds cinnamon, as I would have done that anyway. It’s warming effects are so comforting!

Raw Almond Milk

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Raw Almonds, soaked in water overnight
• 2 1/2 -3 cups Water
• Dates, pits removed and/or Agave (if you would like it sweet)
• Cinnamon (to your liking)
  

Directions:

• After soaking the Almonds overnight, rinse them.
• Put Almonds, Water, and Dates (if using) in a blender and blitz
• Strain the mixture through a cheese cloth, clean stocking, or other fabric
• Put liquid back in the blender, add Agave (if using) and Cinnamon, and blitz
• Save Almond Meal for other use (see below)
• Enjoy it by drinking on it’s own, having it in cereal, or cook/bake with it!

Note: It kept well for the 3-4 days that it took me to consume it (it took all of me to slowly savored it) in the fridge. It may separate, but just shake it up a bit.

So I knew that making Almond Milk would leave me with Almond Meal and I refused to waste it! Many people who have a dehydrator make crackers out of it, but I don’t so I moved on to other ideas. I could have used it to bread veggies or put into a bread, but decided what I really wanted was a cookie to have with my milk! I was surprised by how little is out there online concerning what to do with your leftover nut meal.

So I made two different kinds over a few days. Neither were AWESOME, but I did enjoyed both. To be perfectly honest, I wanted these cookies to be vegan, gluten-free, and refined sugar free and because I still have very limited baking products to meet those qualifications, I had to get creative. Also to be frank, the reason I didn’t think they were OUT OF THIS WORLD GOOD is because I’m getting used to training my palate to enjoy treats that are not filled with horrible stuff. Neither were crispy but instead were a little more cake like, which wasn’t bad, just different. Anyway, I’d like to add that both of these are full of awesome fiber and antioxidant rich dark chocolate!

Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Oat Cookies (also gluten and refined sugar free!)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Gluten-Free Oats
• 1/3 cup Almond Meal, leftover from almond milk
• 1/8-1/4 cup Unsweetened Shredded Coconut
• 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 1/2-2 Ripe Bananas, mashed
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1/8 cup Coconut or Canola Oil
• 1/8 cup Unsweetened Applesauce
• 1/4 cup Chopped Vegan Chocolate, I used dark for it’s antioxidants

Directions:

• Mix all Dry Ingredients and all Wet Ingredients separately
• Add Dry Ingredients to Wet. It’ll be a wet mixture, don’t worry
• Add Chocolate bits
• All cookies (15) should fit on one lightly oiled tray, press flat
• Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until puffed slightly and brown (don’t burn bottoms!)

Vegan Chocolate Chip Almond Oat Cookies (also gluten and refined sugar free!)

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup Almond Meal, left over from almond milk
• 1/3 cup Gluten-Free Oats, processed in blender or food processor
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 4 Tablespoons Egg Substitute, I used Flax Eggs (see recipe below)
• Just shy of 1/4 cup Maple Syrup
• 1 Tablespoon Unsweetened Apple sauce
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 cup Chopped Vegan Chocolate, I used dark for it’s antioxidants

Directions:

• Mix all Dry Ingredients and all Wet Ingredients separately
• Add Dry Ingredients to Wet. It’ll be a wet mixture, don’t worry
• All cookies (15) should fit on one lightly oiled tray, press flat
• Add Chocolate bits
• Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until puffed slightly and brown (don’t burn bottoms!)

Flax Eggs

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons Flax Seeds, Ground
• 4-6 Tablespoons Water

Directions:

• Simmer Ground Flax Seeds and Water in sauce pan for about 5 minutes or until it reaches an egg type consistency

Notes:

• 4 T flax eggs=1 egg
• Use the 1:3 ratio to make more
• 1 cup flax: 3 cups water makes about 16 eggs worth
• Refrigerate!

Bottom Line: The Raw Almond Milk was AMAZING! The Cookies were good I will use other “acceptable” baking products with the Almond Meal in the future. My husband liked the Cookies and the Almond Milk (when it was in a Smoothie) and was impressed by my effort and creativity (which warmed my heart). This last bit makes my dietary transition a bit easier!

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