Who’s That Sleepy Puppy?

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! ***

Quading on the Beach with Raeann

I hadn’t been quading since I was a kid. All the neighborhood kids would get together and quad in the desert.

My friend Raeann who lives in our community invited me to quad down the beach to the estuary for sunset. It was fun riding fast along the beach where I walk every day. We did a couple jumps by the estuary and then chatted until the sun set. Riding back was fun too but with the light having gone a bit flat, I didn’t see a hole that I drove though. Ah well, just made for a more bumpy and exciting ride. I think we’ll go for a ride up into the mountains this week. Should be fun!

Side Note: Raeann owns The Tree Houses Hotel by the Arenal Volcano.

Watermelon!

Sleepy-faced Jim with his morning watermelon smile!

Check out a couple things we’ve enjoyed eating with watermelon…

These pancakes were fun to make and even better to eat. I added coconut milk to the batter (which I probably won’t do again as it made the pancakes too chewy) and shredded coconut in and on top of the pancakes (which was totally delicious). The best was mixing the coconut milk with some real maple syrup. This is my new favorite pancake topping.

Scrambled eggs and some sauteed onions and peppers in a tortilla with hot sauce. Good then, but I can’t stand the smell of eggs being cooked lately. Ick.

Yay for watermelon! It’s so juicy and excellent blitzed up in the blender with a tad of agave, with breakfasts or even just on its own any time of day. Yum!

Our Hammock and Tales of The Naughty Puppy

At the beginning of November Jim and I were up in Monteverde with his mom Susy. Jim had been wanting a hammock for our place bad. In a small shop he found the one (I helped choose the color). It took a while for us to see our landlords and get their permission to drill holes (which they swiftly gave us the green light on as they had been meaning to do the same for ages) and then borrow a drill from a neighbor. Jim spent the first part of an afternoon getting it all set up and then the latter part reading and relaxing in it.

Now for a tale of the naughty puppy. The naughty puppy is our youngest, Lita (a.k.a. Litalu, Lita Lubeck, LuLu, Baby Hippo, Racing Pig, Blackie, Pero Negro y Cafe, and Monkey). So since we’ve been in Costa Rica both she and her sister, Sasha, have loved their freedom to roam the neighborhood and run on the beach when we take walks in the afternoon. At the beginning there were a couple times when Lita would go on one of her morning adventures and not come back when we would call her. But we had to leave for appointments in Jaco, so we left her, always finding her patiently waiting on the porch when we got back. She also would sometimes go swimming in the river behind our house, returning a yucky mess. Other times she’d eat all the cat food left out for the neighborhood cats at the guard shack or get fed human food (which is a big no-no in our house) by people and then vomit it up later (thank you tile floors). She also had been spotted by the tienda closer to the main road, in a neighboring community, and down the road toward the beach playing kissy-face with her boyfriend. We let all these things pass, forgiving her but then a couple bigger events occurred.

First, one morning I heard what I thought was two men yelling at each other. I found it strange, but let it go as it stopped after about five minutes. Shortly after that our neighbor (and H.O.A. president) Arlene walked up to the house with Lita trip-tropping behind her. I went out onto the porch to greet her and she told me that is would probably be best if I kept Lita inside for the day. I asked why and she explained. There was a guy (whom she had never met) working on one of the houses in our community. He had put his food for his lunch on the ground and Lita (being her curious, always hungry self) ate it. He had caught her in the act and had thrown a fit, yelling (it was only him I had heard, not two men) at her and threatening to hack her to pieces with his machete. Luckily Arlene intercepted.

Two weeks later she was escorted by one of our guards, Luis, back to our house explaining in Spanish (thank goodness for Jim’s sister Meg’s Spanish capabilities) that she was out by the guard shack and had run into the road when a man and his girlfriend were riding by on their motorcycle. The driver had swerved (in order not to hit her) and they fell, getting only a couple scratches but the bike got trashed a bit. Luis had gone out and explained that the dog belonged around here and to please not harm her. We asked him if he could ask the man with the motorcycle (who lives in the area) if there is anything we can do to mend their motorcycle and to please let them know we were so very sorry. The next day we found out the man requested that we pay for the repairs, which were going to cost $100. We gladly gave Luis the money, he gave it to the man who was grateful, and the bike was fixed in couple days later.

We may have mended that situation, but that was the last straw concerning Lita’s naughtiness. We had been keeping a close watch on her, not allowing her to wander anymore, but that wasn’t making her or us happy. When in town one day, Jim picked up some items from the hardware store and then created a pulley-system that allows her to lay on our front porch, drink from our outdoor water bowl, be in the grass, under the carport, and even walk to the end of our driveway to see people walking by. It’s a bit like a dog-run and I must say it’s working, even if she does wrap herself around the carport poll sometimes. She also still gets to run free at the beach with Sasha when we take our afternoon walks. Happy Lita and happy us. Look how cheerful she looks?

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