This week has been awfully odd. It's only Wednesday. Yesterday felt like Friday and today feels like Monday. Not Monday in a bad way. We had a great time at the library and I got in a run between rain showers. I think the other thing that has been throwing me off is that I didn't go grocery shopping this weekend. I know it sounds like a little thing but it's one little spoke in my wheel of routine. It was nice not having to drag myself to the store after the kids go to bed and yawn rudely at the checkout lady. I always make sure to tell them I'm not commenting on their speed or lack thereof. Not to mention, I'm sure they don't like how contagious it is!
My new routine? Well, at least the one I'm trying to establish, is only going grocery shopping every two weeks. I know there are many people who can do this and I actually had it down at one point but ever since we moved I've been out of the rhythm which is bad because we live even farther away from Walmart than we used to! I think another issue is the issue of space for food storage. Our fridge is smaller, we have no pantry and a deep freezer is a dream for the future. Needless to say, keeping food costs down for a family of five and trying to eat healthy is a delicate balance at best and at worst, it's downright impossible!
I want to cut down our shopping for obvious reasons. I will go in for one or two things and get distracted and enticed by all the shiny, yummy things and come out cringing with the reciept in my hand shaking. I'm trying to stick to my new rule but my husband made an impromptu trip to the Price Cutter across the highway and spent fifty bucks! Not good! Other hiccups I've run into? The fact that as of yesterday we are out of bread, jelly, and peanut butter. I know! Peanut butter! How could this happen. We have clothes, a roof over our heads, but no peanut butter! We put peanut butter in everything, including chili. It is a separate food group, just like chocolate. Thank God we're not out of chocolate. I don't even want to dwell on that thought.
Remember when I said this week has been odd? Yeah well, even with all the stuff missing in our house, somehow I just happen to have a bag of almonds and hazelnuts still in their shells. Not sure how old they are but I'm guessing from the beginning of the year. And I just happened to be holding on to the little bit of organic coconut oil from my birthday or Christmas gift. Can't really remember that far back anymore. And even though the honey is almost gone I had just enough. So after an hour of cracking almonds and hazelnuts I had enough (minus some for mommy's snack time) to make almond and hazelnut butter!
The kids all slept for naptime--miracle!--because yesterday was free day at the zoo. I will NEVER do that again! I brought my nieces to suffer with me. Sorry girls. So crowded and crazy. Anywho, they were zonked out and by the time they woke up I was ready to go.
We threw the nuts in the oven at 350 for almost 10 minutes. Ten minutes was the plan but our oven runs hot so they almost burned at around eight minutes. I tried to get them to cool off faster by putting them in the freezer. The skins got all crackly and some rubbed off. I tried to include the skins because that's fiber and I'm sure there are some vitamins and minerals in there too but do what you wanna do. I had a regular old food processor and threw them in there until they were as smooth as they could get. I don't know how powerful yours is but mine isn't top of the line, still a good Black & Decker. After I ground them up I added in the liquified coocnut oil and honey. I think I had about a tablespoon or two of coconut oil and a tablespoon of honey. You may need to add more because mine was still kind of an almond paste but I didn't want to add any more honey because I liked how sweet it was. Just add a little at a time to make sure you don't get it too oily or too sweet for your liking. Oh and I added a pinch of salt.
Seriously, folks, if I can make this you can do it! And if you love almonds as much as I do you have not lived until you've made your own almond butter. I'm pretty sure you could do it in a blender if yours is powerful. I think my food processor was the more powerful of the two. Oh, and here's a picture of the final product. I know, I need to work on presentation!
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