One of the best things you can do for your health is skip the processed foods. This means making your own food at home... an idea that scares many people.
"Make my own food? What are you, crazy? I don't have time for that."
Sure you do! Let's start with one of the easiest foods to make at home (but one that most people don't ever think to try making)... NUT BUTTER!
There are many advantages to making your own nut butter, but the biggest is that you know EXACTLY what goes into it. You can also add flavors to it (we'll get to that later), and it will keep in the fridge for a month or two (which means you only need to make it once a month)!
Put the lid on and turn the food processor on. Let it run for about a minute. You will get almond meal/flour. For those of you who have trouble finding almond flour in the store, making it yourself is even easier than making almond butter. That's it... all done!
Start with 3 cups of nuts. (I chose to use almonds because almond butter is my absolute favorite nut butter.) Put them in the biggest bowl of your food processor.
Keep processing the almonds. Every 1-2 minutes, I stopped the processor, took the lid off, and scraped the sides down with a spatula. This is necessary because otherwise the blades will never reach the nuts that have crept up the side of the bowl.
After awhile, the almonds start to get crumbly and stick together in big clumps. This will go on for a while... don't worry, we're getting close!
After another couple minutes, the mixture will start to get creamy. If you look at the picture, you can see the "butter" starting to form at the bottom of the bowl. Pretty cool action shot, right? ;)
Keep processing! It's pretty close, but it's not quite smooth enough. At this point, I actually turned my food processor off and walked away from it for a few minutes. Even appliances need a break... it had been working pretty hard!
After its short break, I turned the food processor back on and let it run until I was happy with the consistency of the mixture in the bowl.
For a "plain" nut butter, add a little unrefined sea salt, and stir it up well. I wanted to try something new this time, so I added 1 ½ teaspoons of vanilla and 1 ½ teaspoons of ground cinnamon (½ teaspoon for each cup of nuts). Some other popular add-ins include coconut oil, honey, maple syrup, and cocoa powder.
*Note: If you add anything other than salt to the mix, it won't last as long as the plain nut butter would, so plan accordingly... either by making a smaller batch or sharing with friends and family. You could also wait until you're actually eating the nut butter to add in the flavoring. Then you don't have to worry about it at all.
Scoop/pour your finished product into a container with a lid, and stick it in the fridge. All done!
Have you ever made your own nut butter?
What is your favorite way to eat nut butter?
