Making your own nut and seed butters!

We all want to eat a bit healthier. And we all seem to love peanut butter! We’ve probably devoured it by the tub from the age of one, so it’s hardly surprising. Of course, the first thing any healthy eating fanatic discovers is that peanut butter is actually awesome for you, albeit calorie laden, just as long as we eat the all peanut, low sugar, low salt variety. Some people are happy at that point, but some of us psychos then start to look for different nut butters: almond butter, sesame paste, cashew butter… And I’m sure that you, like I, have noticed that these special nut and seed butters are expensive. Well fear not! You can actually make all your nut butters very cheaply at home and so quickly, even the traditional way, you will never go back!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup nuts or seeds of choice
• 2tbsp equivalent oil
• a pinch of salt

Utensils:

• bowl
• meat grinder and blender, or a food processor

Recipe:

1. Soak your nuts or seeds in boiling water, leave overnight.
2. Drain them.
3. Roughly chop or mince the soaked nuts.
4. Add the oil and salt.
5. Blend until a paste forms.
6. Serve.

Is it really that simple? Yep!

TTFN and Happy Hunting!

 

For help starting out homemaking, check out The ESSENTIAL Beginner Homemaker’s Guide. For help budgeting all your everday and not-so-everyday essentials, from food to transport to clothes, check out On A Budget: The good homemaker’s guide to economizing.

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Fit Friday XX. Fat Friday VII. I have no patience.

This past couple of weeks I’ve been working on my weight. Trying to keep active, keeping carbs and calories low and focusing on good quality proteins for the bulk of my meals. And the rewards are mostly there. Body fat dropped, water retention dropped, weight a little lower, probably a lot lower when I consider the amount of fibre accumulated in my body from all those tasty salads.

But, whilst the rewards have been pretty quick and steady, I’m, of course, running out of patience. I’m sticking with the diet because I feel awesome and it tastes amazing, but I really want my 6 week results already!

Jon has really intensified my training regime, so I should be gaining mass fairly steadily too. Unsure how to balance weight gain with fat loss, so I’ll have to eyeball it and trust Jon when he says I haven’t ballooned into some hippo-Jabba hybrid.

Keeping at the high veg, carbs crept up but will be hammered back down, slightly increasing calories to match my workouts. Will kill some iron and see where I end up.

The tastiest thing I ate all week was a fish pie, but only because I was missing potatoes that badly. The naughtiest thing I ate all week was probably a cumulative effect of grapefruit, oranges, potatoes and chocolate today. Too many carbs!

Been lazy in terms of work a little, so I need to step up a bit, even if my housewifery has kept stable or even improved.

Next week, more weights, more protein, same low carbs and more work.

TTFN and Happy Hunting!

How has your week went? What fitness and diet goals have you met or fell short of? What was the tastiest thing you ate all week? What are your plans for next week?