Jiff's Nutella aka Chocolate Peanut Butter

Has anyone tried chocolate hazelnut butter? I know I've been trying to eat better and when I found out our grocery store is out of their homemade peanut butter, I figured we would do without. I completely forgot about buying plain unsalted peanuts since I was in a hurry.

Walking through the grocery store looking for something in particular, we walked by the peanut butter. Might as well get some since we were out. Oh... nutella. I've never tried it. Instead of buying the expensive Nutella brand, we bought Jif, saving $3.

Once at home, we opened the jar to see a chocolate looking glob. Yuck. Not sure if my kids should eat it, I lick the edge of the butter knife. Oh my goodness. Why haven't I bought it before? I spread it on my kid's bread (for PB & J), and they ate it faster than their regular PB & J. "Mommy, I love our new chocolate peanut butter!"

No wonder. It was so good. I thought my sweet tooth was going to fall out and beg for more. Then I realized how healthy it must be, since all those tv commercials about Nutella said it was. Wow. All those "mother" actresses spreading it on bananas, waffles, toast, etc. "It's a healthy nut butter that my kids can't get enough of." To put it plainly, it's another unhealthy preservative loaded with sugar and oil. Another item on the "no" list. I should have realized this since its packaged, and no doubt, processed.

Looking for an alternative to this sugar nut butter, I googled "homemade oil-free Nutella". Google results: 155,000. After going through seven websites and blogs, the eighth result actually came up with a recipe that has no oil. Their website: http://www.realfoodkosher.com/quick-homemade-nutella/. It looks natural, without the coconut or palm oil. I can't wait to try it!

Lost weight

Loosing weight has been an uphill battle since my last pregnancy. My son was 9 1/2 pounds and I gained roughly 25lbs onto my usual 130 pounds. It was sad. I was around 120 in high school, but when college started and dating my now husband, I ate again.

My husband and I have always eaten a somewhat well balanced diet. At first, we ate no salads with our meals unless we had people over. I mean, come on, who loves salad that much?

Recently, I've been adding salad to every dinner. Hubby and I have been wanting to lose weight. The salad is the main factor why I've been loosing weight. However, after eating everything on my small portioned plate plus a huge salad, I felt like I was overdoing it. So I decided to cut up a small portion of meat to add to my salad. It was really good.

Hubby went out of town and I wanted to watch something different. I ran across "Food, Inc.", "Food Fight", and a bunch of other food documentaries. All I can say is wow. It really makes you look at the supermarket/grocery store and government in a whole new light.

I haven't weighed myself in 14 days, so I thought I would see where I'm at after eating salad for lunch and dinner for the past week. I do have salad dressing, but its not allowed to have any oil in it. Not canola, not soybean, not even olive oil. Smash an avocado and add either a small amount of lime or lemon juice. You have your dressing.

Very little if at all meat and poultry. Whole grains. Some beans. No oils, fats, or sweets. You want to really lose weight? Fruits and Vegetables only. Plus water. Period. Some people don't cook their food (raw foods diet) and others don't eat fish because of the contaminants in oceans, rivers, etc.

I don't like beans, so beans are out. Although I may make them for the kids and hubby. I guess we'll end up throwing out the all purpose and bread flour since we won't be using them anymore! Its going to be a challenging challenge (actual phrase?) to invent and find recipes for the family.

It feels great to loose weight- especially when I have an extremely hard time doing it. All I had to do was change my diet. So in the last 14 days here at the Bako Depot, 10.4 pounds have disappeared. In a way I'm decluttering me and my family.

:)

Peanut Butter

Peanut butter? Yes, peanut butter. It's so easy that there's really no reason to buy it ever again.

As I'm committed to decluttering life (and pantry), the kids refuse to give up PB & Js for lunch. That's fine with me since I know what's in them. After making bread with the machine, we pull a can of strawberry jam from the fridge (that mommy made), and an empty jar of peanut butter. No need to fret. All you need are five things.

Peanuts, Almonds, Hazelnuts, Cashews, Etc. (Any nut will do. Not sure about pistachios though- will have to try)
Canola, grapeseed, olive, or Vege Oil
Food Processor or Blender
Spatula
Jar to store it in (I reuse my old peanut butter jar)

Some people do add 1-2 T honey or brown sugar to sweeten it up, but the kids are already sweet enough. 
You can either buy salted or unsalted nuts. I buy most of my groceries from Winco in the bulk section. Most of the time I don't need to shop in the middle/preservative filled shelves. I purchase the unsalted because the kids really don't need the extra sodium/salt. Make sure they are unshelled- no one likes to eat shells.

Pour your nuts into your food processor or blender. Mix until dry and coarse crumbs. Add 1T oil until smooth and creamy to your liking. I found that if you add a smidgen more oil, it turns out the same texture as store bought peanut butter.

Store it in the fridge. It will be hard when taking it out, so let it warm to room temperature before using. This makes the best peanut butter cookies.

I've found that even the kids can make this themselves. So one thing less for mommy to make! One can never prepare their child enough for the future ;) When they go to college, I'll know they can make their own peanut butter.

Different ingredients (nuts, oils, etc.) can be found here: http://pickyourown.org/howtomakepeanutbutter.htm
For an even fancier recipe: http://www.simplyscratch.com/2012/02/homemade-peanut-butter.html

Try this at home with your kids and post your results!