Almond Butter

Easy Cashew Butter

8:00:00 AM


I love nuts. But seriously, I've been making homemade nut butters for awhile now and there is nothing I love more. One thing about store-bought peanut butters is that there are way too many ingredients. Unless you're willing to pay a bit more, making it at home could save you a few bucks too! If you accidentally run low on peanut butter, almond butter or cashew butter this is also an easy fix! No need to run off to the shop in your slippers!

Vegan Life


Currently, my favorite nut butter is cashew butter. I've gone through Almond butter and natural peanut butter and both are great but cashews have a sweeter taste. I tried making this in our mini food pulser/processor and it just didn't turn out as well as when I used the big blender.

What You'll Need: 
A blender or food processor
3 ounces of nuts = about a cup
Choice of nut (in this case Cashews) 

Vegan Nut Butter


How:
Place little amounts in if you're using a food processor, if using a blender then just pour 3 ounces in! 
Blend until a creamy texture forms
Empty contents into jar
Enjoy! 

Things I've put cashew butter on include: 
These AMAZING blueberry vegan pancakes
Waffles
Oatmeal (the organic kind) 
A spoon (hah) 

Cashew Butter

I know! It's seriously that easy! I love that my blender makes the butter warm right away so I may or may not sneak a taste before putting it away. It's best to store in the fridge if you plan on not using it in the next week or so. The recipe is completely up to you, if you want salted nut butter then use salted nuts, honey roasted-nut butter, and on and on. Anything is possible. I don't like the salted nuts so I always stick to unsalted cashews! 


I hope you enjoyed this post! I love homemade butter and I hope you enjoy it too! 
What are your favorite nuts? Have you ever made homemade nut butter before? 

Baking

Spring Sweets

12:30:00 PM



I'm cutting back on eating so many sweets, I swear! While I've been away living at University, there are a few things that I've missed and that my sweet tooth misses as well. And that's homemade cookies. As soon as spring break rolled around, I knew I had to whip up a batch. 
Still trying to eat healthy while being home can be a challenge, finding a few alternatives to certain ingredients in a recipe can actually be quite easy!
I've made oatmeal cookies before (you can read that post right here), this was a bit different. 
These don't have flour or eggs! 
For this recipe you will need:
2/3 Cup (58 g) old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 banana
1 cup peanut butter 
6 Table spoons brown sugar
1/4 cup butterscotch chips
1/4 cup white chocolate chips

One thing that was special about this recipe that I tried, was that I actually made my own peanut butter using this recipe from Sallys Baking Addiction. It made it even healthier and it's very simple to make as well! Though it is a simple recipe, you certainly do not need to make these, and while Sally used honey roasted peanuts, I used just plain salted peanuts as I wanted to try it out for myself and did not have honey roasted in my cupboards!

To start making these, take a medium bowl and add in the oats, cinnamon, and baking soda. In a seperate bowl, mix in your peanut butter, banana, and brown sugar. It's okay if it's not creamy, as I didn't use an egg. While I was doing this I got quite nervous but it turns out well!

After mixing, add in the butterscotch and white chocolate chips!
Now chill the cookie dough for 30 minutes in your refrigerator and preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit! (176 Celsius).
You'll now need two baking sheets, and if you don't like cleaning them after I would suggest using parchment paper. It comes in quite handy. And after your cookie dough is done chilling, you can scoop small balls onto the sheet, pressing down lightly to make sure they flatten. 

After this, my cookie dough balls were kind of greasy/oily looking and I blotted them with a napkin to take it off. I placed about 9 cookies on one try and 5 on the other. You can certainly spread these out more evenly than I did! 
Bake for about 9 to 10 minutes. I think mine were in for about 9. 

After baking, take them out and let them cool.
These cookies are delicious and I was pleasantly happy with the fact that I couldn't really tell I had even put banana into it. Thinking about it now, I don't think I can at all. 
 I think these are actually going quite fast at my house, which is always a good sign and I will probably make more! Especially if I can take them to my dorm room for a little snack at some point! 
I hope you enjoyed this recipe! I love baking and the fact that I can when I'm home, is great! 
Are you making any goodies lately? I feel like spring has brought the little baker inside of me! 
Hope you all have had great weeks! 
Thanks for reading! 
xx
Kenzie


bars

Easy & Quick Peanut Butter Bars

5:26:00 PM


  There's something you should know about me. I love peanut butter. A lot. I love the Reese's peanut butter candies, I love spooning it out of the container and spreading it on my sandwich, it's so yummy! I know these aren't super healthy, but they are great if you have to bring a dish to a party or you're the one throwing a party! I know I haven't written a recipe post in awhile (sorry) but my sister is having a graduation party so there are many in the works!  

   There are a few things that you're going to need of course: 

1 cup butter (that's two sticks or 8 tbsp), melted
2 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
2 Cups Powder Sugar
1 cup Peanut Butter
1 and a half cup Chocolate Chips
4 Tablespoons of peanut butter


To begin, melt the butter. After you've melted the butter, pour it into a medium sized bowl. 
Add in the two cups of Graham Cracker Crumbs, Powder Sugar and 1 cup Peanut Butter. 
Once you've done this, mix the ingredients together. It should look like this when you're done. Though, I did decide to add a little bit more Graham Cracker Crumbs in the end. 


Once you've mixed the ingredients together. Take out a 9x15 pan and spread the mixture into it. 
Once you've done that, put it in the refrigerator while you get the chocolate part all set!

For the chocolate part, melt the chocolate chips, I did say this in another post that had me melting chocolate chips. It does say it on the bag if you are unsure of how long to put them in the microwave for. Mine says a minute per cup, and since there was a cup and a half, I put it in for a minute fifteen seconds. 
After you take out the chocolate, do mix it up right away that way it'll be smooth. Then add the Four Tablespoons of peanut butter to the chocolate and stir until smooth. 
Take out your pan from the fridge and pour the topping over it. 

Looks good doesn't it? Trust me, it is. 
After that's all done, just set it in the refrigerator again for about an hour before you cut it.
This is the part where you can go have what's left in the bowls you've just used. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone ;) 
These took me no time at all, I also had a lovely view of Sadie catching some sunshine near the patio door. 


These are my favorite, and whenever my mom makes them they go pretty fast. I hope you give them a try! 

xx
Kenzie



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