Natural Peanut Butter Beauty….

Hello blog world! Yes, it was months ago that I created this blog and committed to sharing my beauty insider secrets and I have failed miserably.  So here we go- I’m back at it and sharing my beauty intelligence with you!  Here is the kicker:  Today I’m sharing my super easy, totally natural peanut butter recipe.  What does this have to do with beauty?????  Well, besides the awesome health benefits received from peanuts, not a whole lot.  With that being said, beauty should be measured from the inside out.  While peanuts won’t help you be a nicer person if you are an asshole by nature,  they do provide a whole abundance of health benefits for the inside, and one key beauty benefit; VITAMIN E, which as we all know is great for the skin.  By trying to shed those final baby pounds as well as educate my family on healthy, clean eating, I have become more aware of consuming mostly one ingredient foods.  Long story short, I just want everyone to know how easy and delicious this recipe is ESPECIALLY since I am not known for being good in the kitchen. It’s so simple  I am even including pictures to make it fun, and a couple of helpful links at the bottom in case you are further interested in the health issues that I am about to mention.   Listen, commercial peanut butter isn’t necessarily going to kill you or your children, but it is typically chock-full of saturated and trans fat along with a lot of salt and sugar which, in my opinion, ruins such a wildly healthy food.  My recipe tastes delicious, you can make it chunky or creamy, and it’s very general so there is no memorizing.  So here we go.

What you need:

1 bag of natural peanuts in the shell

1 teaspoon of  extra virgin olive oil (optional)

The most natural I can get here.

•   Get yourself a bag or two of peanuts in the shell and Start by sitting down with your loved ones and have a race to see who can shell the most peanuts! Of course this is how you find your peanuts in their most virgin form. READY, SET, GO!
• Once shelled, spread the peanuts out on a baking sheet or oven safe dish.  Place in the oven on medium heat for roughly 10 minutes.  I take them out when I can smell them from the next room (I TOLD you this is general).  This is done simply to soften them up for blending.

All set to bake in the oven for a few.

• Now you’re going to place about half of the peanuts into your blender of choice.  [I use my beloved “Baby Bullet” with the milling blade.  The infomercial told me that I would use my Baby Blender for years after my baby food making days were over, so I am putting it to the test.  So far it has measured up and yep, I opted for the Baby Bullet rather than the normal Magic Bullet due to its “magical” pea green color and awesome smiley face on all of it’s accessories.  Marketing target on my overly ambitious back.  Thanks mom!]  Blend your peanuts until they appear to be chalky and the motor of your blender starts to sound like its going to explode.  I shove a spoon in there and make sure everything keeps moving because I like to use as little oil as possible.  Do NOT lick the spoon-The peanut butter is HOT and yes, that was a personal lesson learned.

SUPERCOOL BABY BULLET. I highly recommend using a milling blade.

• Next you will add 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil.  Feel free to use less or more.  I choose to use as little as possible, and this is what I’ve narrowed it down to.  It does help to take it from chalky to creamy, but if you keep milling, it will eventually smooth out anyway.
• Lastly you will repeat this milling process with the remaining half of your peanuts.  This time you can leave a third of them out. Once you’ve added the olive oil, you can throw the rest  in for 10 seconds and you will end up with crunchy peanut butter!!
  

  Final product!

I have added my natural peanut butter to these lovely Pampered Chef  1 cup prep bowls, but you can store it any way you wish.  You can see the one on the right is chunky.  If you have the Baby Bullet, you can also keep it in the little baby food storage cups that you probably got suckered into buying for the ‘one time only’ offer of $19.99.  (Sigh)

Store and eat!

You can simply store them away like I have here in my tiny, over packed refrigerator that freezes everything.  BTW we replaced it this weekend with a mammoth refrigerator so my peanut butter now has it’s very own door compartment.

So it’s that simple people.  One of the easiest, quickest things I have done and once you taste it, you will be as excited to eat it as my adorable son Liam.

Liam loving his peanut butter!

Ok, so I hope you enjoyed this and next week I am going to get back to beauty and teach TIGHTLINING EYELINER! You will not want to miss this even if you already use this method.  I’m going to change your life 🙂

The links that I promised:

Commercial peanut butter and “trans fat” http://www.eatingwell.com/nutrition_health/nutrition_news_information/how_do_you_pick_peanut_butter_without_trans_fats

Dietary fats: Good and bad   http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fat/NU00262

What are all of these oils about?  http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/culinaryreference/a/fattable.htm

Smoking points for cooking oils and fats (I find quite useful, so I threw it in here)  http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/CookingOilTypes.htm