Make Your Own Almond Butter

I love almonds. I love them raw. I love them roasted. I love them with cinnamon, cocoa, smoked. I just love almonds. 

Up until the last couple of weeks, when I've wanted a nut butter, I've always bought almond butter. I pay close attention to the labels & make sure they only use almonds in my almond butter, but sometimes it just doesn't taste good, ya know?   Two weeks ago, during one of our winter storms, I embarked on a mission to make my own. My first experience was okay, but I really wasn't satisfied.  I used already roasted almonds, purchased from a store. And it still didn't taste super fresh. So this week, I bought some raw almonds.

I measured out 1 cup.

And roasted my own!

   

All you have to do is spread almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet and place in a cold oven. Turn oven on to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake almonds, stirring occasionally, until light tan and fragrant, 12 to 15 minutes. Be careful! The nuts will continue to cook after removing from oven.

I let them cool while I ate my breakfast this morning. And then popped them into my food processor. 

You'll go through several phases as they're processing. 

  

First, you'll get chopped up almonds. Then, it will look a little like almond "meal", basically a little gritty looking. After that, the oils will begin to release and it will start to stick to the sides of the food processor.  But...keep going. It's not ready yet!

  

It will kind of get thick & you'll notice heat coming off your food processor. No worries (unless the quality of your food processor isn't very good). The almonds are starting to break down, release their natural oils and make almond butter. (Mine started to ball up & I had to stop and break it apart.) At that point, I went about 5 more minutes, alternating between slow & fast. 

Finally, it started getting smoother. And the smell was positively divine!

And then...it was finished!!! I grabbed my scales & some 2 oz portion cups & divided it out 1 oz per cup. 

 

I now have six 1 oz servings of freshly ground almond butter! Make yours and let me know what you think!

Remember, when following the FirstFitness Nutrition program, you can enjoy 1/2 cup of almonds for a snack. Have some with a little celery! Yum!

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Menu Monday rolls back around!

Whew!  I made it through a weekend trip to Eureka Springs without doing too much damage.  We had a wonderful weekend.  Our stay at 5 Ojo Inn was fabulous!  Jan & Richard are wonderful hosts and we are already planning our next trip.  They served up a great (not totally FFN friendly) breakfast, but we were able to not do too much damage to our wasitlines and even indulged a little!

Anyway, while we were in Eureka, we happened upon a few cool places--Fresh Harvest and The Spice Boat.  The Spice Boat had the most amazing spices, fresh from the docks and packaged without any additives.  We even bought some tea too.  Fresh Harvest was an Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar shop.  If you're in Eureka, you really should stop by!  They are worth the trip!

Even though we had a great weekend, I'm so glad to be back home where I can control what I am eating and how it's prepared.  This is our last week of softball and will end with a tournament over the weekend.  You got it...another "I can't plan for this completely" weekend.  And we have football on Friday night.  My crockpot will be getting a workout this week!

My menu this week will obviously include Shakes & Fruit for breakfast as usual.  For lunch, I have planned to have dinner leftovers or tuna using the Lime Infused EVOO we bought at Fresh Harvest. It is positively life changing stuff! (LOL) I'm planning some fish & chicken for our dinners...check out a few of the recipes I'm trying this week:

Seared Salmon with Cinnamon & Chili Powder

Baked Slow Cooker Chicken

Quinoa Pilaf (this is actually my favorite Quinoa recipe.  It's the first one I made that everyone LOVED)

Have a FFN Friendly week!

Jenn

Menu-October 6-12, 2014

It's #MenuMonday!  How am I staying on track this week?  Here ya go!

Notice the "grayed" in boxes....those are NEW recipes to try!  I can't wait!

I've also changed up the system a bit.  I've added a "workout" section & removed the "grocery list".  I tend to buy groceries without my menu, so why waste space there?

We have a busy week this week.  Monday after school, I've promised Cheyenne we would go see The Maze Runner.  We won't be out too late, so we can still have dinner at home. But Tuesday is where it gets all crazy!  Dusty & Cheyenne will be off to softball practice, while I head to Arkadelphia for the City Council meeting.  Wednesday, we will play catch up from a busy week beginning while Cheyenne is at AKC.  Thursday hits us with softball practice & a college night in Hot Springs for Wednesday.  Friday night we have football (Lyndsey) and softball (Cheyenne) while Saturday brings us a college visit for Lyndsey & a softball tourney for Cheyenne.  Just when I think things have gotten slower for our family, we get hit hard with a hectic schedule.

How do you stay on track when your family has you running?

Jenn

Low Carb Breakfast Burrito

Thank you to Michelle at "Eat Teach Laugh Craft" for this awesome recipe! I'm always careful about the processed foods I eat, so when shopping for lunch meat I always ask for a nitrate free option.

http://eatteachlaughcraft.com/food/low-carb-breakfast-burrito-recipe/

July 6-12 Menu

Even though we won't be home half of this week, I still made a plan. Planning my meals and putting them on paper helps keep me focused and on track. You can eat healthy while on the road and staying in a hotel.

Have a great week!

FFN Friendly Inspired by Pinterest

We've been pretty lazy around my house today. Dusty isn't feeling well and I've been so busy it was nice to just hang. So I trolled Pinterest looking for FFN Friendly recipes. What I found was quite a few that could be "tweaked" to fit in with the program. 

My first foray into recipe alterations came from a pumpkin and chocolate chip cookie recipe. I LOVE pumpkin. I'm not brave enough to use the shake mixes to make cookies, so I decided on a shake. I was super excited to figure out how to make a shake using this cookie recipe. My creation turns out pretty good, even Dusty thought so. 

Chocolate Pumpkin Shake

2 scoops of Chocolate Body FX 

1/2 cup frozen pumpkin purée

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp brown sugar Stevia

Blend in blender. Enjoy!

After that, I started searching for FFN Friendly soups for my sickly husband. What better to open up the nasal passages, right? After some searching, I came across one to tweak. Here's the result-

Not being real sure about the FFN Friendliness of this soup, I texted my sponsor and coach Penny to ask her. She approved, provided you use low-fat, low sodium kielbasa. I would not suggest a WHOLE bowl of this. Limit yourself to 1 cup because there's really a lot of protein in here! Plus, thermic veggies included! FFN Score!!!!

I love eating good in my FFN 'hood! Won't you join me?

http://jenniferedwards.firstfitness.com