Un-Process your food. Seriously.

We've been rethinking our attitudes about food around here lately. I have tried to give up sugar and white flour. Let me tell you this. It doesn't work for me. I can reduce the amount I eat but I have not been successful giving it up for more than a week or two. I really think I would be less tired all the time if I could give up the sugar but it just doesn't seem to be in the stars for me right now.

I can, however, limit the amount of processed food we buy at the grocery store. And just by doing that I think we are cutting back on sugar and white flour. Except for an occasional bag of tortilla chips or goldfish crackers I completely skip the snack aisle now. I'm looking for real food we can eat or prepare at home that has five ingredients or less and that doesn't list sugar in any form as one of the first ingredients. This is really hard. Read labels. There is sugar in everything! So, I am attempting to make our own stuff at home now. Hence, homemade peanut butter. Oh. My. Peanutty-goodness.

I have always been a Jif girl. And I really like the creamy Jif  natural peanut butter. So if I have to buy it that is my go to brand. But I really enjoy making our own now. You may have to rethink peanut butter as you know it to like the homemade version. Homemade (at least mine) is not as creamy and easily spreadable as store bought. But it tastes so good. Go ahead and make some. Here's how.

1 cup of peanuts
honey
peanut or vegetable oil if desired

Isn't that the cutest little jar you have ever seen? I only had about 1/2 cup of peanuts for this batch.
All of the recipes for peanut butter that I have seen say it only takes about five minutes to make it. I've decided that these people must have really good food processors. I only have a little mini chopper and it takes longer and I also have to add a tablespoon or two of Canola oil to make it creamy. Kind of defeats the purpose I know but at least I know how much oil is in there. So anyhow, I'm thinking about buying a big girl food processor so I can really get the job done with no added oil. You can also add some chocolate chips to make chocolate peanut butter which sounds like a really good idea to me!