Mixed Nut & Chia Butter

I think it’s obvious that I have an addiction…

…to nut butter.

Since this post I have acquired even more nut butters.  Now I think I have somewhere around 10 jars of peanut, almond, coconut, and chocolate hazelnut butter!

You’d think that would be enough for me, but no.  A few days ago I dreamed up an awesome mixed nut butter.  It’s a combination of Brazilian nuts, almonds, cashews, walnuts, and chia seeds.  Heaven!

A FFF Original ♥

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almonds*
• 1 cup cashews*
• 1 cup Brazilian nuts*
• 1 cup walnuts*
• 2 tablespoons chia seeds
• ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ teaspoon sea salt

*I bought raw nuts and roasted them.  You can buy roasted nuts and skip that step though.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450ºF.
2. Place almonds, cashews, Brazilian nuts, and walnuts in a large bowl.  Add ¼ cup olive oil and toss to combine.  Spread nuts evenly on a baking sheet and roast for 6 minutes. (No longer than 6 minutes or they’ll burn!)
3. Once nuts are done roasting, let cool for 10 minutes.  Place roasted nuts, salt, chia seeds, and remaining olive oil in a food processor.  Process on high for 8-12 minutes (depending on your food processor), stirring/scraping down sides often.
4. Scoop finished nut butter into jars and enjoy!

Yield:  Approximately 2 ½ cups nut butter (20 ounces)

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I couldn’t believe that making my own nut butter would be so easy!  I might even have to start doing it more often.

Plus look how drippy the nut butter is…

I guess I own 12 jars of nut butter now. 

* * * * * *

Question of the Day:

1. Do you consider yourself “addicted” to a certain food?
2. Have you every made homemade nut butter?

Have a great Tuesday!

Ode To OIAJ

Oh, how I love OIAJ (and OOIAJ!) ♥

*For those of you that don’t know what OIAJ or OOIAJ are that’s perfectly fine! I didn’t know what either of them were before Blog World either! 

• OIAJ – Oats in a Jar
• OOIAJ – Overnight Oats in a Jar

I seriously don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t discovered Blog World!  I wouldn’t be enjoying the delicacy that is OIAJ that’s for sure!

This past week I had a lot of empty nut butter jars so I had OIAJ almost everyday!  Let’s take a look at the creations…

* * * * *

Elvis-Inspired OIAJ*

* Yeah, I know it’s not a natural peanut butter jar.  The store was out and we needed peanut butter.

Oatmeal topped with a crushed Adora Calcium disk

Overnight Oats topped with the last slice of Cranberry Orange Bread

Chia Overnight Oats and fresh strawberries

* * * * *

I’d say that it a good week of breakfasts!

Unfortunately the winner of my Jay Robb Protein Powder Giveaway has not responded to my emails yet.  So the new winner is #37 edmomtomjb!  Congratulations! You will be receiving an email from me shortly.

* * * * *

Questions of the Day:

1. Have you ever had OIAJ or OOIAJ? 
2. What is your favorite nut butter?

Have a happy and safe weekend!

Cashini + Blueberries

= Heaven, of course!

Seriously, the not-so-classic combination is really, really good!

*****

A few days ago I received a huge package of samples from my friends at Artisana.  The package included many nut butter squeeze-packets in addition to a whole jar of Cashini and a jar of Raw Almond Butter. ♥

Yeah that’s a lot of nut butter, but I’ll have no problem eating it all!

Now you may be asking, What in the world is Cashini?!  [And if you already know...SHHHH...just roll with it for now.]

Cashini is a mixture of cashew butter and tahini.

And if you don’t know what tahini is…it’s sesame seed butter.

Now, don’t worry, I am going somewhere with this.

*****

When I recieved my Cashini the first thing I thought was “How am I going to use this?”  After pouring over several blogs, and Google-ing “What goes well with Cashini,” I finally found an acceptable flavor duo. 

Something that wasn’t too overpowering.  Something that I had in my house.  Something that I could work into my breakfast.

I found this something over at Angela‘s blog in the form of her Grilled Cashew Butter and Blueberry Sandwich. 

Cashini + Blueberries

Breakfast:

Chia Overnight Oats with ~1 tablespoon melted Cashini and a handful of frozen blueberries

I love warm, melty nut butters!  Heating them brings out so much flavor and spreads it out so you get more nut butter per bite!

Plus I kind-of had to heat the Cashini because it got so hard after sitting in the fridge. ↓

Oh well…

It was still a very good breakfast!  I think I am in love with Cashini. ♥

 

Nut Butter Love + Lunchtime Excitement

Hey Bloggies!

Today I decided to have overnight oats for breakfast because I can’t wait until next summer to have them again.  Who cares if they aren’t typical autumn food?  I love them! 

Breakfast:

1/2 cup oatmeal, 2/3 cup fat-free vanilla yogurt, 1 tbsp chia seeds [soaked in 1/4 cup water], topped with raspberries and White Chocolate Wonderful

 

It was delicious.  I obviously don’t care that my raspberries are out of season.  Berries are too good for me to worry about seasons.

Speaking of yummy things…clearly I am still enjoying my precious White Chocolate Wonderful. ♥ ↓

Confession:  That is not the same spoonful of PB from the other picture.

White Chocolate Wonderful is just that good!

*****

Lunch was delicious as well, although it was completely void of all things peanut buttery.

Lunch:

Turkey and Tabasco Sandwich with NSA peaches and a Dannon Light & Fit Pineapple Coconut yogurt

 

I demonstrated my inner rebel again by choosing a tropical flavored yogurt.  Hello, Piña Colada!

Now there is a quite a story surrounding today’s lunch.  Not my lunch, but the lunch hour in general. 

Today my friends and I walked into lunch and started eating our lunches as usual.  Less than 10 minutes into lunch the fire alarm rings and we all have to go outside and wait for the “fire drill” to end.  So we wait…and wait…and wait some more.  By the time we are allowed back inside we were standing outside for over 45 minutes and are informed that it was not a fire drill and there was an actual fire in one of the science labs[!!!!]  Talk about exciting!  The fire was nothing much [only about a foot high] and no one got hurt so it was pretty cool that we got out of class for 45 minutes. 

If only we could have gotten out of History instead of lunch.

*****

All of the waiting must have made me hungry because I was starving when I got home!  I refueled with…

Snack:

1 Clif Peanut Butter Pretzel Mojo bar

A little while later [like right before dinner] I had a little plate of carrots and hummus [Not pictured].

I washed it all down with a new tea that my Aunt Rachel gave me to try.  This one was actually seasonal.

Pumpkin Spiced Tea.

Enjoyed in a mug with my [baby] face on it!

Now before we start talking about my baby picture, I am going to change the subject…

…to homework.

*****

Today I didn’t have much school homework. [I only had to write a fake journal entry about his little guy... ↓]

[Yeah, that's supposed to be Cyclopes.]

But when there is a lack of homework there is always something else to take the place of what would have been free time.  Today it was Black Belt stuff!

You see, my Black Belt test in coming up in less than a month and I still have [quite] a few kinks to work out.  Like my katas or taegouks: [They are basically a ninja's dance routine - Haha!]

Taejouk 1-8

Taegouk 4

Taegouk 5

Taegouk 6

Feel free to check out the videos!  I have a feeling they are going to be very helpful to me in the upcoming weeks.

*****

Enough Karate talk.  Onto dinner!

Dinner:

Good ol’ [whole wheat] spaghetti and [turkey] meatballs – Made by Mom

Sometimes simple is the best!  [Gotta love comfort food!]

*****

Now I am off to get ready for bed! 

Goodnight!

 

Healthy Living?

I know Halloween already came and went, but what can I say?  I’m still in the Halloween spirit! 

As you can see I celebrated this morning Halloween through my breakfast.  I used some leftover Halloween-themed plates and napkins for decorations and made the finger oatmeal that I saw over at KERF.

Like Kath, Butterfinger was my candy of choice.

“Everybody loves a Butterfinger!”

How can you go wrong with peanut butter candy?  [Is that even possible?!]

*****

To make my oatmeal I cooked ½ cup oats in 2 cups of water for 12 minutes.  This results in an amazingly huge bowl of oatmeal.  Towards the end of cooking I stirred in ~1 tablespoon of chia seeds and a dash of cinnamon.  I topped my oatmeal with even more chia seeds, ½ a Fun Size Butterfinger, and a spoonful of peanut butter.

It was quite the bowl of oats.  Deeee-licious.

…but then again, why wouldn’t it be?! 

I mean, look, it has chocolate, peanut butter, and sugar ← all of the makings for a perfect bowl of oatmeal.  Would it be hypocritical if I started putting candy bars in all of my oatmeal?  I mean, I supposed to be a “Healthy Living Blogger.”

Scratch that.  Isn’t “Healthy Living” all about the ability to eat 1 or 2 pieces of candy and stop, about the choice to choose fruit over ice cream, or choose ice cream over fruit and enjoy it?  Isn’t it about choosing to run instead of watching a Jersey Shore marathon and deciding to balance out that extra piece of cake with a huge salad? 

I think sometimes the Health Blog Community gets too  hung up on what’s “good” and what’s “bad” that we sometimes forget what healthy living is all about.

Agree?  Disagree?

I end this post with a question.

What do you think “Healthy Living” is?

*****
I can’t wait to hear your answers!  I love hearing everyone’s opinions.