Homemade Nut Butter

I really like almonds, so I wanted to try some almond butter, until I saw how expensive it was in the store.  So I decided to try and make my own.  This ended up being almond/cashew/peanut butter.  It is SO GOOD.  I started with just almonds in my food processors, and then I added cashews because I got bored.  It takes a long time for it to get creamy.  It's really dry at first, so I got inpatient and threw in some of the Skippy Natural Creamy PB.  That seemed to help a lot.  I keep it in the fridge, but I'm not sure if I have to or not.  Anyway, Kyle really likes it.  The nut blend ended up being really good, and it was kind of fun to try!

So in a response to your help request.  I have to first say that I HATE menu planning.  It is so hard to sit and rack my brain of what to make, don't mind the cooking just coming up with WHAT to cook drives me nuts.   However experimenting with/without this for 11+ years of marriage, I've learned that having a PLAN is much easier for my family and the flow of my week, so I HAVE to do one.   I make my plan on Saturday mostly.  As far as go to meals, I don't know we have lots of Mexican and Italian.  But I wanted to share this, got the idea from Food Nanny which I like, I don't do exactly what she says but I like the idea of "themes" and that that make me "remember" my recipes under that theme and helps with the planning.

So choose 1 night a week from the following themes: (right now I'm doing soup at least 1 day a week)
-Chicken
-Beef
-Meatless/Breakfast for Dinner
- Pizza
-Soup
-crockpot

-grill

Here is my plan this week
S- Beef-Hamburgers
M-Soup- Wild Rice Soup
T- Crockpot -turkey roast
W-Meatless- Alfredo pasta
R-Chicken-chicken Tacos
F-Pizza Night
S-Don't usually plan for Saturday we go out or have dinner with friends or leftovers or super simple

If I'm having a hard time with the above themes I also might try to plan by carb because that sparks new ideas. As follows:
potato
rice
noodles
tortilla
pizza crust

Anyway hopefully that might help or maybe not but I would like you to post your 5 meals you keep making over and over as you say, so I can see what they are!

Love,
Rachel

HELP

I need help with dinner idea peeps, I'm sick of making the same 5 things.  What are your go-to meals right now?

Poof

I found a tutorial for this poof  seat HERE and was surprised at how easy it was to make!  Will loves it, I still need to make one for him, but in the mean time he enjoys Abbie's.

My Lastest Kitchen Things

So I thought I would post finally so you know what I've been up to at least in the kitchen and since mom isn't on pinterest she can get the recipes from here.   I've been trying to eliminate some processed foods in our house by making my own mixes, inspired by a thing on saw on 20/20, healthy and SKINNY Carrie and pinterest of course!    Here is my next project to make with organic/healthy chicken bullion that I found on amazon, hope to find it at Harmons or Costco here in town.  So this will replace cream of chicken soup, mushroom soup, lipton onion packet and beef bullion, they have healthy versions of those bullion at amazon. 

http://1orangegiraffe.blogspot.com/2011/07/anything-you-wanna-call-it-casserole.html?showComment=1310864846151#c3489139395376988271

This is what I've made so far

Homemade Refried Beans in Crockpot
http://neartonothing.blogspot.com/2010/09/homemade-refried-beans.html 

So easy and made a yummy bean burrito dinner with cafe rio lime rice and lettuce, salsa, sour cream.  Everyone ate it.  Good one for a meatless dinner which I'm trying to do once a week.

And since we are Ranch Snots and go through a bacth a week, I thought I would love finding one that I can make without the packet.  After some failed attempts the one I think   WON with me, glen and the kid is : make sure to scroll down to the BYU one at the end of the post.  It is yummy and tastes really good.  I made a  mix, in my pantry now and all I have to do is grab it and NO PACKETS,  I halved the recipe at the bottom to use the mix because I only wanted  a smaller batch.  It was perfect!  The only thing is that you use 1 cup milk with 1 tsp on vinegar to make your own buttermilk and make sure you add the lemon juice too  http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2011/07/ode-to-homemade-ranch-dressing.html

I also made these 12 at the begining of the week and then put them in the fridge for quick eggs in the morings or egg sandwiches too.  We Loved them.  Trick for us was putting 1 TBS of water before cracking egg to keep it soft boiled and no crusty edges.  Bake at 350 for about 18 mins.  perfect!  I don't think I'll ever make boiled eggs again!

I also felt like little Susie homemaker this week by doing 7 quarts of frozen peaches.  I got them from bountiful baskets for 75 cents a pound and got 24 pounds.  They were so good, I ate 3 while doing them, which is saying something cause I don't really like peaches, but I'm changing my mind.  Peaches also remind me of Carrie???  I think because she LOVED them when we were little right??  or am I remembering wrong?  Never done them before so I was nervous but they turned out I think, we will see when I eat them.   Anyway with the leftovers I blended them and made these muffins.
http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2012/08/09/peach-pie-muffins-with-brown-butter-glaze/
 Emma said they were my best muffins ever, my second are the blueberry ones from Jamie Cooks it up.  So nice not having to buy the mixes from the store and the kids loved them as after school snack and in the lunch boxs or for breakfast.  

I also want to make this.  Looks easy and yummy, let you know when I do.  
http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/healthy-recipes/10-healthy-peanut-butter-recipes?page=2

Okay love you all!

Rachel

"Healthy" Chocolate Zucchini bread

So as I was finishing up the large loaf of chocolate zucchini bread that I made, yes- LAST NIGHT, I decided to post the recipe. I wanted to try and make a slightly healthier version of chocolate zucchini bread so when I ate a whole loaf in less than 24 hours I would feel 3 degrees less guilty. This is super duper moist and chocolatey! It looks a little less pretty than regular zucchini bread (the top cooks different) but it is still presentable and I think it tastes better. Really, I will never do the regular recipe again because I loved this one so much.

3 Eggs
1/4 Cup oil
3/4 Cup apple sauce
1 Cup sugar (you could go up to 2 cups if you want a sweeter bread)
1 Tablespoon vanilla
3 cups Whole wheet flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
2 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1 Cup dark cocoa powder
chocolate chips (you can decide how much you desire )

Mix together eggs, oil, apple sauce, and vanilla. Stir in sugar. In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and cocoa. Combine with wet ingrediants. Fold in zucchini and then the chocolate chips. Fill into greased loaf pans (I made 3, but you could do 2). Cook at 325 for 45-60 minutes.