Make your own peanut butter.

Basically everything that should be in peanut butter is peanuts, a little peanut or vegetable oil, and sugar if you want it, but most commercial peanut butters contain tons of chemicals to preserve shelf life. While it may be cheaper to buy peanut butter in mass quantities and have it last a long time, is it worth putting harmful chemicals into your body?
Luckily lots of brands of peanut butter have recently put out a "natural style" peanut butter, that has less chemicals, and sometimes even only list peanuts as ingredients (always check ingredient lists, and if there are either a: things that a third grader can't pronounce or b: things that would not be seen in a well rounded kitchen, then don't buy it, it's not worth it to your body... This can be applied to everything you eat).
Homemade peanut butter is absolutely delicious, and because it's homemade, you know exactly what went into it, the only downfall is that it may not keep as long as a commercial brand peanut butter, but it seriously is so yummy, it will be gone before it has time to go bad.
Using homemade peanut butter in baking is awesome too because the fat is all natural and healthy for you!

Ingredients:
2 cups of peanuts
1 1/2 tsp of peanut or vegetable oil
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)

First make sure the peanuts are roasted, if not spread out on a baking tray and heat your oven to 350*. When it is heated roast the peanuts for 8 minutes, shaking the pan around every two minutes to prevent burning. Once the peanuts are roasted dump into food processor or blender and blend away. After awhile add the oil and continue blending until your desired consistency. If you opted for the sweeter peanut butter, add the sugar when you add the oil. Next time I'm going to try brown sugar to see if there is a taste difference!

I'm experimenting with a homemade Graham cracker recipe so that I can make Graham crackers with peanut butter and raisins as a snack that is FULL of protein!

Today I am off to buy seeds for the garden! I just learned all about sprouts, sprouting, and wheat grass, and I think I'm going to start my own little crop of alfalfa, soybean, and lentil sprouts. The crops take five days! I just read a recipe for lentil and alfalfa sprout veggie burgers and I want to try it out after the sprouts have sprouted!




Anyways I'm super excited about growing things that are amazing for my body! Oh yeah I have the list of veggies and berries I'm going to try to grow:
For the herb garden I'm growing Rosemary, thyme, chives, and whatever else I find interesting while shopping for seeds.
For the side garden (partial sun) I am growing bush peas and beans, soy beans, carrots, potatoes, and all sorts of leafy greens.
For the balcony pots I am growing tomatoes and strawberries!

I've got to find out the last frost date so I can plant three weeks after that. I read that all of the plants (excluding the bush peas and beans) should be started inside, which is what I'm starting today!