How to Make Peanut Butter

You can make your very own peanut butter in your home. If you can find inexpensive supply of peanuts, it can actually be more cost effective to produce your own batch. So to start making your homemade peanut butter…
The ingredients needed: 2 cups of roasted peanuts and 1 ½ teaspoons of vegetable oil.
Next follow these easy steps.
1. Pour 2 cups of roasted peanuts into a food processor bowl that has metal food processor blade attached.
2. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil. Cover the bowl with the food processor lid and chop up the peanuts continuously for 2 to 3 minutes or until the mixture forms a ball.
3. Scrape down the food processor bowl, if needed, when processing the peanuts.
4. Spoon peanut butter into a jar and seal. Store in the refrigerator.
You will need a spatula and a food processor.
Add a touch of salt if necessary! For a sweeter taste add some brown sugar and molasses. With everything you have learned, now you can even make your own peanut butter using this easy recipe. Have fun making your homemade peanut butter!

All thanks to peanut butter!

I have an adorable boxer named Kassie. She is about nine years old (sixty-three in dog years). We recently found out that she has a heart disease which causes her to faint at random times. It took the veterinarians a long to figure out what exactly was wrong. Now that they have correctly diagnosed her heart condition they prescribed a medicine that she must take every morning. So by now you might be wondering what this has to do with peanut butter…I am getting to that. Kassie hated the medicine and would refuse to take it so my mom asked the vets about any advice to give my dog the medicine so her heart will remain healthy. The vets suggested putting the pill in a dish with a little cream cheese. Kassie proceeded to refuse to take her medicine until my mom had a great idea to use peanut butter. After witnessing Kassie lick up the peanut butter remnants after she dropped a sandwich she was making, my mom decided to put her pill in a dish with peanut butter. Kassie no longer refuses to not take her pill and has not experienced any more fainting. She devours it and actually looks for more even after her medicine is gone. My dog is a peanut butter lover and more importantly has a healthy heart!

A Familiar Smell...

On the food field trip at the "Chattabox," the last dish smelled somewhat familiar. The Pad Thai dish ingredients include peanuts. It reminded me of peanut butter and how the smell of some foods could influence a person's decision to try it. I was surprised that peanuts were used as an ingredient. After thinking about smell and connection to food, I was talking to a friend about his experience with peanut butter. Since he was in kindergarten his mother made him a peanut butter sandwich EVERYDAY! So for his whole school career he ate the same thing. Today he cannot even smell anything peanut butter because it makes his stomach turn. It is funny how this affected his desire to eat a common, popular food. In contrast, I talked to someone who really enjoys peanut butter. His best friend was at the cafe the other day and made a peanut butter, bacon, and banana sandwich. He toasted the bread and poured on the peanut butter. It was a strange combination but he swore it was the best combination. He has it every morning for breakfast at home. It is interesting the various hatred and love of peanut butter and nice to know this won't come between friends.

Peanut Butter to the Rescue

Can peanut butter solve malnutrition? I was reading an article that reports on research of how a supplement of peanut butter given to children in Malawi helped treat malnutrition. In Malawi (in southeast Africa) one out of eight children dies because they do not get enough food. This is a really scary statistic! The supplement given to them is basically peanut butter, with added vitamins, minerals, some sugar and a little bit of milk powder. In the hospital that distributed this peanut butter supplement, 93% of the children made a full recovery. Researchers are hoping to use this peanut butter food in more hospitals in the country. A similar product is used to temporarily feed children in war-torn parts of the countries. Many nutrition researchers were hesitant to use peanut butter to prevent malnutrition because of the potential of food allergies. However the results in Malawi may indicate that food allergies should not be a concern. They did test feedings while the children were in the hospital, and out of the 500 children helped by this peanut butter project not one had an allergy. Food allergies in developing countries seem to be less than the percentages in the United States and hopefully this peanut butter food can assist in fighting malnutrition.

Peanut Butter Pet Peeve

At brunch the other day one of my friends was talking about how a pet peeve she has about peanut butter is when the oil separates. She was also talking about no salt peanut butter that her mom buys for her father because it is healthier. No salt peanut butter? I wondered what this would taste like. She said not the best peanut butter she has ever had. The reason this happens is because of absence of partially hydrogenated oil. This means natural peanut butter is healthier than normal peanut butter, but it also alters its consistency. To solve this pet peeve of my friend and any future oil dilemmas the natural peanut butter should be kept in the fridge. Then the taste will stay fresh and the oils will not separate. It was interesting that she said that even her regular peanut butter would sometimes separate as well. I said I never had this problem and we concluded it must be because I use my peanut butter at least every other day if not more.

Peanut Popularity vs. Allergies

In a previous post I briefly talked about peanut allergies and peanut-free schools. I was reading an article in the Patriot Ledger about how schools are balancing the peanut popularity and allergy worries. I never thought about how kids with these allergies felt but reading the article it made me realize that they do not want to be treated any differently from a peer without allergies. Being singled out is very difficult from some kids especially those that experience severe allergies and have to sit at separate table. One parent of a student with a peanut allergy responded to parents’ complaints saying if they were at the hospital for the 8 hours with their child they would feel differently. Today 400,000 children in the United States suffer from peanut allergies and this number has practically doubled in the last 5 years. In school systems they are attempting to be “peanut free” or at the very least “peanut aware.” In Norwell their cafeteria uses computer technology to alert cashiers if the student has an allergy. This way they can double check to make sure that everything on their tray is safe for them to consume. This is a problem that school officials have to take seriously. It is important for these students to be around peanuts so they can be prepared for being exposed to them in the real world.

We go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly...

Have you ever heard this expression or maybe seen the Facebook bumper sticker of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich holding hands? I was wondering when and where the actual salty and sweet combination originated. No one really knows the exact history about when or where this sandwich was created. Peanut butter was not invented until the late 1890’s, and there is no mention of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before the 1940’s. It seems strange that it was not sooner since we view it as such a typical school lunch. Peanut butter and jelly were both on the military rations lists and it is speculated that American soldiers added jelly to make peanut butter easier to eat. Returning service men helped the peanut butter and jelly combination cause. Additionally, food rationing at home may have added to the popularity of this combination. Because peanut butter was cheap and a good source of protein, it was purchased more than expensive cheese and meats. It was certainly a big hit and has remained post World War II.