Food

Lucretia

Food, we watch television shows about it, use it for comfort and entertainment, and make it the essence of our family traditions. We treat it mindlessly at times stuffing ourselves with little thought of the consequences. 

It’s so easy to get into a food rut too and dealing with a gluten intolerance makes it easy to stay with the known instead of trying new things. Time to shop and cook is another factor that can keep us in an unhealthy relationship with food.  However, Bill and I have discovered that when the two of us work together to plan, shop, and prepare meals, the time we take is part of keeping our marriage healthy. It has become great fun for us.

  This year we have purposed to try one new recipe each month. This month we made our own peanut butter. Getting enough healthy protein is a challenge for us because we choose not to eat meat and peanut butter fills the protein gap. 

I looked at several recipes on the internet only to discover that many of them added other fats, sugars, or salt; the very thing we wanted to eliminate. So, I thought, “Why not try just peanuts?”  We did and it was creamy, smooth, and delicious. Here’s how we did it. 

• Pour one 14 oz. jar of dry roasted and unsalted peanuts into a food processor. Process on low speed for two to three minutes. Switch to high speed for a minute, then back to low speed until you achieve your desired consistency.
• Use a spatula to transfer the peanut butter into a clean and sterilized pint fruit jar. We repurposed a jar being careful to clean it and sterilize it. 
• Store in the refrigerator.
• Makes one pint
• Total time: five minutes
• Total cost: $2.48

Unlike the natural peanut butter we bought in the store, the oil does not separate from our peanut butter. I really like that - no stirring every time you want to add a teaspoon of peanut butter to your apple slices.

What does this have to do with living more gently? I know exactly what went into that peanut butter...only wholesome peanuts. I can store my peanut butter in a glass container and can recycle the plastic container the peanuts came in, and I have the satisfaction of knowing I did it myself.