When I first started blogging a little over a year ago I came across this amazing food blogging site, Eating Rules, with an incredible mission – to eat only unprocessed foods during the month of October.
I thought ,”fabulous!”
And then I thought “holy sh*t!”.
Now, as you probably know by now, I really don’t like proceed foods. I use only real peanut butter (more on this in a minute), make most cakes by scratch (exceptions include my triple bundt cake and lemon bundt) and have even been known to make my own cheese.
I read labels.
I loathe food dye.
Hell, I don’t even drink carbonated drinks anymore.
This challenge, I thought, wouldn’t be too much of a challenge.
I wasn’t up for the task last year, but this year I’m taking the leap. I’ve taken the pledge. I’ve even written a little something (stay tuned).
So, here I go… October Unprocessed. Except for flour. And sugar. Oh, and chocolate.
Ugggg…. Totally unprocessed may be more than I can handle.
But I can do unprocessed peanut butter.
Which peanut butter do you prefer?
Oh, yes. There are only a few things grosser than fake peanut butter. And I am throwing away all of the fake peanut butter in our home. (that’s right, Lisa… No Jif for you in October.) Sure the fake peanut butter may be smoother, but it’s grey compared to the real peanut butter. And, call me crazy, but I don’t mind seeing bits of, well, peanuts, in my peanut butter.
Let’s be honest here … have you ever looked at the ingredients in fake peanut butter?
And think of the repercussions of all of those fake ingredients … Don’t you think these over-the-top peanut butter cookies would taste better with, well, real peanut butter. Or what about chicken satay with a peanut sauce… Do you really want all of those chemicals mucking up your Thai food? Or… Peanut butter ice cream! The kind that doesn’t need cooking… Divine when created with real peanut butter!
Say it with me….
Real peanut butter is better!
Now, try saying it five times fast! Heehee.
Look, here’s the thing… Just buy real peanut butter, okay?
Need even more incentive?? How about a sure-to-be-delicious Peanut Butter & Fig Shortbread Bars. (*don’t mind the drool*)
What kind of real peanut butter creations can you come up with? I’d love to know.
{deena}
Sure, I may be obsessed with food, but I'm so much more than that. I'm a cook, a mom, a hostess and a list maker.
I would throw a little bit of REAL peanut butter into the Vitamix with frozen bananas and cacao nibs to make killer chocolate-peanut butter-banana ice cream in less than a minute. Mmmmm.
Sounds amazing. Must try!
But that Thai peanut sauce recipe clearly says to use natural unsweetened unprocessed peanut butter.
Jan – I know… I actually sought out recipes that you could use with real peanut butter. Sorry for any confusion.
I hadn’t really even realized there was ‘fake’ peanut butter but I’ve not really looked at the ingredient lists of most of them on the shelf. Gross! We either buy the organic stuff or grind our own at the store. I like knowing all of the ingredients in my food too!
Confession – I never made my own peanut butter before. I’m not taking the unprocessed pledge, but I do pledge to make homemade peanut butter at least once!
Thanks for sharing my ice cream (thats how I found you)
Carla – I’m glad you found me! Let me know how making your own PB goes… I tried making butter and it was a bit of a disaster. Oh well, can’t win them all.
[...] take out the core (I used a knife, but you could use a small cookie cutter) and top with real peanut butter. It can get a little messy {I learned that the hard way}, but the kids liked it and it was a nice [...]