healthy laps

It was a boring day in the food department over here!  And, a super dreary day in the weather department.  Luckily, the rain made me motivated today and I got a lot of work done.

Breakfast was the same blend of oats that I had yesterday, and lunch was leftover pizza from yesterday!  So, pretty boring!

I did take a few breaks from my work to do some fun things.

Break #1 – A trip to the new Fresh Market that opened up!

I have been waiting for this place to open up, but I have to say that I was not super impressed.  The produce department was very small and very expensive!  It seemed like the main parts of the store were the meat counters, and the prepared food counters.  It was fun to check it out though.  They had a small bulk foods aisle with nuts and trail mixes.

I picked up some things I haven’t seen or tried before – Okra Chips!

And, fresh pressed Cashew Butter!

Even though we ended up going to another grocery store to buy all of our produce for the week, the Fresh Market was still a fun place to check out!  I would definitely go back there for specialty items.

Break #2 – A trip to the gym!

I was in need of a good sweat session today after spending the majority of the day working!  So, I jumped on the stepmill for 40 minutes, then did an easy 35 minutes on the treadmill.  All while watching a Lifetime movie!  So cheesy, yet so addicting and fun. 🙂  I love Lifetime!

Break #3 – Nut Butter Craziness!

I have an ongoing list of fun treats and meals that I want to make.  I have had a few nut butters on my list for awhile, but after seeing Jessica’s Pistachio Coconut Butter post this week, I knew that I needed to make these today!  So, I broke out my nuts and food processor and got started.

First up, Pistachio Coconut Butter.

I doubled her recipe and used 1 cup of pistachios and 6 tablespoons of coconut.

All thrown into the food processor and blended until smooth!  She adds maple syrup, coconut oil and vanilla too which I threw in towards the end of the blending.

It took awhile, but I was psyched when I saw this!

Pistachio butter!!!  It worked!  This is sweet and salty, with an awesome coconutty flavor – yum!

Next up, Chocolate Cherry Almond Butter!

Another one of Jessica’s masterpieces.  If you haven’t seen her blog before, definitely check it out here.  She has amazing recipes!!

I basically followed her recipe, except I omitted the canola oil and salt.  Instead, I doubled up on the dried unsweetened cherries and added 1 tbsp of maple syrup.

I literally threw the almonds, cherries and raw cacao powder into the blender and turned it on.

This took about 10 minutes of solid blending (with me scraping down the sides a few times, and adding the maple syrup) to get a buttery consistency.

This almond butter has the perfect amount of sweetness from the cherries and maple syrup.  This will be delicious on toast or as an AB&J sandwich!

And, finally Chunky Salted Sunflower Seed Butter!

This has popped up in stores everywhere, so I have been wanting to give it a try.  I put 1 cup of raw unsalted sunflower seeds into the food processor with 1 tsp of salt.

I turned it on, and just let it spin for about 10 minutes.  It came out very creamy!  Then, I stirred in about 1/8 cup of raw sunflower seeds because I wanted this to be chunky.  YUM – crushed sunflower seeds are delicious!  Very nutty tasting…I guess I would just use this in place of peanut butter.

My 3 nut butters were a huge success!  They all came out smooth and creamy, but definitely a different consistency than what you would buy in a store.  It just screams homemade when you taste it, and I love that!

Then, I had a photo shoot, of course.

The pistachio coconut butter is definitely the winner in my book!  It is sweet and salty, and the pistachios and coconut surprisingly compliment each other very well.

Making your own nut butters is such a great thing to do.  It will save you a ton of money, especially if you like the specialty nut butters like I do.  A jar of organic almond butter can run you $10-$12 these days!  And, pistachio butter – forget it!  Only specialty shops sell it, and it is pricey.  So, why not make your own?!  All you need is a food processor of very high speed blender (like a Vita-Mix) and the nuts of your choice.  They can be raw, roasted, with salt, without salt – basically, whatever you want.  And, the mix-ins are endless.  Check out Trader Joe’s for a huge nut selection for cheap!

I eat a lot of nut butter, but homemade won’t last as long because there are no preservatives, so I like to make mine in small batches.  Plus, then I can change up my flavors more often!

Filed under: Recipes, Running Laps | Tagged: Fresh Market, nut butter, Running Laps |