Natural Peanut Butter

They say smell is one of the greatest ties to a memory.  The smell of peppermint makes me think of my mom, everytime I smell a Werther's Original I think of a family friend of my parent's, and peanut butter makes me think of my husband.  His favorite food is peanut butter. Steak and chicken are a close second...

He goes through a jar of Skippy Natural every 10-14 days.  At about $7/jar that gets to be a pretty expensive food.

Did you know peanut butter has no butter in it at all?  The butter-like texture comes from the oils within the peanut being broken down.  With that in mind, I pulled out my tiny food chopper, a canister of unsalted peanuts and conducted an experiement. 

My little chopper takes a while.  And I have to hold down the button the whole time.  Some people with their fancy food processors can be done a lot faster than 8-10 minutes.  (Do you sense my food processor envy?)  My first batch needed some salt.  I determined with my second batch I salted it too much.  Then I just started buying the salted, dry roasted peanuts to make the peanut butter with and found this to be so much easier!
                                                

Keep crushing!

We're getting there!!

Ta-Da!!!!!   And you've only used about 75 cents worth of peanuts and made 8oz of natural peanut butter.  A 2 tablespoon serving is the same as 1 oz of peanuts so check the back of your canister for nutritional info. This is such a fun thing to do with kids.  =)

(Or maybe it's just fun to make them try this "experiment" while you rest for a few minutes!!  I won't tell!)

You can also add some cinnamon & sugar.  I like making the No-Bake Naturals with this kind of peanut butter for a little extra flavor!