Today I submitted a picture for cute little thang Katelyn's blog Mission: I Feel Pretty movement.
I certainly don't feel pretty all the time, but I love the idea of celebrating inner and outer beauty.
Too bad I've only got the outer thing going on.
Just kidding ;-).
So today I got off work uber-early, so I did what I do best, waste time , create a new recipe.
I love me some nut butters (thus the birth of the "Nutty"- at least partly), but some of the atypical ones are too expensive for my taste. Helloooo $12.00 for coconut butter? $8.00 for cashew butter? What the eff?
So I hopped on making my own version of the coveted cashew butter:
Maple Chai Spiced Cashew Butter
With the spicy hint of cardamom and the sweet touch of maple syrup- this nut butter is off the hook.
You can slather it on toast, or eat it straight from the jar as I did. Only 5 ingredients!
Ingredients
3 cups cashew pieces (I used TJ's 50% salted)
2 TBSP sugar free maple syrup
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 TBSP vanilla agave (or 1 tsp vanilla)
Directions
1. Pour 3 cups of cashew pieces into a blender or food processor (I used my Ninja Master Food processor- it's magical).
2. Add spices and syrup.
3. Pulse for ~10 mins or until butter is smooth, stopping frequently to scrape down the sides.
4. Feel free to play around with the flavors. Other flavor ideas:
Cinnamon raisin- 1 tsp cinnamon, vanilla, mix in raisins at the end
Chocolate cashew- omit cardamom, add 1 TBSP cocoa powder
White chocolate cherry- add 2 TBSP of melted white chocolate, mix in dried cherries at the end.
Key ingredient:
Spicy cardamom from the bulk bin at the local co-op. Warning: do not smell the spices in the bulk bins- this went straight up my nose and caused an immediate headache. Whoa there eager beaver...
This cashew butter is so good- I definitely snuck a ::ahem:: few spoonfuls while scraping down the sides of the food processor. I'm already dreaming up coconut butter recipes. TRUTH: I've never actually had coconut butter(!). That's heresy in the healthy blog word I hear...
Have you ever made your own nut butter? And tell me how good coconut butter is so I can go and make some!