Do It Yourself.

It turns out that a great way to get a bunch of hits on your blog is to title a post with something along the lines of, "The Space Needle Fell Down." I have this thing connected to my blog that tell me how many people look, the city they are from, how they came upon it, and at what time they visited. Turns out a bunch of people googled, something about the space needle falling over and I must have been one of the top search results! Pretty funny really. But maybe they liked what they saw and will come back?!


Don't call me a "Susie Homemaker".... That's my Mom :) who's name is Susan and happens to be the best Mom/Homemaker ever. But yesterday I had an Elisa Homemaker day.


Lets start with the recipes! A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to make some peanut butter! I've seen other bloggers doing it successfully and wanted to try my hand at it. Somehow I changed my mind and decided that I wanted to start with Almond butter... Might have something to do with my current obsession! I did a little bit of research and decided that I first wanted to start with a raw butter... meaning I didn't bake/roast add anything at all to it. Here is my experience:

Start with 2 cups raw almonds

Into the food processor you go!

WARNING! This is about to make the loudest noise you have EVER heard!
Talk about ear damage!

First scraping down...

Starting to look promising....

All that friction created a lot of heat.
The process took a long time, which I was prepared for.
But I still could have mixed it for a while longer.

I took out half and added 3/4 cup coconut!
Sounded like a good idea!
(not as good as chocolate.... but ya know...)

This was more the consistency I was looking for, but I still could have blended even this more.

Plain on the left. Coconut on the right. 

Super cute mason jars! :)

Next up is peanut butter! I think since it is a softer nut it wont take as much processing... Any add in suggestions? Maybe butterscotch?! I'm pretty convinced this is way cheaper than buying your own jar every time you run out.

I also made delicious banana bread from those spotty bananas! I have the best recipe for banana bread that has been past down from my Great-Grandma on my Dad's side. Who knows if she made it up, inherited it, or found it somewhere.... Either way it is amazing! BUT! not gluten free..... and since I made non-GF zucchini bread earlier this week I figured I had better make my Mamma something! I'm still a lot little nervous about baking sans gluten, but I'm getting more confident! Also, trying new recipes has opened my eyes to so many different ingredients that I never knew existed! 

Coconut oil is solid! Gotta heat it up to pour it out! 

Gluten Free Banana Bread C/O BabyCakes
(This recipe is from her blog... and is different from the one in the cookbook that I used. I had batter left over and some trouble cooking it all the way through so I plan on trying this one out next time... plus there would be way less fat in this one.)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour (gotta be Bob's, no sub)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup rice milk
2 tablespoons of good quality vanilla
1 1/4 cups mashed bananas

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Brush your loaf pan with oil and set aside.

In a medium bowl, measure in flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, cinnamon and whisk. Add oil, agave nectar, rice milk and vanilla and then mix again. Fold in bananas until nicely distributed.

Pour batter into loaf pan (only halway!) and set in the oven. After 20 minutes, check on the loaf and continue baking until it passes the toothpick test. Remove from oven and cool for 30 minutes.

My current obsession: Banana Slicer!
You may laugh and say, "Wow! lazy much!?"
But don't judge until you've tried it.
Also, when you eat as many bananas as I do you need this tool!
I use it everyday!

Into the oven they go! I used the leftover batter for a mini loaf for me!
Now I have slice up mini loaf of zucchini and banana bread in my freezer!
It helps me control myself!

The finished product! So yummy. Different from the dense loaf my Grannie's recipe makes, but delicious and much better for you.... and you can hardly taste any gluten-freeness.

Instead of writing the longest post in the known world, I've decided to skip my food shots from today and yesterday... This has only a little to do with the fact that Central Market pizza was involved in my dinner! Sometimes you just have to splurge! My friend Sharlene is leaving for a mission trip in Brazil that will last for 18 months an since in High school we basically subsisted on said pizza, its kind of a reminiscing thing.... totally justified :)

Clean start on food shots and eating plan tomorrow.... and I'll let you know how my doctor's appointment went.