So here for the first ever Purelicious recipe post (don’t you just love firsts?) I’m actually going to give you all a 2-for-1 special! Woohoo! Basically these are two of the easiest recipes ever, but they really help encompass my whole philosophy of how simple, pure foods can be super easy and super delicious. I also love these two recipes in particular because they both fit ALL of my healthy eating criteria (see note below).
The first half of this recipe is one of my favorite money saving tricks. I have several of these btw, so stay tuned! Being a fresh college grad in an entry level job living in one of the most expensive cities in the world, I always try to be crafty about pinching pennies. The great thing about eating simple and pure foods is that you can really make most of them yourself – you don’t need to buy a lot of over-packaged and over-processed crapola that is usually also over-priced. However, there are a few healthy and pure treats that require special equipment to make that I just can’t afford, or that take a little more time and effort than they are worth, after all the prepping, cleaning, etc etc (it’s a tough balance, being broke and being lazy…).
One such item is almond butter. I loveeeeeeeeeeeee almond butter. Obsessed. I’ll talk a little more about why almond butter is better than peanut butter in my upcoming “Kitchen Swaps” post (this will be a good one!), but for now let me just say it is superior in every way. Especially when using this trick. Now, almond butter should be simple enough to make: you’re supposed to just grind almonds in a food processor for 10-15 minutes, and they turn into buttah right before your very eyes! I’ve tried this before, and I’ve gotten very, very close, but I don’t know whether it is my food processor or if I am just too impatient, but I can never seem to make it to the final “frontier” of a spreadable butter. I just get to the point of a thicker paste, which is delicious, but when I try to spread it on something it crumbles apart. I gave up.
Enter Trader Joe’s raw unsalted almond butter. At $4.99 for a 16 oz jar, it is LITERALLY the exact same price as taking a $5 1-lb bag of raw almonds (this price is also the TJ’s price) and grinding them myself, MINUS all the cleaning and effort. So all in all, a great find. The only issue being, it is very bland. Which should of course be expected from plain, unsalted almond butter. So here is my first trick on how to take something cheap and boring and make it fancy pants. At places like Whole Foods, you can buy 16 oz jars of fancy flavored almond butters for easily $10 and up. Not this girl. I make my own artisan almond butter, and it couldn’t be easier! Won’t you join me?
One quick note about recipes before we get started: My basic nutritional premise is to try to incorporate raw and/or vegan and/or gluten-free and/or well-combined foods into my diet as much as possible. Therefore, all my recipes will be tagged and coded for these criteria. So for any readers out there who strictly follow any of these principles, you can easily identify which of my recipes will work for you, and sort by them. Also, for all my calorie-counters out there, I will include nutritional information as well. Please note though that these criteria and nutrition facts will be based on whatever specific ingredients I am using, and if you are using different brands or substituting any of the ingredients, your facts will be different, and your results may no longer fit one of the criteria, depending what you are substituting. Feel free to ask me any questions you ever have on how certain substitutions will affect your finished product and I will try to give you the best possible answer I can!
That is all. Onto the yum!
Hilary’s Artisan Almond Butter
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup (approx. 6 oz) Raw, Unsalted Almond Butter
- 1 tablespoon Agave nectar (you can get a raw variety if you so desire)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp salt
Steps:
Stir.
Literally.
That’s the entire recipe. And your result is a freaking delicious, slighty sweet and slightly cinnamon-y almond spread. Perfect for spreading on bananas or toast, mixing into oatmeal, blending into smoothies, making some AB&D sandwiches (see below) or anything else your little heart can imagine to do with it. You might be wondering why I only used 6 oz of my plain butter and not the whole jar. I do this just because I like to also have some plain on hand at all times, because I will often use it in recipes that are going to be taking on other flavors. So in my fridge I always have some plain, and some homemade artisan. I keep my homemade artisan variety in a handy recycled jam jar from a while back, which is quite convenient. But, pretty much any container with a lid will do, even just a regular tupperware. Whatever you have around. Recycling is super important though, so try to do so whenever possible!
So now onto recipe #2, which is one of my fave ways to enjoy some almond butter. This hardly can count as a recipe cuz it is so freaking easy, but hence why this blog post is a 2-for-1. This is a simplified, healthified twist on the classic childhood favorite, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Mmmm, salty PB and sweet mushy jam, what could be better? Well peeps, I think I’ve got a close competitor. These little nom noms make a perfect snack or dessert. My roomie is obsessed with these, and demands I make them every night (what do I look like Kels, your personal chef?? JK, we both know I love to do it). They are also raw and well-combined to boot, which are things the PB&J cannot say for itself. Sorry, PB&J! They are fairly calorie-dense though, so don’t go too crazy if you are watching your waist-line. Behold…
The AB&D (Almond Butter & Datey) Sandwich
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp “Hilary’s Artisan Almond Butter”
- 2 large Medjool dates, pitted and halved
Steps:
Spread 1 tbsp AB on 1/2 a D, then put the other 1/2 D on the top. Nom nom.
Donezo.
So there you have it! Two super simple, super pure, and super delicious starter recipes. Please do give them a try, and let me know what you think!
xoxo
Hilary
PS - I know some of you may be slightly confused as to what I mean by “well-combined” foods. I plan to have a post with more details on this sometime in the near future. As just a super general overview, food-combining principles refer to only eating like-digested foods together within meals. This is supposed to be another tactic for making your body’s digestive process as easy and quick as possible. Some people like to follow all of the rules and specifics on combining to a T – I have more fuzzy edges on this theory as I’ve found it doesn’t make a huge amount of difference to me personally, but I still try to follow it, at least loosely, whenever I can. More to come on this, I promise! 
Nutritional Facts
Hilary’s Artisan Almond Butter- Svg Size: 1 tbsp., Svgs per Recipe: 12, Calories: 100, Ttl Fat: 8.5g, Sat. Fat: 0.5g, Carbs: 4.3g, Fiber: 1.5g, Sugar: 2.3g, Protein: 4g
AB&D Sandwich- Svg Size: 1 sandwich, Svgs per Recipe: 2, Calories: 154, Ttl Fat: 8.5g, Sat. Fat: 0.5g, Carbs: 19.5g, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 15.5g, Protein: 4.2g
*Please Note* All calorie and nutritional information is approximate and based on the exact ingredients I used. Any changes or substitutions to the recipe will result in changes to nutritional information. As measurements and nutrients vary from ingredient to ingredient, the exact accuracy of this data cannot be guaranteed.
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