Four Pounds I Won't Be Toting Across Borders Anymore

For years, when people would ask me if there was anything they could bring back for me from the US, I was ready with an answer--peanut butter.

Peanut butter is sold here:  creamy, chunky, and natural.  But almost always in teeny-tiny containers for prices larger than I cared to pay.  Moving to the north made a tremendous difference, the jar sizes are a good deal bigger, but still . . . I had already conditioned myself into importing my peanut butter.

However, when we went to Texas for Christmas, I failed to realize that we were almost out of peanut butter.  So it never crossed my mind on our stockpiling trip to HEB to get that 4-pound jar which would see us through another year.

What to do?  Break down and buy the expensive Mexican stuff?  Nah . . .

See, after every party we attended over the Christmas season, we were sent home with multiple goodie bags.  Of course they're always filled with candy, but to plump up the size of the bag (and maybe to provide some nutritional value?), everyone adds a generous handful (or three) of peanuts.  After February 2ed we found ourselves sitting pretty on a lot of non-salted peanuts.

Do you eat non-salted peanuts?  Neither do we.  (But if you do, good for you!)

Do you see where this is going?  No peanut butter . . . lots of peanuts on hand . . .

Blended without oil

Yep, Clara and I spent a chunk of an afternoon shelling peanuts (Joey tried hard to help).  Then we popped them in the blender, added a little oil and salt, and after plenty of scraping we had peanut butter!

Homeade, sugar-free, natural peanut butter!  Woo-hoo!

While I didn't measure exactly how many peanuts I had, my rough estimates are:
       1 cup shelled peanuts
       1 tablespoon peanut oil (we tried vegetable oil the first time.  Unsurprisingly, it wasn't that good.  I wonder what coconut oil would make it taste like?)
        1/4 tsp-1/2 tsp salt

        Throw it all together in the blender.  Scrape the sides down then the blender is just whirring on nothing (fairly frequently).

Blending with oil (I think I added a wee bit too much)

         The hardest part is shelling the peanuts.  But if you've got a willing 4-year-old who just wants to spend some quality time with you, this definitely counts as quality time.

And yes, peanuts in their shells are sold in massive amounts quite affordable.  We will be doing this again.  And not just because I'm stingy. (Really, I'm not.  Or, I try not to be.)  Just like with the homemade yogurt experiment, I just wanted to try it out, just to see if I could.  After it turns out, I'm kind of like Tom Hanks's character in Castaway when he first lit a fire.  "I've made peanut butter!!!  PEANUT BUTTER!!!"

But then I continue to make the yogurt and peanut butter from scratch because they just taste so much better than the store-bought kind.  And I know exactly what is in them.

Did I tell you that it tastes better?

Final product--on an Oreo knockoff.  Mmmm.

So, if you're like me and balk at the price of natural peanut butter (or, live in Mexico and balk at the price of peanut butter in general), I encourage you to make it yourself.  It's beyond easy.