Day four of December, and that scary C word is everywhere I look!
No, unfortunately I'm not talking about Christmas...(Thats a lovely word!) no no, I'm talking about CUT....yes, Hair CUT to be exact...
2 nights ago, my darling dearest nearly 4 year old angel faced baby girl...CUT HALF HER HAIR OFF!!!!
Twas, long and blond with the most divine natural curls at the ends. The bearer of constant compliments wherever we went. My absolute pride and joy!!!

You see, my own hair and I, do not see eye to eye, it's thin, it's dry, it's not quite straight and not quite curly, it frizzes at the slightest drop of moisture in the air and I cant grow it any longer than just below my shoulders! That's ok though, I came to accept this a long time ago, and since Alia's hair is long and silky and basically perfect in every way imaginable, I lived vicariously through her!

Until 2 nights ago...when she did this...

 

This is the pile of hair we found hiding behind the door...complete with hair tie still tangled in it.

*Sigh* So off we went to the hairdresser in the morning to have it salvaged as best as possible...

Now my sweet darling dearest nearly 4 year old angel faced baby girl, well, her halo has slipped just slightly, and now although still cute...looks like this. Very sad Mummy right here! Even Daddy is upset!

Anyway, after going on and on and on about it for the past 48 hours I have promised her that the matter is closed and we wont give her anymore grief about it...so onto a new subject

Home made Peanut Butter! And what could be better than home made peanut butter??

Well, a Banana Choc, Peanut Butter Smoothie of course!!!
Full of protein and fibre, fills you up...and best of all, tastes naughty but is totally nice to the waistline!
But we will get to that tomorrow...

First off lets talk about how I made some peanut butter this morning...why didn't I just buy a jar at the shop and save all the faffing about, you ask?

Because I like natural peanut butter, no salt, no sugar, no stabilisers and god knows what other nasty chemicals they put into it at the shop.

"But they sell the natural stuff at the shop" I still hear you shriek...

Yes, that's true, and if you cant be bothered making your own...or haven't got a food processor, then I urge you, buy the natural store bought one. So much better for you. 

HOWEVER, regular peanut butter ranges in price from about $2-$5 for a standard 400g jar...cheap and nasty...Natural peanut butter (and I'm not even talking organic here, just natural stuff with no nasty additives) usually starts at $6 (if you're lucky) and just goes up from there for a 380g jar. Sometimes I see it on special for $5.99...ooooh big savings!! haha ,,,It was my clever mother who put the idea in my head to just start making it myself...love you mum!

So to put it into perspective, last night I bought a 400g bag of peanuts for $3.99 (roasted, but not salted...these are in the baking section, I'm not talking about the not so healthy bags of roasted snacking peanuts from the snackfood isle).  You can just buy raw ones and roast them yourself if you want to, but I wanted a quick fix of peanut butter and couldnt bear to wait a whole 15 minutes to let them get all roasty!!! (which is by the way how long you'd need to roast em up if you were doing it yourself.)
Try to find "Hi oleic peanuts"* if you can, I found some from the Tasti brand.
And a 500ml bottle of peanut oil for $4.99 (in case you were wondering, that works out to 14c per Tbsp) ...you only need one Tbsp of peanut oil per batch so this will make you heaps and heaps and heaps of peanut butter (33.814 batches if you wanna get exact!)

So for the bag of peanuts and the Tbsp of oil, it will cost you $4.13 for about 400g (mine didnt make this much cause I kept eating it....my bad lol) of peanut butter ! And even less if you get the peanuts on special or from the bulk bins.
You can of course add a touch of salt or honey if you want to adjust the mix more to your taste.

So I threw that bag of peanuts into a hot fry pan for literally a minute, stirring gently the whole time...we don't want them to burn, we just want them to warm through a wee bit to get their natural oils going.
When warmed, throw them all in the food processor on high speed.
Now...have patience...I learnt this the hard way and ended up making 2 batches because the first one I did wrong.
The peanuts will turn into crumbs...and appear to stay that way, not doing anything else for *what felt like* ages. Push through the temptation to add the peanut oil at this stage and just wait a couple more minutes...you will see the consistency start to change and hear the thump thump noise the processor starts to make when a thick ball starts to form. That's when you need to add the oil to thin it down a bit. Now you can actually leave it without the oil and you get this very thick, very smooth, glossy peanut "paste" I would be inclined to call it. would be epic in some kind of clean eating peanut butter cheesecake!
Or if you want it more spreadable throw in that oil and let it thin down a wee bit.

The voila, you have delicious home made natural peanut butter with no nasty additives! 

And aside from that, its a pretty novel feeling when you have people staying, and in the morning you can whip out the jar and be all, home made peanut butter on your toast??
(totally trying home made hazelnut spread next!!) Think I'll leave the marmite and honey to the experts though.

Jam is a whole different ball game, if you want a healthy alternative to jam and you like Chia seeds, try this baby out

http://www.losebabyweight.com.au/chia-berry-jam-recipe/

*Hi oleic peanuts have a fatty acid combination similar to olive oil, ie with more monounsaturated fatty acid. This composition allows for a longer shelf life as well as providing health benefits for consumers because of their amazing nutritional benefits such as:

• Healthy fats 

• Antioxidants, e.g. Vitamins and Minerals 

• Good protein source 

• Phytochemicals 

• Beta-sitosterol 

• Low Glycaemic Index 

• Low in Sodium 

• Fibre 

• Cholesterol free 

• Resveratrol 

Peanut research has identified eating 5 or more servings (25 grams) a week can: 

• Prevent Type II Diabetes 

• Decrease the risk of Cardiovascular disease 

• Assist in lowering Cholesterol 

• Assist in weight loss, via hunger suppression 

• Protection against Alzheimer disease 

• Lower Total and LDL Cholesterol 

This info is from the 100% Nutz website...so if you're going to buy the natural peanut butter from the supermarket, I would personally recommend you buy this brand.

 http://www.100percentnutz.com/what-is-a-hi-oleic-peanut-anyway/

*phew* that post only took about 10 thousand attempts, in between nappy changes, feeds (baby and miss bobcut...ok ok sorry I know, I said I'd stop going on about the hair!) and finding things to entertain Alia with! I'm Exhausted, can't wait for hubster to get home!
So for now, get au naturel and stay beautiful! x