I'm seriously starting to wonder if Ashley (from the ever-so wonderful
Edible Perspective) and I were separated at birth. I drool over her tasty creations every single day. And I was even lucky enough to win her recent giveaway, which featured her own homemade goodies as the prize. So, imagine me sitting around one lazy Saturday afternoon. Nothing special going on, really. And then Stephen enters the room from outside toting a huge box and asks: "Uhhh, what did you order now?"
"Nothing," I say, somewhat believing it wasn't some kind of secret goodie purchase. Somewhat frantically trying to figure out when I last whipped out my credit card.
"It's from someone named Ashley . . . " he says.
OMG! Immediately I realized that my prize had arrived. I grabbed a knife to rip through the tape and was immediately astounded at the wealth of good eats inside. Homemade, vegan everything! Chocolate-coconut peanut butter. Maple-almond cinnamon butter. Graham crackers. CHOCOLATE-covered graham crackers. Granola. Granola bars of all flavors.
I mean, these items serve as a mere sample of my loot:
Yup -- I even threw some of the granola into a sweet potato-cinnamon breakfast mash this morning. It was delicious! If you haven't checked out
Edible Perspective yet, you're missing out. Ashley is hilarious. She's endlessly creative in the kitchen. And she eats amazing foods all the time.
Now, nothing tops this girl's nut butter creations. I downed the entire spice jar full of the almond-cinnamon mix yesterday morning. And I'm trying desperately not to polish off the coconut-chocolate-peanut butter. I wish that could last forever! But these treats got me thinking about trying to make some of my own. Just to try it out. My first attempt was last night . . . with the only nuts I had around the kitchen: walnuts.
Result? It's a fine-tasting spread -- though nothing quite as impressive as Ashley's . . . however, it's a definite start in the right direction. Ashley's idea to store nut butters in old spice containers is a great one, too :)
What you'll need . . . (for a small, test-it-out batch)
- 1 cup raw walnuts
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 4 to 6 tablespoons coconut flakes
- 1 tablespoon raw sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Method . . .
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spread out walnuts on a cookie sheet and place in the oven for about 10 minutes . . . until roasted. (You'll smell them.)
- Then let cool for 10 minutes and transfer to a food processor and process until smooth. They turn into a butter almost immediately.
- Add in all the remaining ingredients and continue processing until smooth (I left ours a little chunky with the coconut flakes still in tact).
And speaking of giveaways . . . don't forget to enter our
giveaway! A $50 shopping spree at iHerb.com is up for grabs. Enter yourself
now!
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