Toasted Pepita Butter

I put off trying to make my own seed or nut butter for a long time, imagining that it'd be a messy, laborious process and therefore not worth the trouble.  But, I finally decided to try it when I was looking for more ways to eat pepitas (aka pumpkin seeds) because of their fabulous nutrition content (among other things, pepitas are high in zinc and amino acids, which are both especially important for vegetarians).

It turns out that making your own pepita butter is super easy.

Kind of ridiculously so.

I now feel silly buying a jar of nut or seed butter.

This method below works for other nuts and seeds-- not just pepitas.  You might just need to eliminate or adjust the amount of the oil (almond butter, for example, can be done with very little oil or none at all).  Also, with pepitas or other nuts or seeds, you can add a little salt and/or honey if you feel like a little flavor boost.  Or, throw in some chocolate chips-- I won't judge.

Here's how it's done:

Gather your ingredients.

Spread your pepitas on a pan.

Toast until some are browned and puffy.

Put in a food processor.  My cute little mini-chopper is perfect for this job.

Process, stopping to scrape the sides if you need to.

Go 'till you've got a smooth but crumbly paste.

Slowly drizzle in the oil with the machine running until you get a smooth butter.

Put it in a jar in the fridge for storage.

Put it on a rice cracker; put it on apples; put it on a sandwich with jelly.  Most importantly, put it in your face.  Your face will thank you.

I know, I know, the color is weird.  It has, at times, been called "booger butter" at our house.  You'll get over it once you taste it, I promise.

(Control-click or right click on recipe to print.)

Mocha Energy Smoothie

I'm trying, not entirely successfully, to wean myself off of afternoon coffee.  It was working for about three days until I broke down late yesterday afternoon and had a cappuccino.  "It'll be fine," I told myself, "just a minor setback... I'll start again tomorrow," I said.

Yeah, not so much. 

Flash forward to 2 am, when I'm laying exhausted but mysteriously wide awake on the couch watching Clueless on Amazon Prime.  I enjoyed the movie-- (Ah, nostalgia of youth!  And how cute are Alicia and Paul?!)-- and then Pretty In Pink after that (gotta love Molly Ringwald!).  What I did not enjoy was the 4 am bedtime as of 7:30 this morning.

In comes this smoothie.  It made up half of my hearty breakfast (paired with a Van's gluten free waffle topped with almond butter) and gave me the willpower to stay out of bed after less than four hours of sleep.

I'm just lucky my kids are at the age where they can entertain themselves for awhile while Mama sleeps in a bit.  And that it's still (but just barely) summer.  I have exactly 5 days left of summer to get this caffeine-sleep imbalance back to a balance, before I have to start getting up early and getting everyone ready for the 7:30 start time at school.  It's going to be brutal.  I'm going to need more of these smoothies...

This is one intense beverage-- chocolatey, filling, and it has a caffeine kick besides (although I've made a coffee-free version of this for my kids).  It's also perfect for that 2 pm, falling-asleep-at-your-desk slump (if you work outside the house, you could try bringing it in a thermos).  Just don't drink it too late in the day or you may end up immersed in a late night 80s/90s teen rom com marathon...

(Control-click or right click on recipe to print.)