chunky peanut butter, indeed

Do you make your own peanut butter? I used to, but Hub likes Jif better (new research *may* show that they're not so health-conscious, but I'll worry about that later).

I haven't made any in a while, but recently we ran out and I had some peanuts that no one was eating so I figured I'd whip some up.

I've always done it in the blender. Takes a while, but works fine. This time, not so much.

I added honey, as usual. Nope. So I added a little oil (ick). Still crumbly.

Sigh. Throw out the whole batch? Never! Then we still wouldn't have any peanut butter...

Solution: mix chunky peanut butter with jelly first, then spread.

Voila. I feel like a genius.

beans!

If you know me at all, you know I don't eat beans. Green beans, yes. Waxed beans, yes. But kidney, black, garbanzo, etc...not so much. Like ever. And yet...here's the dinner I came up with for tonight.

The chicken was frozen and would've taken forever to thaw. And the hamburger was still in log form. Again, forever. And I watched a documentary recently ("Forks Over Knives" on Netflix) talk king about a plant-based diet.

Not lose-weight-diet, but way-of-eating-diet.

I like steak, and bacon, and sausage... I'm still a carnivore. But my family has been moving in a real-food direction over the last year or so, and you can't get away from the fact that beans, too, have protein.

And they're craaaaazy cheaper than meat. So I pulled up my big girl boots and gave it a shot.

Macaroni noodles, black beans, leftover Walmart pasta sauce (just about the most pathetic pasta sauce I've ever seen, but I was looking for cheap at the time), and leftover frozen peas and carrots.

Obviously there's a lot of room for improvement in that list, but it's a(nother) start.

I'll let you know how it turned out...and more importantly, how the 3-, 6-, and 9-year holds liked it. (Truthfully, it's doubtful they'll eat the beans. C'est la vie.)

Oh, I made cornbread, too. Yum.