$2.50 Chocolate-Coconut Peanut Butter

When I first came upon Ashley's nut butter recipes, I fell in love with making peanut butter at home. But I've been lazy during my pregnancy -- often dropping up to $6 on store-bought varieties. (And I HATE over-spending on grocery items.)

So, I bought some dry-roasted peanuts and blended them up with chocolate. I proceeded to eat it -- ALL of it -- almost immediately, which isn't a pregnancy thing. It's just a ME thing. I have no control with anything chocolate-peanut butter. In fact, Stephen and I were talking about our Halloween candy habits as kids -- and I divulged how I would eat each and every Reece's peanut butter cup immediately upon returning home from trick-or-treating.

What can I say? The stomach likes what it likes.

What did I do the minute I got home this evening? That's right -- I made MORE peanut butter to fill the empty jar hole in my heart. Hopefully I can contain myself better this time around and make it last.

If not, I have four more cups of peanuts in our pantry.


$2.50 CHOCOLATE-COCONUT PEANUT BUTTER

What you'll need . . .

• 2 cups dry roasted peanuts (they have to be dry roasted or they won't turn into PB)
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips (mini ones work best, but see below)
• 1 to 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil (optional, but highly recommended)

Method . . .

1. Toss peanuts and 1 teaspoon of salt in your food processor and blend until they turn into peanut butter. Really, it WILL happen. You may need to scrape down the sides a bit to make sure all peanuts get blended evenly . . . but just be patient. It takes about 2-3 minutes.
2. Toss in the coconut oil and chocolate. I wrote that mini-chocolate chips work best because they quickly melt into the peanut butter. If you are using larger chips . . . you may wish to pulse them before you start to make them smaller. I used semi-sweet chips -- not vegan ones. But you can use whatever kind you like.
3. Keep blending until smooth and uniform. You may wish to add more salt, depending on your tastes. I love salt. So, I added more.

Then store in a sealed jar (I used a pint glass jar topped with some plastic wrap held by that metal screw top). I don't know technically how long the peanut butter stays "good" because it never lasts me more than a few days. I imagine at least a week or two. Also, I arrived at the $2.50 cost because about 4 cups of peanuts costs less than $4.00 at our Wegmans. So, 2 cups: $2.00. The other ingredients are used in such small amounts . . . it's an educated guess-timate.

Still, way better than dropping over double that. Cheap(er), custom, drippy goodness . . .


Stephen enjoys his on apple slices. I eat it straight off the spoon. I bet it'd be great in baking, too!


Today on (never home)maker, baby! I wrote all about week 36 of my pregnancy. Wild. 4-ish weeks to go. And in my belly shots, you can totally see where Baby A likes to hang out in my uterus. TMI? Maybe. There's no shame at this point.

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