One-Ingredient No-Stir Peanut Butter

My family loves peanut butter.  One of the things we have switched in our quest to eat healthier real foods has been to natural peanut butter.  The main downside to the natural peanut butter you buy in jars is that it separates and then you have to stir it and refrigerate it.  My biggest complaint has been that once refrigerated it can be very hard to spread.  Also to get a good natural, organic peanut butter it was getting quite pricey for us because of how much we go through.  We decided to try to make our own and experimented with different techniques and ingredients.  We tried our meat grinder which eventually led us to the food processor.  One of the great things we learned was that we don't need to add any oil to make this delicious peanut butter.  But by far the best thing was that this peanut butter is creamy, spreadable, and doesn't have to be stirred!  I promise you won't want to buy peanut butter anymore, it's so simple.

Homemade Chicken Stock

This week is one of those crazy weeks so I tried to keep our dinners as easy as possible.  One of my favorite new recipes is the best whole chicken in a crockpot that I found over at 100 Days of Real Food. (If you can't tell already, I'm obsessed with that website.)  The chicken is so delicious and literally falls off the bones.  It's nice having that roasted chicken dinner without turning the oven on, especially as the weather is getting warmer.  And let me tell you this is very kid-friendly.  I think my two little ones would eat the whole chicken if I let them have it.  One of my favorite parts about cooking the chicken in the crockpot is that it makes it so easy to make some homemade chicken stock.  It makes about 4 quarts of chicken stock so it's a big money saver vs. the boxes in the store and it is so much tastier.  I'm going to use the leftover chicken to make some chicken enchiladas again because the family loved them so much last time.  The leftover stock will get used for some Turkey Chili I will be making and then I will still have some left over in the freezer.  I really feel this is a fool-proof recipe for stock and you don't have to tend to it because it can just sit all day or overnight in the crockpot.

Lentil and Sausage Soup

Occasionally I have found myself with a bag of lentils in my pantry with no idea what to do with them. It is one ingredient that I've seen in use on TV and in magazines more and more in the last few years, but it is one that I never really grew up with. and I've never really known what to do with them. So, the lentils sit in the pantry until I end up using them for some sort of science or art lesson for my oldest son (he's home schooled.)

Well, just the other day I saw the lentils in the store when shopping for dried beans and I decided that I would finally do something with them. I picked up a bag and actually noticed a recipe on the back for a soup with kielbasa that sounded pretty good. With food it never hurts to try something new, right? It was really good! My daughter (who's not quite 2) LOVED it! She was picking up every last little lentil from her bowl and tray and shoving it in her mouth. Even when she was done and her dishes were practically licked clean, she didn't want to give up her bowl to the dishwasher. So, as a healthy, tasty family-friendly meal, it was definitely a success.