Vanilla-Cinnamon Almond Butter

Homemade nut butters are so easy and you can flavor them however you like! I love making my own food, even almond butter, because then I know EXACTLY what goes into it (yes, sometimes I’m even skeptical of the organic, raw labels in grocery stores). This recipe adds a little sweetness to almond butter to make it the perfect treat (or, ya know, part of your daily meal plan 😉 ).

I’ll be posting a full LDI update in the upcoming weeks so be on the lookout for that. In the meantime things have been a bit up and down. I had about 3 VERY rough weeks both physically and emotionally. I hadn’t changed anything treatment wise so I don’t know if it was the weather, a flare, or some weird moon cycle but I felt absolutely miserable. I was in horrible pain on many days (widespread body pain which I really never deal with), severe headaches (which I’m still dealing with), horrible cravings for non-lyme diet approved foods (that, yes, I gave into and we all know that didn’t help my symptoms), and pretty bad anxiety and depression. I’m not afraid to admit it, I deal with some pretty bad mood swings associated with Lyme and any little thing can set me off sometimes (I don’t even mean to go off!)… does anyone else deal with this? I also go in and out of a depression and generally deal with bad anxiety 24/7 (that one is just part of my personality!) but this past month was some of the worst it has been in the last 6 months. Hoping the worst has passed for now and I do get to see my doctor in two weeks.

Anyway, on to the good stuff.

IMG_9044

Vanilla-Cinnamon Almond Butter

Ingredients:

3 cups organic, raw sprouted almonds (this is what I used but you can use roasted or raw or whatever works for you)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/8-1/4 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt

Place the almonds into a food processor and turn it on. Let it run (it will be VERY loud at first) until the almonds are broken down. Before it becomes creamy, it will form this ball that just whirls around inside the processor, but don’t worry that will pass! As soon as the ball passes and it starts to become creamy, pause the processor and add in the vanilla, salt, and cinnamon. Continue to process until nice and smooth and it looks like the below picture.

Image-1

Scoop out and store in a glass container… or do it the right way and eat spoonfuls of it straight out of the food processor praying that there will be some left for tomorrow. Yes, I have an almond butter addiction. We don’t need to discuss it.

Jicama Fotato Salad (Raw, Paleo)

Image

When I was in Santa Fe I had this amazing jicama fake potato salad at one of the raw food bars we went to. I wanted to re-create it but not exactly. I’m NOT a mayo fan plus I’m not doing eggs right now so I wanted to make a different type of “sauce” per-se for a jicama salad. I use mustard in this recipe so it does have a little bit of a different kick then potato salad but I like it :). This salad is very light and refreshing so it makes for a great side dish to classic summer dishes. It makes me happy because I think of warm weather when I eat it. Perfect for this sneaking up spring weather (yay!).

Jicama Fotato Salad

Ingredients:

1 small-medium jicama

4 stalks of celery

2 tablespoons of raw tahini

2 tsp. stoneground mustard

2 tablespoons of olive oil

juice of 1 small lemon

2 pinches of salt

1/2 tsp. cumin

Chop up the jicama into cubes and place in a bowl. Slice up the celery stalks into thin bites and mix with the jicama. Mix all the remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Pour the dressing over the jicama/celery and mix thoroughly.

Image

Image

Just store in the fridge. I find that when cooled in the fridge, it mutes the dressing taste a bit so feel free to add more mustard to the dressing when you make it (even though it may taste very mustard-y at that time). Simple and yummy. Get on it!