As I have continually expressed, I have a long history of weird food behaviour and food obsessions. Yet there has never been an obsession greater than my affinity with peanut butter. There have many occasions where I have eaten half a jar, in some crazed frenzy, and thought well, that’s dinner taken care of. This behaviour is far from ideal, and it can be traced right back to my childhood. I still remember at 8 years old, we had an intruder in the house whilst my mother and I lay sleeping. The following morning when filing the police report we were asked if we noticed anything unusual after the incident. Cunning as I was, I decided to use this opportunity to my advantage. I told the police officer that something very strange happened indeed, the burglar ate all of our peanut butter and placed the empty jar in the fridge! The police officer (and my mother) played along, labelling the criminal as the Peanut Butter Bandit. And I honestly believed I got away with it. These peanut butter binges still prevail in my life. So much so that I have actually given myself a total ban, because I just cannot seem to control myself. After almost a month, that psychotic little part of my brain was having some serious withdrawals. Instead of succumbing to the craving I decided to be proactive and make myself some almond butter instead. I used my fancy mandolin that I picked up in Japan to slice paper thin apple rounds, and constructed little apple/almond butter ‘sandwiches’. I managed to polish off the whole jar, and thought to myself, well that’s dinner taken care of.
APPLE SLICES WITH CINNAMON ALMOND BUTTER
(vegan, gluten free, paleo, raw)
- 1 cup almonds
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Place the almonds and coconut oil in a heavy duty food processor, and blitz until smooth. You may need to scrape the sides down a few times between mixes.
- Add the cinnamon and maple and blitz again, until combined.
- Using a mandolin, thinly slice an apple into rounds.
- To serve, place a spoonful of almond butter between 2 slices of apple.
Oh Jade. Who among us hasn’t lied to the police before? 😉 I love that you’re obsessed with peanut butter. I also love the stuff. I have a similar problem with Nutella. I can’t really have it in the house, or else I will eat some on toast, then go back for a spoon straight from the jar, then another, then another, and a day later Steve asks ‘Didn’t we just buy a new jar yesterday? What happened?’
I also used to just buy a packet of those digestive biscuits for lunch when I was in my early 20s. ‘Oh well, that’s lunch taken care of’ I’d think, cheap and delicious and it filled me up. I couldn’t see the problem! Your almond butter with apples looks divine. x
OH Nutella! Don’t get me started. I refuse to buy it, I just don’t trust myself. I can just imagine myself making dinner, a bowl half full of nutella, and half peanut butter. Maybe some banana slices if I am feeling extra fancy. My gawd that sounds good..
I would have to make half quantities of this stuff. I don’t think I could be trusted with portion control! Particularly when making healthy little mandolin-ed sandwiches… they would manage to make my nut butter obsession somewhat delicate!
Oh how I love your pb recollections. I am EXACTLY the same, I adore the stuff! Believe it or not, I had an intolerance as a child. My mother would often find me in tears, my tongue engorged, throat scratchy, my face reddened with an allergic, peanut-butter smeared rash. I stand proudly at the thought that I ‘cured’ myself by persisting beyond the pain (I can now eat as much as I want!). Gorgeous post, my gorgeous friend xxx