Nut Butters, Breakfast cakes and mangos......

So I have just a few interesting little food items that I have tried and quite enjoyed and so....as such...I .am sharing them with you.

First of all, I have become a devotee of nut butters other than peanut butter. That would be almond butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter etc...etc...etc.. Imagine my delight when I realized that I could actually make these myself and add some extra flavours to boot.

This information I got from Kath Eats and another one from (if I remember rightly) one of her followers in this post of Kath's (don't forget to scroll down for the recipe.) My first attempt at almond butter was ok....but I found it to be frustrating because of the size of my food processor.....too little food, too big a processor....and also I found it too easy to burn the almonds when roasting them. My solution... buy already roasted almonds and add the molasses and maple syrup into the mix. So the next time I did the Almond Butter, I doubled the recipe and it made a large 1 litre canning jar....which lasted for quite a while. As for the pumpkin seed butter, I ran into the same problem so I also doubled the recipe and bought already roasted sunflower seeds. I have no pics of the almond butter, but I have some of the sunflower seed butter.....finished product only I'm afraid and please excuse the bits of butter on the counter....I was in a hurry to get the photo done :-)

The other food item I have tried out....this morning actually...was a Breakfast Cake, which originated from Kath Eats  but was changed slightly and posted by Marissa on her blog Loser for Life. I changed it yet again by substituting applesauce for banana and kamut flour for oat bran.....the changes made because of grocery shortcomings....in otherwards I didn't have any bananas (an unusual occurence) and I didn't have any oatbran.
So....here is the finished product....

and then toppd with Maranatha Almond Butter .....

It was quite filling and pretty tasty, but I did have to cook it for about 3 minutes in the microwave and it is very moist. I'll try it with the bananas and oat bran at some future time and see how it works......The good thing about this "cake" is that it is very quick to put together and cook in the microwave.

It never fails to amaze me how many different ways there are of preparing food.....a few years ago nut butters were not even on my radar. I thank my lucky stars that I have a daughter who is a total foodie and loves to try new things. She has opened my eyes to the myriad of options out there. For example... I happened to pick up some Ataulfo mangos   (they were on sale)and was raving about the good buy to her and she said...".oh yes they are the best....they are the only kind of mangos I get".....and they are the best....so sweet that I now just peel them, cube them, sprinkle a little 5 spice powder on them and have them as a side to my lunch time sandwich. The produce manager in our market calls them the cadillac of mangos. I guess it's the season for them now because they are always on sale and nice and ripe too.

I could go on and on about the new methods and ingredients and recipes I am trying, but suffice to say....I'm having a blast!! My interest in cooking as been renewed !!

There will be definitely more posts on this topic.....but that's all for this one.

Have a great day!!

Slainte!!