Life Hack: Natural Peanut Butter

Did you guys used to watch "Everybody Loves Raymond"?

Remember that episode where Ray and Deborah refused to acknowledge the suitcase on the stairs because neither one wanted to take it upstairs, and it became a battle of wills?

Here, refresh your memory:



That, my friends, is how Zach and I deal with natural peanut butter in our house.

OK, so maybe there isn't any actual wrestling going on, but it is a battle of wills to determine who will get stuck with the crappy job of stirring the oil into the peanut-flavored cement sludge that is the hallmark of natural peanut butter. I'll forgo the peanut butter in favor of PB2 for a day or so....he'll dip celery into hummus instead of peanut butter...then finally I give in and mix up the dang peanut butter.

I guess I should back up a bit. You ARE eating natural peanut butter, right? Right?
So many of us grew up on the JIF and the Skippy, but it turns out that that stuff is chalk-full of things that are unnecessary in peanut butter, like hydrogenated (a word to avoid like the plague when you are looking at labels) oils, sugar, and extra salt.

Natural peanut butter contains (drum roll, please): peanuts! Peanuts ground up into a paste, and that's it. The main differences you'll notice when you switch from processed to natural peanut butter are that it's not as sweet or as smooth. At first I missed the sweetness, but after awhile I came to like the natural peanut butter even more than the processed.

So, back to the oil issue.

When you buy natural peanut butter, the first thing you'll notice is the accumulation of oil on the top of the jar.

Pop open the lid and start trying to stir that oil into the peanut butter and what you get is a grade "A" mess. Oil running down the side of the jar, a knife or spoon that is just covered in gooey peanut butter...yuck. It takes a strong forearm and about 10 minutes of stirring to get it incorporated well, and even then if you don't get the oil mixed in at the bottom, when the jar is almost empty you have unspreadable peanut butter that is more like fudge that butter (which, now that I think about it, ain't half bad...).

Before you throw in the towel completely and start welcoming the hydrogenated, non-stir peanut butter back into your house, I've found a handy way around the stirring conundrum. Here's what you do:

When you buy natural peanut butter, turn it upside down as soon as you get home. Let it sit there for several hours, or until all that oil rises to the top...er...the bottom, which is the new top.

Here is how it looks once the oil has settled to the bottom and you open up the jar:

And after a mere minute of stirring:

It's ready to go, and my arm doesn't feel like it wants to fall off or anything! Smear some on some celery and top it with raisins, and then stick the jar of peanut butter in the fridge (where natural peanut butter should be stored).

This topsy turvy trick also works for Tahini, which is made of ground up sesame seeds and is a crucial ingredient in my hummus.

Try it and let me know what you think!

*******

Workout of the Day

P90X3 - Total Synergistics

Week one of P90X3 is in the books, and I am AMAZED at how sore we are from 30-minute workouts. Tony has put together a hum-dinger of a program (that's a technical term), and I am excited to see what three months of this is going to do! Hear our reviews and keep up with our P90X3 journey on our YouTube channel.

Want to join us? We've got a great accountability group going on Facebook, and it's not too late to join. The P90X3 Challenge Pack is on sale until the end of January -- get yours and let me know when you plan to start. I'll add you to the group!