Peanut butter and bacon are two of our family's most favorite foods. We eat a lot of peanut butter....not so much bacon (although it is always part of our Saturday morning breakfast)....but a lot of peanut butter!!! What I hate about our love of peanut butter is that the really good peanut butter - the stuff without all the sugar, hydrogenated oils, mono and diglyscerides, salt, and other additives - is sooo expensive. So, today when I saw the buy one 3 lb. bag of peanuts for 5$ and get one free deal, I bought 6 lbs (10$) and got 6 lbs for free. What am I going to do with 12 lbs of peanuts?
I am going to put them into these containers....
In my house, we totally support the exploitation of child labor, and my children actually enjoy helping. So....AWAY WITH THE SHELLS....
Now comes either the really exciting part....or....the really disappointing part. I know we are eating healthier by making our own peanut butter. All we do is put the nuts in a blender (at some point I need to get a food processor - or a heavy duty blender ;)) and add a little olive oil to make it creamy. But, am I really saving any money? Look at how many nuts came from a 3 lb bag....
Chris weighed it out and we got about 2 lbs of actual nuts from a 3 lb bag....
The containers in the above picture hold 24 oz. A 26 oz. jar of "healthy" store-bought peanut butter costs $5.99 or more. So....how many ounces will our 2 lbs of peanuts make, and are we saving money by making our own peanut butter? Let's ask the home schooled kid....
Joshua says that if I paid 10$ for 12 lbs of peanuts, then 3 lbs of peanuts - or one bag - costs $2.50. If we can fill the 24 oz jar with the peanut butter we make from the 2 lbs of peanuts we got from the 3 lb bag of peanuts, then we will have made 24 oz of healthy peanut butter for $2.50, AND....we saved money....
I had my doubts when I started pulverizing the nuts in the blender....
....but in the end, the 24 oz container was filled to the very tippy top!!!!
There you have it....our homemade healthy jar of peanut butter for $2.50.
My kids can't wait to shell the other 3 bags!!!
4 comments:
And yes, I'm from Europe, that's why I put the $ after the number, as in 4$...
WOW. LOOK AT ALL THE FUN ALL OF U HAD CRACKING THOSE PEANUT SHELLS. I MUST ADMIT THE JAR OF PEANUT BUTTER LOOKS DELICIOUS N U SAVED MONEY HAVING FUN WITH A FAMILY PROJECT. I WOULD LIKE TO TASTE THE NEWLY MADE PEANUT BUTTER WHEN I C U ALL. WHAT A HANDSOME FAMILY. HUGS,GRAMMA.
Sweet! Slave labor is the best! Johnny says what about all the labor- was it worth the time and effort to save that money???? I said, of course! Slave labor is free :) great project tho! And good family time :)
OH now I get it. I have not been keeping up with you blog lately and wondered why Hope said she just knew the cookies you made the night of the hurricane must be peanut butter ones. (what a run on sentence,) Once again, I missed out on the fun. I am very impressed with Josh's math skills, I never liked those kind of math problems...if Joe Blow starts out from AZ driving 55 mph and makes 3 stops for an hour each how long will it take him to get to NJ driving backwards? Did you get many shells on the floor?
Dad has a squirrel feeder filled with peanuts and we have such fun watching the squirrels come get the nuts and then go hide them. There are a few Stellar Jays who will hide in the tree and follow the squirrel only to dig up the nut and fly away with it. I know, we are easliy entertained.
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