Thursday, October 13, 2011

Homemade Sunflower Seed Butter (Sunbutter)

I am deathly allergic to peanuts.  It’s no fun to have an allergy but I’m so impressed with how far we’ve come with peanut allergy awareness.  What a difference I’ve seen.  I remember as a young child riding on an airplane and feeling so sick to my stomach at the very smell of the peanutsand hungry because I was out of luck in the snack department.  A few years later they started serving pretzels as an alternative to peanuts on flights.  I don’t even think they give out peanuts anymore, do they?  Skylar, my daughter, is not allergic to peanuts and I don’t know if my son Ethan has inherited this allergy?  At any rate, we’ve been using sunbutter for quite some time as an alternative to peanut butter.  It’s a nice change from the usual almond butter.  I like this brand but don’t love the price and don’t love the plastic container.  So I decided to make it myself.  And you know what……SUPER EASY!!! Sky couldn’t even tell the difference between my homemade version and the store bought variety.  And that’s all I needed to move into permanently making sunflower seed butter.  Hooray! 
gorgeous sunflower from my garden!

Homemade Sunflower Seed Butter 


Ingredients:
-3 cups of organic raw sunflower seeds
-Pinch of salt (optional) 

How To
1.  Toast sunflower seeds for a bit until fragrant and slightly brown.  Cool seeds.  
2.  Add the cooled seeds to a food processor and start blending; scrape down sides every minute or so for about 5 minutes.  
3.  After about 6 minutes the seeds will form a ball then become thinner as the oils in the seeds are released.  
4.  After about 8 minutes of processing you can add in a pinch of salt, but this is totally optional. It should be properly blended by this time.  Store in class container in the refrigerator.  
Yields 1 1/4 cups of sunbutter
I have a small, OLD food processor and it works great.  
Just be sure to scrape down the sides a few times so the
mixture has contact with the blades.
Speaking of Sun
It has been so gorgeous here in Northern California.  Finally, finally, cool fall weatheralthough it’s supposed to be up near 90 degrees today, there is still a soft, clean feel to the air.  I adore this time of year.  Below are some pictures from around our yard.  Wish I could just bottle up this weather.
Our neighbor’s lemon tree is showing some action!  
They let me go over there whenever I have the need and pick to 
my heart’s content.  
Our other neighbor has a nice fig tree with a sizable
bunch hanging on our side of the fence!  
So excited for these!
We still have watermelons to harvest!
We had quite the bounty this year.
Our tomato plant is out of control, but still providing 

us with sweet, gorgeous cherry tomatoes.

Shared on: Allergy-Free Wednesdays, Freaky Friday, Fresh Bites Fridays, Lunch Box Love Fridays, Fight Back Friday, Friday Food,  Potluck Party Back to School Recipes,  Raw Foods Thursdays,, Wellness Weekend 
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Posted by Amber at

Labels: allergy-friendly, dips and spreads, GAPS, lunch, nut free, Paleo, SCD, snacks, vegan.

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