How to Make Your Own Peanut Butter | DIY Homemade Peanut Butter

Ever since I got into the habit of reading labels for ingredients, I've been amazed time and time again by the long list of ingredients to make a seemingly simple stuff, especially stuffs that only require 2 -3 ingredients if we prepare ourselves, and requires more than 10 ingredients for the ones on the supermarket shelves.

Take our dear old peanut butter as an example.

INGREDIENTS: ROASTED PEANUTS, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, SUGAR, SOY PROTEIN, SALT, HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS (COTTONSEED, SOYBEAN AND RAPESEED) TO PREVENT SEPARATION, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, MINERALS (MAGNESIUM OXIDE, ZINC OXIDE, FERRIC ORTHOPHOSPHATE, COPPER SULFATE), VITAMINS (NIACINAMIDE, PYRIDOXIDE HYDROCHLORIDE, FOLIC ADIC).

WOW. what a list, and filled with chemicals I don't know what they are and can't even pronounce.

Do you know you can make your own peanut butter easily? and you'll know require 3 -4 ingredients:

Raw peanuts, peanut oil (optional), salt, sugar/honey (optional).

that's it!

Equipments: Air Fryer (optional. you can also use a saucepan), blender

Wash the raw peanuts

(Optional) roast it in air fryer. this is an optional step. I prefer to roast the peanuts lightly to give it more flavour. If you're using an airfryer, turn it to 160 degrees and roast for around 5 mins, stiring the peanuts occassionally. this will also helps to dry the peanuts after the washing. 

If you do not have an airfryer, you can also toast it around in a saucepan (no need to add oil)

after roasting (or if you're not roasting, you can come to this step directly), add the peanuts to a blender, and blend. do not add the oil/sweenter/salt at this point.

after 2 - 3 minutes of blending. stop to scrape off the sides. you will see that mixture looks dry and chunky. like bread crumbs if you ask me.

stop every 2 -3 mins to scrap off the side. the mixture looks dry, like sand.

continue blending, and stoping to scrap off the sides. you will start to wonder if you've done anything wrong cos the mixture still looks really dry and sandy, far from what peanut butter looks like.

don't worry. this is normal. just keep going.

looking better! continue blending and scraping!

almost there! you can start adding in the salt/sweetner/oil. I only added salt. no sugar/oil.

keep blending. looking better aint it?

there you go! your very own homemade peanut butter!

For my first attempt, i only use raw peanuts and a pinch of salt. My family loves it, since our taste bud is towards more bland, but I think it will taste better with some sugar/honey. will try it the next time! :)

DIY Homemade Peanut Butter

Ingredients
Raw Peanuts
Salt
<optional> Sugar/Honey as sweetner
<optional> Peanut Oil (if you want it to be more creamy)

What you need
<optional> air fryer or saucepan
blender

Time required
around 20 - 30 mins

Green Bean (Mung Bean) - For Cooling & Detox

Green bean 绿豆(also known as Mung Bean), is an excellent source for detox and relieving summer heat). It is a very popular dessert in Chinese families, and is extremely simple to make.

Green bean is known to be cooling, so may not be suitable for people who have a cool body (those who have cold hands and feet), people having diarrhea, women who are having their menses (or going to have their menses). There's several ways of cooking green bean dessert. 2 popular ways are green bean soup and green bean water. Both have different benefits and should not be confused with one another, though both uses the same ingredients and cooking method.

Pre-cook Preparation
Soak green bean in water over night (or at least 2 hours)

Ingredients
pandan leaves (optional. I'll usually add in pandan leaves for the fragrance)
green bean
water
brown sugar/rock sugar (optional)

Cooling Purpose 降火气 - Green Bean Water 绿豆水
The skin of green bean helps to reduce heatiness. Hence, if your purpose is to cool or reduce heatiness, do not cook the green bean soup for too long. Add the beans to boiling water and boil in small/medium fire for about 10 minutes (don't cook for too long). Alternatively, just add boiling water to green beans, and let is simmer for around 15 mins. Add in some brown sugar or rock sugar (冰糖) if you need more flavour.The beans will look pretty hard and inedible. The water will look clear and greenish. Discard the beans and drink the water.

Detox Purpose 解毒 - Green Bean Soup 绿豆汤
The inner part of green bean helps with detox, hence, for detox purposes, you will need to cook till it's tender (煮烂), where you will basically see the beans "breaking up", and see the white inner parts of the bean. You will need to boil the soup longer (around 30 mins or more). The soup will look cloudy and slightly reddish. Green bean soup is good for detox, but not so ideal if your purpose is for cooling.

Recipes: Luo Han Guo Chinese Herbal Tea (罗汉果凉茶)

Luo Han Guo has a very chim scientific name: Siraitia grosvenorii. This is a herbal tea that my hubby loves and will always buy when we passed by the herbal store so I decide to learn to cook it. Am pleasantly surprised that it's so easy to cook this herbal tea! This is one of the standard chinese herbal tea for cooling the body and to heal cough/sorethroat.

Luo Han Guo is cheap and can be found in supermarkets or chinese medicine hall.3 pieces cost around S$1.20 to S$1.50. I prefer to buy mine in chinese medicine hall where you get to choose. NTUC usually only sell pre-packed ones.

How to Choose Luo Han Guo (罗汉果):

• Colour: should not be too dark
• Shake: give the fruit a light shake when choosing. if you can hear/feel the seed within moving, the seed is dried (not fresh), and will not give much taste/benefits

What you need:

• Luo Han Guo (罗汉果). 
• Pot (Try to use clay/ceramic if possible. It is better for cooking herbal tea/soup as there may be chemical reaction with metal/stainless steel pot)
• Water
• Chrysanthemum (optional)
• Wolf-berries (optional)

For me, I prefer to add chrysanthemum & wolf berries into my herbal tea. These are optional. Traditional luo han guo tea consists of luo han guo and water only. Luo Han Guo has natural sweetness so sugar is usually not required. but if you do have a sweet tooth, you may put in a few pieces of rock sugar.

Wash the Luo Han Guo fruits, Chrysanthem and wolfberries. I usually use a medium-sized pot, and I found that the taste for 1 Luo Han Guo is quite bland, so I usually use 2, and if necessary, add another 1. It's entirely based on personal taste. My family loves the thick herbal taste of Luo Han Guo so my tea is usually quite thick in flavor.

Fill the pot with about 3/4 full of water, crushed the luo han guo and put them into the pot. close the lid and wait for the mixture to boil

Let the mixture boil a while. and open the lid to taste. This is the time when you decide if you need to add another fruit, or sugar

For me, I'll usually add Chrysanthem and wolfberries at this stage

done!

Benefits

• Luo Han Guo is good for cough and sorethroat
• It is considered a "cooling" fruit, so this is a good cooling herbal tea when you're feeling heaty, or have eaten too much unhealthy fried junk or have too too many late nights
• chrysanthemum is also known to be cooling, rich in Vitamin B & C, and good for detoxification of the liver
• wolfberries are good for eyesight and is is one of the most antioxidant-rich fruits around.

Chia Seed Bread Recipe using Bread Maker

Chia Seed (I'm using Nutiva Organic Chia Seed) is one of the superfood that everyone is going crazy about. It is rich in calcium (gives you strong bones and teeth), fibre (good for digestive health), and omega 3 (good for brain and heart), and alot of other nutrients. It's basically tasteless, and adds a nice crunch to whatever you add it to. I love to add it over my bread spread, to my smoothies, jellies and whatever. I'm now adding it to my bread recipe too! Again, this recipe uses olive oil (no butter, egg, and milk and whatsoever!) I usually add in rolled oats as well since Chia seeds are not cheap (so my 1/3 cup is made up of 50% chia, 50% rolled oats). I also feel that it taste abit off when there's too much chia seed.

Ingredients

Makes 2 lbs (907g) (number in red in bracket is for 1 lbs)

• 1 1/2 cups warm water (3/4 cup)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil) (1 TBSP)
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt  (3/4 tsp salt)
• 2/3 cups chia seed (1/3 cup chia. can mix with rolled oats)
• 3 1/3 cups bread flour  (1 2/3 cup: 1 cup bread flour, 2/3 cup wholemeal)
• About 2 Tbsp. sugar or honey (1 tbsp)
• 2 tsp yeast (about 3/4 of a package) (1 tsp)

Instructions

1. Pour the water, oil and salt into the baking pan of the bread machine.
2. Pour in the flour and chia seeds (and rolled oats)
3. Pour in the sugar (or honey).
4. Make an indentation in the top of the flour and pour in the yeast.
5. I use the default basic bread function, 450g and let the machine do it's work.

Simple Bread Recipe using Bread Maker

The recipe that came with the breadmaker works well, but it requires egg, milk, and most of all butter, which makes me on the hunt for a healthier option that doesn't require so many ingredient, and most importantly, must not require butter.

And I found the recipe that works wonderful, and only requires water, sugar, yeast, olive oil, flour and salt.

This recipe makes a 1000g bread. I usually only make half the serving (500g), so the numbers in red in bracket is for 500g. I'm also making the wholemeal version using this recipe, so I usually use 1.5 cups whole wheat flour and 2.5 cups bread flour instead of 4 cups bread flour.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups warm water (1/2 cup)
• 2 Tablespoons and 2 teaspoons sugar (1 TBS + 1 TSP)
• 3 teaspoons yeast (1.5 TSP)
• 1/3 cup Olive Oil (39.5g)
• 4 cups flour (or 1.5 cups whole wheat flour and 2.5 cups bread flour) (3/4 cup wholemeal flour 1 1/4 cup bread flour)
• 2 teaspoons salt (1 TSP)

Directions

1. In bread machine, place water, oil and salt.

2. Add flour on top of liquids. Make sure to cover the liquids. Pour sugar into one corner of the bread machine basket. Then make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the yeast (be careful that the yeast should not touch the salt/water).

3. Set your bread machine for basic loaf, and let it do the rest of the work. For Donlim breadmaker, this is function #1. I used 450g weight using the 500g recipe.

Homemade Strawberry Jam

Almost all the supermarkets are having a sale on berries (I got my Strawberries from NTUC at $9.45 for 2 boxes. i think Giant is selling it cheaper), and I took the chance to indulge in lots and lots of berries in my diet.

Last night, I tried making strawberry jam, and it taste wonderful, and the husband gave his approval too. :)

Surprisingly, it's also super easy to make, and no need all the redundant chemicals and addictives!

Ingredients

2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled

4 cups white sugar (I used raw sugar, and only used 70% of the portion, and still finds it a little too sweet. Will try 50% the next round)

1/4 cup lemon juice

Tools

Mason Jar(s) with Lid (any glass jars will do. just avoid the plastic ones)

Blender (optional) or a big bowl

Saucepan or pot

1. Wash strawberries, and cut off the head (the green leafy part)

2. Sterilize jar and lid by soaking them in hot water

3. Put strawberries in blender, and pulse a few times. Alterntively, you can also crush the strawberries in a huge bowl as the original recipe suggest.

4. In a saucepan, mix together the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. 

5. Boil, stirring often, until the mixture reaches 220 degrees F (105 degrees C). 

6. Transfer to hot sterile jars, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch headspace, and seal. I read that we have to invert the jar after filling it. This will supposedly "seal" the jar, which will make the jam last longer.

Homemade Strawberry Jam with Homemade Wholemeal Raisin/Walnut Chiaseed Bread

original jam recipe here

Homemade Bread - Normal White Bread

So, this is my second attempt after the disasterous first attempt. I decide to read the instruction guide thoroughly and follow it to the letter. The instruction guide also includes some basic recipes and below is baked using it. This is the most traditional, normal white bread, If this is your first attempt, I'll suggest you go with this first, since it's the simplest.

Tahdah! still in the bread container.

Freshly out from the breadmaker! It smells extremely good, and it's so tempting to cut a slice to eat cos it smells so good. advice: don't. it's better, and easier to cut when the bread has completely cooled. Else you'll end up with lots of crumbs.

This is what happen when you are ganjiong like me and cut it without letting it cool. You can't blame me though. It's my first successful loaf of bread and it smells so darn good!

Here's the recipe I used, from the instruction booklet that came with the bread maker. I modified slightly, and used milk, instead of water + milk powder:

Makes 450g bread

Ingredients

• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 250g bread flour
• 50g sugar
• 4g yeast
• 100ml milk
• 30g butter
• 30g egg (I use I egg)

Instruction

1. Add milk and egg.
2. Add salt to a corner of the container. Be careful that the salt does not come into contact with the yeast later
3. Add sugar and butter
4. Add flour. Cover all the liquid
5. Make a small hole on the flour, and pour in the yeast
6. Set the setting to start making bread
7. Wait for around 3 hours and your bread is ready!

Berry Good Morning Smoothie

I love smoothies and I wonder what took me so long to get accquinted with it. I love playing around and mixing different fruits and vegetables together, and see what color and taste it become. It reminds me of Chemistry class back in school, and i love it. Other than the pleasure I get from playing with all the mixes, I love how it taste and how it feel after. I'm always amazed by how a class of smoothie can keep me full the whole morning, without that fullness feeling. It's a glass full of goodness, with all the vitamins, nutrients and fibre. Considering all the ingredients that go into that glass of smoothie, I probably shouldn't be too surprised how filling it is. Since there's a possibilty we can get overboard adding too much goodies into the blender, and end up with overloading calories, I'm always careful to keep everything in moderation.

I tried this berry smoothie yesterday morning, after a heavy buffet dinner to celebrate the husband's the day before. Woke up feeling guilty and need to detox, so I decide to make a smoothie. Here's what i used. since I've used some berries, out of a sudden inspiration, I decide to call it "Berry Good Morning Smoothie!"

Berry Good Morning Smoothie

Ingredients
1 cup homemade yogurt
1 cup baby spinach
4 strawberries
handful of blueberries*
3 slices beetroot
2 stalks celery
1 tablespoon chia seed
1 tablespoon black sesame seed

Instructions:
Put the above in blender and blend!

*sidetrack: NTUC & Cold Storage are running promotions on their blueberries so this is a good time to stock up. NTUC is currently selling at $2.55/box. I bought a couple of boxes and leave them in the freezer to make my own frozen berries.

Benefits:

Yogurt
I made my yogurt using low-fat milk. Yogurt is a good source of calcium, contains probiotics & good bacteria that help regulate our digestion and strengthen our immune system.

Baby Spinach
Baby Spinach is low in calories, and high in vitamin A, vitamin K and folate. If your family do not like veggies, adding in spinach in smoothies is a good way to sneak in greens into their diet since there's practically no taste!

Strawberries
Strawberries needs no introduction. These pretty berries are rich in the essential nutrients vitamin C, potassium, folic acid and fiber.

Blueberries
Blueberries is very rich in anti oxidants like Anthocyanin, vitamin C, B complex, vitamin E, vitamin A, copper, selenium, zinc, iron and iron. Blueberries are good for boosting your immune system and prevent infections.

Beetroot
I must admit beets have a unique taste that need time to grow into. Fortunately, when you mix it with everything else, it's not that bad. Beetroot is an excellent source of folic acid and a very good source of fibre, manganese and potassium. Beets also help to stimulate the liver's detoxification processes. Beets also add a very beautiful wine-like color to your drink!

Celery
Celery is low in calories, reduces inflammation, and helps regulate the body's alkaline balance.

Chia Seed
This very popular superfood is rich in calcium, omega 3, protein and fibre.

Black Sesame Seed
Black sesame seed is an excellent source of copper and a very good source of manganese, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, vitamin B1, zinc, molybdenum, selenium, and dietary fiber. It's also known to reverse grey hair and improve skin tone.

Easy Recipe: Rice Glutinous Ball with Ginger Soup

Another of my husband's favorite dish/dessert. 

What you need:

• Rice Glutinous Ball (I'm using ready-made ones from NTUC)
• Ginger
• Red Sugar
• Pot

Steps:

1. Bring water to a boil
2. Slice ginger (about 7 - 15 pieces, depending on how spicy you like), and add into boiling water
3. Add 2 tablespoon of red sugar (add more if you want more sweetness. Red sugar in general are not very sweet.)
4. Let the above mixture boil a while, and add the rice glutinous ball (taken out directly from the freezer. do not defroze.)
5. Once the rice glutinous ball floats up, it's ready to serve!

The rice glutinous balls are ready-made from NTUC so all we need to do is put it into bowling water and cook. Easy peasy! Next time I want to learn how to make my own rice glutinous ball, but for newbie me, this is good enough.

I'm using red sugar here because it's more healthy than white or brown sugar, especially for cooking desserts and they are not very sweet. If you do not have red sugar, you can also use white or brown sugar.

I've also prepared peanut powder to roll the glutinous ball on. Another way of eating! :)

Easy Recipe: Soba

My husband loves soba. It's his must-order dish whenever we go for Japanese food. It's a good thing that this dish is so easy to cook, that it's becoming our "instant noodles" at home and more healthy too!

What you need:

• Soba Noodles 
• Soba Sauce 
• Sea weed (optional)
• Spring Onions (optional)
• Pot
• Sieve/Collander
• Ice (optional)

Steps

1. Add water into pot and put it to boil
2. Then, add in soba noodles to cook for around 10 - 15 minutes. Slowly stir from time to time, to prevent the noodles from sticking. 
3. When the noodles is cooked, drain the water off using a sieve or collander and run it under cold water. You can also shock the noodles with ice.
4. Add water to Soba sauce, 1:1, and serve in a bowl.
5. Serve the the noodles in a plate, and add spring onions and sea weed
6. Ready to eat!

Winter Melon Soup: 冬瓜汤

I'm not Cantonese but I love my soup. One of my biggest "worry" about moving out is not having my daily homecook yummies from my awesome mum, especially my favourite soup. So I began to learn to cook my own soup. Since I'm working and usually reach home around 8+ (if I'm lucky), I do not have the luxury of slowly boiling my soup since it will only mean my soup will be ready around 10+ 11!

I saw this Philips Pressure Cooker that was selling on Qoo10, read the reviews, and decide this could be something I need, so I took the plunge and got one. It's really cool and easy to use for a noob like me. Basically, there's buttons to cook rice, cook soup, keep warm etc, so all you have to do is decide what you want to cook, get the ingredient, throw everything into the pot, press the button and wait! and just like magic, within an hour, your food is done. Pretty awesome if you asked me, or perhaps, I have not seen enough of such appliances so it's really easy to impress me.

so 1 of the first things I cooked using pressure cooker is winter melon soup. I goggled for the ingredients (told ya Google is my best friend), and here's what I used:

Ingredients:

• pork ribs (I got a pack from NTUC)
• 1 piece of winter melon (NTUC got the kind that they cut into pieces instead of the whole fruit)
• 5 pieces of red dates

Steps:

1. wash the pork ribs and rub it with some salt (my mum taught me this and said it will remove the frozen smell/blood/whatever i cannot remember. so basically, I'm just doing as she says. :p)
2. boil a small pot water, when it boil, put in the pork ribs and let it cook for 2-3 mins and take it out. this will remove the fats or whatever (again, I'm just following what my mum says. hahaha)
3. cut the winter melon into pieces (I removed the skin, and save them in a zip-lock bag to make vegetable broth in future)
4. wash the dates and remove the seed (the seeds will make the soup "heaty")
5. put the pork ribs from point 2, the cut winter melon and the dates into the pressure cooker, put enough water to cover the ingredients (or slightly over), close the lid, and click on the "soup" button.
6. then you wait and about 20 mins later, the soup is cooked. let it cool down so the pressure will be released itself (the whole process, including waiting for the pressure to be released will take around 30-40 mins).
7. After the pressure is released, you can open the lid and taste the soup to see if you need to add seasoning. For me, I'm a bland eater, so I just added about 1 tsp of sea salt. preferred the natural sweetness from the ingredient. so add accordingly to your personal likes.
8. when serves, I'll usually sprinkle some pepper and add some fried shallots as well.

note: this is a personal review and not sponsored post. philips did not pay me, and I got the cooker myself from qoo10.

Recipes: Luo Han Guo Chinese Herbal Tea (罗汉果凉茶)

Luo Han Guo has a very chim scientific name: Siraitia grosvenorii. This is a herbal tea that my hubby loves and will always buy when we passed by the herbal store so I decide to learn to cook it. Am pleasantly surprised that it's so easy to cook this herbal tea! This is one of the standard chinese herbal tea for cooling the body and to heal cough/sorethroat.

Luo Han Guo is cheap and can be found in supermarkets or chinese medicine hall.3 pieces cost around S$1.20 to S$1.50. I prefer to buy mine in chinese medicine hall where you get to choose. NTUC usually only sell pre-packed ones.

How to Choose Luo Han Guo (罗汉果):

• Colour: should not be too dark
• Shake: give the fruit a light shake when choosing. if you can hear/feel the seed within moving, the seed is dried (not fresh), and will not give much taste/benefits

What you need:

• Luo Han Guo (罗汉果). 
• Pot (Try to use clay/ceramic if possible. It is better for cooking herbal tea/soup as there may be chemical reaction with metal/stainless steel pot)
• Water
• Chrysanthemum (optional)
• Wolf-berries (optional)

For me, I prefer to add chrysanthemum & wolf berries into my herbal tea. These are optional. Traditional luo han guo tea consists of luo han guo and water only. Luo Han Guo has natural sweetness so sugar is usually not required. but if you do have a sweet tooth, you may put in a few pieces of rock sugar.

Wash the Luo Han Guo fruits, Chrysanthem and wolfberries. I usually use a medium-sized pot, and I found that the taste for 1 Luo Han Guo is quite bland, so I usually use 2, and if necessary, add another 1. It's entirely based on personal taste. My family loves the thick herbal taste of Luo Han Guo so my tea is usually quite thick in flavor.

Fill the pot with about 3/4 full of water, crushed the luo han guo and put them into the pot. close the lid and wait for the mixture to boil

Let the mixture boil a while. and open the lid to taste. This is the time when you decide if you need to add another fruit, or sugar

For me, I'll usually add Chrysanthem and wolfberries at this stage

done!

Benefits

• Luo Han Guo is good for cough and sorethroat
• It is considered a "cooling" fruit, so this is a good cooling herbal tea when you're feeling heaty, or have eaten too much unhealthy fried junk or have too too many late nights
• chrysanthemum is also known to be cooling, rich in Vitamin B & C, and good for detoxification of the liver
• wolfberries are good for eyesight and is is one of the most antioxidant-rich fruits around.