The Best Almond Butter Cookies - Only 4 Ingredients!

Okay, I blew it on this one!  I used real sugar (had a craving), but everything else is okay for the Food Intolerance Diet!  Oh, and they are not Vegan.  I won't be eating these all of the time, just for a splurge. ;)

 Dangerous to have in the house - Almond Butter Cookies

These cookies are awesome, quick to make (only 4 ingredients), but so good they are dangerous to have in the house.  

When is the best time to eat a cookie like this?  After a high-fiber meal (like a green salad with baby kale, chard, spinach, veggies and coleslaw mix).  Why?  Because it will help keep your blood-sugar from spiking from the sugar.  The high-fat and protein content (from the almond butter and the egg) will also help with this.

Ingredients: 
1 Cup Almond Butter
3/4 Cup White Sugar
1 Egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees - Makes 13 cookies.  13 is a lucky number for me; if you are superstitious you can make 14 smaller cookies. ;)

Blend egg and sugar together with a fork. Add vanilla and blend in almond butter.

Spoon onto a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray.  Press down with a fork dipped in sugar (crisscross pattern like for Peanut Butter Cookies). 
Bake at 350 degrees for about 13 minutes.  Remove when they start to get brown on the edges.  They get crispier when they cool.  Oh so good!

Spicy Almond Butter Sauce

I've been making this sauce for several weeks, but I'm just now getting around to writing it down. It's a modification of my old Peanut Sauce recipe.  This is a great sauce for stir-fry, coleslaw salad or a dipping sauce for spring rolls.  I rarely use a real measuring spoon.  It's okay to adjust the ingredients to your own tastes, but don't skip any.  It has the perfect blend of fat, sweet, spicy, savory, salty, and sour.  You can use any nut butter you like.  

Tonight, we had this sauce over a quick stir-fry with a couple cups of coleslaw mix, about 5 handfuls of spinach and a package of steamed broccoli.  It's a very easy recipe!

Almond Butter Spicy 'Peanut' Sauce

(2 servings)

2 T Almond Butter (or peanut butter, cashew butter, etc.)
2 tsp Coconut Crystals (or other natural sweetener)
1 T Chili Garlic Sauce 
1 T Ginger Garlic Paste (see how to make it in the video below)
2 tsp Coconut Aminos (or soy if you don't have a sensitivity to it.)
2 tsp or more lemon or lime juice or white wine vinegar
Water to thin.

Mix everything together with a fork.  Add water to thin to desired consistency.

This is how you make the awesome ginger garlic paste!

Nut Butters and Almond Flour

I made Cashew Butter and Hazelnut Butter the other day. It's so easy and it only takes about 5 minutes in the food processor.  I also made almond flour.  That only takes about 30 seconds in the food processor.  Price cashew butter at the health food store and you will discover how much money you can save!

Spicy Nut Butter Sauce

Sauce for Steamed Veggies or Salad Dressing

2 T almond or cashew butter
1 teaspoon sesame oil (optional, just changes the flavor a little)
1 scoop pea protein powder (optional)
1 T fresh grated ginger
2 cloves fresh crushed garlic
1 T chili-garlic sauce (I love Sambal or the Vietnamese chili sauce with the rooster on the front).
Add water - Thin to desired consistency. If you make it too thin, add some flax meal to thicken it up again.
Salt to taste (the original recipe used soy-sauce)

This works great on a salad with spinach and coleslaw mix (I buy the already shredded mix). Add some chopped pea pods, green onions, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, and whatever else you like. If you want to up the protein/fiber even more, add white or black beans, they work well with this sauce. I would do this if I didn't have the protein powder in the sauce.

The above mix can be stir-fried or cold. Put the sauce on top and serve in a bowl. If served hot, you can add 1/2 cup or so of brown rice to the bowl before adding the veggies and the sauce.

Raw Cashew Butter

I have been looking all over for cashew butter in my town.  When I found it, it was $10 a jar!  I just found a recipe for it...easy!

Raw Cashews
Food Processor
Blend!

It takes awhile, but you can make cashew (or any other raw nut butter) in your food processor.

Raw cashews actually blend to this point pretty fast.

Here are a few more pictures taken at different intervals (click on any picture to see a larger image):

At this point it was nice and soft, but firm.

It started to get sticky here.

Now it was more spreadable.

Done!