Two Recipes to Fiddle With

So, this morning, I was out of sunbutter (sunflower seed butter).  I wanted toast but I did not want eggs.  I had some raw sunflower seeds and my food processor and got to work.  I put about 1 1/2 cups of sunflower seeds and blitzed them until they started to stick.  Then, I added some sea salt and sunflower oil.  After some vanilla, honey, cinnamon, a dash of allspice and lots of trial and error, I made my own sunbutter.  You can too (be sure to taste after each blitzed addition).

Spiced Sunflower Seed Butter

1 1/2 cups of raw unsalted sunflower seeds (feel free to use roasted...but, unsalted)
1/2-3/4 t. sea salt (to taste)
2 T. honey (add an extra if needed)
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. allspice
1-2 t. vanilla (to taste)
4 T. sunflower oil

Blitz all in your food processor!  Put on toast or anything else you would use with peanut butter (don't get me started on how bad peanuts are for our bodies!).

Please note that they do sell sunflower butter at our local grocer.  But, I had spent so much on pantry staples on a single trip to Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and Fruitful Yield earlier this month (but, I saved by doing it all in one trip, right?) that I was determined to not buy anymore for the pantry until next month!  That, I have decided is a really good way to try new recipes!  Enjoy!

Dairy-Free Artichoke Spinach Spread (and pizza topping!)
This evening, I wanted to fit more veggies into our dinner of salad and pizza.  So, I grabbed a can of artichokes and some frozen organic spinach (both from Trader Joe's) and some goat cheese and 2 cloves of garlic and blitzed it my trusty food processor!  Result:  Hello Yum!

3/4 of a bag (about 2 cups) of Trader Joe's frozen organic spinach ( I could have added the whole bag)
1 can of artichoke hearts in water (mine were from Trader Joe's)
1/4 t. sea salt
1/4 c. goat cheese
2 cloves garlic

After spreading my gf pizza dough (I like Pamela's brand) with my sauce, I dolloped this spread on the pizza (with no other cheese) and put it in the oven to finish cooking.  Again, Hello Yum!