On Tuesday, Eric said the Enchiladas with Cilantro Avocado Cream Sauce would be the best recipe all week.
Today, I politely disagree. :)
(And I secretly thought he would be right!)
After making this recipe yesterday, I announced it was the best recipe of the week.
Eric rolled his eyes. He just doesn’t ‘get’ nut butter!
Let’s see, this recipe is…
- Delicious & addicting
- Creamy, smooth, buttery, with a hint of cinnamon and maple
- Thrown together in 60 seconds flat. (2 mins. if you can’t find the cinnamon!)
- Long-lasting in the fridge (I made that up, but I assume so)
- Versatile- You can eat it every day with many different foods
- Customizable- You could make many different flavours
- You could make this nut free by using sunflower seed butter and a non-nut milk
- FUN! You can use it as a dip, spread, mix in, topping, or main food group (ok maybe that’s just me)
Are you excited yet?
This little gem of a recipe called, ABU, comes from Heather of Heather Eats Almond Butter, which was adapted from Emily’s PBU recipe. Essentially, you blend almond butter (or nut butter of choice) with an equal portion of non-dairy milk and add any sweeteners, spices, or mix-ins you desire. I believe the names ABU & PBU are a play off of the PB2 powdered peanut butter product.
By doing this, you are doubling the volume of your nut butter, while preserving a creamy nut butter taste. It is also great for those of us who are sensitive to nuts. Normally, I get stomach pains when eating plain almond butter, but I didn’t have any when eating this ABU so that is a huge plus for me.
I saw this recipe on Heather’s blog a couple years ago and I am kicking myself for not making it sooner! I obviously need to get my priorities straight.
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Maple Cinnamon ABU
Lightly adapted from Heather’s ABU, which was adapted from Emily’s PBU. (Ok, I just laughed when typing that out)
Yield: Approx. 28 tablespoons or 1 and 3/4 cup
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup natural almond butter
- 3/4 cup vanilla almond milk
- 1 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, or to taste
Directions: In a blender add your almond milk, followed by almond butter, maple syrup, and ground cinnamon. Blend until smooth. Store in the fridge in a sealed container. Makes 1 and 3/4 cups.
Nutritional Info: (Makes approx 28 tbsp) Per tbsp: 45 kcals, 4 grams fat, 0.4 grams sugar, 1 gram protein, 2 grams carbs.
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By making this, you are basically doubling the volume, and slashing the nutritional profile in half. The way I see it, I can eat twice as much now. ;)
I added a touch of cinnamon to the original recipe and increased the maple syrup by a couple teaspoons since I don’t use stevia. It was just amazing! My mind is already swirling with other flavour ideas. I will have to try it out with homemade almond butter too. Can you imagine how good this would be with Barney Butter? Or a vanilla bean?
It’s dreamy.
I tried it with a tart Granny Smith.
This was a very happy moment in my day. ;)
Some other ways you can enjoy ABU:
- Drizzled on oatmeal or VOO
- Drizzled over cereal
- Dips for fruit or veggies
- Topping for a dessert like a brownie or cake
- Spread on bread, muffins, or crackers
- Baked oatmeal
- messy s’mores
- Baked granola
- by the spoonful like I did!
- poured on Banana soft serve or ice cream
- poured over cooked vegetables like Broccoli (Heather does this!)
- Blended into smoothies or drizzled on top
How would you eat this? What mix-ins, spices, or nut butters do you think would be good in it?
Eric took the day off work today to begin deck construction! Shayne and Dan are here to help out which is awesome. Zac is coming after work tonight and we have more friends coming this weekend. What would we do without our dear friends? Thankfully, today is a sunny day, so they are going full force all day long!
Early this morning I headed out for a chilly half hour walk and did some Whittle My Middle and stretching when I returned. Walking is a great way to ease back into exercise after being sick. I don’t want to overdo it, but I also want to get active so it is a nice compromise. I came back with a clear head and lifted energy to start the day.
Have a good one!
I wanted to literally cry when I saw this! I can’t eat much in the way of fat and I’ve been trying to get in some healthy fats, but often end up having too much pain to make it worthwhile, so this is genius! I’ve been craving almond butter soooo long now, this just might be breakfast tomorrow!
A thousand thank you’s…
I’m not sure if you realize how much impact your blog along with many others, has had in my life. Going through a major health crisis 3 years ago, I was left with little information on how to nourish myself until I discovered this little community of food bloggers who have helped to sustain me and give me more to eat than just apple sauce and oatmeal, so thanks for being part of that!
Dude! I make something really similar to this for apples, carrots and celery.. I just call it “dip” (which kind of sounds like I’m a character in Who Framed Roger Rabbit), but if you mix 1T nut or seed butter with 1c of plain greek yogurt it is bomb. Not as drippy looking as this one, much thicker, but super delish!
Yum. I would be so tempted to just take a spoon to that bowl and eat it straight.
I’m trying this with coconut butter in the morning. Oh yes. I am.
awesome! I always wondered how nut butter+milk would turn out. Now I know~! :)
I am so happy! You made my day! I woke up this morning and said no more peanut butter, I am consuming way to much! Between granola and PB, I have been consuming 75 grams of fat a day! Not good!!!! But now! He he I can have ABU on everything, well in moderation of course! Thank you so much for sharing, I am going to make this, this afternoon!!!
This looks soo good! Thanks for sharing and giving me something to look forward to make for the weekend. I would even try this with Dark Chocolate PB, or my sunflower seed butter.
I love how drippy this looks – perfect for drizzling. :)
Naturally I made a batch of this last night and all I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Amazing is an understatement. I have what you might call an almond butter addiction and gladly welcome the opportunity to up the volume and not the fat/calories, although it hasn’t stopped me in the past :-)
whoohoo!
I’m thinking sunflower seed butter, which is my absolute obsession. YUM.
It sounds delicious, but I think the problem for me is that it’s way too runny that way. I enjoy my nut butters on the side of things because I enjoy tasting them by themselves. And I keep them in the fridge so that they stay hard and thick, melting them on my tongue. But super neat idea, maybe would be good in some sort of recipe that calls for a nut butter that I could make lighter.
I did this IMMEDIATELY after reading this post with my peanut butter this morning. Awesome! I did cayenne, cinnamon and a touch of vanilla. Yum, yum! Thanks for sharing!
I recently tried your dark chocolate almond butter and the whole batch was gone within days! Oops! :) This also looks ahhhmazing! However I may have to wait a little before attempting it myself… my taste buds are still pretty non existent after being ill and I would hate to miss out on the full taste/effect! Thanks for sharing!
Those pictures are making me drool!!! That looks fantastic. I’m going to try it. Thank you :)
That looks so good!!! I would eat it for sure, and I think it would be good with some cocoa mixed in!
I just made this and drizzled it over apple slices…heaven! I can see this being my go-to topping for banana soft serve, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, any fruit I can get my hands on, and…oh man, I’m in love.
OMG- I LOVE this idea!! And I totally have TONS of TJ’s almond butter to use (which is so incredible; it’s roasted sea salt flava’!!) and can’t wait to make this tomorrow! Hopefully my mama likes it as part of her huge mothers day brunch!
I always have it on pancakes – perfect drizzling consistency!
OMG! YUM!
Mary xo
Delightful Bitefuls
Half the calories! That’s what I’m talking about….thanks for sharing this delightful recipe…almond butter is something I muuuuust make soon!