Nutty Spread & Apple Fried Rice

We were driving home from school yesterday and I asked my son what he wanted for lunch - he's very creative with food and loves to eat! Peanut butter on apple cinnamon rice cakes with raisins on top was decided.

By now, you should know of my love of the VitaMix. It's so easy to make shakes, soups and spreads using this machine! So, instead of just plain peanut butter, a flash of brilliance came to me as we enjoyed the :25 minute ride home: MAKE A NUT SPREAD! Every kid loves to dip!

And so my new nutrient-packed indulgence was created. Both the kids loved dipping apples and rice cakes into the Nutty Spread. Being that it's so dense in protein, it really filled them up.

Nutty Spread:

• handful of Cocoa Roast Almonds from Emerald
• two heaping spoonfuls of all-natural peanut butter (peanuts and salt is all that should be in PB! I love Smucker's Natural)
• a squeeze of honey
• enough almond milk to make the mixture creamy
• METHOD: put almonds, PB & honey in the VitaMix; turn on, turn to 10 and flip to HIGH; slowly add milk from the top of the blender. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides. Continue blending on high and adding milk until you get the consistency you want. (I doubled the recipe and had enough to snack on later with pretzels and for the awesome Apple Fried Rice recipe below)
• Put in a bowl and dip away! Good items for dipping include apple slices, rice cakes, pretzels, celery or crackers.

Apple Fried Rice

And now for the lunch feast that blossomed out of my son's mind today! Again, we were on our way home from school and he was snacking on those delicious Kroger brand Apple Cinnamon rice cakes when I asked him what he wanted for lunch. He asked, "can we make these for lunch?" Well, one of my favorite things to do with apples is pan fry them. I knew that we could make something yummy with the leftover rice from last night's dinner and some sweet Fuji apples!

And so Apple Fried Rice was born. The kids LOVED it and I only wished I had more for myself! With only a cup of rice leftover, I did what I could do.

To serve 2 little ones and a hungry mama...

Apple Fried Rice

• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1 apple, grated
• 1 carrot, grated
• olive oil
• cinnamon
• handful of raisins
• couple leftover scoops of Nutty Spread
• METHOD: heat oil in a pan and then fry rice for a few minutes to get it hot and a little crispy; add apple, carrot, raisins and a little bit of water, liberally season with cinnamon and cover pan for a couple minutes to steam; finally dab the Nutty Spread into the pan and stir until well combined. YUM!!