I have loved almonds for as long as I can remember.  I use them often, grabbing a handful for a quick snack, throwing them slivered into salads and have even used their oil in homemade beauty products.  And now, I have (finally) ground them up and made almond butter!
Lucky for me, there are lots of good reasons to eat almonds.

Three reasons almonds are so good for you.
1. Heart Health.
There are many reasons almonds are good for your heart.  For one, they are high in healthy fat, which helps maintain good cholesterol levels.  They also have lots of potassium and little sodium, both factors that help regulate blood pressure.  As if that wasn’t enough, the amount of vitamins and minerals in almonds, such as vitamin E and magnesium have also been found to be key players in heart health.
2. Brain Health
Almonds have good levels of things like omega-3’s and vitamin E that have been linked to healthy brain function.  They also contain phenylalanine, which is a chemical linked to cognitive function.
3. Energy
One of the reasons almonds produce energy is because they provide a lot of calories, but there are also high amounts of several vitamins and minerals that play an important role in energy production.  The strong presence of riboflavin, copper and manganese help turn those calories into energy.

SIMPLE ALMOND BUTTER
Ingredients:
Raw Almonds
Salt (optional)

HONEY MAPLE ALMOND BUTTER
Ingredients:
2 cups Raw Almonds
1 teaspoon Extra-Virgin Coconut Oil
2 Tablespoons Honey or Maple Syrup (I used 1 T of each)
Sea Salt (optional)
this recipe was inspired bythe post on Alexandra’s Kitchen featuring The Sprouted Kitchen cookbook

CINNAMON FLAX ALMOND BUTTER
Ingredients:

2 cups Raw Almonds
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon Flaxseed
Sea Salt (optional)

Directions:
This applies to all of the above 🙂
1. Place almonds in food processor and blend until natural oils begin to come out.  This may take a while, up to 10 minutes!  (be sure to give your almond blender a break)
2. Add other ingredients.  Blend until desired consistency is reached.

Simple, right?  And so delicious!

Some notes:
~I tried five different pieces of equipment on my journey to making yummy almond butter from a grinder to a small bullet style blender and normal blender to both a small and larger sized food processor.  The conclusion?  Bigger blade and motor equals easier to make almond butter.  I did not get the consistency I wanted from my small (loyal smoothie making) blender.  I did with a normal monster blender, but it was a huge pain to get out and clean out.  The larger food processor worked the best!
~I have seen a lot of recipes where the almonds were toasted first.  I did not do this, but plan to try at some point.
~Refrigeration.  Technically, nut butters are supposed be refrigerated, but it’s frustrating because it does change the texture.  If you plan to use it within the week, however, I say cover it and leave it out.

Yum!  Enjoy!