Slow Cooker Snacking

Living on a budget is great, because it forces me to cut out the excess amount of snacking of which I have grown so accustomed. Eric says I eat like a bird, but in truth it is because I snack like a squirrel storing up for winter... often and excessively... so much that I am hardly ever hungry for dinner.

In order to continue this bad habit in a more cost efficient way, I've decided to try making one of my favorite snacks from scratch instead of buying it already made in the store. If you were to guess, you might think I was making potato chips, or maybe a healthy fruit and veggie dip. And while those are both good options, I would have to disappoint you and perhaps surprise you with my comfort snack of choice:
Boiled. Peanuts.
Not roasted, not salted (yet), not mixed with raisins and chocolate. Boiled.

Boiled Peanuts Poster

If you have never ventured off the interstate south of the Mason Dixon, you might be completely bewildered by the thought of boiling peanuts. For those of you who have, however, you know that boiled peanuts are a roadside staple in the South.

I have loved this salty snack since before I can remember. The twelve long years my family lived away from Georgia, I had minor withdrawals. So much that my mom had boiled peanuts shipped to Chicago for my birthday one year. Eric and I even had boiled peanuts at our wedding! Not that Eric enjoyed that, he claims to be disgusted by them, but lucky for him I love him enough to overlook that detail.

While boiling peanuts is nearly as easy as it sounds, it requires the right ratio of salt to peanut to water. And there's also the matter of boiling them for the right amount of time... and in our case, that's 18 hours in the crock pot. This might seem like a long time, but if you start them before bed, they'll be done in time to enjoy after work the next day! And the more tender the peanuts are, the better they taste, I promise.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 lb of green peanuts (make sure they are green, or raw, and not roasted)
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup of salt
• 12 cups of water

How to:

Wash the peanuts and submerge in 12 cups of water in a 6 qt. crock pot. Pour salt in crock pot and cook on high for 18 hours. When complete, drain and serve!

Leftover peanuts may be refrigerated and warmed up in the microwave.

So there you have it. An authentic Southern snack to warm you up on these increasingly chilly November days! Stay tuned in the coming week for some great Fall dinner options, on a budget!

P.S.

In honor of the month of Giving Thanks, my November motto to live by is:

Give Love, Give Grace, Give Food (see where I'm going with this?)

Help me celebrate a month of giving by giving back to those around you! All it takes is a kind word or a little patience with that difficult person at work or school, even giving back by serving food to those in need! Because giving is what the holidays are really all about.