Good Afternoon and HAPPY FRIDAY! Can you believe it is only 1 week until Easter….is it true that days, weeks and months go much faster the older you get!?

I have some exciting blogs coming up for you over the next week or so….I am continuing my weekly “Whats in my Pantry” blogs and I also have some cute Easter ideas as well as sharing with you our day yesterday at The Royal Easter Show and all the goodies I found…. so stay tuned and don’t forget to head to the home page, right hand side and put your email address in so my blogs come straight to your email!

Today I am sharing with you “What is in my Pantry”….

SPREADS

Straight from my Pantry

Peanut Butter: I like this Macro Organic Crunchy Peanut Butter. It doesn’t get used a great deal for School Lunches due to the no nut policy and only occasionally is it used on toast for the kids. For a quick and sweet treat for late night cravings when I am needing something for dessert and up late working I love thin rice cakes with a light spread of this and a drizzle of honey. I use this peanut butter in cooking, there is a DELICIOUS Satay Dip in Cut out the Crap Book and also a YUMMY Peanut Butter Chicken in Cut out the Crap for Kids. You will see that at times when making ‘Tart Cases” in Cut out the Crap, I use peanut butter as a replacement for butter in the recipes.

Macro Brand = Woolworths. I am sure there are many other brands around that are only Peanuts also.

Ingredients: 100% Organic Roasted Peanuts. Around $1 extra compared to other peanut butters that have a lot of ‘crap’ in them. Well worth it in my opinion.

Tahini: This spread is simply Sesame Seeds turned into a paste. This brand that I buy is hulled, natural, dairy, gluten and cholesterol free. You can get hulled or unhulled the difference being the ‘skin’ is left on the unhulled which makes them better nutritionally, however hulled is still great for you. In my opinion unhulled is also more bitter in taste.

Tahini is high in calcium, protein, copper, magnesium and Vitamin A, E, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and B15 WOW!!!!!!!! It can be used as a spread instead of peanut butter. I use this on rice crackers as a spread, drizzled on steamed vegetables and I especially LOVE this dip I created http://www.cutoutthecrap.com.au/recipe-tahini-dip/

I bought this from our local Health Food store but have seen Tahini in Supermarket health food stores also.

Ingredients: JUST NATURAL HULLED SESAME SEEDS – no added oil, salt or sugar

Jam: I love the brand Anathoth. It is purely fruit and sugar. Yes it has a lot of sugar but I get this from my local Supermarket its convenient to buy and its something that is not used often at all so I don’t mind. We probably go through a jar every few months! I especially love this as it has “apricot” which I can have seen as thought I am allergic to all berries which are in most Jams. I also use this Jam when making the Apricot Chicken from COTC for Kids.

Ingredients: New Zealand Apricots 50%, Sugar.

Honey: My hubby especially loves honey, drizzled onto his Muesli, Chia Pudding and Toast. I try and buy Honey when we go to fresh food markets that we feel have more variety and flavour than a lot of store bought honeys. This recent one we got from the Easter Show yesterday is Golden Nectar, Organic Real Leatherwood made in Tasmania. Have you seen our family favourite of Honey Chicken on my blog??? Check it out here….HONEY CHICKEN…

“Leatherwood” Honey

THAT’S IT for spreads in my Pantry. You may notice me missing a much loved product in most homes….Vegemite and all the other mites! I refuse it buy it as its not additive free in the slightest. I threw it out last June, told Miss 10 and Miss 8 that it was because it was bad for them and that was that. Whilst Tanya from The Additive Free Pantry uses Miso as a replacement for Vegemite and says it tastes “just the same” it is Soy and I am allergic and not a fan for the kids so I haven’t tried it. It might be something to look into though for those that are interested.

One thing that isn’t actually a ‘spread’ but I use it as one just the same is Avocados….all 4 of my children LOVE this spread on toast, wraps, crackers with a sprinkle of Herbamare and especially Vital Veggie Powder sprinkled on top.