Al Fez spices (stir fry paste)

We found these Al Fez spices and cous-cous mixes at Cost Plus and tried a few varieties. Their seasonings are generally low sodium and very low fat. A couple misses (such as their tabloue, which was disgusting), but a big hit was found with the lemon tagine stir-fry paste. You mix the stuff in with chicken (we did plain chicken breast on a non-stick frypan) – and the result was amazingly moist and flavorful chicken that we ate with some cous-cous and vegetables. I could believe how great this chicken was – it actually tasted like something you’d get at a restaurant. And this is from next to no work, and for a very low cost (paste is cheap, and you only use a small amount).

Anyway, I was extremely impressed. Unfortunately I didn’t find the paste at our closest Cost Plus on my last visit, but I’m hoping they get it in – they still carry this brand.

Powdered peanut butter from Bell Plantation.

I love you, powdered peanut butter. FINALLY a peanut butter I can eat that tastes like real peanut butter. One of the few food items I missed horribly after going on a low-fat diet and only allowing fats from olive oil and fish was peanut butter. Even if I tried to limit myself, I’m sure I’d fail. So I just cut it right out of the diet. And trying substitutes just failed – they didn’t taste right. I’ve tried things like “Better N’ Peanut Butter” (just plain gross all around) and soynut butter, which has great texture but weird suffers from aftertaste and is still fairly high in fat (only a tiny bit lower than reduced-fat peanut butter). I have found one soynut butter that’s not too bad though, the chocolate flavor of Simple Food’s soynut butter.

Anyway, this powdered stu I was entirely excited when I found this site with really low-fat peanut butter that apparently tastes “real”, and even happier after the jars of powder arrived and I tried it out to find they were right. The consistency is surprisingly good (and you can control it to a certain extent by what you mix the powder with, and how much), the taste is amazing, and I can once again make a PB&J sandwich that tastes awesome.

Bell Plantation’s PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter

So check it out, see if you like this stuff too. Remember you can mix it with stuff like fat free cream cheese and baking/cooking to make sauces and whatever else.