Spoonful of Sugar Free

Registered Dietitian

Tea

Spicy Tomato Cure

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This Drink/Soup I mentioned yesterday did wonders.

Originally found off of this site. A few tweaks and I share it with you!

Spicy Tomato Cure

~Perfect cure for congestion or sore throats. It works fast and tastes great. Instantly soothes. 

Ingredients

  • 2 cups V8 vegetable juice
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
  • Hot Sauce (the more the better!)
  • ground black pepper, to taste
Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and heat until steaming. Slip slowly and re-heat as needed. Let it sit in your throat, and breathe in the fumes.
Flavor Idea:
Add worcestershire sauce and celery to make it taste like a Bloody Mary.
I drank mine with a fresh lemon-cucumber-celery juice. It really did do wonders!
Capricin (found in hot peppers) is soothing to the stomach. In addition, it’s a pain killer (good for sore throats), and is also one of the main ingredients used in herbal recipes for killing fungal infections like Candida.

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

Do you like spicy foods?

I used to hate spicy foods-mild salsa for me, please! But now, I don’t mind a little spice now and then.

Ugga Ugga

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Thank you everyone for the wonderful recipe ideas on my mushroom haul! There are so many recipes I want to try now…I might need more mushrooms!

However, that is going to have to wait because I have come down with a horrible cold/flu. My head hurts, my throat is soar, my body aches, and I keep blowing my nose every two minutes! Ugga Ugga…

While the sun is shining on this beautiful Saturday, I’m stuck in bed. I can’t do too much work on the computer, either, because my head hurts too much. So my day is looking like this:

Lots of sleep.

Hot tea.

Miso Soup (Hey! Maybe I’ll make some mushroom miso soup!)

And even some strawberry ice cream. (It has no added sugar and it is full of vitamin C, so why not?)

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

 

Any good movie suggestions?

Coffee or Tea?

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Tea or Coffee? The question that haunts many, many people in the morning.

Personally, I am a fan of both. They both have great, intense, rich, and sometimes delicate flavors.

Tipu’s Chai, a chai tea company based out of Montana, contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if I would like to try some free samples.

Free food? Of course I would!

They were so kind and sent me a package of their instant chai tea “with no preservatives, no sugar and no artificial sweeteners.” I learned that most instant chais do contain these three things, so I was very happy to learn that it didn’t!  It would be great for the lactose intolerant and diabetic.

The directions say to simply add it to warm milk, but I added it to warm almond milk. It was very good!! A little bit of this stuff goes a long way!

My mom, who is a big chai fan, loved the tea because it was rich and full-bodied. She said, “It is not like the chai that you get in a coffee shop with the sugar and milk and froth. Instead, it tastes very authentic. Just like the Indians make.” She should know because she has an Indian friend who makes her own chai tea.

Thanks again, Tipu!

Now onto coffee. Mocha to be more specific.

I have always been a big fan of iced mochas. When I was about 8 years old, my mom bought me a mocha mix to make my own mocha shakes. They were so good, yet they were filled to the brim with sugar. On average, a small mocha purchased at a coffee house has atleast 30 grams of sugar. Some of them having as much as 50 grams. Sheesh, that’s a lot of refined carbs.

Alas, I craved a mocha one morning…

My solution: Mocha Oatmeal!

Mocha Oatmeal

~This is a great substitute for those high-sugar drinks. It also fills you up, and keeps you satisfied!

Serves 1

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1 cup milk or milk substitute (or water, but the milk makes it super creamy. I used almond milk)
  • 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 1 Tablespoon instant coffee mix (I actually cheated here and used Caffix, a decaf instant “coffee” made from barley…)
  • Toppings: sliced almonds, chocolate shavings, or even whipped cream. Be creative!

Heat milk and oats in saucepan until it begins to boil. Turn down to medium heat, and stir until oats are cooked. While stirring, add the cocoa powder and coffee.

Serve in a bowl, or a coffee mug and top with your toppings of choice!

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

Are you a coffee person or a tea person??