Eating Spices?

Hey - I've started (again) on the watching of my food intake and as a coincidence I had also started having some whole cloves in black tea at work.  I have a little box of cloves at the desk so I've been just snacking on them some.  They are good for wanting something flavorful to chew on in the middle of the day.

Also, I've made a "tea" out of cinnamon bark today which is really tasty (and tastes sweet to me).  I think I'll start making a chi type drink with the cloves and cinnamon and maybe some other stuff.

I'm thinking it's a good way to get extra water through a non-calorie beverage that provides an alternative taste to normal tea or water.  I like water well enough and don't have a prob drinking it but also like a little flavor.  It helps me get through the harder parts of the day eating-wise and fills me up.

So, do any of you have any other recommendations on spices to chew on or make in drinks?

Also, I didn't see any articles about any health issues with increasing the intake of spices but just wanted to see if anyone knew something I missed (I did research on google).

Herbs and spices were the earliest form of medicine and there are some fascinating books on the subject.  Personally, coming from a herbalist background, I think that the judicious addition of herbs and spices in our food is offers a lot of benefits ... certainly more than we currently understand.    I think bland food is death, basically.

Cloves are a little powerful for me to eat as a snack!.... traditional remedy for tooth-ache, of course.  You could try chewing liquorice root.... It's a rather woody texture but has that nice, sweet flavour and is believed to be quite good for stress.  I think you can make an infusion from it.   There's any number of seeds that taste lovely when they've been roasted a little.... I recommend fennel, caraway and cumin as a nice combination.   Plain old mint leaves stuffed into a cafetiere and infused with boiling water make an effective 'digestif'.   Ginger is another I'd recommend.  Crystallised in sugar it's a good snack and also a very effective cure for motion sickness.   Sliced raw it makes a great tea if you sweeten it with a little honey.

On a slightly different tack... if you own a juicer you can make some lovely vegetable juices taste even more exciting by throwing in some herbs at the same time.  Fresh parsley or basil leaves, for example.

There has been a lot of research done on the benefit of many herbs and spices.

Some I have tried are ginger, turmeric, garlic, parsley, Cayenne, cinnamon. I don't take many supplements, prefer to get my nutrition from food but two I do like are Fish oil and Inositol.

Honey, especially local honey is another excellent food to eat.

Look up the health benefits of hot peppers. I eat them in my salad everyday.

Water, water water

a hot ginger chocolate: made with any milk and a few squares of dark chocolate with a high cocoa percentage with some freshly grated ginger is delicious

if you want to add more flavour to the cinnamon tea and only add about 50 calories. peel and chop a golden delicous apple and place it in a pan with 1 cup of water, 1 tbsp of brown sugar and a cinnamon stick and bring to the boil. then simmer for ten minutes or until the apples have softened and the flavours have infused. remove from the heat and refrigerate until cold. when its cool strain and serve with ice... delish! (you can double the recipie by doubling the apple, sugar and water for how many serves you want)

chilli and garlic are magical! they can really change the flavour of a meal. and there are so many types of chilli. for a different flavour roast the garlic first.

Great, thanks for the ideas.  They sound great and tasty.   I'm going to have to spend some time at the spice section of the grocery store today.

I do love garlic and hot peppers too.  I usually eat them as part of my normal diet anyway even when I wasn't really "watching" it.  Definitely they are good for spicing up a bland meal.  I agree that bland food is killer.  I just love to have lots of different flavor experiences but am trying to find the healthy ones to keep my motivation about eating well up because I love to eat and that just won't change!

Indians believe that well-spiced food is good for the body, mind, and soul.  I do a little Indian cooking, and find that well spiced food is incredibly satisfying, what I think of as good "value" for my calorie budget. 

I buy a commercial tea called "Good Earth" that has cinnamon and other spices, and tastes sweet to me even though it doesn't have any sugar.  I like it both hot and iced.  I avoid caffeine due to migraines, and I find this a very satisfying substitute for black tea.

If you are in the US, there is a great mail-order source of dried herbs, chiles, and spices called Penzeys.  Their products are very fresh, and tend to be significantly less expensive than supermarket brands.  I couldn't live without my spice rack!  Well, I could, but not nearly as happily!

Cinnamon does good things for your cholesterol and also helps regulate blood sugars.  Ginger is a great anti-inflammatory...raw is a bit much for me, but pickled (sushi style) is yummy.

Thanks for the additional info.  I didn't make it to the grocery store today (kids, need I say more) but will tomorrow.  I'm not in the US as I'm expating in the middle east but that makes it easy to get great spices at the store.  Good info on the cinnamon, I'll keep it up then!

I just wanted to add an herb tea that is a favorite of mine.  On the Dr. Oz show the other day, I heard them mention Dandilion Tea as something that is very good for you.  I was estatic because this has been one of my favorite teas for a very long time and while I was aware that it had benefits during PMS and to avoid water retention, I didn't realize that there were long-term benefits as well.  I think it is an acquired taste, but I really do enjoy the taste... with honey especially.

If you like herby, spicey flavors, you might like Dandilion Tea, or a mix that includes dandilions.  Lots of "Women's Cycle" teas have it.

Dandelion is a mild diuretic... so don't go too overboard.  The French nickname for the leaves  is 'pis-en-lit'.... 'piss the bed'! 

That is awesome, I am going to call it that from now lol.  I guess that's why its so good for bloating and water retention. 

Hey - thanks for the extra replies.  I made it to the grocery store yesterday and hit the spice bazaar there.  It's really cool, it's like a deli but with spices.  There's a guy in the middle of the area and just tons of cloth bags full of spices all around.  You tell him what you want and he puts it in for you.

So, anyway, I got all kids of stuff:

Seeds: fennel, caraway, cumin, ajwain and black mustard - these I dry toasted in a pan and am eating them straight (yummy)

Also, for tea (Chai type with no sugar or milk) I got: black/white peppercorns, star anise, green cardamom, dried ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. 

- I've not made this yet but it should be good I think.  I also got cheap indian black tea for a base.

I also got dried mint, nutmeg and allspice which I think I'll try including in the tea to see if it adds any interesting flavors.

All of them are whole spices and good quality.

I just ate the seed mix in little bites (a large pinch at a time) today at work (Sunday is a work day in Bahrain where I work) and found it good for a quick bite and to keep me from thinking of what else I could munch on as there is always something to eat sitting around the office.

I'll let you know if the tea is any good too. :)

If you're in Bahrain, you can probably get hold of some Iranian (no Spanish rip-offs) saffron at your spice souk.  That stuff is to die for.   Just a pinch in your cooking water... some basmati rice... the whole thing becomes rich yellow and wonderfully fragrant.  Not sure of the health properties of saffron but anything that expensive has to be doing something good.  LOL!

Hi - I made my tea.  I've had a chance to make it twice now.  (I work a lot so I don't get a chance to post every day).

My ingredients were:

Cardamon (large, green)

Black peppercorns

Star Anise

Cloves

Cinnamon

Cheap Black Indian Tea

It was good the first time, the second time I made it it was a bit bitter as I think I made it too strong.  I'll try different recipes until I figure it out.  I'll see about adding saffron too but want to figure out the basic recipe first until I add something so fancy (and expensive).  However, I think that would be tasty.

It's really nice to have it and is good for a tasty treat.  I have a thermos of it (plus a thermos of green tea) at the office.  It gives me a flavorful treat to have which helps keep me away from the cake and donuts.  So far it's something new and exciting for me so I'm trying it out.  Plus, from the nutrient info I've read the spices I'm eating are full of good stuff for you.  It's like taking a vitamin  but natural almost.

Whatever, I am enjoying it and it's full of flavor with no additional calories almost so why not.