If like me you love spices .. And I try to encourage everyone I meet to get more of these into their food at every chance for the many health benefits they offer .. Since the beginning of time spices were traded and were more valuable than gold, but in today's modern world the humble list of spices seem to be forgotten, Oh yes we use the basic garlic and basil and a few essentials . though even when we feel like a good curry so many will opt for a store bought jar of sauce as opposed to making an authentic one from scratch, because of our busy lives. But without your health you are not much good to anyone. A great inspiration to me was Dr A Vogel and his book "the Nature Doctor", sadly my book was stolen from me some years ago and I haven't replaced it as yet.. but with the now help from computers I can look up whatever I need to know though his book gave case studies and invaluable years of research into the humble spices and natural plants that we take for granted today and that the big Pharmaceutical companies don't want us to know about, simply for the life saving benefits they provide.. God provided everything on earth for us to lead a healthy and natural life. diseases are our own doing I do believe, from our eating habits, lifestyle and what the food companies put in our foods.
I could literally rave on for hours about food stuff and the way it is produced .. a good example is bread .. how many people claim to now be "gluten" intolerant?.. Well the fact is unless you have "Celiac Disease" you probably are not gluten intolerant, but you are probably allergic to one of the many preservatives in the modern day store brought bread .. as I say to my friends .. "when I grew up bread was stale ( hard the next day) and was only good to use as toast for another day and then it went mouldy"... today's bread that you buy in a supermarket from the big bread companies can sit on my kitchen bench for 2 weeks or more it doesn't go stale (hard and nor does it go mouldy it can take up to a month before mould is even noticeable.. so what is in the bread??? well I hate to think .. I make my own thanks... think about that though and about all the other food you eat or feed your kids and families... But enough of my waffling on.
What I want to alert you to is the latest fad "CHAI TEA'...Specifically this brand of Chai Tea
Generally I am not into fads. I have been drinking a homemade mixture of spices in my coffee for a while now but a friend ( whom doesn't like to experiment with food) brought some "ARCADIA CHAI TEA", I think it cost him about $6.97 at Coles or Woolies. I thought it was made from Chai seeds so I tried it, ok it was nice I liked it .. but when I read what was in the ingredients I expected to see a list of spices. Mind you I was horrified only to find a list of numbers all additives, stabilizes, and preservatives totally opposite to what the packaging claimed it was I thought.
Here is the list of ingredients:
sugar, corn syrup solids, hydrogenated coconut oil, maltodextrin ( corn derived), flavours, instant tea 4%, sodium caseinate, mineral salts 340,451, 452, emulsifiers 471, 481, soy lecithin, salt, and anti caking agent 551...supposedly it contains milk and soy products in there also.
NOW WHERE IS THE SPICES???, THERE ISN'T ANY. Are you gobsmacked yet??? Well I know I was .. I mean this stuff is not healthy nor is it good for you ... I looked up the numbers on the net ..471 (Mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids Semi-synthetic emulsifiers) for example is actually on one website I looked up on the watch list for AU and the US. This is all very suss to me and I could argue the point for hours on this subject when it comes to additives and preservatives in food. they are evil as far as I am concerned. But I urge you to do your research and don't just buy the latest fad product because some company tells you it is healthy or good for you.... I even went to the website for this product in the beginning to try to find a list of the ingredients but couldn't find it at all . and I had to get a magnifying glass out to read the list on the product itself ( yes I am getting old things are harder to read) but I am sure most of you would agree it isn't easy to read food labels at the best of times and it is very time consuming when doing the weekly shop.. in all honesty this is one product I would avoid from a list of many. FEAR NOT I have a solution and better homemade substitute for it. I have even converted my hard to please flatmate and pointed out the benefits of this REAL SPICE alternative .. he calls it "PAN CHAI" haha because my nickname is Panda and it is my healthy version of CHAI LATTE. Pan chai. I thought that was brilliant .! depending what spices I have at the time here is my recipe for homemade PAN CHAI..not only is it healthier for you but it is cheaper.. It is a great way to get extra spices into your diet and you can look up the health benefits of each spice as well...even if you don't have any health issues this will act as a preventative and help build the immune system. Most of us love coffee I can drink 4 to 5 of these a day and it tastes way better than straight coffee.
To Make a small Batch
( quantities can be doubles or tripled)
you can adjust the spices to suit your taste but this is easy to get used to
2 heaped teaspoons of ground dutch cinnamon
1 heaped teaspoon of ground ginger
1 heaped teaspoon of ground cloves
1 teaspoon of allspice
1 teaspoon of ground star anise
1 teaspoon of ground cardamom
Mix all this together and store in an airtight jar or container.
Add 1 teaspoon to your normal morning coffee and enjoy !
I could literally rave on for hours about food stuff and the way it is produced .. a good example is bread .. how many people claim to now be "gluten" intolerant?.. Well the fact is unless you have "Celiac Disease" you probably are not gluten intolerant, but you are probably allergic to one of the many preservatives in the modern day store brought bread .. as I say to my friends .. "when I grew up bread was stale ( hard the next day) and was only good to use as toast for another day and then it went mouldy"... today's bread that you buy in a supermarket from the big bread companies can sit on my kitchen bench for 2 weeks or more it doesn't go stale (hard and nor does it go mouldy it can take up to a month before mould is even noticeable.. so what is in the bread??? well I hate to think .. I make my own thanks... think about that though and about all the other food you eat or feed your kids and families... But enough of my waffling on.
What I want to alert you to is the latest fad "CHAI TEA'...Specifically this brand of Chai Tea
Here is the list of ingredients:
sugar, corn syrup solids, hydrogenated coconut oil, maltodextrin ( corn derived), flavours, instant tea 4%, sodium caseinate, mineral salts 340,451, 452, emulsifiers 471, 481, soy lecithin, salt, and anti caking agent 551...supposedly it contains milk and soy products in there also.
NOW WHERE IS THE SPICES???, THERE ISN'T ANY. Are you gobsmacked yet??? Well I know I was .. I mean this stuff is not healthy nor is it good for you ... I looked up the numbers on the net ..471 (Mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids Semi-synthetic emulsifiers) for example is actually on one website I looked up on the watch list for AU and the US. This is all very suss to me and I could argue the point for hours on this subject when it comes to additives and preservatives in food. they are evil as far as I am concerned. But I urge you to do your research and don't just buy the latest fad product because some company tells you it is healthy or good for you.... I even went to the website for this product in the beginning to try to find a list of the ingredients but couldn't find it at all . and I had to get a magnifying glass out to read the list on the product itself ( yes I am getting old things are harder to read) but I am sure most of you would agree it isn't easy to read food labels at the best of times and it is very time consuming when doing the weekly shop.. in all honesty this is one product I would avoid from a list of many. FEAR NOT I have a solution and better homemade substitute for it. I have even converted my hard to please flatmate and pointed out the benefits of this REAL SPICE alternative .. he calls it "PAN CHAI" haha because my nickname is Panda and it is my healthy version of CHAI LATTE. Pan chai. I thought that was brilliant .! depending what spices I have at the time here is my recipe for homemade PAN CHAI..not only is it healthier for you but it is cheaper.. It is a great way to get extra spices into your diet and you can look up the health benefits of each spice as well...even if you don't have any health issues this will act as a preventative and help build the immune system. Most of us love coffee I can drink 4 to 5 of these a day and it tastes way better than straight coffee.
To Make a small Batch
( quantities can be doubles or tripled)
you can adjust the spices to suit your taste but this is easy to get used to
What you need:
Mind you I never really measure anything when I cook so I am taking a bit of a guess here
2 cup of coffee whitener2 heaped teaspoons of ground dutch cinnamon
1 heaped teaspoon of ground ginger
1 heaped teaspoon of ground cloves
1 teaspoon of allspice
1 teaspoon of ground star anise
1 teaspoon of ground cardamom
Mix all this together and store in an airtight jar or container.
Add 1 teaspoon to your normal morning coffee and enjoy !
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