Ginger!

Maybe it's because it's winter, and ginger is very warming to the body, but I've been on a ginger kick these past weeks. Hot lemon ginger to drink, ginger in my seaweed salad, ginger in my sauteed vegetables. Back before I joined the cult of 'sugar is evil', I used to make a killer ginger cake, which I think I'll have to revisit, but with updated ingredients ... Hmmm. I think that will be this weekend's baking project, baking mojo in abeyance or not.

Ginger not only tastes good itself, but it brings out the good in other flavours, too. And you can use just a little of it, so that your young child will find it appealing, or you can load it up so it blows the top off your head and creates great heat in your body.

Whenever my husband has a cold, I like to make him a hot lemon ginger drink. If I were the type of person to have fresh lemons lying around at all times, I would use fresh lemons. However, I am the type of person who keeps a bottle of lemon juice in the fridge instead. True story. So, I finely grate a tablespoon or so of fresh ginger, throw in about a tablespoon of lemon juice, the teensiest pinch of sea salt (just a couple of grains, really), and add a generous couple tea spoons of raw honey to a large mug. Into the mug goes boiling water. Stir, and let sit for a few minutes until cool enough to drink. This tastes a bit like hot and spicy lemonade, but it's very good for your cold. You get a little vitamin c from the lemon juice (as well as some anti-viral effects, although the quantity of juice is quite small), you get good anti-viral effects from the honey, and it's supposedly soothing on the throat. You get the chest warming effects of the ginger, as well as yet more potent anti-viral (and anti-inflammatory) effects from this fantastic root.

I love hot drinks in the winter, but limit myself to one cup of caffeinated tea in the morning. After that, it's sans caff all the way. So, this is a great beverage to warm you up on a winter day. And if you are sensitive to fructose and glucose (both of which are in honey), or just need something that's a little lower on the glycemic index, you can try other sweeteners such as coconut nectar, coconut sugar, clear agave, or xylitol. I know a lot of people like stevia too, and if you can get it in an unprocessed form, cool. But the taste of it won't work well with lemon and ginger in my opinion. Most of the stevia you can buy in stores is very processed and has all the benefits taken out of it. If you can by the powdered wild crafted herb itself (organic), you will be reaping some of the benefits of this plant.

Well, the ginger kick seems to be alive and kicking yet, so please prepare yourself for some posts that involve ginger.