The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

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With anything good comes pluses and minuses, pros and cons, ins and outs! This can surely be said of our most favorite yummy morning, afternoon and sometimes evening savorings. Coffee, tea, hot cocoa — yum-yum-m-m-m-m! Each carries with it a unique aroma and special goodness that is possibly only surpassed by one craving, that of pure chocolate! Ah-ha! Of course, there is the addition of extra chocolate to any of the aforementioned that makes it all the more sinful! Don't leave without the recipe at the end! 

Now, on to the topic at hand, The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly of your favorite brews!

 

COFFEE

I think we will all pray to the first cup of the day. It's a silent prayer, sung while the mind is still foggy and blue. "O Magic Cup, " it might go, "carry me above the traffic jam. Keep me civil in the subway. And forgive my employer, as you forgive me." Amen. ~Stewert Lee Allen

The Good...

+ Coffee Reduces Your Risk of Diabetes
+ Coffee Fights Free Radicals
+ Coffee Improves Memory and Cognition

The Bad...

- Coffee can increase Osteoporosis
- Conventional Coffee is Laden with Pesticides

The Ugly...

- - Coffee Causes Wrinkles
- - Coffee Can Actually Cause Weight Gain

Tidbits of Coffee Trivia:

25 Weird Coffee Trivia #10: By 1900 what could you expect to be delivered to your door in the United States by horse-pulled wagons besides blocks of ice? Coffee. Door-to-door salesmen, the kind you like to see coming.

Coffee Trivia: #100 The most widely accepted legend associated to the discovery of coffee is of the goat herder named Kaldi of Ethiopia. Around the year 800-850 A.D., Kaldi was amazed as he noticed his goats behaving in a frisky manner after eating the leaves and berries of a coffee shrub. And, of course, he had to try them!

More Coffee Trivia: Did you know in Turkey, wives can legally divorce if their husbands don’t provide a daily coffee quota?

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TEA

Tea can be hot or cold, and is a virtually calorie free, sugar free, fat free, and sodium free drink, but yet is said to be an aromatic and satisfying drink!

The Good...

+ Drinking hot tea offers some of the same benefits as chicken soup.
+Tea is known as nature's 'wonder drug'.
+Tea can reduce stress levels by up to a quarter.
+ Drinking one cup of tea daily could help reduce the risk of ovarian cancer.

The Bad...

- Drinking steaming tea may cause throat cancer.
- Drinking more than four cups of tea a day can increase women's risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis.

The Ugly...

- - Tea contains oxalates, over consumption of which can cause kidney stones.

Tidbits of Tea Trivia:

51 Tea Facts Every Tea Lover Should Know  

# 5: The art of reading tea leaves is called tasseography.

#13: For centuries, tea was used only as a medicine. It took almost 3,000 years for tea to become an everyday drink.

#51:  Pu-erh tea is supposed to be slurped. Slurping aerates the tea, increasing the flavors and allowing better contact with the taste buds.

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HOT COCOA/CHOCOLATE

Amidst the frosty temperatures of Winter, what could be better that putting your lips to a cup of steaming hot chocolate? While the silky richness of the hot chocolate is absolutely delicious, it also provides a shield from the wicked bursts of cold.

The Good... 

+ Hot Cocoa/Chocolate reduces anxiety and anger due to phenyl ethylamine present in chocolate.

+ Hot Cocoa/Chocolate has a yummy taste and is consumed with pleasure.
+ Hot Cocoa/Chocolate is very good for digestion.

The Bad...

- Hot Cocoa/Chocolate contains caffeine which can be bad for the health.

The Ugly...

- - Hot Cocoa/Chocolate contains many calories because of high sugar and saturated fats that can lead to obesity.

Tidbits of Hot Cocoa/Chocolate Trivia: 

Fun Facts About Hot Chocolate: Hot Chocolate vs. Hot Cocoa—there IS a difference: (A) Hot chocolate is made directly from bar chocolate, which already contains cocoa, sugar and cocoa butter. (B) Hot cocoa is made from powder made by extracting most of the rich cocoa butter from the ground cacao beans.

Br-r-r-r-r-r! Is it freezing outside where you are? Not yet, you say. Well, you do not have to wait until cold weather to enjoy a cup of coffee, tea or hot cocoa/chocolate. A jolt of caffeine is a great pick-me-up any day, any time of day! 

Drink the REAL stuff...

So what is your favorite 'poison'. . . Coffee, Tea or Hot Cocoa/Chocolate or neither? Which brew would you choose as being the most beneficial? 

I promised you a recipe, so here it is...GO FOR IT!

 

Related Articles:

7 Coffee Pros & Cons
Interesting Tea Trivia
Top 10 Health Benefits of Drinking Tea
Funtastic Facts About Chocolate

Gypsy Toast?

For many of us, food is not the first thought of dawn so for all you last risers or mid-morning breakfast lovers early risers, it's breakfast time! In fact, breakfast can be enjoyed any time of the day, especially today's breakfast food. Ready for some "Gypsy Toast?" You may not know it by this name but surely its common name!

November 28 is...

National French Toast Day

French toast is actually the common name for Eggy Bread, Omelet Bread, German Toast, Spanish Toast and Gypsy Toast. Anyway you name it, the end result is primarily the same. Of course, through the years, home cooks and fancy chefs have put their own 'spin' on a common item to make it unique but the basic ingredients remain the same: eggs, milk and bread. Top it off with maple syrup, sour wood honey, fruit of your choice and dust it with powered sugar!

Check out this recipe at frugalfoodiemamma!

 

Twelve French Toast Recipes to Get Excited About

 And, don't leave without checking out...

 

You’ve Been Making French Toast All Wrong (Here’s How to Do It Right)

 Get to work and get it made!

yum, yum, yum . . . yummy!

Believe it or not...Buy Nothing Day on Black Friday!

This is just crazy! Black Friday is the  

B-B-B-B-B-I-I-I-I-I-G-G-G-G-G-est shopping day of the year! 

How on earth can this day also be celebrated as ...

For very few of us has there been a day when we absolutely bought nothing! Is it even possible to go 24 hours without buying something? There is always a day and time when something has run out, the fridge is bare, an absolute craving has taken over or the biggest sale of the century is on. The latter is exactly what's happenin' now!

With so many sales in place—discount on this, price slash on that—temptation surrounds our very being to buy, buy, buy whether we need it or not. Everywhere we turn, radio, TV, flyers, banners, posters all say the same thing, "Come on in! Come on down! HOT deals today! Save 10%...20%...30%... MORE!" Heck! Wonder when the day will come when the advertisement reads "We don't need it. You want it? Come and get it!" Basically that is exactly what's happenin'. It just comes at a price.

Remember nothing is free. In order to buy on sale what is for sale at its lowest price, the tendency is to overbuy, which means cash is out of the question. The alternative, the credit card. If the one we have is maxed out, the solution is simple: apply for another one. Too many are too easy to obtain without taking the time to read the fine print.

So, on Black Friday, looming in front of us is ...

But not the only question. Take a long hard look at what you are contemplating buying. What IS the reason? Do you NEED it or do you WANT it? Is it worth overextending yourself only to end up a stressful mess when the shopping is all over and the credit card bills come due? Do you really want to fight the crowds, 'dodge the bullets' so to speak? So, the challenge is on ... to buy or not to buy, that is the question.

On Friday, November 27 (US) and Saturday, November 28 (UK), challenge yourself to turn off the shopping and tune in to something more worthwhile. Spend the day with your family and friends! Some argue that ‘Buy Nothing Day’ can be the start of a life-changing lifestyle commitment, where others claim it’s meaningless, as observers simply buy more the following day. Either way, there’s no doubt that going without buying anything for an entire day is quite a challenge in the modern world, and will serve to make you think about what your life is really about. 

Do you REALLY want to find yourself in the midst of this?

This is CRAZY! It's MADNESS!