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“Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary.”  ~Chinese Proverb

I’m in love with a new fad that actually is some 4700 years old!  I’ve been drinking a lot of tea this week because I read that it is good for me.  But the ancient Chinese already knew this, so I am a few thousand years behind the times!  Tea has been getting a lot of press lately, especially touting its health benefits.  Oprah has talked about the weight loss benefits of tea, and when anyone, especially Oprah, mentions weight loss, I’m all over it.  I also read about a “secret ingredient” that is helping kickstart a lot of weight loss programs in a Woman’s World magazine while I was waiting to check out at the grocery store.  I can’t resist buying those magazines because every week there is a new “secret” of some kind to help folks lose weight.  They sure know how to sell magazines!

So, the latest secret ingredient was good old tea.  The magazine article made several claims about tea:

• It increases your metabolism
• It suppresses your appetite
• It supplies antioxidants called polyphenols that can help or cure a host of things

Now, this only applies to real tea.  Green tea, white tea, black tea, or oolong tea come from the leaves of the warm weather evergreen plant called the  Camellia sinensis.  The leaves of that plant are harvested, and depending on the season of the harvest (white tea is harvested from young leaves in the spring) and how much processing is done to the tea (the least processed tea is green tea), you get different colors and types of tea.  But only tea coming from this particular plant has all the health benefits that the news is buzzing with.  Herbal teas, which are infusions of other types of plants, such as Chamomile or Dandelion, have other benefits, but not to the extent that real tea does.  If you enjoy herbal teas, you can just add some real tea to them to get the additional health benefits.

I figured if it increases my metabolism and suppresses my appetite, then I’m already sold.  Besides, I enjoy tea.  So, I’ve been drinking tea like crazy this week.  I recently bought the cutest little teapot for a very good price that has a little infuser in it and holds about 5 coffee mugs of tea.  I just put three oolong tea bags in the infuser, pour boiling hot water to the top of the teapot, let the teabags steep for about five or six minutes, remove the teabags and the infuser and serve myself a piping hot cup of tea with Splenda and lemon because that’s the way I like it.  If I have time, I drink most of that pot in the morning before I go to work.  If I don’t have a lot of time to consume that many cups of tea, I drink one cup and drink the rest, which is by then at room temperature, which I don’t mind at all, when I get home.  I can even put my cute little teapot in the refrigerator to have iced tea later.  With all that tea, I am wired!  Because guess what?  Tea has a healthy dose of caffeine, too!  The good news is that it has about half the caffeine of coffee, though.  So, I get enough to make me feel alert and peppy, but not frantic and nervous. 

I have been reading about tea and its health benefits when I have a little free time.  I have read reports claiming that tea helps everything from AIDS to tooth decay.  It’s supposedly good for bad breath and for reducing cholesterol.  Those polyphenols are really miracle working chemicals!  However, I did read that putting milk in tea takes away its benefits, so I’m glad I prefer mine with lemon and Splenda.

To get the maxium benefits, you’re supposed to drink a lot of it!  Besides my five cup pot of tea that I brew in the mornings, I have started adding instant tea with a pleasant raspberry flavor to my bottled water.  Drinking a lot of water is something that I subscribe to anyway, but why not add the antioxidant benefit of adding tea?  I’m not sure it’s only the tea (because I have also been eating a lot healthier this week) but I feel terrific!  Even with not as much sleep as I would like to get, I haven’t been tired.  And my skin looks clearer and healthier, too. 

Has it revved my metabolism?  I’m not sure.  I do know that drinking all that tea has curbed my appetite, though.  So, I’m going to keep on drinking my tea.  I like feeling better.

Besides brewing a nice cup of tea for its enjoyment and health benefits, you can also get extra tea into your diet by adding it to your food as you cook.

Last night, I cooked some lean ground chicken breast patties that I seasoned with a rub I made from seasoned salt and some ooling tea. I just opened the tea bag to get the tea and mixed about a teaspoon of the tea with about a tablespoon of the seasoned salt.  I rubbed the mixture on the raw patties and then cooked them.  The flavor was wonderfully savory.  I intend to use that on more meats that I cook in the future.

Here are some other simple, easy suggestions that I’ve seen in tea diet books and cookbooks for adding tea to your diet:

Substitute one half of the liquid called for in any recipe that requires a good amount of water or stock, such as soups or stews, with brewed tea.

Use leftover tea as part of a marinade for boneless chicken breasts before you grill them.

Tea also acts as a meat tenderizer, so marinate an inexpensive cut of beef in tea and spices before cooking it in your favorite recipe.

Cook rice using tea instead of water.

Add a tablespoon or two of loose tea to your salad dressing.

Substitute the water requirement for cakes or quick breads with tea.

If you think about it, and you really want to add more tea to your diet, you’ll think of tons of other ways to include healthy tea in your cooking.

It’s time to start thinking about how we will handle the Christmas season that is fastly approaching.  It’s no secret that the cost of living has sky rocketed or that our Country is in serious financial trouble.  It stands to reason that the majority of Americans will not be in a financial position to be as generous as they may have been in times past.  It’s definetly time to make some changes in our gift giving practices.  We don’t have to give until it hurts. Especially, when our pocket books are hurting already. 

Still, we probably don’t want to act like the original “Scrooge” and forego gift giving altogether. So, we will need to be more creative. I offer the following suggestions:

• Set a budget and stick to it!  Consider realistically what you can spend without putting yourself in a bind.  Everything else that you consider will have to remain within this budget.  If you only have $100.00 to blow on gifts, then your creativity will have to come into play, and you will have to shave some names off of your gift giving list.  You know how it goes every year. You end up getting a gift from someone totally unexpected and then you make a mad dash to the store to buy one more gift that you simply cannot afford.  This year, buy THANK YOU notes for those occasions, and mail them out promptly.  STAY WITHIN YOUR BUDGET!  The day after Christmas, you will be glad you did.
• Inform your children in advance that you are doing things a bit different this year. Especially if they are use to Christmas morning looking as though they just hit the lottery, and you went terribly into credit card debt to get it for them.  Children are alot more understanding than we give them credit for if they are allowed the right information.  You can start new traditions that revolve around the spiritual aspects of Christmas, instead of the materialistic ones that create havoc on your budget, and create unnecessary stress.  Even Jesus, the King of Kings, only got 3 gifts on his birthday. Consider creating a 3 gift rule for your children as well.
• Consider giving “couple gifts” to all the married folks in your family.  In times past, I have bought gifts my children,and then gifts for their spouses.  I am not doing that this year. Instead, I am buying one gift for each couple. It is less expensive this way. If you really want to kill several birds with one stone, then consider giving one gift per family. If the couple has children that are a bit older, then purchasing a game for the entire family to share is an excellent idea.  You are not only giving them something fun, but giving them some family time together as well.
• Forget the gifts altogether and throw a party!  For a number of years now, I have tried to create stress free holidays for my family and friends. Especially at Christmas time. Honestly, what can you give another adult, that they cannot buy their own self, if they really wanted it? I would be willing to wager that most of the stuff bought at Christmas time probably gets re-gifted or stuffed away somewhere never to see the sunlight again. It’s a ridiculous waste of money that’s prompted by some false guilty obligation and commercialization.  Just stop the insanity!  Why not make a memory instead?  Invite all of your family and friends over for a Christmas party. Have everyone bring a finger food, and play some group games.  Decorations, Christmas music, the laughter and fellowship of your family & friends, set the tone for a night to be remembered long after the holiday season is over.  Let everyone know in advance that the party is your gift to them, and their presence is all the gift you need in return.
• Candy, cookies and cakes. Oh my!  Gifts from your kitchen make inexpensive and thoughtful gifts for co-workers, teachers, and all of those other misc. people on your Christmas list.  Metal gift containers can be purchased inexpensively. Keep the size of the container in mind when purchasing. Too much cake, cookies, or candy to any one person is over-kill. You are trying to give them a delicious thoughtful treat, not feed their neighborhood, or add inches to their waist band.  Not to fail to mention that baking can get expensive if you over-do your gift packaging.
• Create your own gift baskets! Instead of spending lots of money on already packaged gift baskets in the store, why not make your own?  There’s a neat book featuring 101 gift basket ideas. Check it out!
• It’s the thought that counts!  You don’t have to go into debt buying gifts for your significant other either.  I can think of a whole lot of things you can do with a dollar bottle of baby oil and some “massage night” coupons. *laughs*  That’s just for starters to get your mind wandering. I am sure you can come up with plenty of gift coupon ideas on your own.
• Last, but not least, what to give to those super greedy folks on your Christmas list.  How about donating a chicken to some third world country in their name?  It will teach them the true spirit of Christmas,and give you a good laugh at the same time.  My kind of gift. *laughs* Besides all that, it will really do a lot of good for those who are hungry, hurting, and poor.

I am sure you have plenty of budget friendly ideas of your own, and I would love to hear about them in the comment section!

“If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.”

George MacDonald