Lynds in Real Life

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Food

What Are America’s Top 5 Favorite Foods?

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What do you think that nation’s favorite food is? If you’re like most people, you’ll pick something quintessentially American, like hamburgers. But you’d be wrong. It turns out that burgers are actually quite a long way down the list. Topping the charts is a food of Italian origin. Can you guess what it is? 

#1: Pizza

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Yes, right at the top of the list sits the pizza. Granted, the US version is a little different from the traditional Sicilian variety people were whipping up a couple of centuries ago. But it’s still recognizably Italian. There’s the dough base, bright red tomato sauce topping, and cheese. And don’t forget all the other additions: the olives, pickles, mushrooms, ham, ground beef, and so on. 

Why is pizza so popular? Researchers think that it is because it pushes all of our taste buttons at the same time. You have the carb hit of the base, then the tangy sourness of the sauce, followed by the richness and gooeyness of the cheese. It’s a killer combination that makes it almost irresistible. 

#2: Steak

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Coming in at number two on the list of the nation’s favorites is steak – no surprises there. People have been making beef chuck roast in these lands for centuries. 

There’s something magical about steak, especially if you choose the right cut. The way it melts in the mouth is like nothing else. Plus, if you pair it with the right sides, you can create a wonderful meal that ticks all the right boxes. The perfectly roasted jacket potato with sour cream and a wedge of lettuce with ranch dressing seals the deal. 

#3: Cheeseburger

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Coming in as the nation’s third-most favorite meal is cheeseburgers – something very much home-grown. 

Cheeseburgers today come in a variety of styles. But the most popular offer similar taste sensations to pizza. You have the bread bun, cheese, meat, and then something sour, like pickle, ketchup, mustard, or relish. The hamburger can also come with extra additions. These include favorites like bacon, guacamole, chili mince sauce, or battered pineapple rings. 

#4: Tacos

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Tacos are fast becoming more popular in the US. Originally, tacos were only a small part of the diet. But Mexican influence on the culture has led to an explosion of people now enjoying this traditional Hispanic food. 

The great thing about tacos is that they give you options. You can dress them your way!

#5: Pasta

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How exactly Americans like their pasta depends on who you ask. But the most popular continues to be pasta with meatballs and marinara sauce, with plenty of cheese on top for good measure.

There are, however, plenty of other ways you can eat pasta. One of the most delicious is to make an avocado, basil, and pine nut pesto in a blender, and then mix it into the pasta. You can also try creating your own carbonara sauce by combining cashews, water, nutritional yeast, salt, and a dash of cider vinegar. 

What is your number one favorite food? Let us know in the comments below!

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Food

The Secret To A Perfect Steak

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Anyone who enjoys eating meat would agree that a steak really is one of the very best kinds of meat out there. If you are like most home chefs, however, you might find that you have often struggled to make your steaks come out quite right. The truth is that making a perfect steak is not too challenging – there are just a few key things that you need to keep in mind along the way. In this post, we’ll take you through some of the major pointers that will help you to cook the perfect steak at home.

Don’t Forget The Seasoning

It might sound simple, but you do need to make sure you are seasoning your steak. If you don’t, there is just no way that it is going to end up being as good as you would hope, so this is something that you really do need to think about. All you need is salt and pepper – you don’t have to do anything fancy to make a steak really sing. However, you should consider the following tip from Marco Pierre White: always over-season your steaks, because most of the salt and pepper will come off into the pan during the cooking process.

Choose The Right Cooking Method

There are many ways to actually cook your steak, but you need to make sure that you are choosing the right one for the kind of steak you are cooking. There is practically no kind of steak that won’t be cooked wonderfully using a smoker from BBQGuys, and you can also always consider using a simple frying pan. What is often a good choice too, is to use a griddle – this gives you the benefits of both a pan and a grill, and it is something that can be used to create deep, delicious flavours.

The Best Cooking Fat

You also need to think carefully about what type of fat you cook your steaks in. There are many kinds that you can use, but they each have a different smoke point and provide different kinds of flavor. There is a lot of personal preference that goes into this, but as a general rule of thumb you should stick to flavourless oils like sunflower and groundnut – the latter having just the right smoke point for most steaks and pans. Make sure the oil splits in the pan before putting the steak in – but don’t let it smoke.

Resting

Not enough people realize just how important it is to rest the steak after cooking. The process of resting the meat actually allows the fibers in it to form together more strongly. Essentially what this means is that the steak develops a deeper flavor, and retains more of its juices. All you need to do is rest it for around five to ten minutes – any longer, and it might be cold, so be careful of that.

And that’s it – if you follow these tips, you will cook a perfect steak in no time!

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Health Nutrition

4 Tips for Avoiding Healthy Food Burnout

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You may feel as though you are doing everything right, from loading up your plate with vegetables to handling meal prep like a pro. The problem is that sometimes, all of your hard work can leave you feeling deprived and demotivated. You may find that you get worn out from working so hard and that a cheat day feels like a decent idea. This is fine, but if you find that one cheat day leads to another, and another, then you may be suffering from burnout.

Make Your Food Feel Good

The first thing that you need to do is try and get more creative with the food you have. Look at the texture and also the appearance. You may want to add some crunch to a dish that consists of soft food, or you may want to add some sea salt to your veggies.  Either way, it’s vital that you spend a lot of time on the appearance of your food if possible. Go for colorful foods and think about visual appeal where possible. Even if you know that you are pressed for time, making a beautiful plate that you can actually be excited about is a good thing.

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Eat in Season

Eating things that are in season is a good way for you to feel truly connected with the food you eat. This can lower the chances of you experiencing burnout. It can also help you to be way more friendly to the environment because you will be eating food that is sustainable. Nature gives you the chance to eat what you need, when you need it. At the end of the day, it’s important to know that seasonal choices help to balance your diet too. Eating a salad in the middle of winter may feel odd, for example. Sure, you’ll be getting nutrients, but you probably won’t feel as though you are getting what you need on a deeper level. If you want to make sure that you are getting a lot of vitamins from your diet, it may be worth looking into Myer’s cocktail nutrition.

Spice Things Up

When you are eating the same meals again and again, it’s super easy for you to get bored. You may find that the flavors are predictable and that this is the last thing that you need. Consider using spice blends and also make sure that you are turning your meal into something exciting. If you use spices, then this will help you to add some robust flavors to your meals, and it will also make your taste buds guess more. This is ideal if you are sick of food being bland or boring when you are on a diet.

Have A Treat

People often experience burnout when they eat healthily because they try and adopt an approach that essentially means all or nothing. If you skip out on your favorite foods, then this may help you to stay on track but at the end of the day, it will also make you burnout faster. If you want to stop this from happening, then try and allow yourself treats. After all, indulgences are part of life, and therefore they should be part of your diet.  Just make sure everything is in moderation.

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Food

Are You Sick of Cooking Taking So Much Time?

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There are few things better, in terms of taste and nutritional quality than a good home-cooked meal. However, there’s no denying that the time it takes to prepare one can be pretty draining, especially when you’re doing it day after day after day. However, what if cooking didn’t need to take so long? Here are a few things that can help you whip your kitchen into shape and get a little speedier with your meals.

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Pre-Plan and Prepare

All good cooking routines start with a meal plan. If you’re trying to eliminate waste or to save money with your meal plan, you might get ingredients that are used across two meals. If that’s the case, you can use your time when cooking the first to prepare ingredients for the next meal, too. For instance, if both today’s and tomorrow’s meals require you to chop up veggies, such as for a casserole and a stir fry on two different days, do it for both days on the first one.

Use A Slow Cooker (my favorite!)

Surely, slow cookers take longer to prepare meals than other methods? They might take longer to actually cook the meal, but the prep time can be way reduced by the fact that, usually, slow cooking requires little else than throwing the ingredients in there and letting the cooker do most of the work, like with this honey sriracha style crockpot chicken. Air fryers are also great for helping you prepare food in a flash and, if you cook a lot of rice, then a rice cooker can take away all of the extra steps you would have with a pot and water.

Find Some Shortcuts for Your Favorites

You might be surprised just how many of your favorite recipes can be made a lot quicker simply by finding the right “shortcuts.” Sometimes, the shortcuts might involve using ingredients that are pre-prepared but sometimes, like with this Veracruz style fish recipe, you can prepare a meal similar to one of your favorites, but without needing to spend all that time cooking the fish in the sauce, which makes it take less time to prepare. If you think about your favorite meals, search for shortcuts online and you’ll find most of them have at least one available.

Make Enough for Leftovers

There are plenty of meals that can easily be stored for a day and be just as delicious the second day after you heat it up. A left-over lasagna might be nicer for some if you like that crispiness that develops on the pasta when you reheat it. Take a look at some of the best leftover recipes you can eat and make enough to suit you for more than one day so that, even if it means eating the same thing two nights in a row once in a while, you get the benefit of a delicious homecooked meal and you can up the flavor simply by adding some citrus or vinegar..

If you don’t always have the time to cook from scratch as you have been, then hopefully, the tips above can help you get meals ready in a lot less time!

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Food

3 Ways To Find Unique & Delicious Recipes

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Food is one of the greatest pleasures in life. Throughout human history, countless dishes have been created around the world, and there has never been a time when it has been so easy to access it all. Stores are packed to the brim with ingredients from around the world, while most kitchens have all of the tools you need to cook just about anything. Of course, though, how exactly are you supposed to find recipes that match your need for something unique? Let’s take a look!

Use The Internet

The internet is your best friend when you want to improve your cooking. There are so many blogs, communities, and other resources that can help you to find meals that aren’t the same as what you have every other night. Reddit can be a good place for this, with more than one community dedicated to sharing recipes. Alongside this, though, it can also help to visit specialty websites. This can help you to find recipes for meals like Avial, giving you a wealth of ideas and options to explore. It’s always worth trying dishes before you spend a lot of money on equipment to make them, though this isn’t something you have to worry about with most food.

Buy Unique Ingredients

As superstores grow, they are recognizing the need for unique ingredients on their shelves. This change is being fed by the diverse communities found in modern cities and towns and is something that any foodie can take full advantage of. Many of the ingredients you find in modern stores come with recipes on the box, making it incredibly easy to try new things without having to bog yourself down in research. Recipes like this tend to be designed to be nice and easy, giving you the chance to learn more about the unique ingredients you want to try before going into recipes that are more complex.

Join A Club

The ancient recipes that are around today have only been able to survive the ravages of time thanks to oral tradition. People have been teaching each other to cook for thousands of years, though this has changed for many people in recent times. Joining a cooking club can give you the chance to learn this skill by having it passed down to you by others, while also adding a social aspect to the whole thing that will make it more fun. It’s well worth researching the options you have nearby and online, as some clubs will focus on unique foods and this is a great place to start your journey.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to step up your cooking game. While there are loads of great recipes that you will already know and love, it always pays to put effort into expanding your cooking skills. Unique recipes are one way to do this, but you can also explore other options if you find something else that appeals to you!

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Food

Simple Ways to Improve Your Food’s Flavor

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You have the best cooking equipment and a reliable recipe, but your food comes out bland. Something is amiss, but you can’t tell what it is. Don’t worry; this happens sometimes, even to the best cooks, and it’s something that can easily be fixed (and remember that good food has a way of reducing some of life’s stresses).

The taste buds have five main components that differentiate sour, salty, sweet, bitter, and umami tastes. When trying to identify the missing ingredient, think in terms of these five flavors. Does the food need a little more sweetness or saltiness? That way, you’ll be able to reach for the right ingredient to balance the aroma.

With that in mind, here are some simple ways to bring out that tasteful flavor in every food!

Use Vinegar

Vinegar is the most versatile ingredient to boost a bland recipe. Its acidity can help balance the five tastes easily. Balsamic vinegar is a favorite in many households. It not only has a bitter-sour taste, it also increases the notes of sweetness.

Choose carefully which acid to use: it can add any of the five taste notes, and sometimes not the taste note what you want. Other recommendable vinegar types are rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and red wine vinegar. Each works uniquely to boost flavor in particular cuisines.  

A Little Citrus Will Help

Most citrus fruits can be the solution you need when your food tastes flat. You can add citrus juice to almost everything, depending on how you use it.

You know that citrus fruits have a lot of vitamin C, but do you know they’re also rich in fiber? Fiber is essential for overall digestion, and it helps to balance blood sugar levels.

The first way to use the fruits is to grind the rind and add it to anything you’re cooking. This adds some acidity and sweetness. It can come as a bonus to put on top of your favorite pastry!

You can also add lemon juice into any sauce dish to make it taste better. If you’re making anything from marinara, to alfredo, to mushroom soup, try it yourself by adding lemon.

Nuts are Not Only for Snacking

Whether you’re on a vegan, paleo, high-fat, or low-fat diet, you can hardly go wrong with nuts and seeds. They’re your best diet friends, packed with lots of protein in every little nugget. You can add nuts and seeds as toppers in your salad or stir-fry. They blend well with sweet and salty flavors.

Another option is to use sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter. It’s excellent in smoothies, pancakes, or when used to make a delicious butter sauce. Sunflower seeds contain Vitamin E and are beneficial to the skin. Win win!

Hemp hearts sprinkled on a chocolate spread will add a nutty flavor. They also have more protein than eggs and are great for your brain!

Garlic

Adding garlic, and a lot of it, will almost always make (savory) food taste better. Trust me on this one.

Take Away

Cooking is an art, but it can go wrong if you don’t know the right strings to pull. The trick lies in understanding the ingredients to use to make the food more delicious. Creative experimentation with nuts, vinegar, citrus fruits, and salt will definitely help make all your dishes abundant in flavor!


•What do you add to your cooking?

Thank you for reading!

Food

Presentation Tricks To Make Home Cooking Look Like A Restaurant Dish

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When you’re cooking mid-week meals for yourself, you probably don’t worry what it looks like. As long as it tastes good and it’s healthy, who cares how it’s presented? But if you are cooking a special meal, maybe for a dinner party or a date night, it’s nice to spend a bit more time thinking about the presentation. 

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Restaurant food isn’t just better because of the taste, it’s about the way that it’s presented on your plate as well. If you have ever tried to mimic this fancy presentation, you will know that it’s harder than it looks. However, there are some simple things that you can do to improve your food presentation. These are the best presentation tips to make your home cooking look professional. 

Use A Charcuterie Board 

If you are hosting a dinner party and you have some great cured meats and cheeses as an appetizer, you could just stick them on a plate on the table. But if you are trying to create the full restaurant experience, you should use a wooden charcuterie board instead. You can even make your own wood charcuterie board out of some old scrap pieces, so there’s no need to spend any money. Presenting your meats and cheeses on a nice wooden board, with a bit of thought about the arrangement, immediately takes a simple appetizer and turns it into something much more elegant and classy. 

Build Upwards On The Plate 

Have you ever noticed how fancy restaurants use big plates and it seems like there’s only a tiny amount of food right in the center? This is because they create height on the plate instead of letting it spread out, which makes it look a lot fancier. If you’re cooking for your favorite pasta dish with spaghetti, for example, try twirling it around a serving fork and placing it on the plate so it has height. Even something as simple as some fries look great if you can stack them in a nice arrangement. 

Cut Back On Portion Sizes 

If you have ever tried to arrange your food nicely on the plate but ended up with a big mess, it might be because there is simply too much of it. If you are going for elegance, try cutting back on your portion sizes. Avoid big family style portions of lasagna or stew because you can’t really arrange them in a nice way. A small slice of lasagna, with some carefully placed tender stem broccoli resting on the top will look much nicer. Cutting back on portions is also great for your health too. 

Think About Color 

You think about color when decorating your home and it’s no different when decorating a plate. Consider the color of the main element of the dish and what other colors might accent it. Try to avoid too many beige foods or having everything the same color. You can use sauces and even colorful vegetables to add more variation to the plate and make it more vibrant.  

By applying these simple concepts and experimenting with your plates, you can make your home cooking look like a professional restaurant dish!

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Food

Best Tips For Cooking The Best Pasta Ever

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Pasta can be considered one of the simplest and inexpensive dishes to make. You can either make your own pasta dough or you can pick up some from your local grocery store. As long as you have a pot to boil water in, you can make some pasta. Some recipes are simple like spaghetti meanwhile some can be complicated like rasta pasta [recipe here]. With our tips, you will be making the best pasta ever time and time again.

Measure Out Your Portion Size

I know this is a radical idea as the common practice is to empty the entire box of pasta or at least leave half, but measuring out your pasta will help you cook the best pasta ever. If you are cooking pasta with small shapes like farfalle, stelline, rotini or orzo, it is recommended that you do one cup of dry measure pasta per person. If you are cooking long noodles like spaghetti or fettuccine you can use a pasta measuring tool or you can use a kitchen scale and weigh out your servings. Remember that one serving is roughly two ounces.

Salt Your Pasta Water

You need to put salt in your pasta water. There is no escaping this if you want to make the best pasta. If you think a pinch of salt in the huge tub of cooking water is going to cut it, you are sadly mistaken. You have to add a healthy amount. For every pound of pasta, you need about one and a half tablespoons of salt. Always keep that in mind.

Use A Pot Big Enough For The Pasta

Avoid using small pasta pots. Remember that when pasta cooks, it expands. Your pasta has to have room to swell and get bigger. You do not want your pot to get too big because you could risk having your pot running over, which can be very messy and dangerous. As a rule of thumb, use a pot that can hold three or four quarts per pound of pasta of water. There are plenty of pots to pick from and you can start cooking your pasta in no time.

Do Not Break Long Pasta

If you are cooking long pasta, make sure you leave their length intact. If your pot is not big enough to get the long pasta in all at once, resist the urge to break the pasta in half. This is a no-no in almost all Italian dishes. Instead, put one end of the pasta in the boiling water and over time it will soften. Use a spoon to delicately push the rest of the exposed noodles into the boiling water the more they soften. Soon it will cook al dente.

Drizzle In Your Olive Oil After The Pasta Finishes Cooking

The common practice is to dose your cooking water with olive oil, but this is another no-no. When you do this, it makes it that much easier for your sauce to slip right off the pasta. We are not encouraging you to completely do away with adding olive oil to your pasta dishes, but add it once your pasta has finished cooking.

•How do you cook your pasta?

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Food

Awesome Appetizers- Roasted Artichoke

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Appetizers ensure meals, gatherings and parties go off with a bang. If you’ve got a house full of people, or you’re keen to make sure you have time to socialize, it’s hugely beneficial to find some simple, delicious appetizers you can rustle up in advance to impress your guests and get your evening or lunch party off to a flying start. If you love to entertain, or you’re always on the lookout for ideas and inspiration for family feasts or social occasions, here’s an awesome new appetizer to add your recipe collection.

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Roasted Artichoke

Artichokes are not the most frequently-used vegetable, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be a part of your repertoire. Artichokes are delicious, and once you get the hang of preparing and cooking them, it’s easy to turn this humble vegetable into a crowd-pleasing dish your family and friends will love. This roasted artichoke dish is ideal for small gatherings, family nights in and dinner parties, and it will go down a treat!

Instructions

The first step is to learn how to roast artichoke. Once you’ve purchased your artichokes from the store, you’ll need to prepare them to go into the oven. Take your artichokes and cut the stems, peeling away the tough outer layers until you reach the lighter-colored flesh of the vegetable. Carefully trim the sharp edges of the leaves, removing roughly ¾ of an inch of the tip. Cut your artichoke in half lengthways and use a paring knife to take out the choke.

When your artichokes are ready to roast, place them in foil and add a drizzle of olive oil and a crushed garlic clove. Close the foil parcel and place it inside the oven for approximately 40 minutes. 

How To Serve

There are endless options when it comes to serving roasted artichoke. You can leave the artichoke as it is, using the cooking juices with a splash of lemon juice, salt and pepper, some dill and a teaspoon of honey added to create a vibrant vinaigrette dip. Alternatively, you can add additional ingredients, such as crumbled feta cheese or capers, to enhance the Mediterranean flavors. To enjoy roasted artichoke, you’ll need to allow time for the leaves and petals to cool, so that you can gently peel off the leaves with your fingers and discard the inedible part of the petal. Add to a platter with the vinaigrette dip or serve as a delicious pre-dinner morsel if you’re hosting friends. 

Tips for Buying Artichokes

When you’re buying artichokes, it’s best to shop in season. The optimum time for cooking with artichokes is between March and May and October and November. Spend a little time perusing the produce aisles and look for artichokes that are heavy and large with tightly-packed dark leaves. Gently press the artichoke in your hands. A fresh artichoke should make a subtle squeaking noise. 

Are you planning to get friends or family together, or are you searching for a simple, nutritious, delicious appetizer for a special occasion or a leisurely weekend lunch? If so, why not give this recipe a try?

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Food

Spice Up Your Life With These Favorites

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Spices can add huge amounts of flavor to any dish. Many spices also have powerful health benefits – they’re packed with nutrients and often have anti-inflammatory properties that can help to numb pain. Here are just a few notable spices and how you can incorporate more of them into your diet!

Chili

Chili is great for the heart and can help alleviate many types of pain from migraines to achy joints. Of course, too much of it can be painful on the tongue (and just as painful when it comes out the other end), so it’s worth always using it with moderation. There are countless ways to use chili in cooking from seasoning chicken to giving pasta dishes a kick. It’s particularly common in oriental dishes such as curries and stir fries (as are many of the spices on this list).

Ginger

Ginger is great for the gut and can help beat stomach pain and nausea, while also fighting inflammation elsewhere in the body. There are lots of tasty ways to consume ginger, like in cakes, and also as a tea. Ginger can also liven up many savory dishes – just check out this amazing shoyu chicken recipe. You can also eat ginger with fish.

Turmeric

Turmeric is a root vegetable within the same family as ginger. It has a long list of impressive health benefits and is believed to be able to reduce the risk of cancer, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s. Turmeric is often used in curries and can also be added to stews and chicken dishes. You can even mix it into rice or sprinkle it on scrambled eggs.

Pepper

Okay, pepper is a played out way to spice up your life because you probably put it in every dish! Still, it’s wrong to dismiss it out of hand for the simple fact that it’s popular or feels cliche. In truth, there are tons of ways to use pepper to enhance your dishes. A peppercorn sauce with a medium-rare steak is a prime example as the meat is an excellent source of protein and healthy fats, while the peppered sauce gives it a kick that you won’t forget! The other great thing about steak is that the likes of Mac’s Chophouse and American steakhouses specialize in cooking fresh produce and the accompanying side plates. So, if you ever feel as if you can’t be bothered preparing the dish yourself, you can always treat yourself to a one-off dinner. Just remember to analyze the recipe to recreate it at home!

Garlic

Garlic is a favorite spice used in many forms of Mediterranean cuisine including pasta and garlic bread. As well as keeping the vampires away, garlic can reduce blood pressure and improve the immune system. Smelly breath is one of its less friendly side effects, but it’s worth putting up with for the added explosion of flavor and health benefits.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a spice found under the bark of the cinnamomum tree. It’s thought to have antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties, helping to fight off illness. The spice is commonly found in sweet foods such as cakes and cookies – especially around Christmas. Too much cinnamon can damage the liver, so make sure to consume it in moderation (although if you’ve tried the cinnamon challenge, you’ll know just how hard it can be to eat large quantities of cinnamon).

Paprika

Paprika is made from ground peppers, but tends to be a lot less fiery than chili. Its health benefits include lowering cholesterol, preventing inflammation, and improving eye health. Paprika can be sprinkled over pretty much anything – much like salt or black pepper. It tastes particular good sprinkled over deviled eggs or potato salad.

Cloves

Cloves come from the flower buds of a clove tree. They’re full of antioxidants and are great natural painkillers – rubbing cloves on your gums is still a popular way to ease a toothache. Cloves are very versatile and can be used to glaze meat, liven up rice, or give sweet snacks a kick (they’re commonly used in food like pumpkin pie, alongside cinnamon and ginger). 

•What spices are your favorite? Comment below!

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