Tummy Tea or Ugh...Cabbage Salad

Wicked Witch of the West voice....Helllllpp Mmmeee - I'm ferrrrrmenting. Ugh....I'm not feeling too well today which is why I'm so late with my blog. I made a cabbage salad Sunday evening that contains (besides the chopped cabbage, of course) dried oriental noodles, green onions, toasted sesame seeds, sliced almonds, apple cider vinegar and olive oil. I'm on a tight budget now and because this salad makes a big amount, really does taste wonderful and is adapted from the South Beach Diet, I was planning on eating it every day this week for lunch to help me with my weight loss plan. Ugh...bad idea. Cabbage ~ need I say more? Lots of cabbage. I was craving the taste and crispy crunch of it. I had it Monday for lunch and it tasted so good I decided to have it again for dinner last night. Yep, you guessed it...and again for breakfast this morning. My stomach is really upset today with gurgles and blurps and other unidentifiable but embarrassing noises. I need some Tummy Tea. Tummy Tea contains chamomile, caraway seed and mint leaves and is very easy to make. Simply crush about 2 teaspoons of caraway seeds to release the volatile oils, bruise a few mint leaves for the same reason and combine that with a half handful of chamomile in boiling water. Quickly cover the pot so the volatile oils don't escape and remove from the stove. After your tea steeps in the pot for 5-10 minutes, you can add honey or sugar to sweeten according to your tastes but when my stomach is upset, sweet is the last thing I want. Make sure you strain out the herbs before drinking your tea.

The volatile oils in caraway seed and mint are two of many herbs referred to as carminatives, which play an important role in our bodies. Encyclopedia.com describes how the carminative herbs work much more clearly than I can so here is their explanation: "Carminative herbs help to stimulate peristalsis, which is the wave-like action that pushes food through the digestive tract. These herbs can also help to relax the smooth muscle of the digestive tract, helping to reduce spasms. The antibacterial properties of the volatile oils aid in reducing gas pains that result from bacteria in the intestines acting on pieces of food that have not been digested fully."

Well, there you have it...what to take when you’ve overloaded on cabbage! I love cabbage but today....Ugh.

I’ll leave you with a thought today:

Your mind is a garden,
your thoughts are the seeds,
the harvest can be either flowers or weeds.
- Author Unknown