Cayenne peppers | Photo credit: Princes Milady
Rambling
I spent part of the weekend trying on bathing suits. Clarification: Trying to squeeze into bathing suits. As I quickly round the corner to 40, and fight a nearly inactive lifestyle alongside my comatose metabolism (yeah, that’s the ticket, it’s my metabolism), I acknowledge that, at least for this upcoming swimsuit season, I must wear the more figure-flattering swimdress. Or, as a last resort if I am trying to pull off the “athletic look”, swim shorts with tank top. Ee-gads. How did it come to this?
I am not going to pretend that I have tried to keep the weight off. I don’t do sweat-inducing exercise regularly, I don’t count calories, I don’t not watch TV while eating. All of the things you are supposed to do to fight middle-age weight gain…I don’t do. Except read a lot about what I am supposed to be doing. One of the things I am supposed to be doing is eating spicy foods. Apparently, anything spicy–especially food kicked up with cayenne pepper–is supposed to heat up your body (literally), increasing your metabolism and thereby helping to burn more calories and “blast fat”. Fantastic!
So, I have started putting cayenne on and in everything I consume. I have been carrying around a mini jar of the powdered red pepper in my purse, and whip it out for added seasoning when dining out or eating/drinking at work. Cayenne has wiggled its way into just about everything I ingest, including tea and coffee. (Seriously. Try it.) Any day now, the fat should just start falling off my hips. If “you are what you eat”, then I will soon be a red-hot, pinky-thin, stringbean-looking gal. Or least be able to lose the swimdress. Sa-weet.
Roast
I don’t (yet) have any recipes specific to including cayenne or other hot peppers, but do plan to incorporate hot pepper varieties in our backyard garden this summer. So I turn to my friends in Bloglandia for ideas. Fellow food fans, can you help a girl out? Please tell me how you use cayenne (or other hot peppers or “fat-blasting” spices) in cooking, or if you have specific pepper-centered recipes!
ramblings & roasts 