Well, hello again! I'm glad you've decided to read today's post, because it's all about herbs and spices!
I will go over some uses for the herbs and spices and a few ways to save money in the process, and I know how much we all love to save money!
I want to start off by giving you a few options for where to buy your herbs and spices, aside from the typical tiny bottles at the grocery store.. The products on the grocery store shelves are, yep.. you guessed it, packed with preservatives, chemicals and additives of all sorts! But there is good news folks! You can actually buy them at much cheaper prices and still have fresher, better quality stuff.
Firstly, you need to check your area for health food stores, or a whole foods store. These usually sell different herbs and spices in bulk. If you buy them 4 to 6 ounces at a time (or more), you can actually get them pretty cheap. The best part is, the bulk herbs and spices at the health food stores are usually fresher and organic! And whoever said organic was too expensive?
The truth is, if you pay attention to the options available to you, it is possible to eat and feed your family healthy and organic.
If you can't find a health food store in your area, then call around to different grocery stores (the 'mom and pop shops' are more likely to carry bulk herbs). If this fails, no worries! There are still more options!
Walmart has an ethnic section in the grocery aisles, and most of them sell a few select herbs and spices for low prices. There, I have found cinnamon sticks, whole oregano, bay leaves, dried chilies of all sorts, cumin and a whole lot more.
In some cases, you can find good prices on Ebay, and there are a huge selection of web stores that sell bulk herbs and spices. If you decide to order from the internet, however, I suggest buying a large quantity at a time (or a large variety of products in the same order) because you'll end up saving a lot of money on shipping costs. It may not be worth it to pay these costs to ship just one or two items.
Now let's talk about storage.
Once you have started accumulating small quantities of these bulk herbs, you'll soon find out that having piles of unlabeled plastic baggies full of leafy herbs will start to get a little confusing. My favorite storage option is glass canning jars. When they are cheap in stores I buy them in all sizes (I also use them to store everything from dry beans to popcorn kernels). Glass jars are fantastic because they come clean easily, they don't store odors, and as long as you take care of them they will last for ages! They make my pantry clean and organized, and you can easily see the contents inside which saves much time when you are searching for something.
There are a lot more options for storage however, clean and reuse food containers, old spice jars, pickle jars, or anything else that will seal airtight and keep bugs out. Keep your herbs away from sunlight!
You might also want to invest in a small coffee grinder. This way you can buy whole herbs and spices, like cloves, cinnamon sticks, and cumin and grind them up at home. This is a huge freshness factor and also can sometimes save you even more money.
OK, now on to the subject of uses for our herbs and spices. Of course, you can use them in your everyday cooking in a variety of ways. Once you get used to using herbs an spices in different ways you'll not only cut down on you and your family's salt intake but your fat intake as well. Flavoring your food with herbs instead of salt and fat is extremely beneficial and yields you a multitude of flavors for your taste buds! You can't loose!
But let's venture beyond food for a minute and talk about other uses.
Nature brings us so many beautiful aromas that it leaves us little need for scented candles and Febreeze. Why dust your house with a blanket of chemicals when you can make it smell fantastic naturally?!
One way to bring the lovely aromas of nature into your home is to bring a pot of water to boil, turn it down to low and add the herbs and spices of your choice. You can put orange slices, cinnamon sticks, cloves and nutmeg for a warm holiday scent, or use lavender, peppermint, or pine. Be creative! Let the water simmer as long as you need, make sure the water doesn't cook out, and it will make your entire house smell fantastic! Also, you can use dried herbs like peppermint lavender, basil, etc. and add to a pouch, or pillow for a sock drawer, closet, car or whatever you want to make smell better. Make tea out of some herbs and add to your cleaners, bathwater, etc. to add more natural scent. Add some herbs to baking soda for a fantastic carpet powder (refer to my household cleaners part II post)
Herbs and spices are beneficial in so many ways, they are even therapeutic and medicinal! Everything in today's post is just to get you started, and any one of my posts should be considered the same. Experiment, shop around, and as always be creative and you will find more ways than you can believe to make your life a little more natural. The benefits are endless! Take advantage of what Mother Nature has to offer.
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