One Snarky Chica with Issues

If you are preparing some chicken or fish for a meal, how do you usually season it? Chances are pretty high that you are using some sort of sauce or marinade, right? Or if you are like me, I have a weakness for tilapia cooked in lots of butter. Yummy but loaded in calories.

Depending on what you are cooking with you can also end up with a lot of excess sodium and random preservatives that are basically just crap that is not good for your body. Take barbeque sauce for instance. I have some in my pantry, which coincidentally expired on May 12 2008 (oops). I have been slowly working towards eating less crap over the past year or so which means there is no telling how long it has been in there.

Anyways, what I have is Kraft Hickory Smoke Barbeque sauce. It offers up 40 calories for 2 tbsp, 420 mg of sodium and 7 grams of sugar. There appears to be nothing redeeming about it. And the second ingredient listed is high fructose corn syrup. Yuck!

It instead of using craptastic sauces to season with, why not try just plain old spices.

Not sure where to start? Here is a handy guide of spices to try according to cuisine:

Chinese: anise, garlic, ginger, sesame
French: bay leaves, garlic, rosemary, tarragon, thyme
Greek: cinnamon, garlic, mint, oregano
Indian: coriander seeds, cumin, curry, fenugreek, ginger, mustard seeds, tumeric
Italian: basil, bay leaves, fennel seeds, garlic, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, sage
Mexican: chile, cilantro, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, oregano

My fave spice to cook with is from the McCormick Gourmet Collection. It is Ancho Chile Pepper and it can be difficult to find in stores. And usually it is a bit pricey but I swear, you can’t make good Chicken Tortilla Soup without it. It is also better than regular chili powder if you are making skillet potatoes with chili powder, onions and tomatoes. The Ancho Chile Pepper has more of a kick! Normally I get a container of this that is 1.62 oz. for around $4.00. I recently noticed that Amazon offers McCormick Ancho Chile Pepper, Ground, 16-Ounce Plastic Bottle bottle for $15.53, which is clearly a much better deal!

If you are experimenting with spices, remember to check the ‘ethnic foods’ aisle of your grocery store first. Typically you can find the same spices there for MUCH less. The only difference is that they typically come in a bag instead of a little jar. Cumin is always in this section and always a LOT cheaper than in the spices section.

If there is a spice that you love to cook with that I do not have listed be sure to let me know! I am always looking for new ways to season things!