Studies show the chemical compound capsaicin, found in peppers, speeds up your heart rate and metabolism.
Eating a very spicy meal can actually speed up the metabolism by about 25 percent for up to three hours. Keep crushed red pepper on the table to spice up ANYthing! It also helps with blood circulation so it can heat you up if you’re chilly or chili! (Sorry, couldn’t resist)
But sometimes you can add a bit too MUCH spice!
Last night, I made my Morselicious Frozen Hot Cocoa and shook too much cayenne pepper into my blender, thinking it was cinnamon.
For this Morselicious Frozen Hot Cocoa Recipe:
SO Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk
Ice cubes
Unsweetened Cocoa
Quality Drinking Chocolate with 70% or higher cocoa
I like to add both cayenne and cinnamon.
The combo makes a TASTY spicy/sweet blend, as well as a nice jolt. However, this time, the jolt was more like FIRE!
And OOOOH, were my taste buds, sinuses and esophagus in for a tantalizing SHOCK!
The Caribbean Song, FEELIN’ HOT HOT HOT went zipping through my lungs. This led me to consider, When is hot too hot?
A couple of instances came to mind.
About 9 years ago, I had a burning sensation to explore the Grand Canyon. And so, my sister and 2 of our friends ventured off for a long weekend in JULY! Despite the warnings against hiking to the bottom of the canyon and back up the same day, we decided we could handle it. It was only about 110 degrees and while a park ranger forced us to stop for about an hour and rest in the shade, we heeded his request and then continued our trek at a silly pace.
Later that night, as we reveled in our victory and awe at the grandeur of this incredible Canyon, we gazed at one of the most beautiful –AMAZING star-filled skies I’ve ever seen in my life, and our bodies had begun to rebel.
The next morning, as each of us tried to get out of bed, our legs had completely cramped up and NONE of us could walk,
that is, we could not lift our calves in the simple movement we had previously taken for granted.
We were able; however, to slide and shuffle our feet across the floor and slide and shuffled we did, for 4 days. We kind of moved like penguins.
We even gave our new move a name: The Grand Canyon Slide and Shuffle!
The morsel of this story?
While, it’s a good thing to turn up the heat, at the same time, we should know when to turn it down a notch.
OH…and don’t mistake your cayenne pepper for cinnamon.
Have a Morselicious Monday!!!
Although I hate to admit it, I too have mixed up cayenne and cinnamon – on more than one occasion. Since they sit next to each other on the spice rack, I remember making some spice muffins (like a spice cake) a few years ago and thought it might be a nice touch to add a little cinnamon to them. Needless to say, they turned out to be a little more spice than cake. The only bad part was that I didn’t taste them first and gave them to house guests as a breakfast snack. They were completely caught off guard (it was like a Lucy/Ricky moment of spitting the muffins out)! Now that I think of it . . . they haven’t been back . . . hmmmm?
I also mixed cinnamon and sugar together (or so I thought) to make some cinnamon toast. I guess it was too early in the morning for me to notice what I had done. Needless to say, I woke up pretty quickly!!
I have since moved the cayenne so it will (hopefully) not happen again. Thank you for bringing up such vivid – and hot – memories!
Oh, Reece, I LOVE your story!
Hysterical and your poor house guests!
Thanks for sharing!!
Oh my gosh– love it!! That is something that would happen to us! We do love hot peppers though!! 🙂
Ha ha, Nut Twins…It happens to the best of us, right?
I’ve been treating myself to So Delicious Frozen Hot Cocoa every night for the past week! I use frozen bananas instead of ice cubes, and a combination of spices called Sweet Spice. But tonight I’m going to add a wee bit of cayenne in your honor, because that does sound delicious! Thanks for sharing the backstory (sorry about your sizzled tongue) and also the fabulous idea!
Oh, and ONLY 110°? LOL! I’m envious about the spectacular star-filled sky you were treated to. Oh, how I miss the desert!
Thanks, Gail!
Please let me know how you like the cayenne in your FRO HOT CO!! 🙂
Is it SO?? sorry, the rhyming and me… 🙂 Mo
(LOVE frozen bananas in smoothies, too!)
Thanks, Lauren & Karen!
And YES…HOT is a bit of an understatement!
Oh what a shock expecting a delicious cup of hot chocolate with a hint of cinnamon only to have your mouth combust…yikes!!
Oh, that’s HOT! Great post – love your story. : )