Thanksgiving spices are afterthoughts to the big day 🦃… after deciding where you’ll be, how you’ll get there, and even scoring the turkey food table star.
The weeks before Thanksgiving builds up anticipation. And even the day before, it’s still not too late to craft up an Ayurveda beneficial and spice-filled menu for a Happy Thanksgiving, created with an inspired rainbow color and variety tasty feast in mind. 🌈
That can linger on year-round after the holiday week has come and gone.
I’ll never forget the memories when I had family come over and there were very few recipe sites. Today, it’s completely different!
I still reference Martha Stewart. She used to have a television show… I don’t know if you remember or know about it, but I was a fan. 🎉
I’m still a fan, but the show has long moved onto YouTube and Instagram videos! But back in the day, my raving fan energy was elevated when I got to actually visit the live television set.
The crew even sent us home with one of the show guest’s cookbook… Clinton Street Baking Co. Cookbook (that has become a big deal in the Big Apple).
How did they know that was the perfect gift for moi? They must’ve known I was coming 😅
And that weekend, they opened up Eataly (the first in the U.S.) in the Flat Iron NYC district. Those were the days when I was working in marketing and event planning for a popular Spanish restaurant chain in my area (La Tasca owned by a large U.K. restaurant company). Some good foodie memories there 🍽 and so fitting for my attendance as I had spent years in hotel catering and restaurant food party planning.
This year, is completely different. Your Thanksgiving plans may have changed but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a meal that knocks it out of the park! You can have punchy flavors using Thanksgiving spices you may not have considered.
And even in the Martha Stewart days, it was still traditional thyme and rosemary spices.
Since Thanksgiving is usually a home food event, so it’s a good excuse to crank it up a notch if you want, and maybe even try different, healthy Thanksgiving spices that pleases your tastes and creative desires. And wows your family and guests. 🤩
I know you’re probably like this… you have your favorite Thanksgiving foods and can be a ‘lil scared to try something new.
But I’m hear to encourage you to rainbow spice it up and I have some original blend ideas below!
So let’s go!
First, here’s a way to get your food senses heightened the week before turkey day (this Happy Thanksgiving). For starters, you can test and sniff your spices in your spice rack or cabinet. This will give you a week or two to get the ingredients you need as Thanksgiving spices become less potent or pungent.
And you can sit on which ones could work with you. Probably any of them, since they are in your cabinet. 😁
Remember, most Thanksgiving spices (and year-round spices) have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits (preventing free radicals that can spike disease/cancer growth), so whatever you use, you and your guests will be healthier.
Thanksgiving spices (ground or whole from seeds) and herbs (plants) can be the secret ingredients you add to a new dish. And how you can create your own spectacular eye-pleasing food art at the end as some have some pretty cool colors like purple and red. I love how spices and herbs have unique colors that you can find in a 96-Crayola crayon set.
Here are 11 Thanksgiving spices (listed in rainbow color order). I also have dish enhancement ideas from my party planning experiences below.
1.Red: Saffron (bitter, sweet pungent):
The thin strands are good-looking and tasting on ooey-gooey honey desserts. Did you know saffron is a mood lifter? …so if you have an imbalanced Kapha to feed (…maybe yourself?), this is an amazing addition.
GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) is no fun. It’s when acid comes back up. But GERD is treatable with food as I learned in my journey.
Because high acidic foods and wrong combination of foods (according to the gut if it could speak) are causes.
They can wreak havoc on your daily gut-feeling life that impacts your day and productivity.
If you’re food shopping and trying to make choices for your grocery cart, adding a stomach-friendly GERD and mood foods (Ayurveda) grocery list can enhance your eating life.
Lowering stomach acidity and finding enhancing foods for balancing your body is fun, healthy, and sometimes what’s needed.
If you have a condition like high acid (or more severely GERD) in your stomach, whether you’re a Vata, Pitta, or Kapha (or have any of these imbalances), you’ll be interested in what you select for your refrigerator and pantry.
And, you’ve come to the right place for a list below of safe foods to reduce GERD (or lower acidity) and increase balance (further below…)
Having a mix of fresh and pantry foods can give you a sense of calm, and especially if you have a backup supply of your favorite items because you leave any food comfort panic thoughts to rest …just in case you can’t make it to the store because of inclement weather or broken down transportation.
…Or there’s a run on a certain item that everyone and their brother needs. If in America, you may remember the toilet paper pandemonium during the pandemic crises?
So with a pantry, you can feel a sense of peace when you have an extra pasta box or evaporated milk on hand.
There are also so many gluten-free and vegetable options these days. You can whip up a fast meal… and this is vitally important for Vatas that can get low blood sugar quick when snack bars aren’t appealing or handy.
How You Can Use Ayurveda Next Time You’re Grocery Store Shopping
With Ayurveda living, you can enhance your current diet, with additional flavors and being healthy, such as building up your immune system with spices, mushrooms, and onions and lowering body inflammation (that can then help boost your mental health).
I come from over a decade of experience in my first career, orchestrating hotel and restaurant parties and events that focused on many Mediterranean ethnic dishes (Middle Eastern, Spanish, French, Greek, or Italian).
In those environments, daily food talk and language rolled off my tongue in conversations with past clients and friends.
Speaking of food plates that included curry, cumin, cardamom, cayenne, cinnamon, mint, cilantro, almonds, pine nuts, and pistachios. And hearing proper pronunciations to exotic ingredients such as za’atar.
…Maybe you’re not familiar or these are all your favorites, but can you imagine how these small additions could transform and bring a zestier life to a first or second course, or salad? You could be an inventive cook so then you know exactly what I’m talking about!
Additional ingredients can also add a dash of inspiring color and interest to an otherwise boring plate. A plate that is as much art as flavor, can wake up a Kapha imbalance.
Popular dishes have a common theme: unique and palatable flavors.
Those tastes are made with third dimension complex flavors. Sometimes a dish is just missing a ‘lil sea salt, but usually, a dash of spice will make the dish come alive.
Love is in the spice (and spices) of life. ♥
If you’re aware and knowledgeable, then you can add a flavoring taste that has healthy benefits and part of your daily routine.
Being Ayurvedically mindful is a way to add a “come alive” foodie-tasting experience with spices and pungent ingredients like garlic that are also known to be heart (and all-around) healthy.
On the softer and sweeter end of the spectrum, you can also add more exotic fruits into your smoothie or super sweet fruits like pineapple loaded with Vitamin C. And elderberry for immune support.
When you’re more focused on your simple yet sophisticated, balanced food diet (what would be good for you to eat), then you work on your body balance that affects your better moods and quality of life.
Eating and savoring your favorable foods can leave a smile on your face and remembrance of a good day you had.
11 Combat High Acidic Foods Must-Haves For a GERD Ayurveda Grocery List:
These are super balancing combat high acidic foods for Vata, Pitta, and Kapha doshas. And also for toning down (alkalizing) a high acid stomach.
Bananas
Strawberries
Apples
Almonds and Most Nuts
Avocado
Carrots
Mushrooms
Peas
Most Veggies
Bell Peppers
Flour-less bread (spelt, millet, sprouted grains)
Modern Wisdom For a GERD or High Acidic Foods Day
You can prepare for days where your stomach (or somewhere along your GI tract) is irritated if that’s a tendency you face.
Vata bodies especially have nervous stomachs and sensitive stomach linings. Is that you?
Compound that with acid reflux (GERD), and this adds discomfort from the top to bottom (throat down).
You may even have a gritty taste from stomach acid bubbling up like baking soda reacting to lemon juice or vinegar.
That’s when you want to be cautious about the foods you intake, avoiding specific combinations, like yogurt and pizza (eaten together within short time frames) that can aggravate an already sensitive stomach.
And you have your unique body’s sensitivities you learned through trial-and-error and connecting-the-dots.
If you are leaning too much into your natural way or dosha, that could be a reason for your GERD episodes where you want to lower the acidity in your stomach (and cut down on high acidic foods).
Depending on the severity, you may opt to add small doses of your favorites in moderation for convenience’s sake. Ayurveda doesn’t require a strict diet, but health problems can.
Better to be disciplined for a few days in your diet to prevent a larger outbreak of symptoms or where all you can do is takes sips of water or broth. If you’ve been there before, you know what I mean!
A healthy action step (good for prevention), is taking in a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (ACV) mixed with water (1:1 ratio).
The best kind of ACV has the ‘mother’ milky substance inside that you shakeup. You can wash the unpleasant taste down with water and lemon.
Or you can also wisely drink teas such as ginger, cinnamon, Kombucha, herbal tea, and green teas. If you have certain imbalances you’ll definitely prefer one over the other. For Vatas (many of us are): you can learn more about how to restore your Vata type.
And you can choose to switch from espressos to yerba mate or cold brew coffee.
By nature, coffee is acidic. And adding that ontop of high acidic foods in your gut can cause daily issues. Switching over to cold brew coffee will be less abrasive on your stomach if you don’t want to give up.
You could get creative and find teas that have half the amount of caffeine as an average cup of coffee. Your favorite chai or black tea cappuccino with frothed almond milk and a touch of Dutch-processed (non-acidic) chocolate cocoa or vanilla dusting, could hit the spot. Yummm to a Vata!
If you’re health-conscious you may have evolved your food balanced diet, added a few carrots, learned to love lean proteins like fish and chicken, or maybe even turned more vegetarian plant-based.
You used new healthy knowledge and let your environment’s resources help shape a better version of you.
Naturally, from your food experiences you can love pasta, bread, sugary floury foods (and maybe have an emergency stash, uh-huh. Vatas love to store up sweets like squirrels with nuts).
And if you stay on my blog journey with me week to week, I’ll share how you can make delicious (as-good, I think) sweets without all the calories or refined sugar (but definitely refined ingredients.. and organic-inspired!).
You may even be a cheese or cheesy-salty food addict if you don’t have a dairy-allergy. (I know my peeps… your pantry is my paradise too). 😊
And you change those ways as you have desires to make changes.
Reduce High Acidic Food Meal Ideas to Consider For your GERD Ayurveda Grocery List
You may find better low acidic grocery food options along your food journey, such as breads inspired by the Biblical ways to make flour-less bread, from ingredients such as millet, spelt, and sprouted grains.
You could make a smoothie with veggie green powder, spirulina, banana, avocado, apple. You can use healthier juices (V8 Healthy Greens is relatively lower in sugar), make your own low-sugar orange juice, or skip the juices altogether.
Or you could keep to the blending basics such as whole bananas, apples, pineapples, and berries.
Plenty of food and drink options to choose from. And our bodies naturally prefer variety and biodiversity.
But what about proteins (to add to your GERD Ayurveda grocery list)?
A safer bet for high acidity is chicken, eggs, or tofu. To get creative, you could make a chicken salad with mustard, grapes, celery, and curry, or an egg salad with mustard and alfalfa sprouts… or dreaming up a stir fry with tofu, mushrooms, and favorite veggies.
To make a savory (alkalizing) soup, you could consider a cauliflower/beet soup with ginger, curry, cinnamon, and organic unpasteurized milk (or almond milk if you like). And then when the high acidic foods level in your stomach goes down, you can consider adding or using coconut milk. …Just a few ideas to get you thinking. 💭
