Friday Night Dinner Blog

The Menu:

Garlic-laden gluten-free fusilli with sautéed purple-sprouting broccoli and sundried tomatoes

Bug-Busting Cold-and-Flu Elixir*

The Story:

When I was living in New York in my early twenties, whenever I would start to feel a bug coming on, I would put together this concoction and drink it by the gallon until I felt better – usually within a day or two.

Cut to ten years later, and I’m still drinking my Bug-Busting Cold-and-Flu Elixir at the first sign of illness.

The basic ingredients have not changed, what has is their provenance.  The tea that I now use is organic, the honey raw and I no longer buy apple-flavoured boxes of nectar or pre-cut ginger in little glass jars – these days I juice my own.  

My mother believes the best remedy for a cold is to “pee it out.”  Her prescription is simple: drink as much as you can.  But with my magic potion, I not only pee it out, I kick its ass. 

For the past week or so, DW and I have been alternating sniffles.  Pregnancy suppresses the immune system – you see, my body temporarily has other priorities – and so for the first time in ages, I have a cold. Not a bad one, but enough of one that a few days in bed were just what the Holistic Health Consultant ordered. A few days in, and there we lay, husband and wife, handing one another tissues and alternating who would brew the next pot of tea.

Needless to say, Friday Night Dinner was comfort food all the way.  I upped the chilli and garlic quotient to help our bodies rid themselves of the nasty bugs and made wonderful gluten-free fusilli with sautéed purple sprouting broccoli and sundried tomatoes.

Most importantly, we took it EASY and spent the evening watching DVDs while sipping my Bug-Busting Cold-and-Flu Elixir.

The Recipe:

Bug-Busting Cold-and-Flu Elixir:

(makes 2 strong cups of this magic potion – not for the faint at heart)

Ingredients:

Juice of four apples* or 2 cups of good apple (fresh) juice, no sugar added

Juice of 1 lemon, preferably put through the juicer, but squeezed will work

Juice of a large knob of ginger – about as thick as 2 fingers, and half as long (a woman’s)

2 cups strong Echinacea tea that has been allowed to brew and cool for about 10 minutes

1 T raw honey

Pour the apple, ginger and lemon juice into a large pitcher. 

In a separate container, mix the honey into the tea and then combine with the juice.

The result is spicy and potent yet sweet.  You should be able to feel it all the way to the tips of your toes. 

Nutrition:

I mentioned raw honey in a previous newsletter about sweeteners, and yet the benefits are so numerous that I feel it’s important to point it out again.  You can read about it here.

However, I’d like to focus on *apples.  What is it about apples that has made them so bog-standard and yet simultaneously elevated them to mythical status?  It was an apple that brought down Adam and Eve, an apple that made William Tell a legend, and, as the famous saying goes: one a day is enough to keep the doctor away. 

Why?

Well, apples are high in Vitamin C as well as Beta Carotene (note: these are mostly found in the peel), and fibre.  The pectin in apples can help cleanse the bowel and combat diarrhoea at the same time.  In addition, apples are said to reduce the risk of certain cancers, eye disease and speed up the healing of heartburn and GERD.

However, it is important to note that conventionally grown apples rely very heavily on chemicals. In fact, they rate number two on the Environment Working Group’s list of pesticide-laden produce! (see below)

If you don’t want to or can’t buy all of your food organic, you may benefit from being aware of which fruits and vegetables are more prone heavy spraying -- like apples. This is one reason you may want to consider buying them organic.  For a comprehensive list of produce rated from highest to lowest pesticide load, please click on this week’s Link.