It has been one year folks. One year since I took a break from this site to grow a baby, birth a baby, and get through the first couple months of said baby’s life.
But I miss you guys. I miss writing about the food I’m making. If you’ve been following me on Instagram (caitlins_cupboard), you know I’ve still been busy in the kitchen. I have goals, and I need to organize, but I want to come back here with recipes for you all to enjoy! So stay tuned. In the meantime, I will leave you with a wonderful little tea/tonic recipe to get you through the upcoming sniffly months.
Tea Thyme
Each time you go grocery shopping, I recommend picking up a bunch of fresh thyme and fresh rosemary (organic, preferably!). Grab yourself some fresh ginger root while you’re at it. This recipe does not require measurements.
Fill a large pot with fresh drinking water (8-10 cups at least) and simmer the fresh herbs with 2 inches of fresh peeled ginger root. It should turn the color of actual tea. Pour through a strainer over a glass and serve with raw honey, or a squeeze of lemon if you wish. Sip throughout the day, and over a couple of days if you’ve been exposed to some bugs, or feel like you might be coming down with something.
Both thyme and rosemary (and oregano, too, but I don’t think that’d taste as good mixed in here), are very anti-viral and anti-bacterial. Ginger has some anti-bug and anti-inflammatory medicinal properties as well. Raw honey is also anti-pathogen, but don’t boil it in to the mix to retain it’s raw bug killing properties.
Amp it up.
If you’d like to take this tea to the next level of health, simmer a handful of dried rosehips into the pot. They make it slightly tart, and blend out some of the herbal flavor. They can be found in health food stores, or ordered online. If you’re in Pittsburgh, where I live, check out the East End Food Co-op or Biddle’s Escape coffee and herb shop in Regent Square, where I got mine. Rose hips are an excellent source of vitamin C, E and other immune boosting vitamins and minerals. They contain calcium and magnesium, zinc and B vitamins, all things great for health and healing!
Just last week, my son picked up a cold at school which he passed to my husband, so I immediately filled a huge soup pot with a huge handful of herbs, ginger, and rosehips. I drank about 6-8 mugs of it throughout the day, and didn’t get sick. Still going strong. I do employ other holistic techniques of germ prevention in our house (essential oils, vitamin supplements, green superfood powders, etc.), but my innate immune system tends to not be as strong as my husband’s so I need to do all the tricks to keep it up and running, wheras he tends to steer clear of colds without much help. I hate him for that. But this time, he got it and I didn’t, so maybe it was the tea 🙂 I did make both of them drink it, and neither complained about the flavor, so I promise it just tastes like honey sweetened tea. My goal is to make a batch of this weekly for all of us to drink to help keep bugs at bay.
Try it for yourself and let me know how you like it!
To your health,
Caitlin and Baby Bodhi
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