and rattles off a list of veggie cures to common ailments. Seriously, mention that you have a cold, and I'll probably be all "Oh, I never get sick! You should go vegan! And eat some garlic!" A few lesser known foodie cures:Anise seeds + water= no more hiccups
Cardomom + ginger= no more tummy ache
Pistachios = cheap cure for jaundice and dermatitus
Mangoes = Giardia killer
Onions= defense against asthma attacks
(A lot of this stuff I learned from The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods by Michael Murray, which my awesome brother gave for my birthday.)
*Cough*. So anyways, this morning when I awoke I was amazed to find that I wasn't feeling well: sore throat, runny nose, headache, the whole shebang. I was shocked not only because I so rarely get sick, but also because it was the first really cold day, and how stereotypical is it to get the sniffles the first day the temperature drops? So conformist. Well, not wanting to go against my own commonly given advice I decided I would take my sick self to the grocery store and see what I could whip up to kill the cold before it
broke into my finals week. My main hypothesis is that I can get better before getting worse merely by overloading on garlic, ginger and vitamin C.So first I made the "Ginger Congee" from this month's Vegetarian Times. Congee is apparently a rice porridge eaten for breakfast. The Veg Times version is a ginger and garlic broth that you soak dried shitake mushrooms and rice in to make a nice soup. This was super comforting and warming. It was a little sweet (especially with the addition of mirin) but it mostly tasted like a milder miso soup. I'm going to eat this for breakfast tomorrow too.
To get even more garlic then the few measly cloves in the soup, (yes, I'm hardcore) I made a roasted garlic pizza. I roasted a whole head of garlic, mashed it with a little olive oil into a paste, and spread it over a vegan ready-made pizza crust. There's some tomato and orange pepper on there- which, might I add, is also good for throats (along with some more red pepper flakes for good measure.) I sprinkled on a little nooch after it got out of the oven and sat down to my super cold-killer meal.
Tomorrow I'm going to use the leftover broth to attempt a lentil soup with kale, ginger, and butternut squash. I'm sure by then I'll be completely better though... *cough*
Do you guys have any home remedies? After all, everbody knows chicken soup is for losers. ;P
Song of the day: "Narcissist Waltz"- Die Romantik
9 comments:
I wasn't expecting, when reading the first part of the post, that you were going to tell us you were sick. :-( Bummer! Especially with it being the first cold day - too typical, eh?
Your "remedies" sound amazing. Especially the roasted garlic pizza - I am obsessed with garlic. Your soup and pizza sound like fantastic ways of feeling better. I love nothing more than the idea of eating my way back to health. ;-)
oh no - sorry you've got the sniffles! i bet you can beat them though! I know you can! overloading on garlic, ginger and vitamin C sounds awesome. that's exactly what i'd do - and make sure to get lots of zinc in there, too! i super love garlic, and i think that's why dan & i don't get sick either - it's gotta be the garlic. i had no idea onions were good for asthma! dan used to have asthma - since becoming vegan - it stopped. which is awesome because he saves something like $80.00 a month in prescriptions! wahoo! a whole head o' garlic on a pizza - that sounds glorious! and the soup - oh wow - looks rock'n! i bet you're gonna be feeling mucho better tomorrow, indeed!
Sorry to hear you're sick. Ginger helps a lot! Especially in soup or tea. Mmmm, both pizza and soup look so good!
So great to hear you come to Berlin! How long are you going to stay?
hope you feel better soon! (to use a hallmarked turn of phrase). Congee sounds wonderful, too, yum!
oh, and I swears by echinacea. it tastes like hideousness, and it's more preventative than curative, but still, it's good stuff.
I heard a rumor that Flower Bug is STILL sick. And that she got another cook-happy Leo sick, too. So don't be too bummed that you got sick--there's only so much a body can do to fend off the superbug going around right now.
My home remedy = lots of fresh fruits, steamed vegetables, and banana-nut butter oatmeal :-)
And LOTS of water!!
that is a cool book!! i love natural remedies like that. i have one for constipation (i know, i know) but it's a little weird- i put castor oil on my stomach, wrap my stomach in saran wrap, and then put a heating pad on it for a few hours- i swear by this!! it works every time.
Woah, the ginger congee looks amazing. I'm going to have to go to the bookstore tomorrow and check out VT!
Mmm..Im a hardcore garlic eater myself! Not to mention ginger aficionado! Feel better :( I think your on the right track , maybe just some old fashioned
r-e-s-t!
-C
Post a Comment