~ Winter Warming Herbs ~

Here we are, December, 2010.  This year if you're having a hard time believing that we really just walked through another whole year of life, just open your front door.  The insta chill in your bones will remind you what time of year it really is.  I am a 'home body' anyway, but I am even more so during the cold winter months. 

My small frame and high metabolism cuts down drastically on my fatty tissues, which means, I've got very little insulation, which means ... brrrrrrrrrr! Stay inside, go no where, become a hermit and blog.

Since this is near humanly impossible to do in order to function in day to day life.  We have to go to the grocery store, the bank, taking and picking up kids from school ... it's inevitable that we must embrace the cold, away from the comfy warmness of our homes.

With that said, let me introduce you to two or three herbs to help you tolerate and embrace these bone chilling temperatures by warming you up, inside, to face or unfreeze your fingers, toes and nose, after already facing the conditions, outside.

Astragalus, Ginger and Cinnamon.

• Astragalus is a great herb to take for your immune health, but it also helps circulate blood flow and creates a warming effect in your body.  It's also great herb to use for recovery from an illness and helps enhance the benefits of other herbs when combined in any blend.   

• Ginger is an awesome herb, widely known and popular and beneficial for a variety of conditions.  Ginger is also known for improving blood flow and warming the body.  For cold hands and feet Ginger is a great tea to help warm them up.  

• Cinnamon, one of my favorite herbs, apart from it's captivating 'feel good all over' aroma, that in itself seems to give a 'warm, fuzzy' sensation from head to toe, is not only a great 'spice' for candies and cakes, especially now, during the Holiday Seasons, but it also has several health benefits to it that you wouldn't even consider.  It's the perfect herb to use this time of year, keeping you warm, internally as you drink it as well as, in my opinion, due to  the way it effects my senses, sensually, by it's aroma. I love it!

Okay, so there you have it.  Three excellent herbs to help keep you warm, while at the same time, bringing your body multiple benefits in other areas by each one's own unique design and intended purpose at it's creation.

Tea Preperation:

• For a single cup of tea use 1 tsp dried (not powdered) herb/Cup boiling hot water.
• (for powdered herbs use 1/8 - 1/2 tsp/Cup. You don't need as much as dried or fresh herbs)  (powdered herbs can filter through tea balls and mesh strainers) 
• 1 Cinnamon stick - I generaly break off small pieces and put it right in the tea and leave it in after I've taken the tea ball out. A whole stick in a single cup may or may not be too potent of a taste for you, it will depend on your preferences.
• If you choose to place the herbs loosely in the boiled water intended to strain after steeping, let your water boil first, then place the herbs in to steep.
• Steep the herbs for at least ten minutes before straining and drinking your tea blend. (For larger amounts made, you can strain only what you want to drink now and leave the herbs steeping in the hot water, covered, for later.)
• Sweeten as desired. My sweetener of choice is always a bit of honey or Stevia herb. (note: Stevia herb is very sweet and very little is needed)

(One option when using powdered herbs is to use a 'tea press'.  I have a tea press 'travel mug'. (I'll have to check the website and make sure that's exactly what it's called.) I love this mug.  I can put several herbs at once in the cup, fill it with boiling water, let it steep, press it and drink away, refilling it over and over again through out the day without having to replace the herbs each time.)

~ HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!! ~

Stay WARM!!

Cherie'

Garlic Soup for colds

One of my all time favorite soup recipes for breaking and or reducing a cold duration is a combonation of:
Chicken broth, egg and Garlic.  I went ahead and added to the mix, Rosemary and Thyme.

Thyme is great for fighting infections, strengthening the respiratory tract (Bronchial Dilator), is an expectorant and decongestant for your chest and is an  anti: biotic, septic, bacterial, fungal, spasmodic and more.

Rosemary, one of my faves, has some of the same values as Thyme, but Rosemary also helps stimulate the blood flow through the heart, is a relaxant to the nervous system and (the purpose of using it in this soup) a recouperation herb, from illness.  It helps to restore your immune system and as an antioxidant helps prevent free radical cell damage.

Garlic has powerful researched and documented antibiotic and antibacterial values and another fav of mine to use for colds, flu etc... Garlic is just great in general.

One egg has 13 essential nutrients, including riboflavins for cell energy, selenium, which acts as an antioxidant to prevent the breakdown of tissues, iron which helps in the production of red blood cells and transporting of oxygen and more.  A good sight to look at for egg nutrition is http://www.incredibleegg.org/ .

For the soup, I use one can of chicken broth, one sliced/pressed garlic clove, a couple of pinches of both Thyme and Rosemary and one egg.

I usually let the broth boil, add the egg, reduce heat, add the herbs, let it steep for at least 10 minutes and serve. 

It's actually pretty tasty and I always add a bit more rosemary because I love the flavor and the aroma.

As a mom, it tears me up when one of my girls is sick.  Today it would be my 12 year old who is not feeling so hot at all.  Headache, fever, stomach ache, sinus congestion, cough, phlegm etc.

So, Mom put together an herbal tea concoction just for her.  For her headache - Feverfew; Fever - Yarrow; Stomach ache  & sinus congestion - Plantain. For her cough and any respiratory, plus phlegm, I added a cherry bark cough syrup I made, for flavor and herbal contents of Thyme, Marshmallow and Peppermint oil extract, all in a cup of hot water.

It's now 3:30 p.m. and she was only awake for maybe an hour between 1 and 2 p.m., drank the whole cup of tea, ate just a bit of chicken noodle soup and is now sawing logs on the couch.

The cherry bark is slightly sedative and helps the body 'rest', which aides in it's self-healing.

It blesses me to know that God knew what he was doing when he created the 'Plants of the Earth' and that he gave me the insight in to their value and worth. 

It blesses me even more that I can give this to my children.

update:  I'm happy to say that my daughter woke up a couple of hours after this post, no fever and hungry.  I fed her the 'garlic' soup I cooked up for her (which we took out the eggs and poured the, now, 'herbal' chicken broth in to a cup of soup, chicken noodle soup she had left over from earlier (and had poured most of the broth out (we put it in the dog's food, the cat ate it ... go figure).  A couple of hours later, still no fever and her appetite increasing, now wanting more 'solid' foods.  It's now 1:18 a.m. and she is 'finally' going back to sleep after hours of 'disney' shows (which I have to admit, I'm addicted to as much as she is ... but only when she's home ... really)

Between the herbal tea and syrup, the soup, plenty of rest and lots of TLC, she's doing so much better.  Still a bit weak, physically,  but another day of rest and more of Mama's Teas and she'll be as good as new for school first thing Monday morning ... :)

I'm going to add Astragalus to the tea blend, as it helps aide in recuperation from illness.

Freedom To Choose

FREEDOM to CHOOSE!!

So just how tired of Pharmaceutical, lab made ‘drugs’ are you?  How serious are you about the consideration of ‘natural’ ‘alternative’ routes to ease, heal, or fight off an array of ailments? 

I’m not a doctor and I don’t have a degree in Alternative Medicine (yet), but I do know one thing … The older I get, the more ‘wisdom’ I assume I’ve gained, the more I have began to undercover and understand how many of our lab produced pharmacy ‘drugs’ were derived from an ‘herb’, the more and more I steer clear of prescription or over the counter (OTC) aides and run to my herbal cabinet instead. 

I recently read that up until World War II the actual herbal plants were used in ingredients for medications. Due to herb shortages in Europe, synthetically made ‘herbal’ ingredients to replace the actual herb plant, were created, as we know them today, in our own lab/pharmacy based medications.

Therefore, in my infinite assumed wisdom and common sense, I conclude in my own mind, that, while I do believe Pharmaceuticals have “a” place in our health care, Pharmaceuticals are not all conclusive and the most beneficial and safest alternative for my body, reducing side effects from any other component imbedded in to any lab produced ‘drug’, would be to use actual herbal plants to tackle an ailment that does not absolutely require a pharmaceutical prescription or OTC ‘drug’.

I want to start writing articles for you to bring you valuable information about the world of ‘herbs’.  It’s a ‘big, vast’ world, so vast it would take more than a single lifetime, I believe, to know it all. 

However, I need some help in getting things started here.  I have worked with several herbs in the past couple of years, yet to sit down and just start ‘writing’ about one or a few even, is not as easy as it would seem.

I don’t want my articles to be ‘medical format’, a.k.a. bore you tears.  Though, while I want them to be ‘informative’, my heart is ‘connect’ and ‘reach out’ to others individually, as well as on a ‘whole’.  I want this to be more personal.  To do that, I need ‘your’ help.  I am asking others to throw out some issues/ailments they may be dealing with or know someone who is so I can have a more personalized focal topic to address.

I know this will be a ton of fun and my ‘goal’ is to inform, not diagnose, not heal (I’m not a dr) for others’ benefit and bring them another alternative to consider. 

So, if you’d like to participate to help me get past my ‘own’ psychological writer’s ‘block’ … send me a message, tell me your story and I’ll write about the herbs that are documented to assist in whatever is ailing you or someone you know!

Have a Healthy Day!

Cherie’

Note: All information provided to me will remain strictly confidential in regards to ‘names’, ‘locations’ etc … the main content will resolve around the ‘ailment and the herbal alternative to that ailment. Your personal information will not be a part of the content, unless you authorize me to do so.