The Season of Giving (Juicing for the Holidays)

There's nothing worse than being sick in bed with the flu or a nasty sinus infection, especially when you have young children. Since August, it feels like we've had one bout of illness after another. It's been exhausting. So when my husband started coughing and losing his voice last week and my ears started aching from pressure, we decided we had to do something different this time. That meant hitting natural remedies hard before we needed antibiotics. 

We started dosing up with B6 and L-Tyrosine supplements. Then we doubled up on probiotics and started drinking Emergen-C. Then Chris got a brilliant idea to look up juicing recipes for sinus congestion. We really wanted to avoid another trip to the walk-in clinic and round of antibiotics this time, so I started Googling recipes. I found this at JuiceRecipes.com. It was one of the top recipes for congestion (we're not fans of the V-8 flavored juice recipes). So Chris headed out and bought supplies... 

This recipe calls for these ingredients.

• Apples - 2 medium (3" dia) 

• Celery - 3 stalk, large (11"-12" long) 

• Cucumber - 1 cucumber (8-1/4") 

• Ginger - 1/2 thumb (1" dia) 

• Lemon (with rind) - 1/2 fruit (2-3/8" dia) 

• Lime (with rind) - 1 fruit (2" dia) 

• Parsley - 1 bunch 

• Spinach - 2 cup 

We chop them up into about 1-2 sized chunks. Then we run them through our juicer. 

According to JuiceRecipes.com, "parsley helps to inhibit the body's release of histamines, which explains its use by naturopathic healers for allergies and sinus congestion." Combine that with the ginger ("Being a warming herb, ginger can help knock out a fever. ... The warming effects make it a natural decongestant as well as an antihistamine, making it the perfect remedy for colds."), celery ("Celery roots, fruits (seeds), and aerial parts, are used as ethno medically to treat mild anxiety and agitation, loss of appetite, fatigue & cough.") and lemon ("Lemon juice assists in curing respiratory problems, along with breathing problems and revives a person suffering from asthma.") for one awesome punch of healing power! 

But how does it taste? I won't lie, it's got a kick to it. That ginger and it's warming properties really add a bit of spicy flame to the drink. But it's not bad! Trust me, I've tried far worse pharmaceutical medicines! Here's my glass of goodness I drank. 

We've done a glass a day for 3 days and feel much better! My congestion is nearly gone. My ears no longer ache with pressure. My husband's cough was greatly reduced and his voice has returned. We've both had more energy that allowed for us to actually take care of our kids while we recovered! I'm calling this one a miracle cure this holiday season! Christmas Eve is tomorrow. We were worried we would have to stay home and cancel all family outings this Christmas, but I think we'll be plenty well enough to head out of town tomorrow! THAT is a Christmas miracle! Now cross your fingers none of us come down with the flu in the next 24hrs!