Homemade Orange Juice

From: My husband grew up with a lemon tree in his backyard, and the year I lived in Costa Rica, he made homemade lemonade all the time. I used the same basic combination of ingredients to make orange juice with fresh oranges.

Ingredients:

6 cups fresh squeezed juice from oranges
2 cups cold water
6 Tbsp sugar

How to:

Combine ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate.

Natural Healing: Heartburn

From: With the onset of my 2nd pregnancy and a budding friendship with a lovely lady named Beth, I'm becoming more and more interested in natural healing alternatives for the common over-the-counter drug.

Ingredients:

See below.

How to:  

The following are great home remedies for heartburn:

An 8 oz glass of warm soy milk, almond milk or rice milk.
Acidophilus
Acid-ease (or other homeopathic formula from health food store)
Calcium/magnesium/potassium in doses of 300 mg/150 mg/100 mg.
Ginger.
Chamomile tea.
Eat more raw vegetables.
Raw apple cider vinegar: 1 Tbsp in glass of water.
Fresh papaya or pineapple.
Eliminate caffeine from your diet.


***Neither Beth nor I are licensed health care professionals.  Be sure to seek the medical advice of a health professional before starting any new therapy or if symptoms worsen.

Natural Healing: Sinus Congestion

From: With the onset of my 2nd pregnancy and a budding friendship with a lovely lady named Beth, I'm becoming more and more interested in natural healing alternatives for the common over-the-counter drug. Between my friend Sarah, her cousin Beth, and the good 'ol Wahlgreen's sinus wash ingredients list, I have discovered two great home remedies for sinus congestion.

Ingredients:

eucalyptus oil
rosemary oil
lemon oil
peppermint oil
thyme oil
tea tree oil
iodine free salt
baking soda

How to:  

Steam therapy: Boil water. Put drops of eucalyptus (2), lemon (1), rosemary (3) in a big bowl. You can also add peppermint, thyme, and tea tree oils. Pour boiling water over it. Quickly cover your head and bowl with a towel. Stay there and breathe the steam in until it stops steaming.

Sinus wash: Fill a netti pot with hot water. Netti pots can be purchased at a drug store.  They often come with a sinus wash packet, which has a combination of iodine free salt and baking soda in it.  When you run out of those packets, you can dissolve 1 tsp iodine free salt and 1/3 tsp baking soda in the netti pot. Over a sink or in the shower, lean over so your head is completely horizontal, with your right ear to the ceiling.  Slowly place the tip of the netti pot over your right nostril and allow the liquid to flow through your sinuses, out the left nostril.  Adjust your head position so the liquid does not flow out of your mouth or down your throat.  Breathe through your mouth.  Repeat on the other side.  You may practice using only lukewarm water ahead of time, to get the hang of it.  Sometimes the salt and baking soda mix burn, and you may need to stop and sneeze in the middle of it.  This means it's working! Repeat as often as desired, up to every couple of hours. As an added bonus, the solution flowing over your nostrils will help to cure the raw, dry skin that's irritated from blowing your nose so often!


***Neither Beth, Sarah, nor myself are licensed health care professionals.  Be sure to seek the medical advice of a health professional before starting any new therapy or if symptoms worsen.

Creamy Wild Rice Soup

From: A dear friend, Ashley Martin, over at Adventures in Twinderland, shared this recipe with me.  Wow is it deeeeee-licious!!

Ingredients:

1/2 or 1 large onion minced
6 garlic cloves or 1 Tbsp dried minced garlic
diced celery (to your liking - I used about a cup)
sliced carrots (to your liking - I used about 1 1/2 cups)
4 Tbsp butter (I may have used a whole butter stick. ;)  )
1 cup wild rice
1 cup of long grain rice
1/2 cup of flour
6 cups chicken stock or water with bullion (I used 5 cups of water with 6 cubes of bullion so it would have lots of flavor but be more like rice and less like soup - only because I was on a soup fettish and cooked soup 4 times in a week)
chicken or turkey cooked (optional)
crumbled cooked turkey bacon (half of a package)
salt and pepper to taste
2/3 cup cream
Parmesan cheese to taste

How to:  

Mince the onion, garlic, celery, and carrots and saute with half of the butter until it's softened and cooked through.

Then melt in the rest of the butter. Add 1 cup of wild rice and 1 cup of long grain rice and cook for a few minutes. Then add 1/2 a cup of flour and mix in, let it cook for a few minutes. Next, add in the chicken stock or water with bouillon and put a lid on the pot, let it simmer for about half an hour or until the rice is cooked and tender (but obviously wild rice still has some crunch to it).

If you want to add pre-cooked chicken or turkey, now is the time to add it along with the crumbled bacon. At this point, I taste-tested and was so in love with the taste that I didn't even add the rest of the ingredients, plus it's right after the holidays and I'm trying to eat healthier.  Ha!

But this would also be delicious:  Ashley says to mix in about 2/3 a cup of cream, and then add Parmesan, salt and freshly grated pepper to taste. Add extra chicken bouillon if needed but it you probably don't need it. Enjoy!  I sure did!