Garlic is nothing to sneeze at!

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It’s that time of year again, when everyone around you starts sniffling and complaining about a scratchy throat… yes, it’s cold season!

With the average adult catching 2-4 colds each year, you need to do everything you can to avoid picking up the nasty virus. We’ve all heard the saying, “you are what you eat” and when it comes to preventing colds, there’s nothing more true!

When we’re sick, we don’t search for a pill bottle to help us recover, we go looking for our favourite herb, garlic! Garlic contains a whole list of vitamins that all promote healthy immunity. Garlic has high levels of vitamin C, although it may not be as much as citrus fruit, just 3 cloves of garlic will provide you with 5% of your daily intake. Vitamin C is important in maintaining cell walls as well as acting as an antioxidant to flush out toxins in the body.

The real cold fighting compound in this super food is allicin. But what is allicin? It’s what gives garlic it’s ‘hot’ flavour for one, but it’s also what makes garlic an antibacterial and an antifungal which is what helps kill colds!

The best way to get the most allicin out of your garlic is to chop, crush or chew up a clove as it is! We love garlic as much as the next person, especially roasted in a delicious pasta sauce, but the thought of chewing on raw cloves of garlic isn’t the most appealing idea.

That’s why we love Healthy Green Kitchen’s favourite sore throat remedy, garlic honey! When garlic has been infused with honey, you can barely tell that it’s garlic! All you need to do is get yourself some fresh garlic (we love fresh Tasmanian garlic) and some raw honey, Elixir Honey is a store favourite.

Visit her blog here to check out how to make this tasty remedy. Head to our Facebook page and let us know your home made cold remedies!

Make your mum breakfast in bed the healthy way!

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How do you show your mum you love her on Mother’s Day? For us, I’m sure you guessed, we show her through food! Every special occasion (and lets face it, most not so special occasions) mum slaves away in the kitchen, creating the most monumental feasts, making sure to include everybody’s favourite dish. It’s only fair that on Mother’s Day, you make something from the heart for her and what mum doesn’t like a surprise breakfast in bed!

Why not make your mum her very own not-so-average breakfast in bed with some amazing buckwheat pancakes! Buckwheat is an amazing super food, with about a million reasons why you should eat it. Try this scrumptious recipe for Gluten Free Vegan Buckwheat Pancakes from Gluten-Free-Vegan-Girl:

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups almond milk (or other dairy-free milk)
  • 1 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
  • 1 cup dates, pitted
  • 2 tsp vanilla essence
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • juice from 1/2 lemon, optional but recommended

Blueberry sauce:

  • 2 cups frozen blueberries (preferably organic)
  • 1/2 cup dates
  • 1/3 cup water (more if needed)

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients. Place the dates, almond milk, lemon juice and vanilla essence in a high-speed blender/food processor and blend until you have a smooth paste. Stir this mixture in with the dry ingredients until you have a relatively thick batter.

2. Heat up a non-stick pan on medium heat before pouring in about 1/4 cup batter per pancake. When the pancakes has started to firm up on the upward-facing side, flip around and cook on the other side until they are a deep
golden color. It is very important that you do not have a too high heat, as this will result in burnt and/or uncooked pancakes. Place the pancakes on a plate and place a towel on top to retain the heat. Repeat until all of the batter has been used.

3. While that is cooking we are going to make the blueberry sauce. Simply add all of the ingredients listed into a medium-sized pot and bring to a simmer. When the blueberries are no longer frozen (and the dates are soft enough to be blended) grab a hand-blender or transfer sauce to a regular blender, and pulse until properly combined. Pour this into a jar and set aside.

Now simply drizzle the sauce on to the pancakes, garnish with a handful of additional blueberries and enjoy!