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Pomegranate Italian Cream Soda (Dairy Free)

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This healthy but sophisticated drink is delicious as well as beautiful. Antioxidant rich and only three ingredients! -- The Nourishing Gourmet

This sophisticated Italian Soda is sweetened and flavored with rich pomegranate juice for a refreshing and antioxidant-rich drink. You only need two ingredients (or three for the cream version), with no sugar syrup needed. It’s a lovely and beautiful drink! I especially like it with a drizzle of coconut milk (my husband uses cream or half and half).

Pomegranate works particularly well for this type of drink because it has such a pronounced flavor. Other juices could easily become watered down too much, and so you would have to use a juice concentrate instead. The other possible method is the one I used for this Paleo Raspberry Cream Soda where I started with whole raspberries.

Make sure you buy 100% pomegranate juice, otherwise the flavor won’t be pronounced enough. I used Pom Juice, but you can also use something like this brand.

Another juice I’m eager to try as an Italian Soda is tart cherry juice. It’s also especially antioxidant-rich and with a robust flavor.

If you wanted to try a juice concentrate, you can find anything from blueberry concentrate, black cherry juice concentrate, and even elderberry concentrate. For juice concentrates you will only need a small portion per cup.

This is the Coconut Milk I like to use. It is guar gum free, and it is easy to stir into a drink.

This drink is paired nicely with quinoa pizzas, pasta dishes, and salads.

This healthy but sophisticated drink is delicious as well as beautiful. Antioxidant rich and only three ingredients! -- The Nourishing Gourmet

Pomegranate Italian Cream Soda (Dairy Free)

I eyeball the proportions. Fill the glass 3/4s full of sparkling water, and then finish it with the juice.

Per Serving:

  • Ice
  • ¾ cup of sparkling water
  • ¼ cup of pomegranate juice
  • 1-2 teaspoons Aroy-D Coconut Milk (or, if consuming dairy, cream or half and half)

Directions:

Fill a cup with ice, and add sparkling water. Add juice, and stir in the coconut milk. Enjoy.

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Lemon Apple or Raspberry Banana Green Monster Smoothie (and 5 Reasons to Drink Green Smoothies)

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Why Green Smoothies are so healing, and how to enjoy them on a regular basis.

These healing smoothies are stuffed full of greens, and antioxidant-rich berries and lemons. They are especially for those bringing healing foods into their diet. I love them! Full fat coconut milk makes it creamy and delicious, but it also helps aid in the absorption of nutrition (Read: Fat and the absorption of vitamins). I personally love the flavor of lemon in the Lemon Apple smoothie, and it helps balance any bitterness from the greens. Plus, read about all of the health benefits of lemons here. Healing smoothies like these have been an important part of my diet since I got sick months ago, and I definitely felt the lack when I tried cutting them out.

I find that green smoothie drinking is somewhat frowned upon in the real food, slow food, Nourishing Traditions crowd. It’s true that smoothies weren’t available to our ancestors, but I have no problem using a blender if it will help me heal and energize me!

Here are five reasons that you might want to consider including them into your routine. Just remember that we are all unique, and you should add in what works best for you.

Green smoothies up your vegetable intake

I have long known that I feel significantly better when eating a lot of vegetables. The Wahls protocol has also inspired me to get a lot of produce into my daily diet. But I’m not going to lie – It can be hard to consume the amount that makes me feel best. This is especially true when you are healing or deal with chronic health issues. But it’s also true for those of us with busy lifestyles, work schedules, or kids! Consuming lots of greens in your smoothies is an easy way to enjoy the benefits of a high vegetable diet. 

Help you consume antioxidant rich berries

Blueberries, wild blueberries, and raspberries are easily accessible and offer a lot of antioxidant support. This is so important for fighting inflammation and it’s best to get antioxidants from food not supplements (read more why here PDF). They also add fiber and nutrition and are wonderful foods to keep in your diet on a regular basis. The lemon apple smoothie offers support through the lemon and apple too.

Green smoothies are FAST

I love the slow food movement, and I have a chicken slowly roasting over a bed of vegetables in my oven right now, but I love foods that are fast too. I recognize that I need fast things at least sometimes, and you probably do too.

Green smoothies are easy to digest

As many have experienced with Lyme disease, or mold exposure, and many other gut disturbances, digestion can be easily upset. Some find that they have to only consume well cooked vegetables. In my case, I also find smoothies are especially easy on my stomach. It’s been a huge blessing for me during months when everything I ate felt heavy in my stomach – with the exception of smoothies.

Green smoothies can be enjoyed on the go

And by the go, I don’t just mean taking them in the car. I like that I can be sipping on my smoothie slowly while helping a child with homework, or doing housework. I think we overall do need to slow down and eat slowly. But for someone like me, I’m thankful I can sip my way through my smoothie in my own time.

Tips for these recipes:

  • When you need a lot of extra nutrition, you can make a double portion, put most of it in a eight cup mason jar in the fridge, and enjoy it slowly throughout the day. Most days I fill my Vitamix container to the top with greens.
  • This is a STRONG green drink at the full amount of greens. Play around with what you personally tolerate.
  • Make it sweeter by using some apple juice, cut down on the greens if they are too strong for you, or try more mild greens like baby lettuce.
  • I do use a high powered blender (I recently switched to the Vitamix and love it!). You can also use a regular heavy duty blender, but you will likely have to adjust the recipe a bit (more liquid, less to blend, etc).
  • You can precook certain greens, as desired, and then freeze them in an ice cube tray instead of using raw. (You can read more about this issue here). I personally have decided not to worry about it too much and just rotate my greens.
  • For best taste, or if you are using nonorganic lemons, you can peel the lemon before slicing. Also, do this if you aren’t using a high powered blender.

Ingredients:

Lemon-Apple Green Monster Smoothie

PDF for printing

  • 2-4 cups of greens of choice (I rotate through baby spring mix, “power mixes” of greens, and spinach)
  • 1 large apple, cored, and cut into pieces.
  • 1 slice of lemon (seeded, and peeled, see notes above).
  • 1 cup of liquid + more as needed (I usually mix coconut cream or full fat coconut milk with water for this, or have used coconut water and/or kombucha, which also adds sweetness. Apple juice or part apple juice would make this a lot sweeter, but use in moderation. You can also add a half or whole banana, which does change the taste.)
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, optional
  • 2 handfuls of ice

Add all of the ingredients to a high powered blender, and blend until frothy and smoothie. Scrape down the sides and add more liquid as needed. Make sure that the texture is smooth!

Enjoy

Raspberry-Banana Green Monster Smoothie

  • 2-4 cups of greens of choice (I rotate through baby spring mix, “power mixes” of greens, and spinach).
  • ½ cup of frozen raspberries
  • ½ – 1 frozen banana (or fresh)
  • 1 cup of liquid + more as needed (I usually mix coconut cream or full fat coconut milk with water for this, or have used coconut water, which also adds sweetness. Apple juice or part apple juice would make this a lot sweeter, but use in moderation.)
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, optional
  • Small handful of ice

Add all of the ingredients to a high powered blender, and blend until frothy and smoothie. Scrape down the sides and add more liquid as needed. Make sure that the texture is smooth!

Enjoy

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Does Lemon Water Offer Benefits?

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Lemon water is a wonderful way to get hydrated and all of the benefits of citrus fruits into your diet. Research, tips, and methods shared here. -- The Nourishing Gourmet

Years ago I started the practice of drinking lemon water in the morning before I ate. The habit didn’t stick for my morning routine, but I’ve been enjoying drinking lemon water in recent years throughout the day.

I’ve long found the habit helpful when I was starting to catch a virus, but more recently I’ve had several Lyme patients mention to me that they feel better when drinking plenty of lemon water – especially when they are experiencing the dreaded “die-off” effect.

One simple reason we may experience this is because lemon water adds a small amount of minerals and vitamins to water, and helps replace electrolytes. I’ve found that I feel hydrated faster with lemon water in comparison to plain water. Sometimes I add a pinch of sea salt too.

But there may be more benefits than just simple hydration. Lemon juice is a source of vitamin C and flavonoids which could both offer benefits. I’ve personally found supplementing with vitamin C helpful, but lemons are an excellent source of vitamin C in their whole food form.

Here is some information on citrus flavonoids and other citrus benefits, and another study on the nutritional properties of citrus. A Japanese study found a positive correlation to lowering blood pressure in walking and lemon ingestion, and a study on mice found that lemon juice was helpful in protecting the liver from alcohol injury.

One of the (many) reasons the Mediterranean diet is thought to be so healthful is because of their abundant citrus in the diet. This quote from the research, “Citrus as a Component of the Mediterranean Diet” gives a good idea of the nutritional power of citrus as a whole.

“Citrus fruits have well-documented nutritional and health benefits. Since ancient times that citrus has been used not only as food but also in folk medicine to treat some complaints: bronchitis, tuberculosis, cough, cold, menstrual disorder, hypertension, anxiety, depression and stress (Favela-Hernández et al., 2016). They can actually help preventing and curing some diseases and, above all, they are essential in a balanced and tasty diet. Citrus fruits do not possess sodium, fat and cholesterol, but are sources of several minerals (potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, copper), vitamins (C, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9), dietary fiber and secondary phytochemicals (carotenoids, phenols, including flavonoids, coumarins, limonoids, alkaloids and essential oils) which alone or in combination have been referred as being able to prevent inflammation, degenerative diseases, heart disease and even cancer (Ejaz et al., 2006; Lv et al., 2015).Potassium not only helps to maintain the body’s water, acid balance and normal pressure, but also is important in transmitting nerve impulses to muscles as well as in the muscle contraction (Economos & Clay, 1999). Vitamin C plays a key role in the absorption of inorganic iron; which can aid in the treatment of anaemia provided that adequate medicines are also administered. This vitamin is also important in the formation of collagen. A deficiency of this vitamin is responsible for the weakness of those tissues in which collagen is an essential element (ligaments, tendons, dentin, skin, blood vessels and bones). ” Read more: Citrus as a Component of the Mediterranean Diet (PDF Download Available). Available from:  [accessed Jan 25 2018].

Crystal over at MoneySavingMom.com has talked about how she drinks an entire gallon of lemon water every day and that it made a huge difference in her health and energy. She’s not alone in experiencing positive effects – though not everyone chooses to drink quite that much lemon water.

I do know that I feel better drinking it, so I have continued the habit. I don’t argue with success!

Lemon water is a wonderful way to get hydrated and all of the benefits of citrus fruits into your diet. Research, tips, and methods shared here. -- The Nourishing Gourmet

Tips for Lemon Juice Consumption:

Morning Cup of Lemon Juice Tea: In a cup of warm/hot water, squeeze half of a lemon and stir in honey to taste. (Some add cayenne pepper as well). Drink in the morning before breakfast.

Pre-make Lemon Water for the Day: Whether you are aiming for eight cups or a gallon of water, you can premake your lemon juice for the day. I use about 4-5 tablespoons of lemon juice per eight cups (it doesn’t need to be exact).

Drinking it Freshly Squeezed: I often like to squeeze a half of a lemon in a glass of water as I’m thirsty throughout the day. To make this practical see my notes below about my lemon squeezer.

Hot Lemon Mint Tea: I also make this Lemon Mint Tea, that uses a whole lemon, peel and all.

In Smoothies and Juices: I also enjoy adding a small wedge of lemon (seeded, but peel left on) to my smoothies and juicing it with veggies. (When using lemon peel make sure you are using organic lemons and wash them well.)

Hand Juicer I Love: I got tired quickly of hand squeezing lemons or using inadequate lemon juicers. My husband got me this lemon juicer (pictured above), and it is amazing! It gets all of the lemon juice out easily, and also doesn’t put stress on my hands. (Make sure you use it correctly. The lemon half goes in “backward” so that it is turned inside out as it is squeezed.)

Vanilla Lemonade: If you aren’t used to the sourness of lemon water, you can use vanilla stevia to sweeten it. Vanilla lemonade is good!

Bottled Lemon Juice: If you would like to use bottled lemon juice instead of fresh, choose glass if you can. This organic lemon juice is a great choice. Not only will you avoid plastic chemicals, but it will also have more stable vitamin C in it according to this research, “Regarding packing material, vitamin C in fruit juice is quite stable when stored in metal or glass containers, whereas juice stored in plastic bottles has a much shorter shelf-life. “

Don’t brush your teeth directly after drinking any citrus juice (wait at least 15 minutes). I also like to swish ph neutral water in my mouth afterwards to protect my teeth.

What about you? Have you found lemon water helpful?

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3 Ingredient Fresh Ginger Tea

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This anti-inflammatory tea tastes treat, is soothing on the throat and body, and has a lovely flavor!

This gently spicy tea is sweetened with soothing honey and enriched with creamy coconut milk. I love it for the taste but was pleased to see that it’s recommended to patients for its anti-inflammatory properties in the book, Unlocking Lyme by Bill Rawls (an excellent book, by the way. You can read about my Lyme disease story here).

You can read more about some of the encouraging possible health benefits of ginger here. 

It’s wonderful to find affordable and simple DIY drinks that give your body a gentle boost in the right direction. It’s gentle, but that doesn’t mean it’s not powerful too!

There is an increase of the flu in the area right now (I’m hoping we don’t catch it) that made me realize what a soothing beverage this would be for when you are under the weather.

During the summer, I plan on pouring it over ice and maybe squeezing some fresh lime juice into it too. Yum!

This anti-inflammatory tea tastes treat, is soothing on the throat and body, and has a lovely flavor!

Helpful hints:

    • For those who shop at Costco, if you are planning on using a lot of ginger, my local store has a large container of fresh ginger for a good price.
    • You will notice that I don’t call for peeling the ginger in this recipe. Just wash the roots well, and you are good to go. There is no need to peel them for this recipe.

Where to Find Ingredients:

Other Recipes:

This anti-inflammatory tea tastes treat, is soothing on the throat and body, and has a lovely flavor!

3 Ingredient Ginger Tea

Ingredients:

    • 2-3 inches of fresh ginger root, well washed
    • A spoonful of coconut milk or cream
    • Honey, to taste

Directions:

  1. Cut the ginger into ¼ inch slices.
  2.  Add to a medium pot with 4 cups of filtered water.
  3. Bring to a low simmer, and simmer for ten minutes (or longer for a stronger brew).
  4.  Add honey and coconut milk/cream to taste, and enjoy!
    Makes 4 cups of tea.

3 Ingredient Fresh Ginger Tea
 
Cook time:
Total time:
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Ingredients
  • 2-3 inches of fresh ginger root, well washed
  • A spoonful of coconut milk or cream
  • Honey, to taste
Instructions
  1. Cut the ginger into ¼ inch slices.
  2. Add to a medium pot with 4 cups of filtered water.
  3. Bring to a low simmer, and simmer for ten minutes (or longer for a stronger brew).
  4. Add honey and coconut milk/cream to taste, and enjoy!
  5. Makes 4 cups of tea.