Sick Every Winter? This Changes Everything

Winter Wellness and Staying Ahead of Sickness 0:00

Do you feel like you are sick all winter and don't know what to do about it? Well, I've been there myself, so let's go talk about this. Do you want to live well? Meaning, do you want to stay well? Not wait to make changes until you're already sick? Well, welcome to my home. Let's go on this journey together. Do you all dread that time when a kid comes downstairs from bed and they say, Mom, I don't feel good. My throat hurts. They're starting to cough. I just absolutely hated it because I didn't really know what to do about it.

You ever felt like that or you feel like that? You wake up in the morning and you go, no, I don't want to get sick today. Well, we often turn towards these, right? The syrups, the pills, they don't do anything to keep you well. That's what living well is all about. It's about staying well before you get sick. Why do we get sick in the wintertime? Well, there's a lot of reasons. First of all, we're cramped indoors with each other. We go on vacations. We have family parties. We have school parties.

We're all together all the time. There's not a lot of air circulation. We're not getting sunshine because it's wintertime. A lot of reasons lead to sickness, but you can prevent it. That's what's so amazing, and that's what I've learned and what I want to share with you. So this is the first thing I make if anybody says they're starting to get sick. I make it's called cold busting gingerade, and I'm going to show you how simple this is. And you don't have to wait until you're getting sick. You can actually do it even when you want to just stay well during the winter.

The first thing we're going to start with is lemons. Why? Vitamin C. We all have heard about vitamin C, right? When you're getting sick, take vitamin C. But do you know why you're supposed to take vitamin C? Vitamin C is full of energy, of electrons. So think about, you know, your phone, your teenager's phone, it's dying. What are they going to do? We all know to charge our phones. Well, how do you charge you? Because to avoid being sick, we have to have a strong immune system.

Cold-Busting Gingerade Recipe 2:00

all of those cells just have to be strong and powered up vitamin c does that it brings energy it powers up every single cell in your body including those immune cells so lots of vitamin c in this lemon juice that's the first thing we're going to put in here the next thing we're going to add is some ginger why ginger well ginger actually does a couple of things it decreases inflammation and even even if you don't nip it in the bud and you do start to feel a cold coming on if you add ginger oftentimes it'll shortcut the length of that sickness so you won't feel sick as long and you won't feel as sick when you're feeling sick it reduces the mucus formation all of those things so we're gonna add ginger gives a little bit of a spicy kick but i love it as soon as i start to drink this i think oh my gosh i'm already feeling better now you notice i didn't peel this because why because it's an extra step and i don't want to do an extra step i've got to get get this on the stove really fast.

So I'm actually just grating this. Grating this opens the ginger up. So we're going to get all the juice and all the medicine that's inside of here. And I don't really need to worry about those skins. I washed it, so it's going to be fine in here, and you're going to see we're going to filter it out when it gets to the end. So ginger is the second thing we're going to put in here. The third thing we're going to add is some honey. Now, why honey? Well, a couple different reasons. First of all, it makes it taste good.

You know, people actually want to drink it. But also, it's actually really good at fighting bugs, too. It fights bacteria, and it just coats all the throat, it makes you feel better when you drink it, all of that. Okay, so the ginger's grated, it looks like this, it looks a little hairy. That's what it's supposed to look like because we didn't peel it. You can peel it if you really want to, but I don't want to. So I like to squeeze it and get all of that really good medicinal juice out of here at the very beginning, and then I'm just gonna dump the whole thing in here.

So that's all going to go in this pitcher. Now let's talk about this pitcher. This pitcher goes right on the stove. So I don't have to put it in here and then transfer it to something and worry about burning myself or my kid or whatever else. So this pitcher goes right on the stove. You got to get one. I absolutely love it. I'm going to add that honey. It's how much you want. I don't like a ton for myself, but my kids like a lot more than I like. The last thing you can add, and I'm not gonna put it in the picture because for kids, they don't love cayenne pepper.

The cayenne pepper is great for stimulating your immune system, just your whole circulatory system, so it's gonna take this medicine where it needs to go faster, but I save it for mine. Now the last thing you can add is this. This is actually something I tried just recently and I loved it. It is my citrus ginger elderberry tea. I just dropped a little bit in here and... I liked it for two reasons. Number one, elderberries are really great at keeping you well. So this is a really great drink just to have on the stove every single day in the winter.

But it also kind of turns it pink, you'll see. And so everybody likes it. You can say, oh, this is like a strawberry lemonade now, not just lemonade. So this is going to go right on the stove. Nothing else but that right there. We're going to turn the stove on. That's going to start to heat. And we'll see that as we're talking about some other things. So how do you stay well this winter? Vitamin C. Just gingerade? Nope, lots of other ways. We're gonna keep talking about other ways to get vitamin C into your family this winter time.

Okay, now we know that vitamin C is a powerhouse. We really have probably heard this as moms already, but how many times have you given your kid an orange and they give it back? They don't wanna eat it or they complain about the white stuff, right? The white stuff on the oranges, it drives me crazy. I always tell my kids, it's just part of the orange, just eat it. but they don't want to eat it. So I'm going to show you a way to cut an orange that gets rid of the white stuff and makes it so that everybody loves it.

This is the way I do it anyway, just for our family, because I like a whole big bowl of citrus. I find that people eat it a lot more if it's cut nicely and it's in a cute bowl. Isn't that just always the way it goes?

Preparing Citrus for Easy Snacking 6:00

Now, why do I have this bucket over here on my counter? Well, I have compost because we have chickens. So we put everything in the chicken compost bucket that goes out to the garden. I'm going to just cut off the outside of that orange. Sometimes there's a lot of seeds in the center. If there are, there's a way to get rid of those. I'll show you that on the grapefruit. But a simple way to do this is just simply to cut through that orange and it goes into a bowl. So much more likely to eat them when they're like this than with all the white stuff on the outside.

So really simple way to just get more fruit into your kiddos. Let's talk about a grapefruit. Couple of different ways to do grapefruit. I remember growing up, so we would sit down at the kitchen bar and we would eat half a grapefruit with a spoon. I'm sure you've probably done that before. I would probably cover it with an inch of sugar. Did anyone do this too? I mean, I covered it with sugar. I can still taste what it tastes like. And then when you got done, you'd squeeze the rest of that grapefruit juice into the bottom of the bowl and it mixed with all that sugar.

It was so delicious. I don't do that nowadays. My best friend growing up, her name was Kelly, she would eat grapefruit with salt which I thought was just like blasphemy. All right so we're not going to do either of those things because we're actually going to cut off the sides just like we did that orange. We're going to get rid of all the white stuff and you can eat grapefruit the same way you eat oranges because of all of those really kind of tough membranes but I'm going to show you a way to get rid of all of that tough membrane area without having to just sit there at your bar with a spoon.

So the first way is the simplest way. We're going to cut out the very center. This is where a lot of those thick membranes live and those seeds. And I'm just going to kind of do a little circle around the center, cutting out the seeds and cutting out the worst of those membranes. That's all just going to go into that compost bucket as well. And now what you have is grapefruit that's very similar to that orange that we already cut up. You're gonna just throw that right in the bowl. And it's funny because my little granddaughter, she actually picks the grapefruit out of this bowl.

She loves it the most, which I think is really interesting. So again, just cut out that center where all those membranes live and slice these up and stick them right in there with the rest of those oranges. Super easy. There's a third way that you can do grapefruit. We'll show you this on this one. It's the fanciest way. It's called sub-creaming. This gets rid of the Rembrandt completely. Look at all this juice on here. Literally, this is like vitamin C in action right here on my cutting board. So same starting point, right?

And everything I did at the very beginning was just cut off the ends. Why? Whenever I teach kids to cook, I always tell them, make a round thing flat. So we're making a round thing flat. We're getting rid of all the outsides. You got to have a sharp knife. You have to have a sharp knife. You have to have a decent cutting board. So some of the rules of the game in my kitchen is wood cutting board because any other kind of cutting board dulls your knives and actually makes them not very good at cutting, but you have to have a sharp knife.

That is just a non-negotiable. Okay, to supreme this grapefruit, what you're going to do is cut right next to one of those membranes down to the center and then do the same on the other side. That's going to be your slice number one. Slice number two is even easier. You pull over that membrane with your finger and then you just scoop out the rest of that slice. So we're gonna go all the way around this grapefruit, supreming it. This is my family's favorite way. Obviously it is more work for me, but if I really wanna get a ton of citrus into my family, this is the way I'm gonna do it.

So this is oftentimes our salad during the winter time.

Orange Julius Smoothie with Whole Fruit 9:20

This is what we eat in place of any other kind of salad. And I really believe that we should pay attention to what the earth provides. So guess what grows in January? We just went down to Arizona for the Christmas holiday and my family lives in Arizona. They have citrus trees in their yards. That's where actually all the citrus came from was from their yard. This is what grows right now. Isn't that cool? This is what grows right now and this is what our bodies need right now this time of year. So pay attention to the earth, eat the citrus fruits.

This is a great way to do it. I'm going to actually use this orange in another way, a way that I get a ton of citrus into my family as well. You're gonna do the same thing, get rid of the white stuff, but it's not as important on this one. I'm gonna cut this in fourths and then pop it into here with some water. Now, this is my go-to in the winter time when my daughter or any of my teenage kids, when they bring home friends. This is my homemade orange Julius recipe and this orange Julius is with whole oranges.

It's not just with juice because the problem with juice is it spikes your blood sugar and you get this huge rush of energy and then this huge crash. So when you use the whole fruit, it slows down your body using that sugar and it lasts longer. So we're gonna throw some oranges in here. I'm also gonna throw some bananas in there. Why bananas? Bananas actually are full of vitamin C also, but they're really sweet. And so I'm not gonna add any sugar at all to this orange Julius. It's just gonna be oranges, bananas, a little bit of vanilla.

Vanilla just wakes up everything. It just makes it taste better. So we're gonna throw some vanilla in there and I feed this to kids and they just drool over this. So I have a few bananas. What I do to freeze them is I just put them in halves in a bag. We're going to throw two bananas in there, a little bit of ice because I have more water than I do fruit and this isn't going to be as icy as I want it to be. So we're going to throw some ice in there and then that vanilla. Now, you're gonna see, this looks like Orange Julius from, I mean, probably dates me, but there used to be Orange Julius stores at the mall, and we would all beg our mom to get an Orange Julius when we went to the mall.

She never gave it. Very rarely do we actually get an Orange Julius, but I loved the Orange Julius so much. This is gonna look like the Orange Julius at the mall. It's gonna be creamy. There's not a bit of cream in there. There's no dairy at all. All this is is fruit, vanilla, and ice, literally. So, let's blend this up and see what it looks like when it's done.

Vitamin C Snack Prep and Veggie Tips 12:00

All right, I just blended this for about 45 seconds. It's on the smoothie setting in my blender and nothing that I have to think very hard about. We're gonna take this off. You can see how creamy this looks. And I promise you, this is what I give to all the teenagers. They love it. They just drool over and they say, please, can you make the orange Julius when we come over to your house? This is so yummy. I literally could drink that whole pitcher of it. So you want more vitamin C in your kids? This is a sneaky way to do it.

All right, let's talk about some other snacks. We're gonna come back and show you some other snacks now. A really easy way to get everyday wellness is right here. It's all with fruits and vegetables that are full of vitamin C. So all the things that are here are actually full of vitamin C. And one of the things that I like to do is have them already prepared and in the fridge or on the countertop. So when you come home from school or from work, they're so easy to grab. My daughter came home from college and she said, mom, you live in an ingredient kitchen.

Like there's nothing actually to eat. And I thought, well, that's like a cool word to say, you know, like I'd have to actually work to get some food around here, but it's true. So you need to turn it into less of an ingredient kitchen. So let's talk about how we get these prepared. I know you know how to cut a lot of these things, but I'm going to show you a few tips that might make some of this a little easier on bell peppers. I don't know why I didn't learn this for so long, but what you do is actually don't cut the top off.

I'd cut the top off forever and then you have these weird shapes and it didn't cut very well, so you cut the sides off. Now you have a very square nice thing and it leaves all the seeds inside so I won't finish cutting this but you can see how you cut the sides off and now you have very even nice things to cut and then you just make some slices and this is so easy for people to grab if you have them sitting right there next to a thing of hummus. How simple is that? I just want to do that. And red pepper is actually one of the highest vitamin C containing foods that you can eat.

One of the next ones is broccoli. So many people hate broccoli, okay? And I actually do not like raw broccoli. It's one of my least favorite foods. If I see that on a tray, I'm like, not eating that. So guess what makes this delicious? A little bit of salt and a little bit of steam. So we're just going to cut this up. It doesn't have to be a lot of cutting, just some bigger chunks like you would eat in hummus or something like that. Throw them in a pan, lightly steam. What does lightly mean? Just a little bit of water.

I put just enough to cover the bottom. Salt is the magic ingredient. It does two things. First of all, salt makes everything taste better, but it also makes the broccoli stay greener. It locks the chlorophyll inside and then they don't look limp and lame and that olive green color that nobody actually wants to eat. So this is gonna go on the stove for about five minutes, if that, and that will actually get just a little bit of lightly salted, lightly steamed broccoli. People will like it a lot better.

on that veggie tray. Give it a try. I promise it'll actually change their mind about it. Tomatoes full of vitamin C. Awesome! So this is all going to go together. Now let's talk about the fruits. Berries. Who doesn't love some berries, right? So strawberries, blackberries. A couple of tricks here. Let's talk about a kiwi fruit. What do we do that makes a kiwi fruit really easy? Again, cut off the top and the bottom, and then we're gonna use a spoon, and that spoon is gonna slide right next to the skin, and you literally just twirl it around, and that entire kiwi is now peeled without you having to do anything.

Slides out, you can put it like that if you want, you can cut it into quarters if you want, you can cut it into slices, and now that kiwi fruit is ready

Easy Fruit Prep, Cost, and Everyday Wellness 15:40

to go and easy to eat, because nothing, again, will turn off somebody faster than I have to do something to make this food possible. So make it easy for them. Mangoes. People often struggle with the pit on the inside. It's quite large. We do the same steps. We make it flat so it's easy to sit against your cutting board. Now it's not going to roll around. We're going to peel off the sides the same way we did with the oranges with the grapefruit. We're just peeling off the sides. After it's flat, it's easy to do.

I'm going to just do one side to let you see this. The pit is right here down the center. So we're going to find it with the knife. I'm going to turn just a little bit and go right next to that pit and it's going to take that whole side of the mango off. Now that's really easy to slice up. Get rid of those last little peels that I missed and any weird pits that come here in the bottom. Nobody likes to eat that kind of stuff. Slice this up. Now, easy eating. I remember we had a boy that lived with us for a year, and he came home one day.

I had mangoes sitting out, and he said, mangoes? Like, can I eat them? I said, well, yeah. He said, I've never had mangoes except for in a really fancy restaurant before. I didn't know you could eat them at home. So yes, you can eat mangoes at home. Have things ready and out for your family to eat, and all you're doing is providing them with energy, recharging their cells every single bite they take. Now, I do want to talk about one thing real quickly. People say this is expensive. It's expensive to eat like this.

Vegetables and fruit are expensive. Well, sickness is expensive, too. There's a lot of lost time with work and school. There's a lot of medicines and doctor visits. This is actually the cheapest medicine you could possibly buy right here. It keeps you well, keeps you charged, keeps you doing everything that you want to do. And I promise you, you actually will eat less of this food than you do of all that food that's in a box, in a bag, because your body wants this. And when you feed it to it, it says, thank you, that's what I wanted, and I don't need as much.

So give it a try, I promise. This is what has kept my family well. And I think it might work for you too. All right, lots of vitamin C here. And vitamin C, it goes away every day. So we actually have to add it back to our bodies every single day. This is a delicious way to do it. Thank you for joining me in my kitchen today. That is what we are here to do. We are here just to simply learn together how to be well, and this is a great way to start. So subscribe, keep checking back. This is the kind of thing that I love to share because what I want is for us just to live well together.