Citrus Teas

Because winter doesn’t seem to want to end this year, I thought I’d post these recipes for citrus and spice teas that my wife found in Martha Stewart Living.  They are slightly modified for ease of preparation, and I leave out the "sweet stuff" that might not be good for a chronically ill person (you can find the original recipes here).  They only take 5-10 minutes to brew up, they are chock full of Vitamin C and herbs known to have healing properties, and they hit the spot on a cold winter afternoon.  Each recipe makes three cups.  Brew them when you have time, or while you are cooking up dinner (they’ll keep in the fridge for up to a week.)  Usually my wife has one and we pour the other two into two Pyrex containers (each container is a single serving.  Now if she wants a tea on a busy weeknight or during the day when I’m not home, all she has to do is just dump one of the Pyrexes into a saucepan, put it on the stove, and in like 2 minutes she has homemade herbal tea) or she has one, we save one, and I have one myself.  If you have the time, the second option is a great way for caregiver and care receiver (I need to find a better name for this individual during the course of this blog.  I’m open to suggestions.) to spend 20 minutes together and just talk like normal people and forget all the craziness surrounding them.

For both recipes, all you do is boil water, dump the citrus juice in, dump the grated spice in, let it simmer for a few minutes, and then strain the chunks out while you are pouring it into the cups/ Pyrex.  It really couldn’t be easier.

Lemon-Turmeric Tea

·         3 ½ cups of water (we always use filtered water)

·         Juice from 1 large lemon (or 2 small…use your judgment and suit to your taste)

·         About an inch long piece of turmeric root, peeled and grated (you could use about a ½  teaspoon of ground turmeric if you can’t find the root in the store)

·         Dash of ground cayenne pepper

Ginger-Lime Tea

·         3 ½ cups of water

·         Juice from 1 large (or 2 small) limes

·         About 4-inch long piece of ginger, peeled and chopped or grated