Monday, July 17, 2006
iced tonic
When I was pregnant with our son, we used a midwife, Dottie Kirkpatrick (www.birthmattersmidwifery.com) as our main care provider. At around 25 weeks, my whole body swelled up. I was retaining water and after consulting with Dottie, realized that I was overstressed, eating too little, too little protein, and resting too little. I increased my protein, salt, and water intake, drank nettles tea, put my feet up and rested. After a day and a half, I could see the bones in my feet again and was back to normal in tests.
Stinging nettle has a long, varied history as a tonic. (For an unorganized but fascinating account, see http://tinyurl.com/9fl4g.) I drank an infusion of a couple of teaspoons of dried nettle leaves in 8 oz. of boiling water every morning of my pregnancy after that episode, and continued drinking it after Solomon was born (five months ago!).
I've just started walking again, working toward getting my pre-pregnancy (at least) body back. And it's HOT, so I needed a cool tonic instead of the hot tea. Here's what I came up with. It's surprisingly refreshing, tastes a bit sweet, almost like lemonade, and is delicious.
Iced Tonic
Nettles infusion: Take two strainers (or one very large one) and fill halfway with dried nettles. Pour four cups of boiling water over them. Let it steep at least one hour. Refrigerate until cool.
In a large pitcher, put the juice of one lemon (or more if you like stronger lemonade) and about 1/4 cup xylitol (or raw sugar). Add a few capfuls of apple cider vinegar. Add the nettles infusion. Mix well. Add water to the top of the pitcher and mix well again. Refrigerate and enjoy iced!
Stinging nettle has a long, varied history as a tonic. (For an unorganized but fascinating account, see http://tinyurl.com/9fl4g.) I drank an infusion of a couple of teaspoons of dried nettle leaves in 8 oz. of boiling water every morning of my pregnancy after that episode, and continued drinking it after Solomon was born (five months ago!).
I've just started walking again, working toward getting my pre-pregnancy (at least) body back. And it's HOT, so I needed a cool tonic instead of the hot tea. Here's what I came up with. It's surprisingly refreshing, tastes a bit sweet, almost like lemonade, and is delicious.
Iced Tonic
Nettles infusion: Take two strainers (or one very large one) and fill halfway with dried nettles. Pour four cups of boiling water over them. Let it steep at least one hour. Refrigerate until cool.
In a large pitcher, put the juice of one lemon (or more if you like stronger lemonade) and about 1/4 cup xylitol (or raw sugar). Add a few capfuls of apple cider vinegar. Add the nettles infusion. Mix well. Add water to the top of the pitcher and mix well again. Refrigerate and enjoy iced!
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