Sunday, January 6, 2013

Lemon Gelatin

The lemon tree is packed with ripe, juicy fruit and I'm on a lemon streak!  This is really good - not sicky sweet like the store brands.  Using the raw turbinado cane sugar gives it a nice color.

Lemon Gelatin
3/4 cup organic sugar
2 envelopes gelatin
1 2/3 cups cold water
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice

Mix the sugar with the gelatin in a sauce pan.  Add the water and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat.  Add the lemon juice.  Pour into a bowl or mold and refrigerate until firm.

I also make gelatin from apple juice/cider:

Soften 1 package of gelatin in 1/4 cup water.  Add 1/2 cup boiling water and stir until dissolved.  Add 1 1/4 cup apple juice/cider and pour into a bowl or mold.  Refrigerate until firm.

You can also add spices or grated ginger with the juice.


Stomach Flu Helps

Oh joy - it's that time of the year when GI tract viruses are showing up and after avoiding one for over 10 years, I got hit good.  It was bad enough trying to find gluten free medications and remedies, but now with adding so many allergies, especially the corn one, it's nearly impossible!  Here's what I came up with:

For nausea:
Ginger syrup from the candied ginger recipe.  A spoonful in a cup of warm water taken in small sips worked well for helping to tamp down the nausea.

For diarrhea:
Immodium caplets have cornstarch in them - it's out.  The CVS and Walgreen brand soft gelcaps have glycerin, which can be made from corn, and blue dye in the softcaps which ups my histamine response,  and they can't be opened up like regular capsules.  If it was that or the ER, I was going to try them - however, homemade broth and white rice every couple hours worked.  Rice can be great for stopping one up!

For electrolyte replacement:
I usually drink coconut water for this, but I couldn't take the sweetness this time.  Further into the illness than I should have, I finally tried this homemade drink that worked like a miracle!  If I'd been sipping it all along, I don't think I would've had the problems with borderline dehydration that I did.  The recipe calls for 2 - 3 fresh lemons - I used two large ones from our tree and it was a little lemony at the time.  They made 2/3 cup of lemon juice, so I think I would use 1/2 cup for a flu drink.  Now that I'm better, though, it tastes great with that much lemon juice!