Foodie Patoodie!: health benefits of onions

Friday, December 28, 2012

Foodie Fix-It: Overnight Onion Poultice

Another tried and true method to relieve cough, cold, and flu virus is to leave chopped onion near your bed. According to this article, which I found really informative, leaving onion around your house any old time will help to capture viruses and germs that may be floating in the air: Click here to see the article. That being read, I chopped the other half of the large white sweet onion left over from the homemade onion and honey home remedy I made in this post, and decided to see what happened if I left it next to Piper's crib while she slept. It is currently 10:42pm and I have not heard her COUGH OR SNIFFLE ONE TIME. This is miraculous to me as during her nap earlier she was coughing so much I thought she'd wake herself up. I am now an absolute believer in the power of onions and all the health benefits they can provide. The true test will come tomorrow morning to see if these last few posts combined has made any difference in her state of health. If it has, I will blog again to let you know that onions & honey elixir, bone broth, and onion poultices are the ticket to health and wellness. Stay tuned! Here is how I made the onion poultice!

~Ingredients~

1/2 large white sweet onion

medium-sized square of cheesecloth

small bowl

~Directions~

1. Place the 1/2 of an onion in a food processor and process until chopped.

2. Scoop chopped onion onto cheesecloth square.

3. Bring the corners of the cheesecloth up to meet each other and twist together so that the dry corners are underneath the wet onion section.

4. Place the bowl and onion poultice on a nightstand (or in my case, and upside-down diaper box because it's the only thing I could find) as near as possible to your own head or the head of the sleeping child.

Pay no attention to Peeky McLurkerson.

5. Listen to the sound of no coughing, sneezing, sniffling, or moaning for the rest of the night!! It's a beautiful sound!!

Foodie Fix-It: Onion & Honey for Cough & Cold

It's that time of year! Some very nasty viruses are floating around and if you're one of the unlucky ones that gets kicked in the ribs (or sinuses) by Virus McNastybug, I have a home remedy that as of tonight has worked very well for myself and Pip. I gathered some opinions from friends and quantities from various websites and put together what I thought to be the appropriate amount of both chopped onions and honey. Click here to read a totally fascinating article on the healing power of onions!

If your two-year old is reluctant to try a strange mixture he or she has never seen before directly off of a spoon, mix it in with some orange juice. The Vitamin C is helpful anyway, as well as the hydration, and it masks the taste of any onion that might be offensive to the toddler. I added 3 tsp. to one full sippy cup of orange juice.

~Ingredients~

1 cup sweet white onion (about 1/2 of a large one), chopped

1/2 cup raw honey