My throat was feeling a little scratchy yesterday morning, so my first activity of the morning was self-care: I made myself a flu bomb.

At this time, when one can so easily be overwhelmed by anxiety or stress thinking about the state of the country/world, I’m finding it helpful to focus on small projects. I don’t have time or headspace for anything big, so I’m talking about small things like cleaning my ceiling fan, binding some of our children’s books that were falling apart, making spice blends – and making myself a flu bomb.

Now, a flu bomb is more of a concept than a specific recipe. Basically, you mix several foods with demonstrated powerful antioxidant/antibiotic/antiviral qualities and then drink up!

I was reminded about the flu bomb when listening to a talk on home remedies by Barbara O’Neil. (I’m making the effort to listen to topics that aren’t related to the war, that I can learn something concrete from. Again, putting the focus on something I can do in the moment.)

Barbara’s recipe is: garlic (as much as you can but three cloves a day is recommended), ginger root (1/4 t.), eucalyptus oil/tea tree oil (1 drop – added note – do not use eucalyptus for children under 10), cayenne pepper (1/2 t.), juice of lemon, 1 t. honey. Grate the ginger and garlic, add the remaining ingredients as well as 1/2 – 1 c. water, and mix it all together. You can strain it and then drink it; this is enough for one flu bomb/one dose.

Over a month ago I decided to be proactive and have my supertonic ready to go if cold symptoms made their appearance in our home. (Some people call this fire cider.) Using my homemade apple cider vinegar as a base, I added garlic and chopped onion and let it steep for a few weeks before straining it out. I didn’t have the other ingredients that are commonly used when making supertonic, like hot pepper, ginger, or fresh lemons, but it’s still really good.

To make a flu bomb, I decided to use my supertonic as a base. I didn’t have fresh ginger or cayenne pepper (to remedy my pantry lapse I bought a kilo bag of powdered ginger and cayenne today), and though I put my bottle of tea tree oil on the counter with the intent to add it to my mix, I inadvertently placed it where it was obscured and couldn’t find it until two hours later when I no longer needed it. 🙂

Keeping it simple, I didn’t chop or mince or grate anything. I blended my infused apple cider vinegar together with five cloves of garlic, two peeled lemons, a sprinkle of powdered tumeric, some water and a teaspoon or two of maple syrup. I chose to drink the blended mixture rather than strain it; again, that’s me keeping it simple. You can strain it!

I drank more than half right away, and put the rest in a bottle to have later in the day. I liked the flavor – it’s like a lemonade with some kick – and definitely felt the benefits within a few minutes: my throat felt better almost right away and my slightly raspy breathing quickly became normal.

I saw the suggestion to prepare the flu bombs in a large batch, then freeze them in mini muffin pans; you add hot water when ready to drink. That’s a good idea. When I blended the lemon, it tasted fine when I had it right away, but by the time I had my second dose, I it had been in the fridge for hours and became bitter. Freezing it right after making it would probably avoid that issue.

Having said that, I liked the freshness of it and time and energy allowing, would prefer to make it right before drinking it.

In addition to the ingredients I listed above, you can also add in black pepper or cinnamon. Black pepper and tumeric are a good combination and advised to use together since they work synergistically together. I’ve seen radishes recommended as something that cuts phlegm and even bought some to have on hand for this purpose, but they don’t stay fresh forever and by the time I was making my flu bomb, the radishes had already been eaten as a salad. 🙂

When do you take a flu bomb? You can use it when you feel cold symptoms coming on or when you’re already sick; it’s helpful for bronchitis, flu, sinusitis, asthma or any upper respiratory complaint. It’s recommended to take it twice a day; how many days you take it depends on if you’re already really sick when you take it, but usually three days is enough to have you on the mend.

Isn’t it nice that you can whip up something so helpful from ingredients that are probably sitting in your kitchen right now?

Avivah