Strawberry Soup for Colds

Over the last month, I've had headache after headache. Last Thursday I suffered through a day long headache and woke up in the morning with a head cold that lasted through my birthday weekend, and hit its peak on my birthday. Reason #27 I don't celebrate my birthday: I'm usually sick on it. It normally takes a healthy person 5-7 days to get completely over a head cold, but since I'm pregnant, it'll take about 2 weeks. Who's excited about that? Not me...

I've been extra careful about not kissing my boys or sharing my glass or silverware with them but the inevitable happened. Hunter caught my cold. But worse. He seemed a little out of it on Wednesday but was nothing but snuggles yesterday. I don't think he even attempted to play with a single toy yesterday. He willingly took a nap too- very un-Hunter-like! 

When it comes to my kids being sick, Perry and I have been pretty fortunate. I think I remember one other time Hunter was sick, and maybe two times for JP, but this is the first time a fever has been involved so I feel a little inexperienced. For lunch yesterday we had chicken noodle soup, but Hunter didn't want to eat it because there was chicken in it...heaven forbid. I managed to get a bowl of soup into his tummy regardless and then he laid on the couch and snacked on crackers and water for the rest of the day. Although he didn't have a temperature until the evening, I had given him some ibuprofen throughout the day, as well as some drug-free cough suppressant for his horrible sounding cough.

Even with his 3 hour nap, he was still ready for bed at his normal time, which is a rarity. By the middle of the night, his daytime fever of 101 peaked to 103.2. Poor little guy was roasting and didn't wanted anything but mommy. I grabbed my pillow and traded my snoring husband for a stuffy-nose and hot little boy and we spent the rest of the night in the guest room. Needless to say, I hardly slept at all. By this morning, his fever dropped to 102.8. Not a lot, but better than nothing, so we went to work on getting it down....fast.

The one thing I knew Hunter would eat is strawberries. Bonus! They're good for you and are an awesome source of vitamin C, which helps boosts your immunity. So our game plan was Strawberry Soup for lunch. Here's what I used:

1 small tub of frozen strawberries

1 cup of water

1 1/2 tsp of Cinnamon

A little bit of Ginger

I used the stove to thaw the frozen strawberries. Once the water and strawberries were boiling, I turned the stove off and added the cinnamon and ginger. Cinnamon has a nice track record of relieving cold and flu symptoms, so I've heard, and my doctor has always suggested taking ginger to relieve morning sickness. (I also added 2 packets of sweetener for taste.) 

Right before I served it to Hunter, I grabbed the hand blender I received for Christmas (I LOVE it!) and gave the soup a few pulses. I left a few big chunks in there so that *someone* would believe me when I said there are strawberries in it.

 And what do you know? He gobbled it right up! 

And loved it! And JP was a little upset he had already picked out his lunch and had to forgo this option :) I, of course, ate the left overs. After all, I'm sick too! Was it the medicine I gave him or the soup that did the trick? I don't know, but I'm one happy momma because his temperature is down to 99.6. That I can handle!