Happy New Year to each of you  and I hope that you are all looking forward to some good and interesting things in 2017. Most of all I wish you all good health for yourselves and your loved ones. Our house has been riddled with all forms of colds, ‘flu, coughs and sore throats for the last 3 weeks and my poor Mum has been in and out of hospital and has had an utterly miserable Christmas and New Year. So my very first New Year’s resolution of 2017 will be to appreciate good health whenever it arrives (and I dearly hope it will be soon!) It will be no surprise then that the first recipe of the year is a cold remedy! No major preparation or time required here, just a few store cupboard ingredients. Ginger acts as an antihistamine and decongestant that helps to ease cold symptoms. Because it is made with all natural ingredients it can only be good for you and is more what your body needs than any shop-bought hot lemon drink sachet.  Take this as soon as the first sign of a sniffle comes along.

Preparation time: 1 minute!

Only 3 ingredients needed, – juice of half a lemon, a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger and a teaspoonful of honey (or a half-teaspoon of agave syrup)

Peel the ginger and slice it finely, add it to a cup of boiling water along with the lemon juice and honey. Leave for 3 to 4 minutes.

Tip: Keep peeled fresh ginger cut into thumb-size pieces in the freezer which can be grated or sliced straight out of the freezer as you need it.