Oh dear, I do hope you feel better soon. If you have a stuffy or runny nose, my old doc used to tell Amanda to mix a little warm salt water, put some in a spoon and "sniff" it up the nostrils, then blow your nose. The salt has some healing properties.

As for the soup, if you don't have more chicken I'd say your best bet is some bouillion or "soup base". I don't care much for the stuff, it's all very salty for my taste, but it does add flavor. Mostly salt flavor, but flavor, LOL. Actually, I understand that there are a couple that aren't bad, but I don't know which ones they are.

That, or the carcass of a rotisserie chicken, etc, to bump up the flavor...

Annie

Do you have any dill (dried or fresh) and Italian parsely? By chance any parsnip as well? Or - a bit of lemon juice?

Hope you feel better soon - if you are feeling brave, give this one a try. It definitely has worked for me in the past and the name says it all!

Alexa

Cold buster soup
3 heads of garlic, minced
1 head of garlic peeled and left whole
3 large onions minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
3 large potatoes cut up
1 stewing chicken
seasalt
Skin the chicken and cut it up...put it in a pot of spring water and
let it simmer until the chicken falls OFF the bone. Remove the
chicken. Put in the garlic, the onions the potatoes and the jalapeno.
Simmer for 30 minutes..add water as necessary. Let cool....put soup
a small amount at a time in a blender. It should end up with a nice
smooth texture a little less thick than heavy cream. Drink it by the
cupful.
You can use the chicken in other dishes or for sandwiches. .

Thank you! I will add garlic, parsley and dill. I will pass on the bouillion as I find the taste takes over but I will try the salt thing.

A squeeze of lemon or a splash of white wine or vermouth will brighten the flavor of chicken soup.

I don't know if this will work for a cold or not but it's worth a try. A friend said it helped her. Peel an onion and put it by your bedside tonight. What have you got to lose but an onion. Hope you read this before you go to bed, Feel better.

Dottie

Rinse your mouth with Cepacol - that yellow mouthwash. It'll chase the cold germs away!

I'm too scared to try a Netti pot but others swear by it.

I rely on grapefruit seed extract, drops or tablets. The drops work better on a sore throat as you mix 10+ drops in a little water sweetened with honey. Bitter as all getout but really works for me. I take it at the first sign of sore throat or body aches and I'm usually better by morning. Good luck, it's the pits to be sick.

Jessy, be brave and try the netti pot. It does feel wierd the first few times, but then you really begin to feel a differance.

My office has been overrun with colds this year but not me!

Thanks for the tips. I tried them yesterday. Instead of the grapefruit supplement I doubled up on vitamin C&D. It was all I had. I feel so much better today. She comes today so we will hang out at home, catch up and head out tomorrow and for the next few nights. AND, the chicken soup was so good I think I will make it weekly. I am printing this page and throwing it in the medicine cabinet. Yes, I am that forgetful lately. Jessy, that nasal cleanse freaks me out too. I also have a friend that swears by it.

The neti pot was a huge help when I had the cold from hell last January. I was afraid to try it at first but after I got the hang of it, I was hooked. The warm salty water going through your nasal passages is very soothing. The trick is to breathe through your mouth when usinhg it. That keeps you from inhaling the water, making you choke.

Glad to hear you are feeling better.

I'm touching wood on this one. I rarely get the coughing, sneezing kind of cold. I think the wine kills the germs...just kidding. My oldest DD gets that coughing cold about 3 times a year and she swears by the netti pot. She does it everyday even when she isn't sick.

I had the flu many many years ago. The real flu... I thought I was gonna die. Would have done almost anything to get it to go away. So, I drank a shot glass of whiskey (ick) and a tablespoon of lemon juice, every night before bedtime, just so I could sleep. I also turned the hot water on in the sink, with a bit of rosemary in the water, and put a towel over my head and breathed in the steam.

I hope your feeling better soon. I'm so glad I don't get that kind of sick...I really am touching wood...

Awwww river if you think wine kills the bugs, try a neti pot AND something stronger....(warning, expletive at the end....)

Jessy, Great you tube!! LOL!

Jessica, I would think that the whiskey would kill ANYTHING!

Riverrat, Grandma (who was a tee-totaler) used to say that if you had a cold or the flue you should go to bed and drink a shot of whiskey every five minutes until you felt better. The next day you wouldn't notice your illness, so it gave you two days of "relief", LOL.

The "salt water in a spoon" method is basically the same principle as the neti pot, for those of us who don't have a neti pot and have no intention of buying yet another thing to sit around the house.

Annie

Two things you might want to add that are traditional tonics for helping with colds--a pinch of saffron and garlic. Not too much saffron, because it too takes over.