Ways to Use Home Remedy Raw Garlic That Won't Make You Hurl

Because that's totally what you need, right???

When I was sick--7 painful, dreary days of fevery-boogery-flu-coughy-ickiness and then a few more to rest and recover (still in the recovery stage, but so much better)--I tried some natural remedies. The one that I found the most effective was raw garlic. It's a natural antibiotic and I do feel it kept me from getting a nasty sinus infection along with all the other nasties I was already enjoying. I ate about 3 cloves, chopped and mixed with butter on toast. It helped my aching sinuses and it wasn't too bad. I was totally stuffed up, so I couldn't taste much anyway. And I couldn't smell myself afterwards, so that was a total plus. But by day three of my garlic toast regimen, the garlic was getting to me--it started to burn my mouth when I chewed (not something I noticed the first time) and, frankly, it was getting to be all I smelled (which made sense since I couldn't smell anything but the strongest of scents). I ended up asking Kip to buy me some garlic tablets (awesome) and NyQuil (should have been purchased on day 1, people; should have been purchased on day 1), so I could at least knock myself out and forget about my misery for a while. Both were good decisions and ones I wish I'd made earlier on in my sickness.

However, I couldn't help but thinking that if you had a milder illness--a cold or something that was threatening, but not quite on yet. Or wanted to use more raw garlic in a cold/flu preventative manner (don't know if it works, but this is the season to give it a try), there had to be a better way than munching your way through several cloves of raw garlic. Below, you'll find three recipes that would have been a more pleasant way to get my garlic on.

Public Service Announcement: When trying any of these extra garlicky versions/home remedies, get to know your toothbrush and maybe your Listerine too.

1. Hummus. In normal life I like my hummus with just a whiff of garlic. However, it would be super easy when you're sick or on the brink of sick to add several extra cloves to your hummus. This is especially true if you're already stuffy and can't taste mild things anyway. You probably don't have the energy to up and make hummus (even though in normal life it's easy peasy), but maybe your husband will do it for you. Or maybe he'll buy you some hummus and you can add the extra garlic to the store bought stuff.

2. Smoked Paprika Dip. This is good on home fries or baked potatoes or any meat. Normally, you just use one clove of garlic, but it'd be easy to throw several more cloves in and bake yourself a potato. I ate several baked potatoes in the coarse of my sickness because I had no energy, but needed some food and could just throw them in the microwave (no, not the best potatoes, but 'best' wasn't what I was going for at that point).

3. Pasta sauce. You're going for raw garlic here, so you're going to make the sauce first and then puree (or mince) some raw garlic into it at the end.

4. Soup. Whatever kind. Just mince some extra garlic, add it to your cooked soup, and slurp it on down.