Easy(er) Way to Take Raw Garlic

Garlic is a mighty little veggie. It's antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties make it a veritable heavyweight in the natural remedies ring, if it didn't smell/taste so, um, ..."Whew, who's been eating garlic?!?" 

Also in the world of spice heat, I'm a featherweight and mild is about as hot as I can stand. Raw garlic has always burned my tongue and I have never enjoyed taking it when I have to try to scare off a sore throat or to ward off a bug that is going around in my family.

The flu, or some such nasty, is trying to make the rounds in my family (DH's has turned into bronchitis, one or two others had it as well), and I'm trying my best not to get it. Coincidentally while DH is battling bronchitis and one child got pinkeye, I've been fighting a bladder infection. Being a stubborn thing, I am determined to avoid antibiotics if at all possible. I know the danger signs of it turning into a full-blown UTI (fever, sore back, and/or blood in the urine), but not having any of these symptoms, I've been exhausting every natural remedy that seems reasonable. Among the things I tried was raw garlic, but didn't know how to get it in me to my satisfaction.

I tried blending it up with honey and that sort of worked, but the amount of garlic that I was making at a time was too small for my stick blender to manage to my satisfaction and so I went back to the drawing board. 

I started thinking of ways to camouflage the garlic and I remembered reading that some people put it on toast and eat it with avocado. That didn't seem too bad so I gave it a try. It tasted good, but every bite of the sandwich was still too spicy for my liking so I thought, "What if I mixed up a tiny bit of garlic guacamole and swallow it down in one gulp?" So I grated a clove of garlic, let it sit for 10 minutes to develop the allicin, mixed it with a teaspoon of avocado and a tiny bit of salt and swallowed it down. Then I chased it with an unspicy avocado sandwich. Yum!

I will suggest that you don't try this on an empty stomach (I did today and almost lost my guac). Ideally have a little something in your stomach, take the garli-guac and chase it with a little (or a lot) more food. If you try it, I hope it works for you as well as it did for me.