The Other Side of the Tortilla

tea

Té de bugambilia

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Té de bugambilia, also known as bougainvillea tea in English, is an essential Mexican home remedy during cold and flu season. It’s an excellent way to alleviate coughs, chest congestion and sore throats.

How to make Mexican té de bugambilia (bougainvillea tea), via theothersideofthetortilla.com

Years ago on a visit to Mexico City, my father-in-law taught me how to make this very effective Mexican home remedy for alleviating coughs and sore throats.

The recipe couldn’t be simpler: boil water and add the flowers until the water turns pink, then add Mexican lime juice (key limes) and honey. Some people like to add a little Mexican cinnamon stick to theirs as well, but I prefer my tea without it. Add slightly more honey if your throat is particularly sore….

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Back to basics with breakfast: avena y té de manzanilla

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Since we’ve been back from Mexico, we’ve been very busy in the Tortilla Test Kitchen testing new recipes and having fun shooting new videos we’ll be sharing soon. But while we were in Mexico, we ate and ate…and ate and, well, you get the picture. I think I may have finally earned the affectionate nickname I’m sometimes called at home – Gordita, or Gordis, for short.

We decided we needed to bring a little order to our daily habits after eating to our hearts’ content for nearly a whole month. That’s not to say that healthy Mexican food doesn’t exist, because it definitely does and you will see more new examples of that on The Tortilla this year. However, it’s sometimes harder to make those healthy choices when most of the year I live in Chicago and can’t get some of my favorite Mexican foods.

It’s a bit like letting a kid loose in a candy store, only instead of a candy store, you’re dropping me off in a city full of taquerías that serve my favorite things like chicharrón de queso, tacos al pastor and Sidral Mundet apple-flavored soda. It’s hard to say no to all of that, knowing that in a short time, I’ll be back in Chicago without access to these things again until my next trip. There’s nothing wrong with eating or drinking all of those things if you do it in moderation, but sometimes we need a reminder that moderation is the key in order to stay healthy.

This year, we’ve decided to bring some good habits back from Mexico, such as eating breakfast daily. We started every day with a good breakfast during our visit and now I crave breakfast as soon as I wake up in the morning. In the past, I’ve been known to rush out the door in the morning without eating breakfast because I’m crunched for time, but I’m vowing to break that bad habit in 2011.

And for breakfast, there are so many healthy options. One of my suegro‘s favorites is avena con nueces o fruta y azúcar moreno, or oatmeal with nuts, fruit and a little brown sugar.  I’m a huge fan of oatmeal, but truth be told, I don’t like the instant stuff with the artificial flavors. Since I’m usually on the go in the morning during the week, I often have to prepare something the night before to take with me to assure that I get a good, healthy choice….

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