Juicing With Beetroot

We drink green juices several times a week. Sometimes we like to add a little red in the form of beetroots or orange in the form of carrots in our juice. It gives it a nice touch of color. It is amazing how red the beetroot is. The taste is a bit strong so we don't put in more than one beetroot for 4 cups of juice.

This concoction has broccoli, celery, chinese flowering cabbage (choy sum) and beetroot. I love the wonderful colors of nature in our juice. It is also a good thing to eat or in this case drink vegetables with different colors. 

You can check out some of the benefits of beetroot here.

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Homegrown Spring Onion Omelette

Spring Onion Flowers

My Spring Onion Flowers have continued to bloom. They look so pretty. I can't believe they came from my plain red shallots. I wonder what will happen next. I am watching them closely.

I used these shallots to plant  my own spring onions

I used these shallots or small red onions to grow my own spring onions. They take about 2-3 weeks to grow mature enough for harvesting.

Spring Onion Omelette

I used  my homegrown spring onions to cook spring onion omelette. They are very delicious.

My recipe for spring onion omelette:

• 4 eggs
• spring onion
• carrot cut into strips

How to cook the spring onion omelette:

• Add oil into pan
• Pour in the 4 beaten eggs
• When the egg looks almost cook but still runny, add in the spring onions and carrots
• Flip over when the egg looks golden brown
• Cook till the other side is golden brown

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Breakthrough Chicken Pox

My girl just recovered from Breakthrough Chicken Pox. I had not heard of this term before this. "Breakthrough Chicken Pox" actually means Chicken Pox that occurs in a person who has had the Chicken Pox vaccination. The symptoms of the breakthrough Chicken Pox are very much milder.

My girl only had the pox on her back, a few on her shoulders and a few on her face. I think she only had less than 5 blister like pox. The rest were mostly flat looking ones. It didn't seem to itch as much. She did have a fever and a cough which the doctor said was common. However, her fever, cough and cold was worse than normal  because she may have contacted that from her little brother and me who were both having a cough and cold virus with fevers.

The doctor gave her 4 days off from school to quarantine her. That was from Friday to Wednesday. Actually, I started noticing the spots on Tuesday but it was sparse and not causing her very much discomfort, I thought it was just a normal rash, and we had just been to to the doctor with the boy on Monday which is why I only took her to the doctor on Friday when the spots didn't go away.

Anyway, her symptoms are quite mild and by the time she is back in school on Wednesday, most of the spots are all gone. The doctor says her brother may get it too. He has been vaccinated twice. Once before plus a booster jab. The girl missed the booster jab.

I found this information about Breatkthrough Chicken Pox quite useful. Pin It

Homemade Fruit Juice Ice Lollies

It is so hot these days. The weather is humid and uncomfortable. An iced coke would certainly be thirst quenching but that is unhealthy. So what can we do? We can make homemade Fruit Juice Ice Lollies, that's what. We've been making ice lollies using Ribena and Milo. This time the kids wanted something different.

So we went to the fridge and took out two oranges. Then we squeezed out the juice, added a little water and a bit of honey and poured them into our ice lolly mold or ice lolly maker. Put them into the freezer and in a few hours, we have our homemade fruit juice ice lollies.

Instead of fruit juices, you can use yoghurt too for a different texture and taste and to offer variety.

Homemade Fruit Juice Ice Lollies are Delicious and healthy! 

 Squeeze two oranges, add water and honey and pour into ice lolly container

 Delicious and healthy orange juice lollies served with grapes

The ice lolly is perfect for hot days or summer

Homemade Fruit Juice Lollies are perfect for hot summer days!

These cute looking ice lolly molds take my breath away. They will be great for kids summer parties. Kids will be lining up for these homemade ice lollies using these adorable molds! My kids enjoy making the ice lollies themselves. It is fun to pour the juice into the lolly maker and take them out from the freezer a few hours later in frozen form. It is also the best and most delicious way to teach kids about the science of liquid and matter. 

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Flu Season?

It used to be the flu season all year round for us but this is the first time this year that we're all sick. Hopefully, all that juicing and supplementing and trying to get more exercise and eat more fruits and vegetables is starting to work its magic.

Whatever it is, we will keep this up for now.

• At the moment, we are all taking a multivitamin each a day accept weekends.
• We take fresh vegetable juices on Saturdays, Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. That is 4 times a week. We try to take it on an empty stomach, half an hour before food.
• We don't get enough exercise but we try to take the kids to the park at least once a week. Hubby plays badminton once a week and works out at the gym during lunch once or twice a week. I do my home workouts 2-3 times a week. 

Hopefully, this keeps us healthy. It is end of April now. I think this is the first time we have not fallen sick for close to 4 months. That is certainly a record when you have a home with young kids. Young kids always fall sick from germs in daycare and school and pass that along to parents and this happens rather frequently.

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Healthy Snack Ideas For Kids

Health Snack for Kids Combo 1

The kids had this for tea yesterday. So what's this? It's a healthy quick and easy snack idea for kids. Here's what you can put in your healthy snack for kids.

1. Colorful Fruits - Bananas, Strawberries, Kiwis are great individually or as a combo including all three.
2. Cereals - Cornflakes and other cereals
3. Nuts - Wallnuts, Cashews or any other nuts
4. Seeds - Sunflower seeds and other seeds are lovely

Healthy Snack for Kids Combo 2

The colorful fruits satisfy the sweet cravings and are nice to look at. Cereals add a bit of crunch without deep frying. Nuts add flavour and texture. Put them all in a bowl as a combo meal for kids. This combo snack for kids is quick and easy to prepare. Serve with hot cocoa and you're done.

Vary your items 1,2,3 and 4 around and you'll get variety, color and excitement to your healthy snack for kids.

Our Healthy Snack for Kids Combo One consist of Strawberries, Walnuts and Cornflakes while our Healthy Snack for Kids Combo Two consist of Bananas and chocolate based cereal. You can add milk or soya milk to your own Healthy Snacks for kids if you like but my kids prefer to eat it dry and crunchy. Pin It

Adding Bitter Gourd Or Bitter Melon To My Vegetable Juice

Recently, I've started adding Bitter Gourd or Bitter Melon to my Vegetable Juices. I had thought that it would make my Vegetable Juice bitter and unpalatable. I hate eating Bitter Gourd by the way. To my surprise, it does not taste bitter in juice. It just taste sort of spicy tangy. Anyway, I add just a very small amount. Just one or two slices compared to a whole big bowlful of vegetables so you can hardly taste it.

I use the small variety, a mini bitter gourd. I don't know what is the difference between the big ones and the little ones, I just use the small ones to prevent wastage.

Here is my bitter gourd. I use the mini ones to prevent wastage.

I add just one or two slices to this huge bowlful of vegetables including celery, brocolli, choy sum and some apples. I don't know how to call choy sum in English. If you don't know what choy sum is, just take a look at these images of choy sum.The apples are for the kids to make the vegetable juice more palatable for them. It's my way of getting the kids to drink their vegetable juice. My kids drink the juice neat (without adding any water or ice) like us. They are 8 and 10  years old, old enough not to upset their tummies drinking neat vegetable juice.

All the vegetables go into a Juicer. Vroom. Vroom.

That big bowl of vegetables yields four cups of vegetable juice neat with no water added.

Vegetable juices help my kids 'eat' more vegetables. We do not drink the juice in place of our vegetables but rather in addition to the vegetables that we eat. I don't think it is a good idea to drink vegetable juices as a replacement for vegetables, otherwise you lose all that good fiber so drink them in addition to your vegetable intake.

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Should I get a Food Detoxifier

The other day when I was at the Mall, I stopped by a counter selling a Food Detoxifier. I was intrigued because I do a lot of juicing so we eat a lot of raw fruits. My worry is accidentally eating contaminated fruits and vegetables since we don’t cook them. My kids drink the fruit and vegetable juices too so it makes me even more conscious about the cleanliness of the vegetables.

The guy manning the booth showed us how the Food Detoxifier turns water into an oxygen-rich environment for cleaning food. He also demonstrated how food coloring is removed by going through this food detoxifier water cycle.

I am quite interested to find out more about this Food Detoxifier. However, I will not purchase it just yet. It is expensive but price aside, I must first research the safety of its use. I wish someone who has it will leave a comment to tell me more about it because recently the water in my house smells funny.

I think the chlorine in it is high. I can smell it even after the water is boiled and even when I make a hot chocolate to drink. Even all my little guppy fishes died. That is why I am concerned and looking on ways to improve the water in my house. In fact, today, the water filter man is coming to change my filter. The other day he came to check my water and bought us a small bottle of liquid for checking the level of chlorine in the water. I didn’t know there was such a thing.

I hope that the water will improve after today.

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An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

My children, like most children, hates vegetables? So what do I do?  I give them fruits instead. They love fruits. In addition to eating the fruits whole, we also juice our fruits. A quarter of our grocery bills goes to fruits! We also had to upgrade our refrigerator to fit in all the fruits. An apple a day keeps the doctor away? In our case it is several fruits a day keeps the doctor away.

Our Top Ten Favorite Fruits include:

1. Apples
2. Oranges
3. Pineapples
4. Banana
5. Dragon Fruit
6. Mangoes
7. Grapes
8. Watermelon
9. Papayas
10. Kiwis

So if your child won't eat vegetables, don't fret. Try giving them fruits instead or give them more fruits and less vegetables but provide them with both.

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