Monthly Archives: September 2012

September 28th, 2012
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Harvest Pure Fruit and Vegetable Wash

I usually soak my veggie and fruits in salt water to remove any pesticide and dirt. Recently, I started to use Harvest Pure fruit and vegetable wash from Melaleuca as a friend gave this to us as a gift.   She is a member of Melaleuca and I have also recently joined as a member. Melaleuca cleaning products use the best of science and nature to combine for the safest yet most effective cleaning. The products have no harsh chemicals, safe for households with kids and are super concentrated.

Harvest Pure fruit and vegetable wash consists of natural lime oil, Melaleuca oil (Tea Tree Oil), alcohol and water.  It safely and naturally removes waxes, debris and pesticides from the surface of fruits and veggies.

Do you use any kind of fruit and veggie wash, salt or vinegar to wash your fruits and veggies?

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Healthy Living Products
September 21st, 2012
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Home-cooked Dinner

Here’s another very simple yet wholesome home-cooked dinner, which was 50% organic, 100% free from MSG and food additives:

Stir-fried organic sweet potato leaves with garlic, steamed brown rice, stir-fried pork slices with organic Japanese pumpkin (check out the pretty bright orange color of the pumpkin skin) and steamed salmon fish with julienned ginger, drizzled with organic soy sauce.  A very ‘ching ching tei’ dinner which does not leave us all running to the kitchen to down cups after cups of water to quench thirst.

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Homecooked Food
September 21st, 2012
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Unsafe Neighborhood

I used to wear sterling silver jewelry on my neck and wrist, which I do not remove even when I shower and go to bed. In view of the recent spate of brazen snatch thieves in our neighborhood, even in the presence of patrolling guards, I am now devoid of jewelry as I jog round the neighborhood every morning, save for a small waist pouch which I put a small amount of money to buy the newspapers and breakfast. These days I try to minimize jogging in the neighborhood as I had left behind my pepper spray in Ipoh. I am still waiting for the hubs to get me a new pepper spray. Keeping the pepper spray in my pocket gives me a peace of mind.

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Uncategorized
September 14th, 2012
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Do You Wash Your Minced Meat Before Cooking It?

Before cooking your beef spaghetti bolognaise or steaming eggs with meat, do you wash the minced meat?  If yes, do you  wash it with a sieve.  I have always instructed my previous maids to wash any type of meat before cooking them, including minced meat.  For meat used to boil soup, I even instructed her to blanch the meat briefly with hot water before dumping it into the pot of soup.  Now that I am maidless, I am trying to cut down on work.  I do not mind washing the minced meat using a sieve but I find washing and cleaning the sieve very troublesome as the minced meat will get wedged inside the tiny holes of the sieve.  I use a brush to wash the sieve but sometimes the meat is still stuck inside the very tiny holes.  So I am just wondering if  it is really necessary to wash minced meat before cooking it.  My mil always has doubts that the butcher washes the meat before grinding the meat and has qualms about the cleanliness of the blender used too.

Do you wash your minced meat before cooking it?

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Health Issues
September 12th, 2012
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Formaggi Pizza

We ordered this Wood Fired Thin Crust Pizza Formaggi from our favorite cafe but I did not like the taste of one of the cheeses used in the topping. The taste of the white colored Ricotta cheese proved to be a tad over-powering for my palate and made my tummy churned. As compared to other flavors of pizza, this meatless pizza has a calorie of about 270 only for a quarter of the pizza, which is not that fattening. But too bad, the taste of the Ricotta cheese just did not please my palate. I am a cheese lover but my taste bud just cannot get along well with the strong flavor of some cheeses like blue cheese, Feta and Ricotta.





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Snacks
September 5th, 2012
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Almost Everyone’s Down

… with fever and throat infection. After an outing with a friend who brought along her kids who were down with fever and flu, my girls caught the virulent bugs, all 3 of them. Even the hubs is down. Thank God Cass was spared from fever but could not escape the flu and throat infection. Thanks to Esberitox, Cass managed to contain the flu from blowing up into a full-fledge one. Alycia and Sherilyn were bitten hardest and have been down with spiking high fever and throat infection. Sherilyn threw up 5 times yesterday, mostly of phlegm and had tummy discomfort. It must be the effect of the Nim Jiom Pei Par Koa that she ate. The puking and purging are ways her body expels the phlegm. I notice that each time Sherilyn is fed with pei par koa or Flumucil, there will be an inevitable episode of purging and vomiting, after which she will stop coughing and the phlegm would be reduced substantially.

I am hoping that this time, I will be spared from the throat infection. I have yet to recover 100% from the last bout of throat infection (which is now into its 4th week) and still have some remnants phlegm on and off, which is showing signs of a resurgence since yesterday. When I am really down and out, I do not get any rest. No MC. No sleeping in late though my body and head feel like they are breaking up. No. With an aching and weak body and mind, I still have to drag myself out of bed at 5:30am to prepare the girls for school and to get house chores done. Still hoping that our search for a replacement (and efficient) live-in maid will bear fruit very soon.

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Throat Infection
September 1st, 2012
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Do You Eat Fruit That Has Partially Turned Bad?

A sparkling apple with shiny red skin does not necessarily mean that the inner part is just as good. Well, the outer flesh can still look enticingly white and juicy but you can only tell that the apple is 100% good after you cut it into half to expose its core.

I was very much disappointed when the seemingly red, sweet and juicy apple that I bought turned out to have a ‘rotten heart’. As it was an expensive apple, I felt it was such a waste to throw the entire apple away. Before binning the apple, I nibbled away the outer flesh which still tasted very sweet and crunchy. But as I was chewing on the half rotten apple, I was overcome with worry. I had once read from an article that said that if a part of a fruit has turned bad, the entire fruit should be discarded. What if my frugality by eating half rotting food leads me to some kind of major ailments over time?

Do you throw the entire fruit away if only part of it has turned bad?

Do not judge the apple by its skin! And do not judge a person from his/her looks as it is really deceiving!

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Et-cetera