Did You Know....

... That drying your fruits (dehydrating) causes massive loss of nutrients? 30 to 80% of its vitamins and antioxidant contents are GONE!

High heat during the drying process destroys the vitamins.

To read more, click on LINK.
Click HERE.

13 Months!

It was a stellar record. To me at least it was.

For 13 months I managed to fight every virus and bacteria germ that I came across.

I finally succumbed to a very nasty bacterial infection last week which saw my tonsils swell up twice their size. The pain was so excruciating. Not only that, I had ulcers in my throat. And the hacking cough that would not let up made the pain worse.

The infection was so bad that the doctors thought I had dengue as my platelet count dropped drastically.

Thank god it was only bacteria and not viral.

One week of antibiotics cleared the infection.

So it's now back to building the immune system and gut system up and maybe hopefully I can stay strong for TWO years now?? Hopefully.

Baked Stuffed Potato Skins with Fried Rice

Ingredients:

1. 10 medium sized old potatoes (wash outer layer with vegetable brush thoroughly and then dried thoroughly)
2. 200gm of minced chicken (seasoned with sea-salt)
3. 2 cups of cooked sushi rice
4. 1 medium sized carrot (outer layer peeled and sliced into thin sticks)
5. *1 medium sized broccoli (washed and florets cut into small parts) [If you are on low-salicylate diet, replace this with another vegetable of your choice which you are able to tolerate.]
6. Sea-salt
7. Sunflower oil
8. 2 cloves of garlic (sliced thinly)

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1. Preheat oven to 220C.

2. Prick all the potatoes with a fork. (If not they'll be atomic bombs in the oven!)

3. Place all the potatoes on a baking tray and bake for approximately 40 minutes or until the potatoes become tender and soft.

4. Cut off about a quarter of the potatoes and scoop out the insides while leaving the skin intact.

5. Set the potatoes aside.

6. Heat a wok on high heat.

7. Drizzle some sunflower oil onto the wok.

8. Throw in the thinly sliced garlic.

9. Stir fry until golden brown.

10. Add the minced chicken, carrot, broccoli,

11. Stir fry until all are cooked.

12. Add the rice and potatoes that were scooped up.

13. Mix everything thoroughly.

14. Scoop the rice mixture and fill up the potato skins.

15. Pre-heat oven at 200C.

16. Arrange them on a baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes.

17. Allow to slightly cool before serving.

Bon appétit!

Just For Laughs (7)

*picture taken from HERE

Siew Yuk (Roasted Pork Belly)

Ingredients:

1. 1kg of pork belly
2. Sea-salt
3. *White pepper (optional)

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1. Wash the pork belly thoroughly and pat dry with paper towels.

2. Usually, a skin-pricking-tool is used. Unfortunately, I do not own one. So I had to use a very sharp fork. Prick the whole pork skin until it looks like some fork-stabbing-session. (At the end of the pricking session, my hands were numb and carpal tunnel was in full manifestation. Conclusion: Get the damn tool!) The tool looks like this:

*picture taken from HERE

3. Season with salt and grounded white pepper. (*White pepper is optional. For those who are on salicylate diet, do omit if you are unable to tolerate.)

4. Rub the seasoning(s) thoroughly until the whole pork belly is coated.

5. You can either place it in a freezer bag to allow it to be seasoned in the freezer for an extended period of time (to allow the seasoning to permeate the meat more thoroughly), OR you can blow dry it with a fan (if you are going to eat it on the same day). Some people dry their meat in the fridge.

Blowing the meat so that the skin dries up. This will ensure the skin to crackle and pop into a very crispy and crunchy texture.

6. Preheat the oven to 230C.

7. Bake for approximately 45 minutes.

8. Then set the oven on GRILL mode.

9. Grill for another 1/2 hour.

10. Remove from oven to cool.

11. Slice the slab of meat and ENJOY!!!!!!

To die for!!!!!!!!!!! YUMMY!!!

Bon appétit!

Just For Laughs (6)

*taken from HERE

The Braces Diet - Soft Rice With Fish & Spinach

Dish One:

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup of rice
2. 1 1/2 cups of filtered water
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1. Wash rice thoroughly.

2. Cook for about 20 minutes.

Dish Two:

1. 1 slice of red fish
2. Sea salt
3. Sunflower oil
4. Filtered water
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1. Season fish with sea-salt and sunflower oil.

2. Place in steaming dish.

3. Add about 3 tablespoons of water to the fish.

4. Steam for about 1/2 hour.

Dish Three:

1. 200gm of spinach (washed thoroughly).
2. Sea-salt
3. Sunflower oil
4. Filtered water

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1. Heat up a wok.

2. Drizzle some sunflower oil.

3. Add the spinach and some sea-salt. (Be careful when you add the spinach to the hot oil. The oil will sizzle and splash!)

4. Add 3 tablespoons of water.

5. Stir-fry until the spinach has softened.

***********
Before serving these three dishes to the person with braces, mash and break everything to minute pieces. It's like making food for a one-year-old child!

Bon appétit!

Yellow Eel ABC Soup

Ingredients:

1. 4 thick slices of yellow eel

This is how the eel looks like.

2. Carcass of one chicken
3. 3 large potatoes (skin peeled and cut into 4 parts)
4. 2 large carrots (skin peeled and cut into half)
5. Filtered water
6. Sea-salt

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1. Put all ingredients above in a large pot and fill it with the filtered water until everything is submerged.

2. Bring the water to a boil and then simmer for two hours.

3. Serve it hot.

*Note: The fish monger told me that this eel is good for people with skin problems. It has a lot of bones and is used for boiling soup. It was so sweet and delicious.

Bracing for Life with Braces

Joel went to the dentist and got his braces done on Sunday. He's been in a lot of discomfort and pain. Thus, he can only have a soft diet at the moment until he adjusts to the braces.

At first it was just chicken porridge.

And then he had yoghurt.

Now it's soft rice with steamed fish and soft vegetables. And a bowl of soup.

I realised that this diet is also suitable for us people when we have our attacks which end up with constant and never ending trips to the toilet. Soft food is heaven-sent!

So I'll be starting a new series called 'The Braces Diet'.

If you have any helpful suggestions or recipes, do not hesitate to post your comments!

Did You Know...

.... That most of the food you eat is digested in the small intestine?

Digestion actually begins in the mouth. A special enzyme in the saliva breaks down some of the food. And then it goes down to the stomach. In the stomach, the food is grounded even more with acid being added to it. Once the food leaves the stomach, that's were most of the digestion happens.

Click on LINK to read more.