I love sweet potato and it has been my staple diet over the last 2 months. When I am done with my training assignments and heading to the MRT, I grab one piece of sweet potato from my bag and eat it. Over the months of buying sweet potatoes, I have discovered there are mainly 2 types sold in NTUC ; the purple one and the orange-yellow (see pic above). On some occasions, some parts of the sweet potatoes can taste a little bitter but on the whole they are sweet. Purple type are more neutral than the orange-yellow one. Recently, I had also got some pure orange from Sheng Siong - they were OK but not as tasty as the other two.

Steaming is the most efficient way after washing the sweet potatoes and it takes about 8-10 mins or less, depending on size  (choose the smaller size so that you need to cut them into halves when steaming).For this recipe above, I decide to make it into a dessert style for my lunch.

Ingredients :

1 pc of sweet potato
3-4 red dates
handful of wolf berries
1/2 cup of pearl barley
1 dried fig 

Barley reminds me of my childhood as my late mum would cook this for us when the weather is a bit unbearable and hot. She says it helps to cool down the body. I love it unsweetened especially when the barley become mashed and thick. 

A low GI food, Barley contains many nutrients that are good for our body.  It is a good source of Fiber (many people are lacking this in their diet in today's busy lifestyle), cholesterol free, low in fat and contains antioxidants that help our body to fight off the free radicals. As a plant-based food, it also contains phytochemicals which helps to decrease the risk of cancer, diabetes and heart diseases.

Wolf berries are more commonly known in market for its benefits of improving one's eyesight as it contains beta-carotene (much higher than carrot). What's interesting to know is wolf berries or goji berries as some called it is a potent source of Vitamin A and antioxidants as well. 

When we talk about vitamin C, most would think of consuming it from oranges but actually red dates contain 70-80 times more Vitamin C than apples, grapes and oranges. It earns the name "king of nuts" for its rich nutritional value - Vitamin A, B1, B2, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium and iron.

Figs provide a good source of potassium (most would think of banana for potassium) , necessary to help lower blood pressure. It is also high in fiber and beneficial for those with weight management issues.

This dessert recipe is so easy to prepare and convenient to get the ingredients as well. Only the sweet potatoes are required to be cut into smaller pieces with the rest just washed and dump into a big pot of water. The sweetness of the dessert comes from the red dates and fig so NO added sugar required.

Some prefer the barley to be more cooked and chewy so that would require a longer time to simmer the pot while others prefer it less chewy. Sweet potatoes can be added last since it gets cooked pretty fast.

If you cook a large pot for the family, you can also keep the remaining in the fridge and serve as chilled dessert. 

Enjoy the natural, wholesome goodness of this nutrient rich dessert!

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For today juicing, I am using these few ingredients I can find in my fridge :

1. Endives 
2. Beetroot
3. Apple
4. Carrot

I am a little taken aback at how "bloody" the cutting of beetroot can be - causing my beloved juicer and chopping board awash with red stains. Luckily, it can be washed off easily. The topping is white sesame seed and my very own arugula which I grow at my mini garden.

For the nutritional values and benefits of Beetroot , read here.
My real interest is actually the endives - green veggie on the top picture. Wow, I am amazed it contains high concentration of Vitamin A and it is good for our eyesight (those watching TV and computer or handphone often can try this)

Oh Lord, how kind of you  to create so many wonderful plants for us, humans to consume that we should really not worry about our provisions as you said. 
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philppians 4:19

It is reported that our country has one of the highest myopic rate in the world - read here

Give your family more of Endives which you can buy from the local supermarkets. I find juicing the most convenient way to take in the nutrients from vegetables and fruits. We tend to say we are busy with this and that and find it troublesome to prepare, cut , wash, juice and do the necessary clean up. You would note that most fruit juice stalls provide the basic fruits like water melon, apple, orange, carrot , celery but not the greens you truly want for your diet. So, do it once a week for the family, for health sake, you wouldn't regret it. If you over cook your vegetables , you would risk losing the nutrients inside which we can't see with our naked eyes and it is then counter productive to eat the vegetables in the first place. Juicing solves the problem, just buy, wash and consume it.

DRINK YOUR VEGGIES should be the right word for today's busy society !

This is my 2nd attempt. I failed the first time as I forgot to give these mung beans enough rinse, causing it to form mould within. Argh.....

This time, I followed the instructions to a T and it works brilliantly. This is the 2nd day and you can see the results already.
In 5 days or less, I am expecting to harvest my first baby sprouts and eat it. Can't wait to eat veggies from your very own kitchen. You can be your own farmer as well , simply follow these simple steps :

1. Find a glass jar , wash and clean it
2. Fill the glass jar with mung bean (green beans as it is commonly called here), about 2/3 
3. Soak the beans in the jar for 7-10 hours 
So if you soak it at night say 10pm, at 8am you can remove the water from the jar
4. Use a paper towel or mesh cloth (as shown in picture) and wrap around the top with a rubber band
5. Rinse the beans in the jar 2x a day 
Tips : for smaller and long shape jar like jam, the beans will get stuck at the bottom. What I did was to remove the beans with a chopstick and rinse it with a strainer under the running tap
6. Wait patiently and you should witness the beans beginning to sprout on the 2nd day

Try it and you would fall in love with it and also can experiment with other grains and seeds as well. Have fun in the kitchen.

Never knew that eating is a science till I begin seriously looking into my diet plan last year. A few days ago,  I watched on TV about the amount of food wastage in Singapore. Read here

Shocked to find out that many of the vegetables we bought from the supermarket are carefully picked by the farmers/sellers in their factory before it arrives in our kitchen. A third of these vegetables grown by our local farmers are discarded. This is a lot of wastage considering these are still edible with slight discolouration. Imagine how much we can help save the world to feed the countries suffering from famine and poor nutrition when we are here wasting so much food.

So, I make an attempt to recycle as much as possible the food we eat. This is what I am currently doing -

1. The prepared vegetables and fruits peel that we had each day for our meals - the roots and orange peel, banana skin, potato peel, egg shell ,etc goes into a big bottle (recycled from dairy milk bottle) and stored away for fermentation. This is otherwise known as garbage enzyme. I am surprised there can be so much to recycle each day that I run out of bottles to do the fermentation. Thus far, I had 4 one litres milk bottles stored away. These will make good laundry and washing detergent in a few months time. What's more, they are natural, free from chemicals and at same time save money for the family!

2. Create a mini garden - this is by far my greatest satisfaction. In fact, I am now writing this in front of my mini garden, haha. I am growing capsicum, chilli, spinach, longan fruits, papaya, onion and sweet potato. Watching them grow each day is like watching my kids growing up as well. Each night, my two kids love to accompany me to the garden to water the plants. It is also good for my eyes to rest and look at these lovely plants (green is good for the eyes).

​3. 

According to the press, South East Asia is fast catching up with the West in terms of obesity. 49% of women and 44% of men are found to be obese. Obesity is a medical condition where extra fats are not needed by our body and over time it will have negative impacts on our health. A common way to know if one is obese is to use the Body Mass Index chart. The calculation works like this :

Eg. My weight : 66kg , height : 1.7m

Take your weight divide by your height multiply by height 
ie. 66/1.7x1.7 = 66/2.89 = 22.83

Map your readings with the chart here which will indicate whether you are normal, slightly obese or heavy weight.

As a safety precaution, I have to also watch my BMI to avoid it hitting 23 and above which put me in the moderate risk category. My diet change has been fairly drastic but it suits me well. Brown rice, lots of green veggies, tofu, tempeh , seaweeds, juicing and soy milk. At my best, I try to prepare my lunch if I am heading out for my training. I have recently added dried fruits like apricot, blueberries and figs to bring along. I make bread for my son to bring to school daily so coming up with new recipe that is healthy is important for me. 

Yesterday, he had apricot, chia seed and pumpkin seed bread at school. I wonder between the poor countries that are dying from malnutrition to the more developed countries like Singapore and Malaysia, could we have forgotten the importance of eating? Or are we so caught up in the busyness of life to acquire more wealth, more material goods and status that eating is merely part of the game. When we are not conscious of what we are putting into our body, we allow garbage like refined sugar (think of all the sweet savoury bread, snacks, drinks), fried food (chicken, burgers,pizza,etc) to go into our body. 

Our body, created by God is a unique system and definitely a intelligent one. It sends signals to us that the body is crying for help. Hypertension, diabetes, skin problems, gout, headache, sinus, IBS, high cholesterol and many more are nothing but signals to tell us that our body can't cope with certain food. Instead of listening to these important signals, we do like what most people do. We check in to hospitals and specialists to get treatment and relieved that it is covered by our medisave or medical insurance. The cycle repeats once we are out of the hospital and our eating habits resume. 

Yes, it is a tough battle, I agree. There are more advertisements, discounts vouchers, new eateries that sprout up faster than you can patronise each one daily. And they look so tempting with all the "likes" on FB and photos showing how people are enjoying the food. Don't get me wrong! It is alright to have a day or two in the week to indulge in these food but the challenge become IF we can be disciplined to stick to healthy, basic food type on the remaining days.

IMO, one of the good way to ensure longevity, good health and abundant energy is to really watch what you eat. And it is not difficult when one eliminates or reduce slowly some of the food they take. Like a pail filled with filthy water, how do you change it to clean one?

1. Pour away the entire water inside and filled up ONLY clean water - this is my method and you know better if it suits you
2. Pour away consistent amount of filthy water each time and replace with good water - recommended for most people who may find it hard to kick their favourite food like fried chicken, ice cream, snacks and white bread.

CNY is coming in a few days time and for many, it is a feast celebration of ba kwa, lots of goodies and eat and eat and eat. We can still enjoy the festive season without expanding unnecessarily our waistline and endanger our health over time. It is not right to associate having a tummy or double chin as a sign of prosperity like most Chinese believe. 

Health matters because it is when one is healthy one can continue to pursue his dreams and do the things they like, spend time with their loved ones and make contribution to the society.

Have a great New Year ahead !




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