Avocado - Amazing Fats

Avocado turns wonder when we pair them with certain food!
Here are some I find real real 'Heaven'...

1. Chilled fresh avocado serve with creamy cheese.
Discover how well the salty cheese boosted the avocado!

2. Avocado Sauce / Dip:
Blend these together
- fresh avocado
- extra virgin olive oil,
- squeeze some fresh orange juice (adding the orange flavor and makes the blend more smooth)
It turns to be a great sauce for pasta or maraconi.

3. A heaven combination:
Make your scramble egg, with cheese added in the egg.
Served the scramble egg the avocado sauce / dip (recipe above #2).


What are the real health facts of Avocado? - paranoid-mum asking again...

How good is Taro for toddler?

My boy is loving taro and the paranoid-mum is asking of any possible 'side-effect' from such traditional food....

Here are some clues...
"Eating taro can lead to kidney stones and gout as well as other health complications if it is not prepared properly by boiling for the recommended amount of time. It can also be steeped in water overnight before cooking to further reduce the amount of oxalates. To absolutely minimize risk, milk or other calcium rich foods should be eaten with taro in order to block oxalate absorption."


Suggestion on Taro Recipe
I am not a fan of taro but as my 12 month old toddler's taste-buds get more demanding it just pushes me to try new ground and i discover this works for my toddler and me.

Taro & Shiitake Mushroom Brown Rice
- taro cut in small cube/strip
- fresh shiitake mushroom
cook the ingredients together with brown rice in slow cooker.
when cooked, add with flaxseed oil(or any prefer) to serve.
add salt to taste if require, for my toddler i do out the salt.
May also add some carrots to make it looks more appealing.

Fried Taro as a finger food.
You will be amaze but nice and fragrance this root taste when simply fried and eat plain.
It's definitely healthier and taste better than the french-fries.


Source Details: http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/the-nutrition-of-taro.html

Taro is a root vegetable that is eaten in many different cultures around the world and has a rich history, with many possible recipes. The leaves of the taro plant are also used as a vegetable. Taro root is easily digestible and the leaves are a good source of vitamins A and C.

What is Taro?
Taro is the root of the taro plant, which is grown in semi-tropical and tropical climates all over the world. Taro root is inedible raw and must be cooked thoroughly to leach out the calcium oxalate (associated with gout and kidney stones), preferably with a pinch of baking soda. Taro leaves should also be cooked before eating. Taro root is used in curries, prepared in similar ways to potatoes, cooked with lentils, used in baking, and even used in dessert recipes. Taro chips, also known as vegetable chips, are available in many health food stores. Taro has a mild, nutty flavor.
The Health Benefits of Taro
Taro root is often used in a similar fashion to a potato, but in fact has better nutritional qualities than a potato. It has almost three times the dietary fiber, which is important for proper digestive health and regularity. Fiber can also fill you up and make you feel less hungry with fewer calories. Taro root has a low Glycemic Index, as opposed to potato which has a high Glycemic Index. A low GI means that taro effects blood sugar levels slowly, without the peaks and crashes of a high GI, which lead to increased hunger later on. Eating a diet of low GI foods can also help prevent diabetes.
Taro is nutritious, and is an excellent source of potassium, which is an essential mineral for many bodily functions. Taro also contains some calcium, vitamin C, vitamin E and B vitamins, as well as magnesium, manganese and copper. Taro leaves contain good amounts of vitamins A and C, fiber and a relatively high amount of protein.
Cautions About Taro
Eating taro can lead to kidney stones and gout as well as other health complications if it is not prepared properly by boiling for the recommended amount of time. It can also be steeped in water overnight before cooking to further reduce the amount of oxalates. To absolutely minimize risk, milk or other calcium rich foods should be eaten with taro in order to block oxalate absorption. However, taro is a staple food for many people around the world and should not be considered a high risk food after it is cooked.
Taro has many benefits over potatoes but does actually contain more calories, gram for gram, with 142 calories per 100 grams to the 93 calories per 100 grams of a potato. However, with the additional benefits of fiber and a low Glycemic Index, taro is still a good choice as a starch vegetable.

What’s wrong with infant cereal?

Source: http://www.foodrenegade.com/why-ditch-infant-cereals/


Perhaps one of the biggest and most frightening crimes against young infants by pediatricians, food marketers, and parents everywhere is the recommendation that young infants should be eating rice cereals or other grains.

Ages ago, when I had my first child, I enrolled in the government program for Women, Infants and Children (commonly known as WIC).

In my first (and only) appointment with the government-provided nutritionist, I learned two things. One, I was anemic. And two, I should start feeding my yet-to-be-born son rice cereal at the age of 4 months. This is a very common assertion backed up with absolutely no science or tradition and perpetuated by food marketers intent on creating a market for industrially-produced infant foods.

What’s wrong with infant cereal?
So glad you asked!
It’s not traditional.


In the Food Renegade’s nutritional philosophy, tradition has weight. After all, we’ve survived anywhere from 7,000 to 77,000 generations on this planet (depending on whose science you believe). If we didn’t know how to adequately nourish our children all that time, how did we even get here?

And guess what? Traditional cultures didn’t (and don’t) feed their young babies infant cereal. Among the few cultures who fed their babies a gruel of grains, their practice radically differed from what we do today. First, they only introduced the gruel after the baby was more than a year old. And second, they ensured that the gruel was mildly fermented by soaking the grains for 24 hours or more.
Babies can’t digest it.

In order to digest grains, your body needs to make use of an enzyme called amylase. Amylase is the enzyme responsible for splitting starches. And, guess what? Babies don’t make amylase in large enough quantities to digest grains until after they are a year old at the earliest. Sometimes it can take up to two years. You see, newborns don’t produce amylase at all. Salivary amylase makes a small appearance at about 6 months old, but pancreatic amylase (what you need to actually digest grains) is not produced until molar teeth are fully developed! First molars usually don’t show up until 13-19 months old, on average.

Undigested grains wreak havoc on your baby’s intestinal lining. It can throw off the balance of bacteria in their gut and lead to lots of complications as they age including: food allergies, behavioral problems, mood issues, and more.

What does this mean? Don’t feed your baby grains (or even highly starchy foods), until all of their first molars have emerged. This means no rice cereals, no Cheerios, no Goldfish, no oatmeal, no infant crackers. It means that when you sit down with them at a restaurant, you shouldn’t placate them with the free rolls.
Feeding your baby grains displaces other, more important nutrients.

If you feed your baby cereal or other grains, you’re doing more than simply sticking them with an indigestible food. You’re feeding them an indigestible food in place of something more nutrient-dense. You’re feeding them something their body can’t really use and starving them of the nutrients they need to grow a healthy brain, nervous system, and bone structure.
What can you feed your baby instead?

It’s the million dollar question, and the answer isn’t all that hard. It’s based on a few key principles.
First, babies need fat.

More than 50% of the calories in mother’s milk comes from saturated fat. That’s for a good reason. Babies need fat in order to grow their brains, nervous system, and cell membranes. The remaining calories come from protein, and carbohydrates in the form of lactose. (And guess what? Newborns actually make lactase, the enzyme necessary to digest lactose. Plus, lactase is also common in raw milk. So, whatever deficiency in lactase production your baby might have is made up for by the raw mother’s milk you provide them while breastfeeding.) In traditional cultures, it’s common to breastfeed children at least two years and generally well into toddler-hood. So, don’t fret the saturated fat. In fact, you should embrace it!
Second, babies need lots of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, & K.

These vitamins are essential for your baby to grow a strong, sturdy bone structure. They also dramatically affect how your baby’s face forms. If you’re wondering why it matters if your baby has a wide face with high cheekbones versus a narrow face, check out the downloadable handout/workbook in this post.
Traditional baby foods work.

Again, I trust the wisdom of generation after generation of mothers more than I trust marketers trying to sell me an industrial-waste-product-turned-baby-food. We’ve got a long history of nourishing our infants well, pre-industrial revolution (the only exceptions being times of famine or poverty).
Baby foods I recommend.

Egg yolks
Around the world, through the centuries, almost universally, the first solid food we’ve ever introduced to babies were egg yolks. I recommend the egg yolks from pastured hens.

Egg yolk supplies cholesterol needed for mental development as well as important sulphur-containing amino acids. Egg yolks from pasture-fed hens or hens raised on flax meal, fish meal or insects are also rich in the omega-3 long-chain fatty acids found in mother’s milk but which may be lacking in cow’s milk. These fatty acids are essential for the development of the brain. Parents who institute the practice of feeding egg yolk to baby will be rewarded with children who speak and take directions at an early age. The white, which contains difficult-to-digest proteins, should not be given before the age of one year. (source)

You can start introducing egg yolks as soon as your baby shows an interest in eating solid foods. For us, our rule has been that we introduce solids when our babies have been old enough to pick the food up and put it in their own mouth. This usually happens somewhere between 6 to 8 months. I’ve known mothers who spoon-fed egg yolks to babies at an earlier age (around 4 months). While that’s a generally safe practice, it’s also work! I like the babies-feeding-themselves model because it’s easy.
(Where to find eggs from pastured hens)

Liver
Preferably, this is raw, organic liver from grass-fed cows. But even cooked liver has its benefits. You can grate frozen liver and mash it into egg yolks to spoon feed it to baby. As soon as my babies demonstrated an interest in spooning their own foods (usually around 10-15 months), I set them loose with soft liver patés and braunsweiger.

Small amounts of grated, raw organic liver may be added occasionally to the egg yolk after six months. This imitates the practice of African mothers who chew liver before giving it to their infants as their first food. Liver is rich in iron, the one mineral that tends to be low in mother’s milk possibly because iron competes with zinc for absorption. (source)

What about liver from industrially raised cattle? While grass-fed is best, followed by certified organic, liver is so nutrient-dense that I don’t hesitate to occasionally feed my baby liver from an industrial source. This, of course ignores the ethical issues of feeding ourselves industrially produced animal foods. The truth is that sometimes organic or grass-fed organ meats are hard to come by or afford. So, if you must compromise, you should at least stick to foods that are as nutrient dense as possible. Because of industrial processing methods, I wouldn’t want to feed my baby raw industrial liver products. But I think that if the liver is cooked, eating it is generally preferable to not feeding them liver at all.

If you’re worried about industrial toxins being stored in the liver, then I say “Aren’t you smart?” Because, of course, that’s why you’d prefer organic liver over the alternatives. But, if you’re otherwise doing right by your child’s gut (feeding them probiotic rich foods and avoiding sugars & grains), their guts can (generally speaking) handle the elimination of the toxins.
(Where to find liver from grass-fed cows)

Butter
Again, I’d stick to raw butter from grass-fed cows, but any real butter will do in a pinch. Butter is an easy-to-come-by animal fat, and you should try to stick to feeding your infant foods rich in animal fats as much as possible. You can mash butter into cooked vegetables like potatoes, carrots, or turnips. Or, you can simply do what I do and feed it to your baby straight.

Yep, you read right. When we’re at a restaurant, instead of placating my little ones with the free rolls, we placate them with the free butter that comes with the rolls! (I violate my own no-spoon-feeding rule here because it’s easier than having an impatient baby on my hands.)
(Where to find butter from grass-fed cows)

Kefir, Yogurt, and Buttermilk
These soured milk products are probiotic and help build up a balance of good bacteria in your baby’s gut, thus ensuring that they properly digest all their foods. Plus, introducing your baby to the sour taste early can help their palate enjoy more of these nutrient-rich foods later. I’d start by introducing them to just a spoonful or so at a time, as soon as the baby expresses an interest in solid foods (no earlier than 6 months old). As they get older, you can give them more of these foods, generally in proportion to their interest in eating them.
(Where to find starter cultures for yogurt, kefir, and buttermilk)

Bananas
Bananas are one of the few carbohydrate rich foods that are also rich in amylase. So, they come with the enzyme your baby needs to digest them already built-in. You can start feeding your baby bananas when they start making salivary amylase and expressing an interest in eating solid foods (no younger than 6 months old).

Cooked Veggies & Meats
Last, but not least, you can start feeding your baby cooked vegetables and meats when they’re old enough to express an interest in these foods (no younger than 10 months) and self-feed. It goes without saying that these should be incredibly tender if not totally mashed to provide for your baby’s lack of teeth. I’ve always enjoyed putting on a small crock pot of a bone-broth based stew featuring meat and veggies and feeding my baby the super-tender foods that come from it over the course of a few days. It’s easy. It’s not messy. And it ensures that the veggies are eaten with lots of the animal fats necessary for your baby to digest the vitamins in the vegetables.

感冒食疗方法

中医讲药食同源，一些制作简单的食疗方法，一日饮用数次，对于治疗小儿感冒同样有效，家长们不妨一试。 　　姜糖水：用生姜切片或切丝煎水，加少许红糖，趁热服下。1岁以内的宝宝喝红糖水即可，红糖水性温，可以祛寒。1岁以上的宝宝可以在红糖水里加一片1元钱硬币大小的生姜，3岁以上切两片。 　　葱白饮：取7根一寸长的葱白，浸在奶粉里，隔水煎熬。1岁以内宝宝每次饮用20毫升，一日数次。 　　葱姜桔皮饮：取葱白4-5根、生姜3-4片、新鲜桔皮10-20克、红糖适量。将葱白、生姜、桔皮洗净入砂锅共煎取汁，再调入红糖适量，分次服用。桔子、桔皮、桔络均可入药，有止咳化痰之效，对缓解孩子感冒的外部症状效果很好。此方适合1岁以上的小儿。 　　冬瓜薏米百合粥：做法：取冬瓜仁20-30克、百合15-20克、薏米100克。先将冬瓜仁洗净，煎水取汁、去渣。再与百合、薏米同煮为稀粥，日服2-3次。可以清肺化痰，促进康复，此方适合1岁以上的小儿。

Tomatoes Recipes

Tomato baby food recipes A simple tomato sauce made from fresh tomatoes is easy to prepare and can be used for all sorts of things, from a sauce for pasta to a topping or dip for cooked veggies! You can make a very basic sauce by merely sauteing fresh, chopped tomatoes in olive oil until they 'break down' - and you can pep it up a little by adding some fresh, chopped basil. Delicious! Here's a slightly more sophisticated method we use that brings out the sweetness of the tomatoes and garlic and tastes sublime... From our blog... Homemade Tomato Puree Silky Sweet Potato and Tomato Soup More Tomatoes Please! Homemade Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce 6 plum tomatoes 1 bulb garlic (unpeeled) 1 onion olive oil 2 tbsp chopped, fresh basil Preheat the oven to 400 deg F, 200 deg C. Cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise and squeeze gently to remove the seeds. Place in a shallow baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Cut the top off the garlic bulb (so you can just see the garlic inside the cloves) and place next to the tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil. Peel the onion, cut into wedges and toss in olive oil. Place in the baking tray with the tomatoes and garlic. Bake for around 45 mins to 1 hour, until the onion is tender and the tomatoes are completely soft and broken down Place the tomatoes and onion in a blender and squeeze in the garlic (which should now be creamy) from each clove. Add as much or as little as your baby will enjoy. Blend until smooth. Before serving, stir in a little extra olive oil and the fresh, chopped basil. Serve with pasta, or as a delicious tomato base for pizza (we have a wonderful recipe for a sweet potato pizza base on our Sweet Potato Baby Food Recipes page). Print Friendly Oven Roasted Tomato Soup Rather than using a separate recipe, we prepare a tasty soup by using our homemade oven roasted tomato sauce! A real time-saver is to double the quantities shown above, then use half the sauce for the soup and the other half as a pasta sauce (it freezes very well, so there's no need to use everything all at once!). Making the soup requires a slight adjustment to the recipe shown above... when blending the ingredients in the food processor, add enough low sodium or homemade chicken stock to achieve the desired consistency. We then like to add a little cream to create a smooth and appealing texture! Print Friendly Simple Stuffed Tomato 1 medium tomato 2 small, cooked broccoli florets 2 tsp grated Cheddar cheese 2 heaped tsp fresh, whole wheat breadcrumbs 1/2 tsp chopped, fresh parsley 2 tsp grated Parmesan cheese 1 tbsp apple juice Preheat the oven to 350 deg F (180 deg C). Cut off the top of the tomato and scoop out the flesh with a spoon, leaving the 'shell' intact. Turn upside down, place on a kitchen towel and set aside for 30 mins - this drains out the excess moisture. Meanwhile, chop the broccoli finely. Mix with the cheese, breadcrumbs, parsley and apple juice. Fill the tomato shell with the mixture and top with the Parmesan cheese. Bake for around 30 mins, until the tomato is tender and the cheese is golden.

Recipe: Peas With A Hint Of Mint

What you need:
2/3 c Shelled fresh peas
1/2 c Trimmed green beans
Sprig of fresh mint
1 c Water

Put all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes.
Drain, remove the mint, and puree the vegetables in a food mill to get rid of the indigestible husks from the peas.
Add water or formula (or mother's milk), as needed.

In addition to perking up the flavor of the vegetables, mint is well-known carminative, and can help relieve baby's painful gas or colic.

Milk Flow

http://www.mobimotherhood.org/MM/article-milkflow.aspx