油虫珠

我女儿一岁大以后, 家婆就常常给她喝糖浆七星茶,但我总是觉得糖浆的七星茶太甜而且不知道她的身体是否适合常喝七星茶。

有一次她小伤风就带她让中医师看看并顺便带了糖浆七星茶让他给给意见。 他指出那种糖浆七星茶含有酒精和高糖分,应该少喝或尽量泡稀薄点。
他还开了适合我女儿的七星茶配方让我自己煎煮给孩子喝. 材料如下:

1. 山楂
2. 竹叶
3. 谷芽
4. 麦芽
5. 灯芯
6. 炒薏仁
7. 蝉衣
8. 琵琶叶
9. 甘草
10. 油虫珠

以上材料有些我懂有些不懂但它们的名字都满好听的, 对吧?
直到去了中药铺才知道什么是油虫珠. 你知道油虫珠是什么吗?

是'蟑螂粪便' - 治小孩肚风和呕吐等.. 哈哈

Ivy Extracts – Benefit in Peditric Bronchial Asthma

I believe many mothers are resist to western medicine when they fall sick, just like me. I was a little hesitate to give my daughter the PROSPAN cough syrup prescribed by the pediatrician but I was at ease after knowing the ingredient – Dried ivy leaf extract.

Do you know what is Ivy called in Chinese? 常春藤

Ivy is recommended for illnesses of the respiratory tract and symptomatic treatment of chronic inflammatory bronchial conditions. You can find out the details from the American Botanical Council.

The syrup did help to relieve and ease my daughter’s coughing. Now I always keep a bottle of PROSPAN at home in case family members need it. Recently my husband was having bad cough but his condition was improved after consuming PROSPAN for a few days.

PROSPAN is made in Germany and distributed worldwide .It is manufactured by Engelhard Arzneitmittel. You have to buy PROSPAN cough syrup with prescription in Singapore (around SGD 7++) while it is a non-prescription medicine in Malaysia that you can easily get from pharmacies (around RM 9++).

Impressions to share:

I let my family members to consume PROSPAN because Ivy is herbal medicine – is nature. It is …

o mucolytic – mucous-reducing
o secretolytic - secretion-reducing
o spasmolytic - relieving or preventing spasms

It has non-drowsy, alcohol-free, sugar-free formula and it tastes like cherry – my daughter does not resist drinking it.☺ Not to worry, it is non-additive.

It has no side effects only in rare cases, it may have a laxative effect due to the content of sorbitol (山梨醇) in the product.

You may also want to read the PROSPAN cough syrup information posted at the following:

http://ugaritpharma.com/prospan/Prospan_en.html#Composition:

My personal opinion - PROSPAN may not help for all kinds of cough but you can try when if you are not having stubborn cough. For serious illness is always better to consult your doctor.

豆腐与葱相克

很多人喜欢煮豆腐时并洒些小葱在上面，认为这样很好吃，但其实，豆腐与葱是相克的。

为什么呢？

因为葱含有大量的草酸(Oxalic acid)， 而豆腐中的钙与葱中的草酸结合后会形成一种白色沉淀—草酸钙(Calcium oxalate)。草酸钙这种不溶性的沉淀不容易被人体吸收，如果长期这样配搭食用，一来造成人体对钙的吸收困难，进而导致人体内钙质的缺乏; 二来也浪费了豆腐中宝贵的钙。

Vacuum Thermal Cooker – Good Helper in Kitchen

My mum bought for me a good quality of vacuum thermal cooker long time ago even before I got married. Before that I did not even bother how much it cost until I owned a kitchen and a kid.

Thinking of what to prepare for my kid’s dinner has becoming part of my daily task. How could I manage to prepare a bowl of nice soup in such a short time after I got off work and picked up my kid from childcare centre? This cooker has become a good helper to safe me from a lot of hassle. Some people called it the MAGIC COOKER.

So how does this vacuum thermal cooker look like? It is actually an inner pot that by high quality stainless steel which enclosed inside a vacuum insulated stainless steel outer shell to broil soup or even stews without the need of electricity or gas. If I plan to broil soup today, all I have to do in the morning is to prepare the soup ingredients and put in the inner pot, simply broil on stove and then put it inside the outer pot. Is that all? Yes, or may be add a bit of salt to the soup before I serve it for dinner night.

How does this vacuum thermal cooker work actually? The outer pot is actually acts as an excellent heat insulator which can maintain the temperature of food inside. It continues to cook for another 2-6 hours. The one I am using can keep the inner pot heat up to 12 hours! Few things good about this cooker are the food inside never overcooked, I can leave it unattended without the fear of fire because it does not required electricity to operate (an energy saver per say), no worry of broiling dry because it produced less loss of water, and yet it preserves the taste of food.

Still cannot imagine how it looks like? Simple use these keywords in your search engine to find out how it looks like and other details – ‘vacuum thermal cooker’, ‘magic cooker’, ‘thermal pot’, etc. May be i should take a picture of mine and post it here. There are many brands available in the market now and the price has becoming more affordable. Those who are interested can look for a good one and experience it yourself. You are also welcome to share your recipes of using the cooker here.

23 Jul 07 - Just posted my cooker as shown.