very easy clear apple beetroot carrot (ABC) soup (vegetarian)

This soup has been inspired from the apple beetroot carrot juice which has been promoted in relation to the "treatment of lung cancer and several other diseases."



While it is best to consult experts (e.g. medical practitioners, doctors, specialists), we can also do our parts by improving our diets to stay healthy and get better in our health.

Since I am going to serve the delicious apple, beetroot and carrot to baby Ren, I prefer to cook them so that the water content inside these inexpensive vegetables and fruit is boiled (to kill any germ).

For Dear and myself, I alternate between raw juices and soups.

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Serving an apple a day to the apple of our eyes - our little one(s) is as magical as the classic story of Snow White and a ministory about it.




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Beetroot is known to help in the treatment of anemia. I love th imagine how our mother nature endows us with beetroot that 'bleeds' its natural bloody red liquid when we peel and cut it.

Please do not worry if you have a slight pinkish urine after consuming beetroot.

Beetroot can reduce blood pressure (PMID: 23596162), so it is good for people with high blood pressure. If you have low blood pressure like me, please consume beetroot moderately. I try not to eat more than one beetroot weekly. There are so many other delicious vegetables to savor, thankfully!

Since beetroot releases slight salty taste, I do not add any salt to the soup.



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The soup tastes mildly sour with slight sweetness, and it goes well for baby Ren who loves sweet sour fruits!

Upon drinking the soup, baby Ren's lips turn pinkish - like lipstick-adorned ones. He playfully laughs and sticks his tiny tongue out to slurp joyfully. Your heart surely melts when your little ones do so.



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Servings: 2
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:
♥ 1 green apple (苹果)
♥ 1 beetroot (甜菜根)
♥ 1 carrot (红萝卜)
♥ 6 red dates (红枣), pitted
♥ 1 honey date (蜜枣)
♥ 800 ml - 1 liter water

Directions:
1. Wash the produce thoroughly. I wash both organic and non-organic products, and wash more carefully for non-organic ones.
2. Peel carrot, beetroot, apple. Remove the core and seeds of the apple.
3. Add all ingredients to boiled water. Simmer over low heat for 60 minutes.

Tips:
♥ To make the soup more flavorful, use soup stock (e.g. gratitude soup stock, which is non-vegetarian). Next time, I will share vegetarian soup stock recipe.
♥ Beetroot stains. Please be careful especially if you are wearing light color clothes or preparing beetroot in the morning in your professional attire. I normally prepare and consume beetroot first before getting changed.

Other recipes that I love:
♥ apple beetroot carrot juice by Blessed Homemaker @ Singapore
♥ cucumber, celery, pear and lemon juice by Swathi (Ambujom Saraswathy) @ Zesty South Indian Kitchen
♥ celery pear kale juice by Whitney Bond @ Little Leopard Book

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.
   
With love,
ServicefromHeart

X for XO for #AtoZChallenge: easy XO fried rice recipe

XO stands for eXtra Old for cognac - a variety of brandy liquor - that has been stored for a minimum of 6 years (from 2016 onward, a minimum of 10 years).

Cognac, named after the town Cognac in France, must be twice distilled in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in Limousin or Tronçais oak barrels.

Since brandy has been used for:
♥ cake & pie toppings
♥ steak sauces
♥ soups such as onion soup
♥ Christmas pudding
♥ XO fish head bee hoon (thick noodle) in Singapore 
May I recommend using XO cognac for simple home-cooked dishes like fried rice? 

Since I was using leftover rice for baby Ren - which I purposely cooked softer, my fried rice was slightly soggy.

For #AtoZChallenge on 2014 April 28 Mon, I lovingly present a recipe of XO fried rice by ServicefromHeart.

Colorful rice grains of mixed white, red, brown rice

Serving: 1
Preparation & cook time: < 15 minutes

Ingredients:
♥ 1 bowl pre-cooked rice, dried & chilled
♥ 2 tbsp olive oil
♥ 1 tbsp sesame oil
♥ 2 cloves garlic, minced
♥ 1 slice ginger, minced
♥ 1 tsp anchovies powder
♥ 1 tsp dark soy sauce (kecap manis)
♥ pepper, to taste
♥ 1 tbsp spring onions, chopped
♥ 2 tbsp XO cognac
♥ 1 egg
♥ 4 scallops (optional)
♥ 1 carrot, diced (optional)
♥ 1 stalk celery, sliced (optional)
♥ 1 tbsp peas (optional)

Directions:
1. Heat oil using high heat to stir fry garlic and ginger until fragrant.
2. Sauté vegetables (carrots, celery, peas)
3. Add scallops. After a side is cooked, turn them over.
4. Add rice, pepper, anchovies powder, dark soy sauce. Stir to mix well.
5. Coat with sesame oil and XO for a shiny look. 6. Stir thoroughly.
7. Garnish with spring onions.
Tips:

1. Use cold and dry cooked rice. You want to use firm rice grains because they are easier to separate while stir-frying them. This choice is important to prevent your fried rice turning out soggy or mushy. To remove moisture, you can either (A) air freshly-cooked rice and then refrigerate the rice for a minimum of two hours or (B) use leftover rice from the night before.

2. Use medium to long grain rice such as medium grain of jasmine rice. Choose the sturdy grains that don't clump together when fried. Avoid short grain sushi rice or glutinous rice, which is softer and tends to stick together.

3. To acquire the smoky, slight burnt flavor, use high heat: a blazing hot pan / wok if possible. Add sufficient amount of oil to prevent your fried rice ingredients from sticking to the surface of pan. While the heat to stir fry our home-cooked version of fried rice may not be as hot as restaurants' ones, we can pre-heat our pan with a lid before adding ingredients.

4. To ensure thorough mixing of flavors and aroma, cook 1 to 2 servings at a time.

5. To have a crunchy texture, include vegetables like celery or long beans as ingredients.

6. For a stronger taste, you can pre-infuse your oil with ginger and garlic overnight.

7. To prevent the fried rice from turning out mushy or soggy, I prefer to separately cook the egg into a sunny side up or an omelette that can be thinly stripped to garnish on top of the fried rice.

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140428

C for carrot for #AtoZChallenge: carrot sweet potato peanut pear soup meal recipe

Why do rabbits love carrots? There must be plenty of good things in carrots that we can enjoy too by eating carrots.

Perhaps it is the bunny teeth of rabbits that make us imagine that rabbits easily bite raw carrots off. However, if you happen to have lovely rabbits as your pet, you would know that rabbits actually eat mostly hay and green leaves (including those growing on top of carrots).



The humble root vegetables are represented by their orange sticks. The orange color is due to β-carotene, which our bodies convert to vitamin A. That's why carrots are good for our eyes.


Baby Ren loves biting thoroughly washed and peeled carrots to ease his teething gum. Be careful not to over feed carrots to babies, because it may cause carotenosis - a benign condition in which the skin turns orange.




Once, we had enjoyed purple carrots, thanks to Fairprice Finest.


For #AtoZChallenge on 2014 April 03 Thu, I lovingly present a recipe of carrot sweet potato peanut pear soup meal by ServicefromHeart. 



Servings: 2
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
♥ 1 carrot (1红萝卜), peeled & cut into bite chunks
♥ 2 sweet potatoes (番薯), peeled & cut into bite chunks
♥ 1 snow pear (雪梨), peeled & quartered
♥ 1/2 cup peanuts (花生), soaked overnight
♥ 2 pork ribs (排骨)
♥ 8 dried scallops (干贝)
♥ 8 red dates (红枣)
♥ 1 honey date (蜜枣)
♥ 1 tbsp wolfberries (枸杞子)

Directions:
1. Blanch pork ribs in boiling water for ~5 minutes. Drain and wash.
2. Bring all ingredients to boil in a pot using low heat.

For variations, substitute sweet potato with pasta or noodles to enjoy this delicious soup meal.



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Preparing peanuts for our meal reminds me on an American comic strip: Peanuts. Charlie Brown and Linus van Pelt appear to be kind children to me and their friendship is cherishable. Who are your favorite comic characters?



Peanuts are a good source of niacin (vitamin B3 / nicotinic acid) - good four our brain health and blood flow.

My grandmother's adviced me to drink bowls and bowls of peanut trotter soups to increase breast milk production during confinement. Subsequently, I just prepare peanut soups with visually-less-carnivorous-looking meat.

For other faster-to-prepare recipes, check also our #5minutemeal recipes. 

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140403