Chicken and Vegetable Soup

When it is cold, sipping a hot coffee or tea or chocolate is heavenly. I thought, I don't want to drink coffee anymore but when the temperature dropped, I started drinking coffee again. It makes me feel warmer even for just a few minutes.

Well, I also made soup one day. Chicken and vegetable soup. The photo doesn't look yummy - because I took it in my half eaten bowl, but it sure tasted yummy.

Ingredients: Chicken, celery, carrot, choco, green peas, seasoning.

Cooking it was very straightforward. Boil the chicken and when it was soft take it off the broth and flake it when it is cool. Put the broth back to the stove, add the veggies and seasoning and the chicken and cook until soft. It is nice though when the green peas are well cooked, thickening the soup. I guess that's the secret of some yummy soup.

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Hospital Cover

I just recently received a letter from the department of health and ageing. It was about me entitled to apply for a medicare plus it also discussed about the scheme of private healthy insurance with hospital cover. You see, there is this new law that residents of more than 30 years old without private hospital cover will pay 2% premium on top of the current hospital cover fee for the years that they didn't have the private health insurance. Hence they encourage the people to take out private health insurance while they're still 30 to avoid this extra fees. The government is subsidising part of the private health insurance hence we get 30% rebates. The good thing about this news is, we already have a family life insurance as well as health. True, we don't get to see the value of our money but thank God for it. We are healthy. But time will come that we would be thankful we have this insurance. You wouldn't really know when you need it.

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Breast Cancer Awareness

This is one of the most worthwhile tags I've ever received. Thanks for this, sis.

Everyone is reminded to – help spread the awareness on the ‘Breast Cancer Awareness’ month of June. Please help convey the importance of regular examination and early detection of breast cancer in order to catch this disease when it first erupts, maximizing the chance of survival and recovery.

Each blogger or non-blogger can help the lives of many women by spreading the word about The Breast Cancer Site. If The Breast Cancer Site receives 8 million clicks on the pink button in June, their premier sponsor -Bare Necessities- will donate $10,000 for more free mammograms. CLICK the pink button today!

Wirelessbliss, Leah, Joy and Yums, could help spread the word please.

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Storing Food

Here are some tips on storing food:

• Don't keep packets of bacon flat in the fridge. If you roll them up and store them that way, the rashers won't stick together.
• If you put two sugar lumps in the biscuit tin, they absorb moisture and keep your biscuits nice and crisp.
• To keep bread fresher for longer, put a stick of celery in the bread bin. Renew it once a week (or as soon as it starts to go brown and limp) and you need never have stale bread again.
• To keep carrots moist cut the top off before you store them.
• Don't keep cheese in its plastic wrapping. As soon as you can, take it from the pack and wrap it in foil. This stops it from getting sweaty.

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Gift of gods?

We found out recently that the Little Boy love pears. He munches on it in morning and afternoon teas. I think, pears are in season because of its abundance in the shops and they are particularly sweet and the appearance is good.

Health Benefits

Protection from Free Radicals

Our food ranking system also qualified pears as a good source of vitamin C and copper. Both of these nutrients can be thought of as antioxidant nutrients that help protect cells in the body from oxygen-related damage due to free radicals. Vitamin C functions as an antioxidant in all water-soluble areas of the body, and in addition to its antioxidant activity, is critical for good immune function. Vitamin C stimulates white cells to fight infection, directly kills many bacteria and viruses, and regenerates Vitamin E (an antioxidant that protects fat-soluble areas of the body) after it has been inactivated by disarming free radicals.

Copper helps protect the body from free radical damage as a necessary component of superoxide dismutase (SOD), a copper-dependent enzyme that eliminates superoxide radicals. Superoxide radicals are a type of free radical generated during normal metabolism, as well as when white blood cells attack invading bacteria and viruses. If not eliminated quickly, superoxide radicals damage cell membranes.

Treat your tastebuds to a delectable, juicy pear, and you'll be treating your body to 11.1% of the daily value for vitamin C along with 9.5% of the daily value for copper.

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Not Just Another Berries

It's not really cherry season here but we saw cherries in the shop this week. The Little Boy hasn't tasted it yet so we decided to buy some - the price isn't that bad (almost $10/kilo). It doesn't taste that sweet but not bad at all.

Just like other berries, cherries have so many health benefits too. They are called "superfruits", fruits that contain natural compounds that have potential disease-fighting properties. The fruit contain antioxidants, betacarotene (19 times of blueberries and strawberries), vitamin C & E, and provide potassium, magnesium, iron, folate and fiber.

Emerging research suggests that cherries or the natural compounds found in cherries may help…
Reduce inflammation and ease the pain of arthritis and gout
Offer protection against cardiovascular disease and certain cancers
Reduce the risk of diabetes and insulin resistance syndrome
Aid in the treatment and possible prevention of memory loss

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Omega 3

Fish is rich with omega 3. Good for the heart.

Another good source is the krill oil, of course made from krill. It contains Omega-3 fatty acids, a class of compounds reported to aid in lowering both cholesterol and blood pressure when used as a dietary supplement. It can significantly reduce dysmenorrhea and the emotional symptoms of premenstrual syndrome.

Fish cost an arm and a leg. It's not always part of our diet but lately, I tried to make a meal with tuna, at least twice a week. Jens doesn't like the plain tuna but if with spaghetti, he can't wait for me to spoon it to his mouth. :) It might be the sauce.

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Drink Tea

Another reason why drinking tea is good for you - helps keep bones strong. Regular drinking of tea (as proven in study and experiment) increases bone density as well as bone mineral density.

There you go. If you're not fond of drinking milk, you can opt for tea instead. And if you're drinking both, well, you have a healthy bones now.

I am not a tea drinker but after knowing this, I might give it a go. Well, after I had weaned Jens, that is.

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Get The Best Rate

In our side of the world, interest rate on loans rose just two days ago. It was a very big leap. I'm sure home owners who have mortgage are not happy about it. On the other hand, savings account rate is also high. You can get the best rate there is if you your research. One of our banks has high interest rate on its savings maximizer account.

If you're looking for the best rate there is for savings or checking accounts, it pays if you do your homework. Check all the banks and financial institutions for their rates (like CD rates). Use online facilities like emoneycentral (if you're in the US). It list rates for savings, checking and CD's from several banks including online. These accounts are all from federally insured banks and credit unions. Right now, the list of checking accounts earn as high as 6.00% annual percentage yield (apy) and online savings accounts of up to 4.05% annual percentage yield.

If you found the best rate for your savings account, put in you money. Every second counts.

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Mince Meat with Mixed Veggies

My creation when I was mucking around the kitchen one weekend.

This is very easy to cook and good with rice or mashed potato. I like the smell when cooking this.

How I cooked it? Simple. I just placed the meat in the pan; pour soy sauce; put a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of garlic and ginger; and let them brown. Then put the mixed veggies. I just used the frozen pack. Cook until meat is tender and veggies are soft.

We had this with rice. Yum!

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