Spice up your life with this anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant Ancient Indian Golden Milk

Turmeric is widely used in Indian recipes. It is the main spice in curry and is arguably the most powerful herb at fighting and potentially reversing diseases. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic medicine use turmeric in the treatment of liver disease, skin problems, respiratory and gastrointestinal ailments, sprained muscles, joint pains and general wound healing. Besides, turmeric offers many health benefits since it has both anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties.

Curcumin in turmeric has the ability to modulate genetic activity and expression — both by destroying cancer cells and by promoting healthy cell function. It also promotes anti-angiogenesis, meaning it helps prevent the development of additional blood supply necessary for cancer cell growth.

Drink this delicious golden milk in the morning and before bed for 2 weeks and you will see the difference!

In fact, a number of studies have even reported that using curcumin is more advantageous than certain prescription drugs.

Health Benefits of Turmeric :-
- Anti-inflammatory drugs
- Anti-depressants (Prozac)
- Chemotherapy
- Anti-coagulants (Aspirin)
- Pain killers
- Diabetes drugs (Metformin)
- Arthritis medications
- Inflammatory bowel disease drugs
- Cholesterol drugs (Lipitor)
- Steroids

For more benefits of turmeric, please refer to here, here and here.

Now, what is golden milk? This golden milk is a combination of turmeric spice (golden color!) along with milk and/or coconut milk/oil (depending on individual's preference). One cup of this Golden Milk has the potential to provide you with a healthy dose of this "spice of life". Taking turmeric milk daily is also a great way for general body detox and it helps in blood purification and liver detox too. Blood impurities can lead to sever health problems and turmeric milk is a great way to combat it. Turmeric is said to help those with Alzheimer’s disease by slowing its progress and lowers risk of various types of cancer.

Okay, let's go to prepare this super easy healthy Golden Milk.

Ingredients :- 

- 1 cup of fresh milk/coconut milk (I used fresh milk)
- 1 tbsp of turmeric powder or one-half inch fresh turmeric thinly sliced (I used turmeric powder)
- 1 tsp of grated fresh ginger (optional)
- 4 cardamon pods - crushed or cut into pieces(optional)
- a sprinkle of black pepper

Method :
1) Heat up milk in a pot or saucepan over medium heat.

2) Add turmeric, ginger and cardamon pods.

3) Keep stirring to prevent the milk from scorching at the bottom of the pot.

4) Once small bubbles begin to form, add in black pepper.

5) Stir and mix well. Off the heat.

6) Serve warm.

Spice up your day with a cup of warm Golden Milk 

This beautiful golden drink calms and soothes inflammation.  It is also very detoxifying for the liver and gallbladder.

A cup of this awesome Golden Milk before bed aids relaxation and helps boost the immune system while sleeping

My youngest girl can prepare her own Golden Milk before she hits the hay

Cheers and spice up your life!!

To receive new updates, do LIKE SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL AND HEALTHY LIVING FACEBOOK. 

Sorry to inform that for the time being, I have disabled comment box as I won't be able to return visit to my fellow bloggers who are kind enough to drop me a line or two. The comment box will be enabled when I am not so tied up with my work schedule. However, you may contact me by leaving your message or comment at SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL AND HEALTHY LIVING FACEBOOK. My sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused. Thanks for visiting my blog and have a nice day :) 

Pumpkin Lemongrass Soup

Pumpkin is very healthy and nutritious.  It's very versatile as you can cook it in anyway you like besides turning it into healthy desserts, jam, bakes, etc.  When making it into soup, it's not necessary to add meat as pumpkin itself is already sweet.  All you have to do is wash the skin thoroughly.  Then cut it into your required sizes and put everything in including the seeds and the pulp.  No wastage!!!

More benefits of pumpkin can be found in the above Spicy Fragrant Japanese Pumpkin's post.

Ingredients :

- a quarter of pumpkin together with its seeds and pulp (cut into required size)

- 8 stalks of lemongrass (use the white stems, cut and crushed)

- 2 thumb sized ginger (crushed)

- 2 chicken carcass (blanched)

- water (enough for soup)

- 8 white peppercorns (crushed, optional)

- salt (to taste)

Method :

1)  Put pumpkin, lemongrass and ginger into a pot of water.
2)  Once the water is boiling, add chicken carcass to the boiling water.
3)  Boil at high heat for 15 minutes and add peppercorns.  Turn to low heat and boil for about 1.5 hours.  
4)  Season with salt.
5)  Serve hot.

I love to drink the soup HOT..

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (Oct 2014 Event: PUMPKIN) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Eileen (Eileen's Diary).

Also submitting this post to "My Treasured Recipes #3 - Taste of Autumn (Oct/Nov 2014)" hosted by Miss B of Everybody Eats Well in Flanders and co-hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House.

To receive new updates, do LIKE SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL AND HEALTHY LIVING on FACEBOOK. Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving me comments. I really appreciate all your visits and comments! Have a nice day :)

Garlic Butter Bread

Since my first experienced with Basic No-Knead Bread we have stopped buying commercial breads. 

Basic No-Knead Bread

I have also tried different version of breads and getting all thumbs up from my family members!   Honestly speaking, since then, I take great pleasure in bread making and practically have been baking it daily. Baking your own bread gives you a very unique self-satisfaction and it's even so when seeing your loved ones smiling from east to west while eating the bread that you have personally baked!  What's more when the aroma of the freshly oven baked bread filled the entire house.... its so tempting, comforting and warm...

Garlic Butter Bread (which is adapted from Zoe's with some minor modifications) is one of the many breads I have tried and we love them all.  Thanks Zoe for your Garlic Butter Bread recipe.  Very yummy...  There are still quite a number of breads pics sitting in my folder waiting to say hi to you all.  Never mind, they can wait as I am still taking my time to select which are the ones to make their appearance here, hehehe...

Ingredients :
- 250g bread flour
- 50g all-purpose flour
- 25g sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp butter (soften at room temperature)
- 3/4 tsp instant dry yeast
- 200ml milk (lukewarm)

Roasted garlic butter:
- 1 head garlic, unpeeled
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 50g unsalted butter, softened
- 1 tsp dried rosemary
- 1 tsp of dried basil
- 1/2 tsp salt

1) Cut the top part of garlic head and place on a piece of aluminum foil; drizzle with olive oil. Fold edges together to seal. Bake at pre-heated oven at 200°c  for 30 mins and allow garlic to cool completely.

2) Squeeze cooked garlic into a medium bowl. Add butter, dried herbs, salt and stir to combine. Set aside.

Egg wash : (Beat roughly until combined)

- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp milk

Method :
1) For kneading, I mixed all dough ingredients into a breadmaker machine and let it prove in the machine. It takes 1.30 hours for the dough to be ready.

2) Divide dough into 6 equal portions and allow it to rest for another 15 minutes.

3) Flatten each portion of dough and spread a thin layer of softened garlic butter. Chill the left-over garlic butter in the freezer for later use.

4) Roll it into oblong shape. Repeat the same method with the rest of the dough.

5) Place them on a greased baking tray or lined with baking paper. Allow them to rise for another 1 hr or until doubled in size.

6) Apply egg wash on the surfaces of the dough. Slit the center of each dough with a sharp knife and place 1/6 of the frozen or semi-softened garlic butter onto the slit of each dough.

7) Bake at pre-heated oven at 180°c for 17 mins or until golden brown. Transfer the breads immediately onto a wire rack to cool. Serve when they are slightly warm or at room temperature.

~This Garlic Butter Bread is so soft and fluffy ~

Serve it warm or at room temperture

Do enjoy and cheers :)

This Post Is Linked To : Treasure Box Tuesday

To receive new updates, do LIKE SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL AND HEALTHY LIVING on FACEBOOK. Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving me comments. I really appreciate all your visits and comments! Have a nice day :)

Fragrant Pork Belly with Thai Basil

My mini garden has been growing weeds....!!! Hubby wanted to throw away all my plants especially those inedible plants and keep those edible ones. What should I do??? I still want to keep my plants especially those herbs which I need it every now and then. At the end, we decided to keep only the edible plants and concentrate on edible garden which we think is more practical. Thai basil is in abundance and they are in fact too matured. So, what I did was to harvest all the herbs and replant them for another new batch of herbs garden.
Since Thai Basil is in abundance, I decided to fully utilize it. Hence, stewing pork belly with it is one of the many dishes I have cooked.

For your info, when I was young, I never like or would not touch pork belly. Even when I ever did eat it, I would always throw away the fat and take the lean meat. However, these few years, I don't know what has gotten into me. I LIKE pork belly especially the FAT!!! I know it's unhealthy but ah..... eat first health later... hahahaha.... The gravy is especially yummy and when mixed with rice, we can easily go for 2nd helping of rice! The recipe for this is taken from my previous posting on Stewed Pork Belly with Fried Tofu.

Ingredients :
- 1 strip of pork belly (blanched and cut)
- 1 bunch of Thai Basil
- 1/2 tbsp fermented soy bean paste/tau cheong (for frying)
- 1 1/2 tbsp fermented soy bean paste/tau cheong (to taste)
- 1 bulb of garlic (finely chopped)
- 1 thumbsized ginger (sliced and crushed)
- water (enough for stewing)

Seasonings : (to taste)
- a dash of salt
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 3 tbsp caramel sauce (reduce the amount if you don't like your dish to be in dark colour)
- 1 tsp sugar

Method :
1) Heat some oil in a wok and saute garlic, ginger and 1/2 tbsp of fermented soy bean paste until aromatic.

2) Add pork belly and stir fry for a while. Mix well.

3) Add water, the remaining fermented bean paste and caramel sauce. Stir and mix well.

4) Cover and let it boil at high heat for about 5 minutes. Then, lower the heat and let it simmer until the gravy is thickened and/or the meat is cooked and tender. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes depending on the fire and pot/wok used. Add water if you want more gravy.

5) Lastly, add in Thai Basil and the remaining seasonings. Bring it to a boil again for 1 or 2 minutes.

6) Dish up and serve with steamed rice.

If you like pork belly, this is a very flavorful dish

Hope you like this homey dish. It's also great to serve it with plain bread instead of steamed rice. Do enjoy.

I am linking this to TheWeekendSocial- Recipe & DIY Link Party

To receive new updates, do LIKE SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL AND HEALTHY LIVING on FACEBOOK. Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving comments. I really appreciate all your visits and comments! Have a nice day :)

Basil Leaves(九層塔 jiǔ céng tǎ) in Caramelized Prawns - The Picnic Game 2014 (1)

Time really flies.  It has been a year since I first joined The Picnic Game 2013 hosted by a very sweet lady, Louise of Months of Edible Celebrations. Since then, I have been waiting for the next Picnic Game and am glad that this year is my 2nd time joining in the fun.  The rule of the game is each participant is to choose an alphabet and to prepare a dish starting with the chosen alphabet.  Well, this year I have chosen the letter B and T.   For a start, here I have prepared Basil Leaves in Caramelized Prawns.  Do stay tuned to know what is in stored for T.

To know more about the game, do please visit her Picnic Game 2014's rules.

I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing ....

A - Angel Food Cake

B - Basil Leaves in Caramelized Prawns
C - Chicken Piccata
D - Darned Easy Potato Salad
E - Eccles Cakes filled with Leeks, Spinach and Blue Cheese
F - Fourth of July Picnic S'more Tartlets
G - Gluten-free & Eggless Chocolate Steamed Cake
H - Ham Cheesy Patties
I - Italian Frittata with Vegetables
J - Jelly Roll
K - Kahlua Zucchini Chocolate Chunk Bread
L - Lemon Lavender Cupcakes
M - Meringue Roulade with Raspberries
N - Nutella Rice Pudding
O - Old-Time Favorite Iced Red Bean Popsicles
P - Pickles
Q - Quinoa Blueberry Mango Salad
R - Raspberry and Fig Cobbler
S - Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
T - Two-Ingredient Ice Cream Bread
U - Uninvited Smashed Potatoes
V - Vegan Mango Salsa
W - Watermelon Salad
X - X'mas Coconut Wreath Cake
Y - Yellow Squash Crustless Quiche
Z - Zucchini Cake-Double Chocolate

Why Basil Leaves?

I have abundance of basil plants in my garden and I used to have it in my cooking and even made dipping sauce out of it.  Thai basil is very easy to grow and if pruned regularly, it encourages speedy sprouting and you can even have some extras for your neighbors and friends!

Benefits of  Eating Thai Basil Leaves (九層塔 jiǔ céng tǎ)
Thai Basil Leaves are dark in colour.  The leaves are rich in Vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, E, beta carotene, calcium, flavanoids, folate, zinc iron, magnesium, selenium, niacin, lycopene, thiamin, riboflavin and potassium  among others.

Thai Basil leaves are widely used in traditional medicine for its healing benefits. They are used for common cold, influenza, cough, fever, sore throat, mouth infections, teeth and skin problems, diabetes, asthma, bronchitis, earache, headache, stomach upset, heart disease, viral hepatitis, malaria, and tuberculosis. It is also used for mercury poisoning, to promote longevity, as a mosquito repellent, insect stings and to counteract snake and scorpion bites.

It is also used as a nerve tonic, memory empowerment, phlegm removal, respiratory problems, kidney stone, heart problems, blood cholesterol reduction, and reduces stress.

Ingredients :
- 500gm big prawns (cleaned and snipped off the sharp points. Marinate with pepper)
- 1 tsp pepper (for marinate)

- 2 big onions (sliced)
- 1 tbsp shredded ginger

- 2 cloves of garlic (minced)

- a handful of Basil leaves

- 2 tbsp cooking oil

Seasonings Sauce (to taste) :

- soy sauce 

- salt

- 1 tbsp thick caramel sauce

- 1.5 tbsp palm sugar/gula melaka (finely chopped)
- 1 tsp plum sauce

Method :

1)  Heat oil in wok and pan fry prawns.  Drain and set aside.

2)  Leave the remaining oil in the wok and saute onions, ginger and garlic till fragrant.

3)  Over low heat, stir in the seasonings until it is almost caramelized.

4)  Return the cooked prawns into the wok and stir fry until the sauce is well mixed and coated with the prawns.

5)  Lastly, add in basil leaves and give it a quick stir.

6)  Serve immediately with hot steamed rice.

This caramelized prawns with Basil leaves is so flavorful and full of sweet aroma

You can add some bird eyes' chilies for a little bit of 'oomph..' if you like.  However, I omitted this as my girls can't take spicy food.

Make sure to suck out all the caramel juices from the shells..... slurrppp.....

This is finger licking good!!

To receive new updates, do LIKE SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL AND HEALTHY LIVING on FACEBOOK. Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving comments. I really appreciate all your visits and comments! Have a nice day :)