Fruits – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Fruitful Investments: Prioritizing Fruits for My Family’s Health and Well-being

For as long as I can remember, fruits have been a dietary cornerstone in my family. Since my daughters turned six months old, I’ve made it a point to introduce a variety of fruits into their diets. As they grew, this habit blossomed into a family culture of fruit appreciation that we all share. Each of my daughters developed a love for fruits, mirroring my own passion for fresh, wholesome produce. Yet, as much as they enjoy fruits, I still play a big role in their consumption—because when it comes to peeling and chopping, they can be a bit…lazy!

When my girls were younger, I made them each a daily fruit box to enjoy after school, packed with freshly cut apples, citrus fruits, berries, melons, or whatever was in season. Now that the two older girls are in university, life is busier, schedules are less predictable, and we’ve had to adapt. I no longer prepare a box for each of them daily, but I keep an assortment of cut fruits in the fridge. They can grab a container whenever they come home and I can see that they truly enjoy their ready-to-eat fresh fruits.

Cass, my youngest, has kept up with our tradition of daily fruits. She’s a fruit monster and devours them in quantities that frequently stretch my budget! Alycia still enjoys fruits but doesn’t reach for them every day like Cass. And Sherilyn is so busy with her studies and competitive dance that her diet has suffered a bit. She doesn’t make fruits or other healthy foods a priority anymore, but she’ll indulge in exotic fruits like mangoes, blueberries, or strawberries when they’re around. I hope she’ll return to her daily fruit consumption once her routine settles.

In maintaining our fruit-focused diet, I’ve noticed that it’s not just a weekly grocery choice but an investment in health. With an average of RM200-RM300 each week spent on fruits alone, it may seem like a big expenditure, but it’s one that I believe pays off in the long run. I see it as a form of health insurance, hoping it supports their immune systems and helps them cultivate a lifelong appreciation for healthy foods.

How much do you spend on fruits for your family each month?

Today the girls get to enjoy pink guava, mangoes and papaya!

Love the vibrant pink hue from the pink guava!

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Ostania Premium Mangosteen Amrita Juice

Mangosteens – we all love them, both for the one-of-a-kind succulent taste of the flesh and the vibrant purple color of the rind. My kids love them. I love them. I do not know of anyone who does not love them. But I hate peeling them! It’s so troublesome to get to the flesh of the mangosteen. Sometimes, I would accidentally stain my clothes with the bright purple color from the rind. And it is so time-consuming to eat mangosteens, for you have to labour over yanking the hard rinds, just to eat a few segments from each fruit. For this reason, I seldom buy mangosteens. I wish that peeled mangosteens will soon be available in the market. But for now, we can drink the goodness of mangosteen juice from a bottle.

One of the mangosteen juices with the highest grades available in the market is the Ostania Premium Mangosteen Amrita juice. And I am so thankful that the company that manufacturers Ostania mangosteen juice, Furley Bioextracts have so kindly sent me 3 bottles to try! Thank you Furley!!

We have always discarded the hard purple rind of the mangosteen but did you even know that the rich purple mangosteen skin is where all the goodness is? Yup, it’s true and Ostania mangosteen juice is composed of the purple mangosteen skin, as one of the ingredients. The mangosteen skin / rind is said to be packed with xanthones, anthocyanins and polyphenols — potent antioxidants that have been scientifically proven to be beneficial.

Furley Bioextracts has now made the Ostania Mangosteen Amrita – its mangosteen drink with skin and all, available in certain pharmacies in the country. The Ostania Mangosteen Amrita is the only health beverage in the market to be tested and validated by the National University of Singapore (NUS). Every single one of Furley’s Ostania Mangosteen Amrita products have been validated to have a 14186 ORAC. This ORAC score reflects that the Ostania is higher in antioxidants than some of the other well-known superfoods such as blueberries, acai berry and raw cacao, the purest form of chocolate said to have the highest source of antioxidants of all foods and the highest source of magnesium.

Ostania Mangosteen Amrita contains the whole mangosteen fruit, including the skin, and is combined with apple, roselle, acai berry, grape and pomegranate. With no added sugars or colouring, it is suitable for the whole family and is a health drink that anyone, including diabetics can indulge in.

Some of its benefits include boosting the immune system, improving the bowel system, easing allergy symptoms, helping skin conditions, maintaining eye health, stopping fatigue and fighting harmful free radicals responsible for ageing and inflammation.

At only RM49.90 a bottle, the Ostania Mangosteen Amrita is a very affordable health supplement. You can buy it cheaper at RM43.35 if you buy 3 bottles.

Ostania Mangosteen Amrita is a great tasting beverage. You can drink it neat from the bottle but it’s best served with a 1:1 dilution with water or ice. It tastes best when chilled. You can even make ice popsicles for your little ones to enjoy. Or add it into your homemade fruit smoothies, like what I am doing now 🙂

This is the orange + green apple + fresh coconut water + Ostania Mangosteen Amrita juice smoothie that I made yesterday – so refreshing! To give this smoothie an extra kick, blend it with ice cubes – perfect thirst quencher on a sweltering day.

Mangosteen Amrita comes in an attractive reusable aluminum bottle. It is of export grade and is sold in other countries such as New Zealand.

To order Ostania Mangosteen, just click on this link.

You can also find Furley Bio at the following social media sites:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/furleybio?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/furleyb
Instagram: https://instagram.com/furleybio/

No. of times viewed = 70

Orange Apple Avocado Smoothie With Chia Seeds

Yesterday, I made a glass of orange + apple + avocado + chia seed smoothie for Cass to combat her constipation problem. I also added half a cup of color-free strawberry flavored yoghurt drink to the Shimono cup for a double power laxative effect and whirled everything together for a few seconds. This concoction is SO refreshing and according to Cass, it tasted just like those smoothies from MBG Fruit Shop and Boost Juice 😀

And the result? She poo-ed after her lunch 😀

No. of times viewed = 524

Hooked On Making Homemade Smoothies With My New Shimono!

I admit I am a sucker for healthy food and health products. If you repeatedly show me how awesome a blender, juicer, air fryer or a food detoxifier is, that’s it, I will go weak and will eventually succumb to temptation!

My friends in Facebook have been posting pictures on homemade smoothies made using the Korean made Shimono food processor since last year. I had wanted to purchase it since last year but never really got to it as I was not 100% convinced that the Shimono could make a really smooth cup of smoothie without having to sieve the fiber and pulp.

2 weeks ago, a friend posted pictures on her amazing smoothies and what she could whip up with the Shimono. I grilled her with my long list of questions. She was too patient to answer all my queries and I then made up my mind to get it under a GB (Group Buy) for SAHMs from Facebook @ only RM200 a set. Regular price is RM299 a set. I immediately paid for it online and on Sunday, got the hubs to bring me to One Utama Shopping Centre to pick up my baby! And there has been no regrets for this purchase. I have been making smoothies for everyone at home since then and thankfully my kids gave me their wholehearted thumbs up and said that my smoothies taste like those from Boost Juice wahahahaha!

This is my maiden smoothie made using my Shimono, using all the fruits that I could find in my fridge…

My smoothies in the fridge, placed in party cups with colorful caps (part of the Shimono set). The smoothies composed of oranges, apples, pears, strawberries, purple grapes and chia seeds for the extra boost of calcium, Omega 3 and protein. I observed that strawberries and purple grapes give a very beautiful pink and purple hue to the smoothie.

My baby girl enjoying her healthy smoothie!

Today, I will be making red dragon fruit, strawberry and chia seeds smoothie for the kids and coffee ice blended for the hubs!

No. of times viewed = 3546

Exotic Fruits

The other day, hubby bought some fruits from this fruit stall in PJ SS2 that sells a good variety of fruits. It’s located beneath Babyland. When he came home with the fruits, I was all smiles… coz he bought me my all-time favorite king of fruits – Musang King variety somemore (grin!), longans, huge red dragon fruits, huge golden kiwi (love them but they are darn expensive) and these exotic fruits:

Can anyone guess what fruit these are? These are pears. The skin is red but the flesh is white. The texture is like green Peckham pear but they are tasteless and hard and I wouldn’t buy them again. They cost RM11 for 7. There are still 6 in the fridge and I guess they will be sitting inside the fridge for a couple of weeks till they turn soft and mushy… ah, that’s when I’ll eat them coz I like pears that are soft and really ripe.

This is a custard apple. There used to be a fertile custard apple tree that bore lots of fruits in my old home when I was young, which my late maternal grandma planted. My brothers and I loved plucking them from the tree and eating them as dessert after our dinner. I’ve not eaten them for yonks. So when I saw this fruit (cost RM5 each), I was excited. This huge custard apple tasted very sweet and I ate it when it was chilled. But my 2 older gals, sigh…. they didn’t want to have anything to do with the fruit, not even sniff it! Why? Beats me, maybe the fruit does not have an appealing appearance… you know, with lumps like that, it really did look dodgy in their eyes, haha! I’m a big fan of fruits and we spend quite a bit on fruits each month.

No. of times viewed = 903

I Almost Ate Some Wriggly Worms

A few mornings ago, I cut a passion fruit into half and scooped out the seeds and when I was about to put the spoonful of passion fruit seeds into my mouth, I saw something wriggling amongst the seeds of the passion fruit which was still attached to the skin. On taking a closer look, I was absolutely petrified to see some worms wriggling away! I used the spoon to separate the cluster of seeds and felt nauseated when I saw some more worms, which looked like maggots inching their way inside, back inside to hide! OMG, I felt absolutely revolted.

This was the worm-infested passion fruit. Notice the white pulp which also resembles worms?

I had actually been very wary of eating passion fruits as many times, I’d seen very tiny holes, like worm holes on the outer skin of the fruit. That particular morning, I noticed something not quite right about the fruit when the yellow flesh looked somewhat dull, like fresh baby’s watery poop! Ooppsss…. sorry for being gross but that’s what I thought it looked like.

One of the wriggling worms on the right.

After that incident, I now scoop out all the flesh and seeds into a bowl. I then loosen the flesh and seeds and scrutinize them very carefully before putting them into my mouth. I still have phobia of swallowing some worms but I still have to finish off the remaining passion fruits that my mil had bought. I think this will be our last time buying passion fruits.

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Guess What These Are

Can anyone guess what these are? Give up?

Check out the answer here!

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Red Flesh Orange

At a look, there is nothing extraordinary about this orange but once cut, you’ll be surprise to find that the flesh is red in color and it looks pretty much the same as a grapefruit but tastes exactly the same as an orange-flesh orange. According to the fruit seller at the pasar malam (night market), this type of orange is only available once a year, don’t know how true this is.

Have you eaten a red-flesh orange before?

No. of times viewed = 551

Guess What Fruit This Is

When I saw these fruits that my mil bought from the SS2 market on Sunday, I was really amazed. The fruit is very light, has very smooth and shiny skin and looks exactly like a toy fruit. You have any idea what fruit this is?

These are passion fruits or markisa. They aren’t very costly – RM10 for 8 fruits. To eat the fruit, just cut it into half and scoop out the seeds. You can also scoop out the seeds, put them in a pitcher, throw in some ice cubes and honey and you’ll get fresh passion fruit drink! Easy way to make your kids drink water, they’ll love this drink.

Click here to see the cold green tea soba/noodles that I cooked for the gals.

No. of times viewed = 410

Silver Honey Dew

I was grocery shopping at Jaya Jusco, Mid Valley the other day and saw this unique honey dew called Silver honey dew. This pint-size honey dew is almost half the size smaller than then regular honey dew, i.e. about the size of an Indian mango. This cute looking honey dew costs RM4.90 each. It tastes exactly the same as the regular honey dew but what I like about it is that because it is small, we can finish the whole melon immediately and don’t have to keep it in the fridge for days till it becomes watery.

No. of times viewed = 163

Oranges, Oranges, Oranges

These are some of my current pregnancy craves now – ‘kam kat’ (tangerines) and tiny mandarin oranges. When these were off-season a few months ago, it cost almost RM1 for EACH tiny tangerine, yet I bought them coz I was craving for them. Now, the tangerines are sold everywhere and I bought them for only RM5 per pack at the pasar malam. Not only am I crazy over these citrus fruits, even Alycia and Sherilyn are crazy over them. Well, as long as they don’t eat too much (as an overdose of them would cause diarrhea), it would otherwise be a healthy snack alternative to crackers, biscuits and candies.

No. of times viewed = 1884

I Love Fruits

I just love fruits and these are how much I eat every week, to be shared with the gals, hubby and my maid. These are just some that I keep outside the fridge and there’re more fruits in the fridge – oranges, pears, red dragon fruits, apples, plums, yellow kiwi fruits and papayas. Before I was preggers, I ate even more and I just loved pineapples, grapefruits and watermelons, all the cooling fruits. I am just so craving to eat sweet pineapples now. My anesthesiologist once told me that it’s alright to eat pineapples as long as I don’t eat them excessively but still, I’m not touching them just yet as I know how ‘sharp’ it is to our stomach.

Mangoes, papayas, kiwi fruits, oranges….

Bananas, green and yellow kiwi fruits and cikus.

Though cikus are nice to eat but I just hate the sticky sap that sticks to my teeth, knife and spoon. I use baby oil to wash off the sap from the knife and spoon but have to endure the sap that sticks to my teeth.

No. of times viewed = 237

Durian Lover

The ‘antidote’ for heatiness…. Mangosteens. Our favourite exotic fruit too.

Everyone in my family and DH’s family love durian to pieces. During each durian season, whenever my mil is in KL, she would buy loads of durians and we will all eat durian till we fall sick and feel bloated with durian. Burrrrppp…. yikes…. I hate the aftertaste and smell of burp. The odour of burped durian in a car with all windows wound up is enough to drive anyone nauseated instantly.

My gals have also acquired the love for durian right from the start. We once fed Alycia durian when she was around 6 – 8 months, she loved them so much that she screamed and wailed when the durian was finished. That was so funny and I even have that recorded in my camcorder.

Many people say that durian is an unhealthy fruit and is very fattening but the durian also has many nutritional values.

Here are the nutrition values of Durian (value per 100 g of the edible part) :

General components
Water 64.99 g
Energy 147 kcal
Energy 615 kj
Protein 1.47 g
Total lipid (fat) 5.33 g
Carbohydrate, by difference 27.09 g
Fiber, total dietary 3.8 g

Minerals
Calcium, Ca 6 mg
Iron, Fe 0.430 mg
Magnesium, Mg 30 mg
Phosphorus, P 38 mg
Potassium, K 436 mg
Sodium, Na 1 mg
Zinc, Zn 0.28 mg
Copper, Cu 0.207 mg
Manganese, Mn 0.324 mg

Vitamins
Vitamin C, ascorbic acid 19.7 mg
Thiamin 0.374 mg
Riboflavin 0.2 mg
Niacin 1.074 mg
Pantothenic acid 0.23 mg
Vitamin B-6 0.316 mg
Vitamin A, IU 45.000 IU
Vitamin A, retinol 5.000 µg

No. of times viewed = 383

Dragon Fruits

Alycia’s breakfast.

Yellow-skin and white flesh pitaya.

One of my favourite fruits is the red dragon fruit or Pitaya. My gals love them too. We love them so much that we eat them almost every other day. Whenever my gals and I have constipation, dragon fruit always comes to my mind in relieving constipation. So far, I know that there are 2 varieties of dragon fruit, i.e. the red-skin & white-flesh ones and the red-skin and red-flesh ones. Recently, I stumbled from the net a picture of a yellow-skined & white-flesh pitaya. Wow, how unique. I don’t know if this yellow-skined ones are already available in Malaysia. So far, I’ve not seen them in the markets or major supermarkets / hypermarkets.

Here are some of the nutritional claims of dragon fruit :

The red flesh variety is believed to be rich in antioxidants.
The pitaya fruit is rich in vitamins.
The pitaya fruit helps the digestive process.
The pitaya fruit helps prevent colon cancer and diabetes.
The pitaya fruit helps to neutralize toxic substances such as heavy metal, reduce cholesterol levels and high blood pressure.
Consumed regularly the pitaya fruit can help against asthma and cough.

No. of times viewed = 273