Review of Karihome Goat's Milk sweeties

Don't get me wrong. I do not  feed my daughter sweets and I don't advocate giving sweets to such young tots anyway. In fact, when the promoter for this product kept trying to introduce this to me, I kept insisting that I don't give Alicia sweets.

It was only after she made herself clear that these weren't sweets that I stopped to listen. :P

These little 'sweeties' are made from goat's milk powder manufactured in NZ. The product itself however is made in Taiwan. Since it's goat milk, children allergic to cow's milk can safely take this product. :) In fact, this product can be consumed by babies above 7mths up to adults!

There are a total of 4 available flavours: original, strawberry, grape and yogurt. Alicia tried them all and the promoter recommended me the yogurt one so I decided to go with it.

There are approximately 150 pieces in each bottle and each bottle costs $14.60. Once opened, it has to be consumed in a month for best results. That means, Alicia has to eat at least 5 sweeties a day to finish up the bottle within a month.

That so far has proven to be very easy for Alicia. Every morning since Monday, she has been asking for her daily dose of 'sweeties' as part of breakfast. :) I hope she keeps up the good work! lol. Anyway, the directions on the can states 'take 3-10 sweeties per time'. I assume 'per time' means per day... otherwise the tot would finish up the bottle in a couple of days! :P

This product contains essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates and it has been enriched with iron and vitamin C. These sweeties are naturally rich in protein, calcium and vitamin A: everything that I feel that Alicia needs since she's quite fussy about her food and still refuses formula milk. Besides, since she doesn't take so well to yogurt, this new product that I've bought seems to be a perfect substitute and solution to my worries! :) No need for additional nutritional supplements!

There are a total of three different patterned sweeties: bear, elephant and bird/duck (can't really make out if it's a bird or duck! lol). My bottle predominantly features the elephant and the bird/duck seems to be rather rare.

This product is really worth a try, especially if your tot has already been introduced to sweets as this would be a great substitute.

Karihome Goat's Milk sweeties is available at supermarkets and pharmacies (I got mine at NTUC).

Review: Marks & Spencer's organic wholewheat animal pasta

Brand: Marks & Spencer

Origin: made and packed in Switzerland

Where to buy: Marks & Spencer

Product: organic wholewheat animal pasta

Weight: 250g

Note: contains wheat, gluten;

suitable for vegetarians

My friend passed me this pack of animal pasta for Alicia (hence I'm not sure about the cost) since she doesn't get a chance to cook for her daughter and I decided to let Alicia try it last night.

Cute little things

While all pastas are low in fat and good sources of complex carbohydrates, not all pastas are made equal and some pack more of a nutritional punch than others, particularly where fibre - which may help protect against heart disease - is concerned.

Marks & Spencer's organic wholewheat animal pasta is, I would say, in the league of the more nutritious pastas as it is made from organic durum wholewheat semolina.

All semolina, regardless of whether it is enriched, contains several important B vitamins. Durum semolina in particular is very high in protein for a grain product. Semolina contains no fat or cholesterol and is very low in sodium.

It is stated on the packaging to cook the pasta for 7-8 min but I cooked the pasta a couple minutes more than stated since after the instructed time, I found the pasta still rather hard.

As an adult not accustomed to the taste of durum wholewheat, I hardly found it palatable.

Luckily, I thought to myself, I had my trusty pasta sauce to go with it to cover the taste. :)

Alicia's verdict: it's FUN to eat it! She was busy trying to point out which animal she wanted to eat and we would name the animal and make the sound that animal makes together. Rather fun really. I was holding my breath throughout the time she took to chew and swallow that first animal pasta. Fortunately she finished it quickly and asked for more... phew.

The serving size stated on the packaging: 50g of uncooked pasta for a child, give more if your child has a hearty appetite. Not knowing what age 'child' meant in the packaging, I decided to go with less and I prepared 40g of it. She had a few animals left in the bowl after she decided she was done with dinner so I guess I can prepare the same amount next time... :)

The downside of the product I guess is that this is probably quite pricey, since it's from Marks & Spencers and it's organic food. But I'm not really sure. I'd say, if your child is fond of animals and is quite a fussy eater, perhaps spending a little more to have that element of fun during mealtime might be worthwhile. :) A little money to spare yourself from frustration during mealtimes - I think it's worth it!

Superfoods - Blueberries

Blueberries have been in season for the past few weeks and I got some since blueberries are known to be highly nutritious and have been even hailed as a superfood by some sources. Read here for more details.

Though hubby isn't very fond of them (I still make him eat them due to the health benefits) and Alicia isn't exactly crazy over them, I still grabbed two punnets last weekend and promised hubby that I'd be making a blueberry sauce to go with pancakes the next day for him. That blueberry sauce with pancakes has yet to materialise since on the day I bought the blueberries, I developed a low grade fever that night and so instead of waking up early to make the blueberry sauce with pancakes the next day, I woke up early to head to the clinic instead :(

Anyway, on days that Alicia takes too long to eat her lunch and has no time for veggies (erm, she still largely takes her dishes one by one rather than mixed), I make her eat some blueberries instead - and somehow that seems to move a whole lot faster than say, broccoli. :P Well, as long as she gets her balanced meal, I'm happy... :)

Grab some blueberries before they are out of season! :P

I'm sooo hoping to do that blueberry sauce one of these days!

New snack cum breakfast food

I finally convinced hubby to buy this pack of cereal for Alicia! He refused to buy it earlier as he just felt that she wouldn't like it and since it comes in such big packaging, he didn't want to land up with another type of food she refuses which we have to eat instead. Besides, it has happened one too many times that the super healthy food that I ask hubby to buy for Alicia tastes not just bland but awful. Hehe. I guess he's very wary these days of any smart-alecky ideas of mine. :P Oh well. Anyway, we even bought milk to go along with this cereal as we decided that both of us will eat it too!

And so, this morning, Alicia and I had this yummy breakfast food together. It's her first time having cow's milk and she's willing to eat the cereal together with the milk so I think it's quite a great leap forward. My fussy one has progressed much lately and I think I might just dedicate a post to her improved eating!

Anyway, the cereal tastes much much nicer than expected, probably because it's been lightly sweetened. Cute little Os which come in different colours due to the different types of grains are visually appealing too! Thumbs up for the Cheerios! :)

Whitebait Powder (銀魚粉)

I've been wanting to add ikan bilis powder to Alicia's porridge because it's supposed to be high in calcium. But I've always been wary of the saltiness of ikan bilis so I've been holding it off, even after she turned 1 year old. A couple of weeks back, my mother-in-law made a batch of coarsely ground ikan bilis powder for me to let Alicia try. I fed some to Alicia and she gave me the grossed out look. Hahaha... To be sure, I tried a second time and she gave me the same expression. Subsequent attempts to feed it to her failed. I didn't want to add it into the porridge immediately as I was afraid that she would dislike the new taste in the porridge and so I introduced it on its own first - I do this for all new foods since she was younger. This is to prevent unnecessary wastage, as if she disliked the new food, adding it to the porridge would mean that she would reject the whole bowl of porridge - that of course happened before so I'm just learning from experience and I just don't want history to repeat itself. :) Well, so I ate the ikan bilis powder myself since it was so coarsely ground - I thought it was quite tasty but nevertheless salty, even for an adult's tastebuds. Perhaps she wasn't used to the saltiness as she hardly eats anything salty! Haha...

Then one day, after reading and posting questions about ikan bilis powder on mummysg, a nutritionist who often posts replies there suggested making fresh whitebait powder instead of ikan bilis powder. Whitebait is known to be nutritious as it is high in calcium and iron. After asking around a bit more, I was quite certain that the fresh whitebait wasn't gonna turn out to be as salty as ikan bilis so I decided that I would buy it the next time I go pick up Alicia's cod from the fishmonger.

I finally bought the whitebait from the fishmonger yesterday when I went to pick up Alicia's cod. Actually, to be honest, it had already slipped my mind. Fortunately, the fishmonger had three packets of fresh whitebait on display and they caught my eye while I was checking out the prawns. These fresh whitebait are different from those dried whitebait purchased from dried goods stalls at the market. The dried ones are much saltier. Anyway, just to be sure, I double-checked with the fishmonger if the whitebait's salty and he reassured me that it was gonna be ok for Alicia's consumption.

After rinsing the whitebait, I fried them till they were dry. To be very sure that it was really dry, I toasted them in the oven till they were just crisp and not burnt. I offered Alicia one whitebait from the oven as she insisted on having one (she was hanging around me while I was busy in the kitchen) and she kinda liked it so I was quite encouraged by her response. I ate one and offered one to hubby too to check out the saltiness. We both agreed that it was mild and nothing like ikan bilis in terms of the saltiness. Haha. After toasting the whitebait, I proceeded to blend them into fine powder as I intend to add 1/2-1Tablespoon of it to her porridge in future.

Did she like the porridge with whitebait powder? YES! She finished her porridge in less than 5minutes yesterday! Hahaha.. maybe she was very hungry but well, at least she didn't reject the porridge with the new ingredient! She's quite a 'purist' with her food: she doesn't like me to mix her food together so I always have to feed her dish by dish and she eats her brown rice porridge (cooked with stock) on its own. So adding an extra ingredient into her porridge (which is soooo nutritious) and her acceptance of it just made my day!