I'm back at churning out fruit smoothies for the girls again after a hiatus of more than half a year. Cass has been suffering from constipation for the past week, a side effect from the strong antibiotics administered to her intravenously and orally when she was admitted to the hospital for UTI three weeks ago. Initially she suffered from diarrhea, then I gave her probiotics and the diarrhea stopped but in came the constipation. This is the reason why I would never allow myself or the girls to be given oral antibiotics unless absolutely necessary in a do or die situation.
Dragon fruit, banana and apple smoothie.
The constipation was so bad that nothing seemed to work to jump start her defenseless lazy bowel. Not even enema. She was bloated and had no appetite. Strangely, she craved for instant oats with fresh milk, a comfort food that my mum would feed me with whenever I was sick when I was a girl. I also encouraged her to eat my skinny sugar-free yoghurt, which she surprisingly liked though it was sour. After several meals of organic oats with milk, smoothie, yoghurt and tummy massages (using peppermint essential oil), she finally made the dump, yay!!
There was a little drama surrounding the organic oats when I was about to prep some for Cass' lunch when she returned from school yesterday. When I opened a packet of organic oats that I bought yesterday morning from the pharmacy, a weevil crawled out and gave me a scare! The weevil, the size of a baby butterfly fluttered its wings and was about to fly away when I quickly yelled out to Cass to help me scoop it back into the packet of oats. Some of the oats had a layer of glue-like web and I think it must be the excrement from the weevil and its family. Imagine the weevil survived months inside the packet of oats all the way from New Zealand. Ewwwwww!! This made me convinced that the oats are genuinely organic as pests can survive in it for months. This is not the first time I find weevils in organic oats, rice and noodles. Later I brought the packet of oats back to the pharmacy for an exchange and the owner recommended a premium brand of oats to me, which costs double the price! On top of paying an additional RM5 for the premium oats, I had to pay RM1.50 for car park again, just to get the packet of oats exchanged. 😕
My packet of Signature Premium organic instant oats, steel cut from oat groats. I guess this should be free from pests as the oats have been steamed. The oats taste better than regular oats as they are roasted and have a distinct earthy aroma.
And if Cass is willing to eat oats regularly, I don't mind getting a premium brand with better quality. Oats are incredibly nutritious and chock-full of health benefits.
Our lunch at Seoul Korea again on Sunday - our all-time favorite and something that we will never get bored of.