Tag Archives: Pets

Easy Healthy Recipes, Health Tips & Raves!, Lovin' for the Fur kids

Have Your Juice and Eat It Too!

October 14, 2014 Stephanie Carrington Leave a comment

From detoxing, cleansing or just to get that extra vitamin boost-juicing is all the rage these days! Almost everyone has some kind of juicing gadget at home or has heard of or tried some sort of juice detox. As I mentioned in my previous post….I tried two! :p

After my awesome cleanse experiences I decided to start juicing at home regularly…..until the day my juicer decided to clonk out on me. So my search in getting the best juicer in the market began! Apparently slow juicers are then best kind to get as it’s said that they provide you with more of the fruits and veggies that are juiced, providing you more flavour and most importantly, more vitamins and nutrients. But this comes with quite a hefty price tag! So I made sure I did ALL my research and trials, which took about a month, before heading out and finally settling on the one I got. I love my new juicer and I now juice almost everyday! 🙂

There’s so many different tasty combinations we can experiment with to ensure we get our daily recommended dose of fruits and veggies. The options are endless! Now, I don’t know about you but after juicing I feel if I had to throw the pulp away. Feels so wasteful! So I did some experimenting, as I do, and found a couple useful options when it comes to the pulp left over from juicing! Below are a couple recipes using leftover juice pulp. You can also freeze whatever pulp you don’t use for another time. Yay! No more wasting!!! 🙂

Vegetarian Lentil Chilli Soup

1 cup of juice pulp (mine was beetroot, celery, carrot, apple)
1 cup dried red lentil (thoroughly cleaned)
2.5-3 cups vegetable stock
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 chopped green chilli pepper
2 tablespoons chilli powder
1 chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic-minced
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon of coconut oil
pepper & salt to taste

Heat oil in a sauce pan and sauté onion until translucent
Add remainder of ingredients except salt and pepper and simmer for around 15 min or until lentils have softened
Add salt and pepper to taste
Dish up and serve with a dollop of greek yogurt

Lentil and Veggie Patties

1 cup of juice pulp
1 cup of cooked lentils
2 eggs
1 Tbs flaxseed meal
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs sesame oil
pepper to taste
chopped fresh coriander (optional)
1 Tbs of coconut oil

Mix all ingredients except coconut oil together in a large bowl and set aside for a few minutes
Heat coconut oil in pan and place a large spoonful of the patty mix onto the pan
Heat thoroughly on both sides (about 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown)
Repeat this with remainder of patty mix (makes around 5-6 patties depending on how big you make them)
Dish up and serve with a nice green salad or with a slice of cheese and have it as a burger! Yummy!!

You can even use the juice pulp as a treat for your fur kids. Cobey loves his with a bit of chlorella and a drizzle of flax oil! Yummy! 🙂

Lovin' for the Fur kids, News, Steph at work

APPAWS–Help Our Strays

April 24, 2014 Stephanie Carrington Leave a comment

Dogs have always been known as man’s best friend. Besides the obvious fact that they are irresistibly adorable and make for the perfect cuddle buddy, they are always there by our sides with unconditional love no matter what. They’re always the happiest to see us when we get home and somehow they seem to know exactly when we’re feeling blue and offer that extra bit of lovin to perk us back up. These furkids basically live their entire lives striving for our love and approval! To them, we ARE their lives……they live their whole lives for US!!!

Knowing this, I can’t fathom how and why someone could ever even have the thought of harming, abusing or abandoning puppies, dogs, or animals in general. Now, the purpose of this blog isn’t to blast, burn or make an attack against those sick, horrid individuals that are a total embarrassment to the human race. It’s absolutely repulsive to know that there will always be some sicko out there that is capable of doing such horrible things. Calling all dog and animal lovers out there-we can help put a stop to this! We can all take part in some way, big or small, to help raise awareness and lending a helping hand by either donating, volunteering or even offering a loving home to our furry friends.

Recently, the awesome folks from Running Into the Sun held an event called APPAWS, which was held on World Stray Animals Day and I had the great pleasure of being the host for the day. I had an absolute ball being surrounded by so many doggies, meeting fellow fur-parents and animal lovers. My little Cobey even came down to support! First time my little boy got to attend an event mommy was hosting. hehe! 😛

The day was filled with fun games and activities including music acts by Gentle Bones, Joie Tan, and Benjamin Kheng and Sandra Riley Tang from The Sam Willows; food drive by the official pet store Pet Lovers Centre; an adoption drive with 25 dogs looking for a loving home from the 5 Animal Welfare Groups-Causes for Animals (CAS), Exclusively Mongrels (EM), HOPE Dog Rescue (HOPE), Animal Lovers League (ALL), Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD); and even a fur-tastic fashion show where fashionable doggies got to strut their stuff with their humans.

There were also some tear jerking moments when we heard the stories of what some of the dogs went through and we even met a few of the ‘most improved’. I won’t lie….I did shed a few tears. Ok, maybe a lot. It was so sad to hear what these poor pooches had gone through yet so touching to see how even after all the abuse and neglect they are still able to have the love and trust in us, humans. It was a day filled with all kinds of emotions that’s for sure, but definitely a great way to open our eyes, give back, raise awareness and most importantly to help raise funds for our animal welfare groups who do such a great job in taking care of our strays.

The wonderful beneficiaries that were part of APPAWS were:

If you would like to help out in any way or feel you could offer these dogs a loving home please contact any of these groups. You can get more information on them by clicking on the names above. 😉

Oh! And guess what my fellow doggie lovers??!! THE dog whisperer himself will be here in Singapore!!! That’s right….Cesar Millan Live In Singapore 2014 will be happening on May 2nd! Yay! You can book your tickets on SISTIC now! 🙂

Lovin' for the Fur kids

Raw Munchies For Our Pooches!

March 9, 2013 Stephanie Carrington Leave a comment

We all know munching on fruits & veggies is the healthier and smarter choice when it comes to snacking. This doesn’t only go for us-our little furry companions benefit from snacking on fresh fruits and veggies as well! At the end of the day our pooches are an addition to our family so we should treat them with the same amount of love and care. So why not start with adjusting their diet?! Like us, our pooches may take awhile to adjust to healthier snacking, but it’s definitely worth a try. Fruits & veggies are a great alternative to biscuits and rawhides and can be greatly beneficial to their health!

Let me start by introducing you to my little fur child-Cobey! Cobey is a happy, energetic boy that LOVES his fruits and veggies! As a puppy, Cobey had a lot of health problems and scares, which is one of the reasons why I try to ensure his diet his healthy and that he obtains nutritional goodness foods. As a puppy, Cobey was quite the picky eater, which is quite common with puppies, but with persistence and several trials, Cobey slowly adjusted and now he loves his healthy goodness! 🙂

Raw fruits and veggies make a great healthy snack, but note they should just be given as snacks and not in large quantities. Here are a list of fruits and veggies all Cobey tested and approved that your pooches may like as well:

Cobey’s favorite veggies:

Carrots-Contain healthy antioxidants; high in fiber; great source of beta carotene and vitamin A
Celery-A natural diuretic so it’s great aid for the kidneys; an excellent source of vitamins B1, B2, B6 and C; rich supplies of potassium, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, sodium and plenty essential amino acids; high in fiber
Cucumber-Good source of potassium, magnesium; high in fiber; rich in vitamin A, B1, B6, C & D; due to the high water content, cucumbers help the kidneys
Broccoli-Is high in vitamin C and A; good source of calcium and folic acid; contains phytochemicals that help fight against some cancers; high in fiber
Daikon (unexpected but Cobey loves it so worth trying on your pooch)-High in vitamin C; natural diuretic so great for kidneys; contains antioxidants; high in fiber

Cobey’s favorite fruits…..

Apples (excluding pit, which is not good for dogs)-Contain phytonutrients which can help prevent cancers; great source of vitamins A and C; high in fibre
Watermelon-Very low in fat; high in electrolytes and water so great to keep him hydrated; great source of the antioxidant, lycopene and vitamin A
Pears (excluding pit/seeds)-Good source of vitamin C and K; high in antioxidants; high in fiber
Blueberries-Very high source of antioxidants and vitamin C

Now, not all fruits and veggies are good for our fur kids, as some can actually be toxic for their system. Here is a list of some that should be AVOIDED:

onion
garlic
grapes
tomatoes
avocados
mushrooms
pits of fruits

Like us, with a bit of effort and time our pets can live a healthy lifestyle as well. They may not be too keen at first but trust me….if you keep trying they may just give in and try it out.