Eat Fermented Food Everyday

Since I had a "relapse", I went through another round of tests last week. My infectious disease doctor was back from her vacation and saw me last Wednesday. Good thing I was feeling better and my pulmo also cleared me from pneumonia even though my chest x-ray was still hazy (more on that later). 

Anyway, I was luckily feeling better by Wednesday because my ID doctor said I may be confined again. Whatever it was that ailed my tummy again was gone from my system. I had slight fever also but paracetamol whisked it away. I wasn't given medication but was told to eat fermented food like atsara or kimchi to help rebuild my tummy's good bacteria. 

Homemade atsara :D

Good thing I like pickled veggies like atsara and I also like kimchi, so it wasn't hard for me to re-align my tummy. I also ate banana everyday to stabilize the potassium level in my blood since it was in low normal level. I actually felt much better after a few days of it and I'm now back to eating more seafood than meat. 

As for my lungs, I remember now why it was clear during my APE. I had been religiously using my spirometer for over a month before I did my APE. I will start doing that again since it's important to save the healthy part of my lungs. In the meantime, I'll keep eating fermented food everyday.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Made Atsara

I quickly looked at what I could do with the papaya we harvested from our tree. There were two and one was still green. We also got two small bell peppers and have a number of ginger in pots. I did a quick search and found out that I could actually make atsara from our harvest. 

I liked Chef Tatung's recipe since you actually cook the atsara. The other recipes I watched only poured boiling vinegar on the veggies. I figured the result would be tastier if I cooked the veggies together. The recipe was also on one of the first Simpol cookbooks, so I got to work last weekend.

Using the food processor was really helpful. I'm a klutz when it comes to using knives. I just cut the veggies and fed them to the food processor. Preparing everything took longer because I took videos, haha. It was easy to make and I'm glad I had everything on hand. Maybe next time I'll make more when we have a bigger harvest and I'll share it with friends. 

Full recipe: https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2026/01/recipes-for-my-son-homemade-atsara.html

Here's how I made it:

#BeKind #StaySafe