Be Dedicated and Love Your Work

Qiutao Bei Lu, Hangzhou. Picture taken out the window of a taxi on the way to the textile market. Construction underway on other side of wall.

Child-Tested and Approved, Uber-Yummy and Healthy Recipes!

Say What?! An even healthier fresh salsa? Yes! This was DE-LISH-US! You could just eat it by itself with a spoon it's so good. And super rich in antioxidants and packed with nutrition. Try it for yourselves!

Fresh Salsa with Cucumber, Red Cabbage and Sprouted Alfalfa Seeds

3 Tomatoes, chopped

1 Cucumber, peeled and chopped

1/2 Onion, chopped

1/8 head of Red Cabbage, chopped

Sprouted Alfalfa seeds

Cilantro, chopped

Juice of 2 lemons

Garlic Salt to taste

Jalapeno or something for a kick. I didn’t have a hot pepper on hand so added Jalapeno juice from canned jalapenos. 

You won't be able to let it sit and marinate for a few hours before you eat it so beware. But it's of course even better the next day. 

Wholegrain Pasta with a Creamy Veggie Sauce

I love getting as much veggies into my diet as possible and love veggies prepared in all sorts of ways. But lets face it. It's not the most appetizing food to little ones for some reason. So this pasta sauce is a GOOD ONE! It was loved by the whole family, even my 22-month old. And I'm pretty sure no one knew they were eating eggplant and zucchini. Pureed veggies in sauces! I'm all about it. 

This pasta sauce used 5 cloves garlic, one eggplant,  one zucchini. 1/4 cup butter or oil. 1/3 cup wheat flour. Slab of cream cheese. Salt, pepper and maybe garlic salt. And parmesan.  Here in china zucchini is a very pale green color. If using the dark green kind then you may want to peel it so your kids won't say "ew" because the sauce will be green if peel is left on. And peel the eggplant too. Chop in big pieces. Saute garlic in a Tablespoon of oil. (I just smash with flat part of blade before. Makes it easy to peel them too.) Add veggies and cook until soft. Add water while cooking and steam them a bit. 

While water is boiling to cook your preferred pasta, make a rue in another pan with the 1/4 butter or oil and flour. Add whole milk or water to make a little bit of a white sauce. Not too much because the pureed veggies will be used to make the sauce. 

Puree veggies and garlic. I just use a blender and add water (I use the water that's been cooking the wholegrain pasta...) and add to rue. Add cream cheese if wished or whole milk or just water. I'm really flexible in my kitchen as you can see.

Add salt and pepper to taste. And garlic salt. Garnish with parmesan. I still offer vegetables that look like vegetables! Made for nice garnish as well here for this pasta. And ta-dah! It's a creamy sauce that uses a little bit of whole milk and or cream cheese and a whole lot of veggie! 

Dash and Chael on exercise equipment down the street. And rocking their cool faux hawks too! Did I tell you my little ones loved this meal pictured above? Yay! Success! 

Happy Birthday Brock!

The Big Six!
Here's his LEGO STORMTROOPER PINATA!

I used food boxes for the structure. Some traditional Chinese crackers came in the four used for arms and legs. The body was from a carton that 6 boxes of 1L milk came in. And the head was made from two cereal boxes and cut down to be the right height. I used a glue gun to glue it all together.  Filled the body, arms and legs with the goodies. (Hard candy is not the best thing for piñatas as they brake when being bashed in or when they hit the ground.) I then did a layer of paper mache using white paper. I used a paper towel roll for the "lego hands" and they turned out great! And for the feet too. Plus some paper plate to fill in on the top of bootie. Just cut down the middle and open up a little. I used a toilet paper roll for the small wrist part as well. I made it a smaller ring and glue gunned that piece to the "hand" and arm. I painted it white. Spray paint would have been great but don't have any so I just used a canvas gesso paint. And then I used both permanent marker and paint for the details. I used card stock for the face. I also put the string/rope through before I paper mached and painted. That was a good idea.

Lego Stormtrooper stood proud in our house for a few days before the big event where my hard work would bashed to smithereens. He was a proud piece of art in our home for those few days! Including when we had a bunch of people over for Chinese New Year and made Hot Pot and LOADS of dumplings. Day one was building the structure and doing the layer of paper mache. Day two was painting him white. Day three was the detail work. And ta-dah!

Brock was so excited! We packed Stormtrooper in the car along with a Star Wars cake and  presents (of course Star Wars toys!) and headed up to the natural Hot Springs 2-3 hours away where we stayed for two nights. Three other families joined us and it was a blast. There were 12 children at Brock's party after a full day of fun swimming in the Hot Springs. They each had four turns each hitting the piñata. Cami, a soft ball queen, did the final blow and candy went flying! Fun for all. Happy sixth birthday Brock!