Full Meal

A good potion of a yummy meal for me is this one.  There's fruit, veggies, and  meat in it.  What more can you ask for, right?  

Hubby and i are trying our best to be of best health because we want to be around for the kids and see them grow and have their own family. We ope that by showing them good example, they will also follow our footsteps of living healthy.

Molten Lava Cake

We got two coupons for free dessert from Eat and Park for our anniversary  so when we had our dinner there, we  got us  a molten lava  mini cake..  We  took it home  and our son  ate the ice cream and hubby ate the cake and put icing on top .  He let me tried it and I thought it was okay.  I am not fond of chocolate cake so it wasn't really what I prefer in a sweet treat.    

When we were in Korea, I fell in love with their cake because it always have  fresh  fruits as toppings.  

Number 1 Snack to Turn Colored Easter Boiled Eggs

When you have kids, chances are, you will always do coloring eggs during Easter time.  You would think that it will get old as they get older but no, they still love to do it every year.  Just ;ike my kids.

 So what do you do with the eggs after the holiday is over?  We turn us into deviled eggs.  It's one of my husband's favorite snacks.

 The kids love to prepare it too.  They can even make it without my help but of course, I am always there supervising cos if not, they would make a big mess for me to clean up, lol.

My father -in-law loves deviled eggs as well.  The good thing about this nutritious snack is, it's very easy to make them.

Easy Elegant Entertaining

I found these appetizer set and mozaik plates at the store we recently visited and bought them.  They were on sale and they are good to have for elegant entertaining.  Although I seldom host a party, this would be  a fun things to use  especially for the kids.  Coz you know, when you   incorporate a little fun into their food, they eat better.

 This kind of  appetizer set are usually around  Asian cuisine such as Korean and Japanese.  They usually serve side dishes and other   dips in them.

I love the 96-piece appetizer set.  

Berries Mixed Smoothie

Whenever we find  good deals on fruit, we  don't shy away from buying it because the kids love  fruits and I also love making smoothie.   They are healthy and delicious!

 Just look at this one, very refreshing and delicious!

It's  very pricey even at walmart but these ones we found at the strip district in Pittsburgh.  They were sold very cheap there.

 So glad we bought a lot! Who wouldn't want a glass of smoothie? Shadow Shots

Sweet Treat

We brought our son to the dentist last Friday because his tooth filling  fell out.  This is not the first that the tooth filling came out.  MY husband is getting frustrated  because he  said he never had a filling that would easily comes out.  Anyway, the dentist fixed it and my husband asked why  the filling  doesn't stay very long.  I was a  bit offended that the dentist told us that it could be  our diet or  dental hygiene that is causing it.  

To be honest, we  let our kids eat sweet treats once in a while but it is not an everyday thing at my house.  We only let them have some as a treat  or reward when they are doing something special at school.  Below are photos  of one of those days when we give them some  sweet treats.  We don't even buy chips and  sweets anymore, only occasion which is very seldom.

I don't know, my husband is thinking of switching to a different  provider.  We will see.

Cold Lunch for School

On cold lunches for school, I let my kids decide what they want to eat so I could prepare it early in the morning.  These are just some of the food they request some times.

They like eggs so I always incorporate veggies in it when I cook it.

My daughter love tomato salsa with green onions, soy sauce, and balsamic vinegar.

I used to use toothpick when I didn't have the lunch picks yet. For some reason, they love it when you put everything together in skewer type of this like this.

Anniversary Cake from Our Little Pastry Chef

Our daughter  baked us a cake for our anniversary.  I admire my  daughter's  passion in baking because I don't have it in me.  She work hard on this particular baking project, she said that it is a special one since it  was for our anniversary.

 I am deeply touched of her thoughtfulness.

 It turned out really well.  She even made  a homemade fondant/frosting.

 I asked her to give me the  recipe to this cake but she only watches  youtube video when she bakes so I can't really share it here.

 I love how colorful it was although it was a huge cake and we couldn't really eat them all.

 Even the dogs helped us ate this treat!

I told her that the next time, maybe she can use half of the ingredients that a recipe calls for so that, the  product she is making is not that  huge.  I don't like wasting food so every time, we throw something, I feel so bad.

Enjoyable School Lunch

Most of the Wednesdays, my kids doesn't want  the menu that the school serve so I usually make their lunch and bring it there since I am also on my volunteer duty for serving lunches on Wednesdays.

Visual appeal is really important when  preparing kids meal.  It makes them want to eat the food even more.

My daughter thought the word "enjoy" in the carrot slices is pretty neat.  She usually leave the  carrots out but  ever since I  make it fun to eat, everything is always  eaten.

Pesto Baked Chicken and Green Tomatoes

I picked all of the tomatoes from my garden because we been having  frost.  If they  ripen  up, it's good but if not, it's okay.   My husband loves fried green tomatoes but I want to try how it would taste like when I   marinate it in pesto and bake it.

I also pre-boiled  some chicken legs before marinating them in pesto.I use the Knorr pesto   mix sauce.
To make the sauce:

• Whisk sauce mix, 3/4 cup water, and 1/4 cup olive oil in a small sauce pan.
• Bring to a boil while stirring  constantly.
• Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes.

• When the pesto is done, just rub it in the chicken and green tomatoes.
• Let it sit for about 30 minutes and bake it  in 350 degrees heat for  30 minutes.

I also put some pesto sauce to the steamed mixed veggies  that I prepared.  

Just like  fried green onions, hubby also loved the baked ones with pesto.

The chicken absolutely tasted so good!

Tomato Soup

I picked all of the tomatoes in my garden.  There are so many greens but they are starting to ripen up now.  I have a medium sized basket full of ripe cherry tomatoes so I decided to make a tomato soup.  This is something that I have never made before but I am giving it a try  as I don't want to waste the tomatoes.

You need:

1 medium size white onion, diced
1 stick butter
2 quarts chopped cherry tomatoes
10 tablets of NuStevia sweetener (you can use sugar if you prefer)
3 chicken cubes
1 tsp of black pepper
1/4 cup  mirin, optional
1 1/2 cups half and half
1 tbsp dried  basil
1 tbsp parsley

3 quarts of water

Hawaiian Seasalt (to taste)

Crushed  Riceworks chips

Grated Cheese

Procedure:

• Put the chopped   tomatoes in the wok or pot.  Add the water.
• Add all the ingredients except the half and half  and let it  boil.  Lower the  heat to medium high and let it cook for   about one hour.  
• Using a spider skimmer or strainer, scoop up the tomatoes and put it in the blender as shown below.

• Blend it till everything turned into a sauce.

• Put the   tomato sauce back to the wok and let it cook for  another 30 minutes.  This time add the half and half.  When the  creamer is  incorporated,  cook for another 30 minutes in low heat.  The longer the soup cooks, the better.  .  

Serve it with crushed riceworks chips or any  kind of chips that you prefer.  Add some cheese and  fresh parsley.  Sliced french bread slightly toasted is so delicious to dip  in the soup.

The soup turned out really delicious!  I am planning to  make  some more  when the other tomatoes ripen up and freeze it so we will have some for the Winter.  

Fried Rice with Kimchi

This is what we had for dinner tonight.  Hubby love the fried rice with kimchi I made last night that he wanted to have some again tonight.  I have never  made fried rice with kimchi before but watching the Korean Food Made Simple hosted by Judy Joo in Cooking channel inspired me to try it.

We had fried rice, pork chops, steam veggies, and  meat loaf.  

This is hubby's plate.  I  gave him a little extra as he needs it.  

The fried rice has  garlic, shredded carrots and scallions seasoned with  soy sauce and steak seasoning.  You can also add eggs if you want to.  

Turkey Meatloaf

As you may have noticed, the price of the beef is  getting so expensive these days.  We  replaced ground beef with ground turkey because of the price.  It's not as good as the beef but her, you have to do what you have to do to  make your budget fits  right?  Anyway, I made  this meatloaf out of ground turkey.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• Seasoning mix or you can add your own spices (onion, paprika, black pepper, celery seed, salt, and garlic)

Procedure:

• Mix all the ingredients except ketchup in a large bowl.  Shape meat mixture into a loaf.  Place in a baking pan. Top  with ketchup.
• Bake in pre-heated  350 degrees  oven for an hour until cooked through.

It tasted really good but it didn't hold up like  a ground beef would.  It was kind of soft but it is all good since it tasted good anyway.  

No-Bake Energy Snacks

I was blog hopping  last night and saw this simple  recipe of no-bake peanut butter  energy snacks.  I thought of trying it but I did not have peanut so I used the left over  trail mix that we have in the kitchen. 

 Here's what you need:

2 cups quick oats
1 cup trail mix (with almonds, raisin, and cranberries).

1 tsp sesame seeds

1 tsp M&Ms
3 tbsp butter
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparations:
In a bowl, mix together oats and trail mix.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. 

• Add the  honey and brown sugar and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil and stir for 2 ½ minutes. Remove from the heat. 
• Stir in the peanut butter and vanilla until blended, then thoroughly mix in the oat mixture.

Spread the mixture evenly in a greased container.

Allow to set before cutting and serving. It tastes so good and I will be  putting a slice or two of these in my husband's lunch tomorrow.  You can try making it, it is quick and very easy to make.