Bok Choy Recipe

Bok Choy, also known as White Cabbage or Chinese Cabbage, is full of amazing vitamins and nutrients...and it totally jumped into my cart last weekend!  This post is actually for my sister--I was just telling her how I was excited to try cooking it in a new way, and she asked what it was.  Well, here it is!

Quick Bok Choy

(because it might have taken 10 minutes to prepare!)

1- Chop the whole head of bok choy into pieces about 1" x 3" and leave it on your cutting board.

2- In a big frying pan, pour about 2-3 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons sesame ginger salad dressing, 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, and 2-3 tablespoons soy sauce.  Stir them together and bring to a light boil.

3- Add all the bok choy, mix it all together, put the lid on, set the heat to medium, and let it cook for 5-10 minutes.  You want the leafy green parts soft and the big white parts slightly crunchy.  You can always take a bite and see if you like it!  

I seriously love how it turned out!  My kids both tried it and Kaia ate about a 1/2 cup serving.  It was too hot when Harry tasted it (by the time it had cooled down he was done eating), but we had another 1-year old friend over who enjoyed several pieces.  

I also love to throw bok choy into stir-frys and soups, but I wait until 

Free Giveaway: Beyond Coastal Sunscreen Pack!

Our family loves to play outside!  Parks, playgrounds, pools, sandboxes, and garden hoses are quickly becoming our favorite fun activities.  Of course, since we live in Houston, we get the sunny heat for more than half the year...and we love it!  I snapped this picture the other day of the kids playing in the backyard.  I won't be surprised if Harry does the monkey bars before anyone else!  We spend at least an hour outside every day, and the sun is usually up well before 7:00 am!

Since our whole family loves to spend time outside and we are all pretty fair-skinned, I was thrilled for the chance to sample Beyond Coastal's sunscreen products!  I love that the products are all natural, contain no parabens or petroleum, and block both UVA and UVB ultraviolet rays.  Many sunscreens will block UVB, but not all will block UVA.  UVA may not give you a sunburn, but it does penetrate deep into the skin and may contribute to premature aging.  I also love that it includes natural ingredients like rose hip oil, green tea leaf extract, coconut and jojoba oil, vitamins, aloe vera, and more to nourish, repair, and hydrate the skin.

The sunscreens go on nice and thick, but absorb quickly.  I especially love the sunscreen chapstick!  I was able to sample five of their products in a Sun Care Pack, and I am happy to recommend them all!  Even more exciting, one lucky person will win the very same Sun Care Pack and get to try the amazing products pictured above!  Use the Rafflecopter Form below to enter this free giveaway!  Enter soon--the giveaway is open until midnight on Saturday, May 26th!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer:  Beyond Coastal provided products both for me to review and for this giveaway!  There was no other compensation provided.  All opinions are 100% mine, and I will never recommend something I don't love!  

Mother's Day Flowers!

I seriously love these flowers!  It makes me want to try growing tulips this winter!  

In real life, the blue flowers and vase are very clearly purple, but the light and the camera combined to make them look blue...and I'm okay with that!  They're gorgeous both ways!

A great big Happy Mother's Day to all you mother's out there...especially everyone who did not get a vacation yesterday!!  I hope you have a wonderful week!

Wordless Wednesday: CAR

 

 

 

A few notes:  

(I know, someday I'll have a "Wordless Wednesday" that really is wordless!)

* Harry began making car sounds almost a whole year before he began talking.  Anytime he gets in the car 30 seconds before I buckle him, he races to the front seat and starts "driving."

* This car is almost three decades old.  It is solid metal.  The steering wheel really steers, and the feet really pedal!

* We have it for sentimental reasons.  My husband has memories of driving it as a preschooler.  His uncle saved it for some time, and then he passed it on to us the summer after we married.

* I was not expecting my baby to drive it!  The car was sitting in the back of the garage when Harry spotted it.  He ran to it, yelling, "Car! Car! Car!"  He climbed in and tried to maneuver it around the garage.  Finally he called out, "Stuck!  Car!  Stuck!" in a pained and "I did the best I could" voice.  I lifted it out for him.

* He drove it around for well over half an hour, completely thrilled.  (In Harry's world, that might as well be eternity.)  After I had the camera out, he would occasionally look up and say, "Cheeeeeeese!" 

* He asks me to get it out for him frequently now.  When he says, "Peeeease!" and rubs his shirt (the sign for "Please") at the same time, I just have to help him.  He can be quite the charmer!

Update:  A Little More Info:

(Because maybe someday I'll print off this blog and it will be like a little family history scrapbook...wouldn't that be cool!)

During the last few days I've learned a few more things about this car and thought I should update this post!   It turns out that the car is over three decades old!  Jon's mom bought it used when Jon was little.  Their family loved it and then passed it on to their cousins, who also drove it a ton!  Their dad, Jon's uncle replaced the steering wheel and repainted it.  He also stored it until the summer after we married.

Harry Helps Cook!

Today's lunch might have cost about 60 cents more than necessary.  It's a good thing baking soda is so cheap!  It's amazing how happy Harry was with his box and measuring spoons...he hardly made a peep.  I couldn't help grabbing the camera.  When he saw me filming him, he said, "Cheese!"  I also love his other little comments!  If you want to make the video bigger, you can see the first one here and the second one here.

The pictures and video were all towards the beginning of his little...um...moment with the baking powder.  Luckily, I cleaned it up before anyone else could get stressed out by it!

Strawberry Syrup Recipe (in the microwave!)

We had french toast for dinner tonight, and Kaia wanted Strawberry Syrup to go with it.  Everyone was up for a little kitchen experiment, so I agreed to make some.  The stove was already covered with french toast-making, so it was going to have to happen in the microwave.  The best part was that Kaia actually made it all while I cut the greens off the strawberries!  It turned out so yummy that I wanted to save our little recipe!  So, here it is:

Microwave Strawberry Syrup Recipe

 Warning:  it is sweet, but the strawberry flavor is real!

• 1-pound bucket of strawberries
• about 2/3 a cup each of the following:  sugar, corn syrup, and water

1- Cut the greens off the strawberries and cut the strawberries in 4-6 pieces each.

2- Add the sugar, corn syrup, and water to the strawberries in a 2-quart microwaveable container.  Stir it all together and mash the strawberries a bit.

3- Cook in the microwave for 2 minutes.  Stir and mash one more time.  

4- Cook in the microwave for another 5 minutes.

You can put it in the refrigerator--it will thicken when it is cool, but we just ate it warm.  Mmmmm!

Here's To Kaia! (our new 5-year old!)

An Interview With a New 5-Year Old:

What is your favorite food?  Cheeseburgers

What is your least favorite food?   pickles

What's your favorite color?  Let me think...black, because it is inside of coloring books and I get to color it in!

What is your favorite place?  Chuck E Cheese!!!  (This became a theme during out little interview.)

What is your favorite thing to do with your family?  Play with them.

What is your favorite way to play with them?  Play at Chuck E Cheese!

What is your favorite toy?  Hmm....let me think...Baby Kaia.

What is your favorite game?  Hide N Seek.  I mean, not Hide N Seek.  Squirrel the Nut!

What makes you happy?  My family.

What makes you sad?  Getting hurt.

Do you get hurt a lot?  Yeah.

How do you get hurt?  Sometimes a friend...today, I hurt myself on the stairs.  

What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Swing!

What is your favorite movie?  Dora!

Do you have any other shows you like?  Strawberry Shortcake!  

What is your favorite song?  If You're Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands!

Any other songs you like?  Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog (sang the whole thing!)

What is your favorite animal?  Monkeys

What is your least favorite animal?  Giraffes...just kidding!  Fire ants.

What has been your favorite class?  DANCE!!

What is your favorite thing to do during School Time?  Learn stuff!!

What kind of stuff do you like to learn?  About new things!! and I do like to make magical sparkly explosions.  I love that!

Is there anything that scares you or makes you nervous?  Um...you know...it does make me nervous when it's like I'm all by myself.  

Does that happen a lot?  No, but it did happen to me one time.  Everyone else was outside and I was inside and I forgot that everyone was outside and it was very scary.  It was so scary I went upstairs and cried.  And Daddy came up and helped me feel better.

What is your favorite book?  It's called I See A Monster. (and she reads it herself too!)

Which do you like better, Valentines or Easter?  EASTER!!  I said, Easter!!

Why is that?  Because we get to do Easter Egg Hunts!  Do you know that?  You do.  That's why I like Easter more.

What's your favorite computer game?  Um...you know...I don't have any favorite computer game.  All of them are my favorite.

If you could go anywhere right now, where would you go?  To Chuck E. Cheese!

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A mom!  And I wish every day we could go to Chuck E. Cheese.  Ask me some wishing questions!  

What is your favorite wish?  Going to Chuck E. Cheese every day!

If you were a mom, what would you do better than your mom?  Clean the walls!  and I would have a different rule that you could run around at nap time.

What's your favorite treat?  Candy.

What's your favorite Disney Princess?  Cinderella.

Anything else?   No.  I just love being five.

Easter Fun!

I love Easter!  It's a wonderful time of year, and having kids makes it exciting on so many more levels!  Here's some of the fun we had this year:

 Everyone got to help decorate the cake!  Any guesses on who did what?

 We had so much fun with our treasure hunt on St. Patrick's Day that it only made sense to have the Easter Bunny leave a treasure hunt too!

  

Each egg in the hunt contained a clue and a puzzle piece.  After they put together the puzzle (a picture of Jesus I cut out from a church magazine), I gave them a final egg with the clue to their baskets.  

It's amazing how fast this can happen to the playroom!  And would you believe that that "grass" keeps escaping the vacuum!  We also have a few pictures from an Easter Egg Hunt the church put on for the kids.  

How was your Easter?  Kaia made an egg hunt for Jon and I, and I still have plans to color eggs this week--we can only have so much excitement each day!  

Wordless Wednesday: Kaia's Rainbow Birthday Celebration!

This little princess is now officially five and, in her words, she feels "so grown up!"  I have another post planned that's all about her, but I thought I should record her birthday celebration today.  Her actual birthday (April 1st) was on a Sunday, so we celebrated on Saturday, March 31...pretty much all day long!  She wanted a Rainbow Birthday with a Monkey Pinata, so we did our best to oblige.  At the end of the day, I asked her how her birthday had been and she said, "Wonderful!"  Yay!!  So, here are some snapshots from our festivities:

Balloon Garland.  I think her draw dropped when she saw this, lol!

She knew there were balloons, but there were a lot more when she woke up in the morning than when she went to bed!

Fizzing Rainbow Paint!

Watching a lizard eat a fly!

Obstacle Course Part 1!

Obstacle Course Part 2!

Obstacle Course Parts 3 & 4!  We left the obstacle course up, and the kids have been playing on it all week, too!

Piñata!

Cake!!

Doesn't she just look happy!!  Notice "Kaia" on the cake too!

Rainbow Cake rainbow!

  

Yes, we had our family dinner at Chuck E. Cheese.

She was pretty much in Heaven.

Happy 5th Birthday, Kaia!!  We love you!!

Fun at School

Last week we were lucky enough to get to pick Jon up from school while it was still daylight.  The kids had a ton of fun walking around the University of Houston, hanging out with their Dad, and enjoying the nice Springy weather.  I enjoyed it too--water always makes me happy and just walking with my family was wonderful.  It's simple, but it was a nice change of pace.  Sometimes those brief little moments are refreshing enough that even jumping back into the normal routine can be relaxing.