Sweet Pea Journey

Family, Friendship, Food, Fun and Everything in Between!

Author: Sweet Pea

Life and random things

Earn It

One day, I was driving my kids somewhere, and my daughter saw a lady begging for money in the median. She asked, mommy, what is that lady doing? I replied, she is begging for money.

My daughter then asked why? She can work and make money, right? I looked over, the lady holding the sign was perfectly healthy looking, not thin, not big, got all her limbs, walking up and down the median with no difficulty. She is in her late 20’s or early 30’s. I was a little surprised about my daughter’s response, but quite proud of her.

Yes, I teach my kids, everyone should work for whatever they want. Nothing in life comes free, you want something, you need to earn it. Not hoping someone will give it to you, not ask for something because we think we are entitled to it.

Anyway, just a proud mama moment.

Life and random things

Mind Blown

My mind was blown away the other day, at a brunch place.

We are living in a time that cellphone is consuming everyone’s life and huge chunk of time every day. We see couples at a restaurant, on their own phone, without talking to each other much, we see teenagers typing away at dinner table not communicating with their parents, we see little kids sitting in their high chairs watching videos and parents having frustrated faces that they can’t get any attention from their kids.

However, today, it was totally opposite. And frankly, I felt quite annoyed by it.

At the table next to us, sat a family of 3. A middle-aged mom, dad and a teenage daughter, about 15 years old. Yes, a cellphone was being used pretty much the whole entire meal. But, it was the mom. Yes, the mom. No offense, probably the last person most of us would think to be using the cellphone the whole time. Her back was facing me, so I had a very clear view of her phone the entire time –  it was a game. Sad.

I kept looking over at that table, the girl was talking a lot, telling something to the parents, apparently something she was really excited about. Dad was paying attention to her, looking at her and responding. Mom had the phone up in her face, resting her elbows on the table, focusing on her game the entire time.

I almost felt ashamed, as a mom. I know it’s not me, but I felt that shame, a mom was doing this. I don’t mean dads should be doing this, or kids should be doing this. I am a strong believer that a cellphone is essential, sometimes can be life saving. But family time is so important, especially meal time. So many memories happen at dinner tables, stories told, love spread.

It’s been a couple of days since this happened, but the strong feeling stuck in my head, and I remember the girl looked at the mom while she was playing her game, I saw the disappointment in her eyes, that her mom wasn’t paying attention to what she was saying. I remember when I was a kid, the disappointment I had when my parents were too busy to pay attention to me. It happens to the best of us, regardless how much time we have, but at least, we can make sure we are not playing out little cellphone games at dinner tables when a teenager is happy telling us stories, don’t you agree?

Life and random things

Super Ready for Halloween

It’s over a month away, but Halloween spirit is in the air! Kids are both super excited, not a day passed by that they don’t tell me “I just can’t wait for Halloween!”

So here they are, all dressed up in their new costume, J wants to be a nice witch, Z wants to be Cat boy.

Now what am I going to be?

Kids and Parenting

Simple Joy

Kids don’t need to be over loaded with material, they crave our time and attention. I have to admit that before I went completely broke, I never truly understood that. I always wanted to get my kids more, get them better stuff, and I would feel bad if I couldn’t find that one thing they briefly mentioned one day to see their surprised face.

I have discovered the simple joy with kids, they are happy with anything. They are perfectly happy with a much smaller house, much more crammed room, less toys, as long as they have your attention and time. They are super happy to do arts and crafts with me, read books with me, learning spelling and doing math with me, taking a walk with the dogs, acting silly..

We went to a park, teased the ducks and turtles with feathers, and pretended to be little Indians, happy faces, happy day!

Yep, that’s big sister’s hair, pretending to be his mustache..

Life and random things

Rosie the Ape

We went to a good friend’s son’s birthday party. It was a blast! Kids also had a close encounter with Rosie, the 5-year-old ape.

And I learned something as well. Did you know the difference between an ape and a monkey? Monkeys have tails, apes don’t.

Life and random things

Happy Monday

Kids loved the double chocolate chip pumpkin cookies, so we made more for their school bus driver Mr. K and their teachers at school. Ms. C and Ms. R. Hope these cookies can put a smile on everyone’s face today.

 

Cooking

Double Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Spice Cookie – Just Because It’s 80 Degrees in Houston in September

Yep, we can’t wait till it’s officially fall! We are having some bad weather lately, tons of rain, dogs are wet, feet are wet, roads are slippery. But the good thing about it is, the rain brought back the dying lawn and the temperature dropped below 80 today! So, to celebrate comfortable jeans day, I made these amazing double chocolate chip pumpkin spice cookies (DCCPSC). These are kind of like a cross between a cookie and a cake, moist and soft in the center, a little crispy on the edges, the beauty of both worlds!

 

Ingredients:

2 1/4 c all purpose flower

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp pumpkin spice

1 tsp salt

2 sticks of butter, softened

3/4 c packed brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

3/4 c pumpkin puree

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup of dark chocolate chips

1 cup of white chocolate chips

 

Method:

Whisk first 4 ingredients in a smaller bowl. Cream butter and both white and brown sugar together with a hand mixer in a large bowl until it’s fluffy. Drop in egg and vanilla extract, mix until mixed. Add pumpkin puree and mix. Add flour mixture into pumpkin mixture in thirds. Mix on low speed to avoid getting yourself covered in flour. Mix until there is no flour visible. Dump all chocolate chips into the batter Use a spatula to fold chocolate chips into dough. Refrigerate batter for 30 minutes before baking.

Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Line a baking sheet (you will need 2 sheets and bake 2 batches, or take your time with 1 sheet and bake 4 batches) with silicone mat or parchment paper.

Use a scoop or two spoons to drop about 1 inch diameter dough onto lined cookie sheets. Bake for 12 minutes and let cool for a few minutes.

I am telling ya, your whole house will smell amazing! Make yourself some coffee or tea, sit back and enjoy!

Cooking

Pork Belly Street Ramen

Ramen noodle is my latest obsession, besides tacos, well, that’s another post, another day.

As usual, I had to put my own twist on it. I combined Chinese traditional Pork Belly stew and Ramen noodle, and tons of vegetables, the result? I couldn’t stop eating it!

Anyway, the main take-away here is, whatever your favorite food is, you can always make a street Ramen version of it, and make it healthy.

I made Chinese pork belly stew, simply because that’s one of the family top favorite. All the men in my household LOVE this dish. And of course, for ladies, I added tons of vegetables. All ingredients are laid out, plus bean sprouts in the bag.

I brought water to a boil and dumped Ramen from the bags into boiling water and immediately killed the heat. Lid on and soaked for about 3 minutes. I do not want to fully cook the Ramen and make it soggy, just want it soft enough and still a bit under cooked, because I have a bigger plan – I want my Ramen to fully cook in pork belly stew juices and soak up ALL the goodness flavors! Yep, genius, I know!

Stainless steel wok on high heat, oil in, 2 eggs cracked directly into wok, and stirred up with a spatula. I went in with all veggies at the same time and the sliced garlic. Order doesn’t matter much, since in my case, pretty much all vegetables I chose to use are quite hearty, nothing too delicate that needs to be separated. Well, except for bean sprouts, but that is ALWAYS the last thing going into the wok, after killing the heat.

I sprinkled salt and chicken bouillon on the vegetables and stir fried them for a couple of minutes until they are slightly softened. In goes the softened Ramen noodles. I used a large ladle, scooped pork belly stew with juices onto Ramen, oh yeah… just like that, don’t worry about getting too much juices, because there is still room in Ramen noodles to soak up more liquid, this is going to be amazing!

Use two spatulas if needed, stir the noodles and veggies and pork around, I pick up a bundle with 2 spatulas and put them to the other side of the wok and repeat, until the color of the pork stew juices is evenly distributed throughout the noodles, and everything is mixed up beautifully. Now, very important, taste for additional seasoning. I know my pork belly stew was perfect if I ate it like that, but because I used that as a flavoring for my Ramen and veggies, you never know if the flavor is still strong enough to flavor the whole wok of goodness. Add more soy sauce, oyster sauce and a splash of sesame oil if needed. Kill the heat and throw in the bean sprouts (to be honest with you, I forget it 50% of the time :p )

Dish up and enjoy, or eat straight out of the wok, I won’t judge!

 

Cooking

Breakfast Sandwich – The One You Will Keep Making

If you are like me, I have the least amount of breakfast ideas, compared to main dish and desserts. But this one, I promise, is a keeper, and you can make so many alternations to it and dress it up or down.

Ingredients:

2 English muffins, split and toasted / broiled, you can use whole wheat, for even healthier option

Half an avocado, smashed

2 slices of ripe tomato

2 slices of bacon, cut in half and cooked

2 eggs

2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

2 slices of provolone cheese

freshly ground pepper

 

Method:

In a dry pan, put grated Parmesan cheeses into 2 piles, lightly flatten out into discs, about 2 inch diameter each. Pan on medium heat, Parmesan will start bubbling and melt quickly. Crack an egg on each pile, poke yolk for quicker cooking, or leave yolk whole for runnier yolk for the sandwich. Don’t worry about the looks, mine happened to be one poked yolk, one whole yolk – perfection!

When egg white starts to set, gently tri-fold the Parmesan cheese over eggs, make it small enough to fit the sandwich. In the meantime, slice tomatoes and cut prepare avocado.

 

Once the English muffins are toasted to your liking, spread mashed avocado on the bottom halves and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper (I had to go fancy, and cracked the multi-color peppers on it). Top that with tomato slice, go shy than piling too much tomato, it will get watery and slippery for other toppings. Top tomato with toasted Parmesan wrapped eggs, then a slice of provolone, more cracked black pepper, bacon strips and cap it off with the English muffin top.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Life and random things

A Grown Man’s Tear

It’s been a few days since I saw this grown man wiping off his tears. A man in his late 40’s or early 50’s, at the gas station. A man who I have never met before, and probably will never meet again.

He was sitting in his incredibly beat-up maroon color SUV, and I mean it was probably worst looking vehicle that I have ever seen that is still on the road. Windshield cracked, head lights taped up, bumper falling off, very simply rigged up, paint peeling off, windows down, probably A/C isn’t working… a trailer was attached in the back, piled with all kinds of junk. A kennel caught my eye, 2 brown small dogs were inside the kennel with another brown dog stuffed animal inside. 2 larger dogs were in the back seat of the SUV, sticking their heads outside the window, panting. It was 95 degrees after all.

The man was sitting in his SUV, a big dude, you can tell by his face and shoulders. His arms were covered by tattoos, face was greasy and quite tanned. He was wearing a wife-beater navy blue shirt, the typical type of looks my parents would have told me to stay far away and never talk to.

We parked at the pump next to his. The whole time we were pumping gas, he sat in his SUV with all his windows down, staring into space. Not a sound was made, radio wasn’t on, he just sat there, and his dogs were also staying still. All I could hear was the dogs panting.

After we were done pumping gas, we pulled out the gas station. We were both quiet, I guess we were both thinking about that man. Within a minute, our vehicle made a sharp U-turn, my “pilot” said out of nowhere, “I need to turn around and give him some money. I just have the strong feeling he needs it way more than I do, and if I don’t, I will regret it!” I felt speechless. Even though I felt terrible seeing this total stranger at the gas station, I stopped at feeling bad for him. Granted I don’t have extra cash on hand to give away, but I didn’t really think about taking action to give him anything I could afford. A bottle of water, some food, anything. I stopped at feeling bad for him, like most people.

We parked at the same spot where we pumped gas, I could see that man through my window. He was still sitting still, staring into space, same position. My “pilot” went over and spoke to this man for a few seconds, gave him some money and came back. I saw that man immediately looked down, and started wiping his tears off his face. I wonder what was going through his head at that time.

We are too busy judging others by their looks, their clothes, their cars, their jobs or houses, we don’t know what others have gone through, what pain they have behind their bright smiles and Facebook-perfect lives. But one thing we could always do, is to be nice to others, give more than take, forgive more than holding grudge. Life is too short to be holding on trivial things.