Sweet Pea Journey

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

Author: Sweet Pea

Cooking

Struggle Feast

Yep, you are right! Struggle and feast do not go together. We are struggling, in the sense of packing, moving, unpacking, selling unwanted things, cleaning up, purchasing, coordinating services, deliveries.. we are combining 2 households, while working full time jobs.

It’s never easy, like my biggest struggle right now is, all my seasonings are somewhere in who knows which box that have not been moved over to the new address yet. All I got are some pots and pans, my instant pot and my trusty old slow cooker.

I got a freezer full of meats and nick nacks and my regular stuff in the fridge.. I am put to a true test to cook with what I have on hand. So, I made this pot roast with pickled jalapenos, olives and veggies, to top off our bowl of instant pot rice.

Ingredients:

  • 2 lb of chuck roast, still frozen
  • about 1 cup of pickled sliced jalapeno peppers, with about 1/2 cup of juice
  • 1 cup of pickled sliced jalapeno peppers, with about 1/2 cup of juice
  • 1/2 cup of juice
  • 1 cup of sliced green olives with juiceabout
  • 1 lb of brussel sprouts
  • 1 tomato
  • about 1 tsp salt

Method:

When I woke up in the morning, I put the frozen piece of roast into the slow cooker, dumped the jalapeno peppers and olives with juices on top. I put the slow cooker on low for 8 hours and moved on with my day.

When I came home from work in the evening, slow cooker already finished the cooking process and is on warm. I used 2 forks pulled apart the beef, it’s super tender at this point.

I used a pairing knife, halved the brussel sprouts, since I didn’t bring my cutting boards… and cut the tomato into pieces and drop them directly into the slow cooker. I put it on high for another 40 minutes.

In the mean time, I cooked rice in my instant pot, took no time at all.

Dinner is served, wasn’t really struggling at dinner time afterall.

Cooking

Texas Chili

Another struggle meal I made during this house moving transition. I chose the easiest and least equipment and seasoning required dishes, and try to use up our freezer supply. The results are awesome!

Ingredients:

  • 2 ground bison. It came in a square vacuum sealed bag
  • 1 lb of ground pork, I like it to provide a bit fat since bison is so lean
  • 1 14 oz can of tomato sauce, yep, I got a can opener from a dollar store, since I still couldn’t locate mine
  • 1 can of red beans
  • 1 can of northern beans, feel free to substitute any canned beans with whatever you got on hand
  • 1 TBSP red chili flakes
  • 2 TBSP masa for thickening the chili, totally optional
  • 3 TBSP pre-made chili seasoning, yep this is a wonderful thing to keep on hand, use it to season everything during a move, for example…

Method:

In a dry, high sides dutch oven, or any heavy bottom pot with a lid, brown bison meat and pork until separated and light brown color, on medium high heat. Keep browning for a few more minutes until all the liquid evaporates, about 5 more minutes. Keep moving the meats around and break up any large lumps so they don’t burn.

Notice I did not add any oil into the pan, there is no point adding oil up front and then drain the fat out. I just let the meat cook in its own juices and release any fat. Because I am using bison here, I didn’t end up with any fat that I needed to drain at all, score!

Add the pre-made chili seasoning, stir and evenly distribute seasoning to coat each piece of meat. Add the can of tomato sauce and fill the tomato sauce can with water and add it into the pot too, don’t waste anything. Add chili flakes, however much to your liking, or none. 

Stir the meat sauce, bring it to a rapid boil – this is where the high sides coming in handy, no one wants to clean up the stove after a giant pot of chili splatter everywhere. Lower heat to low, lid on and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

Add beans to chili and stir to combine. Bring chili up to a boil again, and mix masa in enough cold water to dissolve and pour into chili mixture if used. Mix well and lower heat to low and simmer for another 45 minutes to an hour, make sure to stir occasionally to ensure nothing sticks to the bottom and burns. 

Top it with some green onions or cilantro, top white rice with home made chili and enjoy! 

Cooking

Little Smokies Breakfast Tacos

This is such a quick, easy, tasty on-the-go breakfast idea for little ones, of course, I wouldn’t miss this opportunity to indulge one myself 🙂

Ingredients:

  • 5 organic free range eggs I got from a friend at work, her sister’s farm got fresh farm eggs!
  • 10 little smokie sausage links, I used all beef kind
  • 5 cook-at-home tortillas, nowadays you can get these from major grocery stores, in the refrigerated area, next to cheeses
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • dash of sriracha to taste

Method:

Crack the eggs into a bowl and lightly beat them with a fork, add salt and pepper to taste. Go a bit easier on salt than you would normally, since the little smokies are quite salty themselves.

Heat up a medium non-stick pan on medium heat, cook the tortillas per instructions on the package. Set them aside. I tore 5 pieces of foil, since this is our on-the-go breakfast, I got the packaging ready. So I kept 1 piece of foil on the cutting board and laid the cooked tortilla on top, and laid the rest of the foil sheets on top to keep the tortillas warm while I prepare the filling.

While the tortillas are cooking, I used the waiting time to slice the little smokies into smaller chunks, easier to wrap and eat. Once all the tortillas are done, I threw the little smokie pieces into the same pan, without adding any oil. The sausages immediately started to sizzle, what amazing smell and sound in the morning! I let the little smokies sit in the pan for a minute and let them caramelize a bit before I moved them around in the pan with a spatula. 

Once the sausages are warmed through, I poured the beaten eggs into the pan and let it sit for about 30 seconds. Then I started scrambling the eggs, along with the sausages. The juices coming out of the sauces infuses the eggs as they moved around in the pan. It only takes a minute or so for the eggs to be cooked through.

Kill the heat, spread the 5 foil sheets on the counter, with 1 tortilla on top of each foil. Evenly divide egg and sausages on the tortillas. Squirt sriracha sauce as you wish and wrap the tortillas up in the foils. Breakfast on-the-go is done!

Cooking

Super flavorful Edamame

This is an all-time family favorite, as an appetizer or a snack. It’s high in protein, fiber, great to keep little ones busy and build healthy-eating habits, and improve hand-eye coordination. Yep, sometimes, the little soy beans are hard to catch!

Ingredients:

  • 1 bag of frozen or fresh (if you can find them) edamame in shells.
  • 1 tsp salt, or more to taste
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 2 star anise
  • 1 small handful (about 1 TBSP) Sichuan pepper corn, if you don’t have these, use black pepper corns. White ones are too mild for this recipe

Method:

Add the seasoning to a medium pot of water and bring it to a boil. You want to add the seasonings first so that they have a bit longer time to release the flavor into the boiling water.

Add the bag of edamame into the pot, and follow the directions to cook, or boil them for a good 5 minutes.

Kill the heat, leave the edamame in the cooking water with lid on to naturally cool down, this is important as well, so the soy beans have a chance to absorb all the flavors.

Use a slotted spoon, fish out all the edamame onto the plate, I don’t stress about the seasonings come onto the plate, but if you do, by all means, take them out, or before you put them into the pot, use a little cheese cloth pouch to enclose all the seasonings for easier removal at the end.

I let my daughter taste a couple Sichuan pepper corns when she was eating the edamame, she was excited to learn that they give a nice numbing sensation in her mouth. Kids learn to appreciate every little ingredients in their food and this helps them to learn new things and try new ideas rather than stick to what they know.

Cooking

Home Remedy – Cold and Sore Throat

The weather was a bit nuts for the past couple of weeks here in Houston. A lot of people, especially kids was feeling down, sore throats, or catching cold. I made this super delicious tea for the family. Kids love it, thinking they are getting a treat, husband and I enjoyed it cup after cup.

Ingredients:

  • a large knob of fresh ginger, about 1 inch long, thinly sliced
  • 3 oranges, peeled, only using the peels in this recipe, so feel free to eat the oranges or use them for other recipes and take in more vitamin C
  • 1 TBSP ground turmeric
  • 1 stick of cinnamon
  • 2 bags of pepper mint tea

Method:

Put all ingredients into a medium pot, put in about 8 cups of water, enough to cover all ingredients. Bring it up to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer for a good 10 minutes.

Be careful, since turmeric tends to boil over, so keep a close eye on it when it’s boiling before lowering the heat. Then kill the heat, leave the lid on, and let it cool to be able to enjoy it. 

Pour over some raw honey as desired, and squirt in some fresh lemon juice. This is a powerful cup of tea that would make you feel way better in no time and help you fight cold and sore throat.

Cooking

Marbled Eggs

This is a staple snack in China, popular in many provinces. Or, you can turn these into healthy kid friendly breakfast on the go.

It’s essentially soy sauce, tea and spices infused hard boiled eggs. This simple process gives boring hard boiled eggs really nice and rich deep flavor and aroma, paint the eggs with this very artistic marble looking designs and it is so fun to look at and eat.
The making process is super easy, literally not much more than hard boiled eggs.

Ingredients:
8 free range eggs

1 cinnamon stick

2 or 3 star anise

2 bay leaves

1/4 cup of soy sauce

2 TBSP dark soy sauce for color

optional, 2 tea bags, any mild flavor kind, such as green tea, jasmine tea, black tea or red tea, I used earl grey, that’s what I had on hand.

Method:

Fill a pot with cold tap water and carefully put the eggs into the water. Ensure the water just cover eggs. Put the pot on the stove, on high heat, drop in all the spices and soy sauces.

Bring the pot to a boil, kill the heat, put the lid on and let the eggs sit for 10 minutes. 
Use 2 spoons, one to scoop up an egg from the liquid, use the back of the other spoon to lightly tap on the eggs and crack the shell. Rotate the egg until all sides of the shell is cracked. No need to hit hard, the goal is to crack the shell so the flavor and color can seep into the egg shell cracks and give the lovely marble design and the rich flavor to the eggs.

Once the egg is cracked all the way around, put it back into the broth. Repeat until all the eggs are cracked. Leave the eggs on the stove over night, or put in the fridge for up to 3 days. 

Peel the eggs and reveal the lovely color and enjoy this amazing treat for a snack or breakfast on the go!

Uncategorized

Book of Appreciation

I followed Oprah’s advice, started a book of appreciation.

This is not something I am doing for fun, I was truly touched by Oprah’s speech. Appreciation is such a powerful feeling, many great inspirational speakers emphasized and emphasized on it. Wayne Dyer said it really spot on, if we don’t have appreciation inside of us, we will never be happy human being. We will never be happy with what we have, and regardless how much we have, we will always want more and more and when we have what we thought would make us happy, our minds already moved onto the next target.

It will be a very sad life I reckon, if we don’t have any appreciation or not enough appreciation in our minds. I am very grateful I am not born that way, or perhaps, my loving parents taught me to be a happy grateful person and it started so early I don’t even remember. Most importantly, this is not something you keep on your tongue, action is the most important proof. I truly appreciate my parents, through the years, showed me how to appreciate every little thing in life, letting go, focus on what truly matters. I am beyond grateful for my family.

Hopefully one day, my kids will look back and say the same thing about their mom, that, will be my proud achievement of my life – be a great mother my kids will be proud of, be a great person, that when I am mentioned, people will have a smile on their face, saying she is a good person.

 

Sweet Kids

Uncategorized

Sweet Kids

My kids are so sweet. It’s been a bit hectic these days, but they are very well behaved. I am really amazed how much they have grown.

This morning, in the mist of our morning routine, making beds, brushing teeth, doing hair, feeding dogs, packing snack bags, making breakfast, my baby girl asked me to put on a origami tutorial video for her. “I finished everything I needed to do to be ready for school,” She said. I looked around, she really did, even had her shoes on.

I gladly searched origami tutorial for her and let her choose what she wanted to learn to make. Within 5 minutes, she called me, while I was brushing my son’s teeth. She gave me this, saying “mommy, I love you!” My silly son says “I love you too mommy!” while his mouth was foaming with tooth paste..

It melted my heart… I am so truly blessed to have such sweet and loving kids! Love them so much! Little moments like this is what I live for.

Cooking

Purple Sweet Potato Pie – Exotic

Yep, this is made with real purple sweet potatoes, no food coloring of any sort. If you haven’t tried these purple cuties, let me tell ya, they are so much better and tastier than their typical white or orange siblings. No marshmallows needed for this dessert! But if you just like some, no one will judge!

Ingredient

Ingredients:

2 medium size purple sweet potatoes. Youc an find these beauties in most Asian market, next to regular potatoes

1/3 cup of butter, softened

1/2 cup of white sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 tsp sweet potato pie seasoning, or 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon and 1/4 tsp of ground nutmeg

1 splash of vanilla

1 9in pie shell, I used a store bought graham cracker pie shell. You can use frozen or home made fresh pie shell, just prepare the pie shell per instruction or your recipe.

Method:

Cut sweet potatoes length wise into wedges, much easier to manage and much quicker to boil.

In a medium size soup pot, fill water to cover all sweet potatoes and bring it up to a boil and leave sweet potatoes in the boiling water for a good 10 minutes or so, until fork tender. In this step, the water will seem green or blue. This is normal, it’s the natural color from the sweet potatoes.

Once sweet potatoes are fork tender, drain and let cool in a bowl. When it’s cool enough to handle, carefully peel the outer layer off and discard skin.

Mash the sweet potatoes with a potato masher, or a fork until very smooth. This step requires quite a bit of muscles. Purple sweet potatoes are dryer than regular sweet potatoes, you are officially warned. But the effort is very well worth it, I promise. In the mean time, pre-heat oven to 425F.

In a separate large bowl, cream together the softened butter and white sugar with a hand blender. Add in eggs, one at a time, blend well. Add in seasoning and vanilla, blend well.

Add about 2 cups of mashed sweet potatoes into the mixture. Blend with the electric hand mixer for a good 2 minutes or so, or until the sweet potatoes are well mixed in and you have achieved smooth mush texture.

At this stage it will not look very purple, don’t worry, after baking the purple color will show. Pour sweet potato mixture into the pie shell and lightly tap the pie over the counter to smooth the top a bit prior to baking.

Bake the pie at 425F for 15 minutes and lower the heat to 350F. Bake for another 30 minutes or so.

Let the pie cool on the counter for about 15 minutes, cut it up and serve a wedge of this purple beauty.

Top with some marshmallows or whipped cream, or drizzle some caramel sauce of your liking… This slice of pie is so worth savoring with a cup of hot coffee. Your life will be in heaven.

Life and random things

Wake Up and Drive Your Boat

I have been listening to a lot of inspirational speeches, from Tony Robbins, to Mel Robbins, to Oprah Winfrey. Topics ranging from how to live in a beautiful state, to stop procrastination, to keep dreaming big, bigger than you think it is possible and be the best you could possibly be. I can’t deny the fact that every time, I listen to them, I feel pumped, feel what they say really resonated with what I believe all my life, but somehow, most of the time, for most of us anyway, there is always a disconnection between what we know we should do, and us actually taking any action or enough action to put ourselves to the work. There is always some sort of excuse why we don’t take actions we know will change our lives and inevitably, it pretty much always have something to do with past, with others, with why it is not something we can change.

Wayne Dyer has a famous quote about “wake up and drive your boat”. This metaphor is really about recognizing past is merely nothing but the marks of what has happened, recognizing what past is, and understanding past has nothing to do how you should proceed “now”. The quote goes like this:

One of my favorite metaphors illustrates the importance of recognizing the past for what it is. Imagine that you are on a boat headed north at around forty knots. As you stand on the stern, looking down into the water, three questions come to mind.

First, you ask yourself, What is the wake? The answer is that the wake is nothing more than the trail left behind.

The second question is, What is driving the ship? The answer is that the Present Moment Energy that you are generating through the engine is driving the ship.

Finally, you ask yourself the most important question: Is it possible for the wake to drive the ship? The answer is no, of course, for the wake is just a trail that is left behind. It can never drive the boat!

Now imagine that the boat is your life, and the wake is all the things that have happened in the past—what your body is like, what your parents were like, where you were in the birth order, how your mother treated you, whether your father was an alcoholic, and anything else.

Most people live with the illusion that their wakes are “driving” their lives—which is absolutely impossible. In order to nourish your soul, you must be able to “get out of the wake.”

It is so easy to blame others, blame the past, blame everything that’s out of our control that we are where we are and why we are not happy with anything. But all that is just us staring at the wake, and feeling like the victim of who knows what. We quite often lose ourselves in this kind of self pity and lose sight on where we are heading to, forgetting we are the ones controls the heading of our lives.

We, at the end of the day, are the director of our own movie. We, are the only ones responsible of our happiness. Tony Robbins encourages everyone to take control of our own mind, and “choose to live in a beautiful state”.

I am in, are you?