Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.
Dr. Seuss
Happy Anniversary to ME!
Today marks my 1 year blogiversary! I can’t believe a year went by so quickly… and so slowly LOL.
Obviously this year held a lot of milestones, events, happiness and a whole lot of sadness. This year was a year of good eats and family.
2 years ago my Mom started really pushing me to write a blog. She would tell me to stop talking and start writing! She also told me to stop making her laugh because she kept on peeing a little LOL… she would be mad at me for saying that J
The point is, she thought I was funny. I made her laugh… A LOT! So I began writing down my experiences, my thoughts, my recipes, our crafts and activities. It became a great way to chronicle our life (Ninja and I), the girl’s lives and all of the fun stuff in between J.
At first I didn’t tell anyone about HoneyBears & SydneyBeans. After a while I let a few people in on my secret and my Mom and sister were my only followers. After Mom died the councilor told me to keep writing… maybe something would come out because every time I cried I kept saying sorry. I felt like I was letting people down if I didn’t stay strong.
So I began typing. Sometimes I am funny, sometimes I am mad, sometimes I have yummy recipes, sometimes I have dismal kitchen FLOPS! Sometimes I have crafts, sometimes I am tired and sometimes I am bragging about my awesome kids and amazing husband J
But, mostly I am just typing my thoughts, hoping that I am making my Mom proud. Hoping that at some point I will wrap my head around this past year’s events. Hoping that the more I type the more I will figure out how to be a better mom, wife, daughter, sister, and friend. Hoping that someday what I really feel deep down will just fly out of the tips of my fingers and I will finally breathe a sigh of relief…. Ahhhh.
On that note, this year will be different because now I will have had a year under my belt. Meaning, I did Chinese New Year, last year! So this year I can go back compare and even try to outdo myself LOL.
This year we may have done just that!
Yesterday I went for coffee with my BCBestie. We tried a different coffee shop that had the best blueberry muffin! SBean sucked out each blueberry and went “Mmmmmm” LOL
She also let us borrow her little car. SBean LOVES it!!!!
After I came home and started a few dinner things
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| All ready to go! |
and then it was off to HBear’s school for volunteer time J We made Holiday Fried Rice in class yesterday! All the kids tried it except for 3 of them! I think that is pretty good considering there were peas, peppers and brown rice in it! I like those things now but not so much when I was 5 LOL
Actually it amazes me that on Thursday, when I did Hot Lunch at her school, it was sushi day, how many kids got rice bowls and SUSHI! No way would I have had sushi at 5, some kids even asked for chopsticks! I love that kids are so daring and willing to try new things! I especially love that our school is open to different things, not just pizza and hotdogs J
So after school HBear and I ran to the store to buy her friend a birthday gift. She had a party today. Then we picked up Ninja, SBean and my Dad and we were quickly off to Grandma and Grandpa’s for Chinese New Year!
They had the diningroom decorated and lucky red all over. I typed out our fortunes for this year, the Horse!
They made FRIED RICE, SWEET AND SOUR PORK and CHICKEN with VEGETABLES and CRISPY NOODLES.
I made springrolls, Mongolian beef and Vegetable stirfry. It was pretty awesome!
Spring Rolls
Adapted from Food Before 5
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp grated ginger
1 package Turkey Daystarters, squeezed
¾ bag of broccoli slaw
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
½ cup water
2 tsp sugar
½ pack thin vermicelli noodles
13 rice spring roll wrappers
sweet chili sauce for dipping
Spray a large pan with oil. Over high heat, fry garlic, ginger & turkey until brown.
Add slaw. Fry for a few mins. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, water & sugar.
Break noodles & add them to mixture. Cook for 3 – 5 mins or until noodles are soft. Let mixture cool slightly.
Take spring roll sheet put it in a dish of warm water,
and place 2 spoons of mixture onto the lower part of the pastry. Fold bottom edge up, the right & left sides over & then roll up to form a cigar shape.
Line a large oven try with baking paper. Place spring rolls onto tray, cover with foil & refrigerate until required.
Preheat oven to 220.
Uncover spring rolls, lightly spray the spring rolls with oil & bake for 15 mins or until golden.
Serve with dipping sauce.
My Mom usually wrapped the springrolls LOL It was hard!! They looked terrible but tasted good J
Crockpot Mongolian Beef
Adapted from May it Please the Cook
1 1/2 pounds top sirloin steak, cut into stir fry sized strips
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
2 cloves garlic, pressed
3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup slaw
3 medium green onions, chopped
Coat steak pieces in cornstarch.
Add remainder of ingredients to crockpot and stir well to combine.
Place steak into the crockpot and cook on high for 2-3 hours or on low for 4-5 hours.
We even gave the girls lucky red envelopes! They each got $10!!! LOL HBear got hers in coins and bills as she is learning how to count money J
If you want to check out what we were doing last year for Chinese New Year’s go HERE.
So may I propose a toast… let me go pour myself some wine LOL
OK… I hope you poured yourself 1 too J
Cheers to another fun year of blogging!
Cheers to a lucky Year of the Horse!
Cheers to you for continuing to read and support me!
Cheers to Mom for pushing me to BE the woman I want to be, rather than the woman who just thinks about it!
Cheers to my kids for doing the most hilarious things and giving me such great material to blog about!
Cheers to Ninja for still being the man of my dreams even after all these years.
I am a lucky, grateful and inspired woman who can’t wait to share our adventures with you, my family and friends!
L-O-V-E
