Surrey riding

We are spoiled in these parts to have glorious sunny weather almost year round; winter seems to make an appearance for but a few weeks. We enjoyed the February sun a couple of weeks ago at the beach. It was a bit too chilly to go in the water, but we rode a surrey that afternoon. It was so much fun because Serene was fascinated by the whole experience up front in the kid seat. Alex pedaled 98% of the time; the seat was too high for me to pedal well. I felt so bad but he was so gracious about it. As I look at these pictures, I feel like Serene is bigger now than she was in these pictures, even though these were taken only two weeks ago. She recently went through a growth spurt, and all of the sudden, she is more and more a little girl than a baby. She comprehends and learns new words every day. She understands there's a baby in my growing belly; she says hi to the baby while patting my belly with a smile. She is such a joy; we can't wait 'til her baby brother arrives so we have two little loves to love!

Our day on a plate

Breakfast: breakfast burrito comprising of scrambled eggs, sharp Cheddar, spinach, and avocado in a whole wheat and corn tortilla with pico de gallo and Greek yogurt on the side; cantaloupe.

Alex has been craving breakfast burritos, so we had them a couple of times that week. Serene and I had the breakfast burrito version pictured above, and Alex had one with bacon, without spinach, and topped with light sour cream instead of Greek yogurt. I like to use Greek yogurt in place of sour cream for whenever the occasion calls for it, but Alex is not (yet) convinced it is healthier and tastes the same. We were going to have tacos for dinner so making fresh pico de gallo made sense. All I put in the pico de gallo is chopped tomatoes, onions, cilantro, lime, sea salt, and freshly ground pepper, all according to taste. We're not really into spicy foods, so I don't ever really use jalepeños or chili peppers.
Lunch: zucchini fritters on a bed of spinach topped with avocado and a Greek yogurt sauce.

Zucchini squash was only 3 lbs/$1 at the local farmers market, so I didn't hesitate to pick some up. It's my second favorite veggie (after spinach), and I recently saw this zucchini fritters recipe that I wanted to try. I pretty much followed it but substituted whole wheat flour for flour in the fritters recipe and Greek yogurt for sour cream in the sauce. They were so yummy; Serene ate quite a few too! We topped them with the Greek yogurt sauce and fresh avocado. We like avocado on everything. Serene will hold out her food and say "peas" (please) to indicate that she wants more "avo" (avocado) on it.

Dinner: chicken tacos in corn tortillas with spinach, pico de gallo, sharp Cheddar, guacamole, and Greek yogurt; corn on the cob.

We had some church family over to plan an upcoming conference, so I decided to have a taco bar for dinner - easy for me, fun for guests, and tasty and healthy for all. Since I whipped up pico de gallo in the morning, all I had to do was prep and shred the chicken, make guacamole, and put all the other ingredients in bowls for self-serving. Another taco bar ingredient I included was hash browns because we love California-style burritos with hash browns or fries in them (totally not healthy, but so crispy and good!). Those disappeared by the time I took the picture above. Nevertheless, a friend said, "These are the cleanest tacos I've ever eaten." We also had an elote bar; most people love to slather a combination of butter, lime, mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, and chili powder on their corn on the cob for the Mexican-style street corn, but I like my corn on the cob plain. Now that I look through the food we ate on this day, I realize that we eat meals featuring a lot of recurring ingredients like spinach and avocado. They are frequent purchases during grocery store runs, and I tend to put them in almost everything we eat.

See other foods we eat on a typical day here.

Ushering in a new year

Yesterday commenced Chinese New Year, which makes me reminisce about past new years as a kiddo. We used to reunionize with all our relatives, eat a ton, dress up in new clothes, exchange red envelopes, and make merry. Lunar New Years as a child were noisy, festive hullaballoos that I look back at fondly. Fast forward to the present, and I've done a pretty poor job at exposing Serene to her culture. I'm Chinese and Alex is half Chinese/half Vietnamese, so Serene is 3/4 Chinese and 1/4 Vietnamese. Alex and I both suck at speaking Chinese and/or Vietnamese, so there is hardly any chance of Serene growing up bilingual. Her only opportunity of hearing the languages consistently is via her grandparents. I spoke Cantonese growing up and went to Chinese school to learn how to write and speak in Mandarin, but all of that is buried deep in my memory somewhere. I can hardly speak conversational Cantonese now and can understand Mandarin only a tiny bit. I now wish I had used it more often. Nevertheless, we're going to try to make Chinese New Year special for our kid(s). Serene wore a couple of traditional style garments for the occasion this year and we went to visit some family, eat dim sum, and usher in the new year. I also used to pass out red envelopes stuffed with traditional Chinese New Year strawberry candy to my classmates (and snuck in quarters to my best friends) in elementary school. I thought it would be fun for Serene to do the same with the kids in the children's program she attends at our church.

Daddy-daughter Valentine's date

When Alex and I were talking about what we'd do for Valentine's Day, we thought having Alex take Serene on a little daddy-daughter date would be sweet. Alex loved the idea; he often says that there ought not to be any boys in his little girl's life except for Jesus and her daddy. He listened to this hilarious parody of "Rude" months ago and has made a line from it ("Don't marry my girl...") his mantra. I'm guessing Serene's future suitors are going to have a hard time.

Alex was all set to win her heart last Friday afternoon. He came home early  to ask our little love to be his valentine with a handmade card. She loved it and clutched it the entire time. He requested that she wear her "My heart belongs to Daddy" shirt (which I found an a consignment sale for cents), and took her out for ice cream. They both love ice cream and it was a simple outing, but they both had so much fun. He took tons of pictures on his phone (a couple pictured above), and I love observing their daddy-daughter bond grow. It is so sweet! We're thinking little one-on-one dates with our kiddos will be a cherished tradition in the upcoming years.

A love-filled day

Hope you all had a loveliest of weekends celebrating the ones you love! We had a sweet and simple Valentine's Saturday. Alex left early in the morning for a meeting, so I woke up to his surprises: a rose on the dining table and messages scrawled on red hearts taped to the bathroom mirror (He later proudly credited Pinterest for the idea. "I have a Pinterest account, you know," he confessed). He also surprised our little love with a rose of her own. Since Serene has been fancying coloring lately, we gifted her with crayon gems not only because she makes our lives shine brighter, but also because I'd been eyeing them for months. She colored contentedly with the gems and with chalk while I made a heart-y breakfast for my loves who make life sweet. Alex came home for breakfast, and we just enjoyed one another's company the whole day, which I love! Alex and I were blessed to go on a date (all by ourselves! without the baby! well, except for the littler love in my womb) that night, thanks to the youth at our church. It was our first date in over a year; it felt so strange not to have to tend to a baby, but refreshing just to be able to focus on one another. So thankful for the reminder that we love because God first loved us in Jesus Christ. This truth really puts all of our earthly relationships in perspective. Grateful I get to share life with my forever valentine, loving our kiddos and others around us solely by His grace.

Our day on a plate

Breakfast: multigrain berry oatmeal with flaxseed and chia seeds, bananas, and frozen wild blueberries; dry roasted unsalted almonds.

I've been on an oatmeal kick. I like my oatmeal made with half soy milk and half water, sprinkled generously with seeds, and topped with fruit. Add a side of almonds, and I am good to go! I introduced oatmeal to Serene before she turned one, but she wasn't a fan of the texture. These days, she gobbles up oatmeal as quickly as I do, which makes me pretty happy.

Lunch: open-faced pesto, light mozzarella, romaine lettuce, spinach, tomato, cucumber, avocado, and alfalfa sprout sandwich on whole-wheat bread; blackberries and blueberries.

I love fresh veggie sandwiches, especially when there's a hefty bunch of alfalfa sprouts in it! Sprouts add the perfect crunch and texture to a sammie, I think. Whenever I happen to be eating at a deli, I'll always order their fresh veggie sandwich (if they have one). Yum. Serene had a variation of the sandwich with just pesto, light mozzarella, spinach, and avocado. We finished with tons of sweet blueberries and blackberries.

Afternoon Snack: almond butter "ice cream"; berry "ice cream."

I had a couple of overripe bananas so I decided to make "ice cream" out of them. The two scoops of ice cream pictured above are made with just two ingredients each! Just dice up the bananas into even-sized coins and freeze them overnight. The next day, throw the frozen banana slices into a food processor and whiz them up until you have the consistency of creamy ice cream. You can eat the banana ice cream plain, or toss in some toppings for different flavors. I added a dollop of unsalted almond butter to half of my banana ice cream, and some frozen berries to the other half. You can eat the ice cream right out of the food processor, but I think it tastes better (and more firm) after being put into an airtight container to freeze again until completely solid. Both the almond butter and berry "ice cream" were so yummy. Serene loved it too. I think she thought she was eating real ice cream. I had no qualms about her eating this kind since it's sugar-free, healthy, and so good for the body! I think this will be my go-to to-do for overripe bananas from now on. I'm looking forward to throwing in different ingredients next time.

Dinner: kung pao chicken with bell peppers, zucchini, and bok choy over brown rice; bean sprout banchan.

I wasn't keen on cooking an extensive meal this night since we scheduled an evening of visits with our neighbors, so I unearthed a bag of Trader Joe's kung pao chicken from the freezer. It's one of their westernized Chinese dishes that is convenient to have for a quick-I-don't-feel-like-cooking-much meal. I stir-fried the meat in a jiffy and added fresh bok choy, bell peppers, and zucchini to incorporate lots of veggies before tossing it in some soy ginger sauce and peanuts. We served it over steamy brown rice with, per Alex's request, some fried eggs on the side - which made it an ultimate comfort meal. I've been whipping up bean sprout banchan every week for the past three weeks adapted from this recipe. It's so good, simple to make, and stores in the fridge for an easy snack or side dish. I just blanch a pound of bean sprouts, chill it, and then mix in 1 tsp sea salt, 2 minced garlic cloves, a handful of chopped green onions, 1 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame seeds, 2 tsp sesame oil, and Japanese red pepper to taste. The bean sprout banchan gives a nice, refreshing crunch alongside the kung pao chicken.

See other foods we eat on a typical day here.