Camping with the cousins

Another first for H. Her first backyard camping, grilling smores in the firepit and seeing real life fireflies.

H had been asking us to go camping ever since we read Richard Scarry backyard camping story. My sis in law asked if we wanted to go camping in NJ, but my hubby is not a big fan of camping. So we settle by camping in the backyard. Hubby can sleep inside and the kids can sleep outside. Everyone happy. And so we did =).

Pitching the tent was a big family affair. H and A was busy *helping*. Once the tent is up, H and A were busy testing the sleep pad and enjoying the big backyard that we don't have at home.

Finally nite time!! R, my newphew, the B.I.G bro, showed H how to make fire. H was so proud being near such a *big* fire and passing along the sticks. She was sad when she burnt her first smores, but hey... second one was a success.

There was no time for scary story since everyone passed out really early from having too much fun during the day.

We did it again the next day and we grilled our u picks: Corns, eggplants, peppers, peaches... yummmm....

Nothing beats fun nite with cousins. Hands Down !! Thank you to R and my brother's family to make this such a fun FIRST CAMPING FOR H !

First 5K Color Run

We visited my brother in East Coast last week. My sister in law, the best travel planner on earth, scheduled our families to do the 5K Color Run together. I was skeptic at first because H did not even finish hiking 2 miles by herself earlier this summer. But I went with it anyway - it's all about the family time rite =P. And I am so glad I did.

H really enjoyed this 5K *Color Walk*. She was so happy racing with her cousin brother, rolling in the ground to cover her body with the colors, climbing the structures on the sides of the route and off course checking out other people's fun clothes. I vote for the brides with long tutu and colorful flower bouquet.

A was sleeping half way because he had to wake up at 6 am so we can leave the house at 6:30 am. Something that he never did even as a baby. He always wakes up after 7 am. But he happily walked the first 2K holding his uncle's, his auntie's, or my hands.

And to my surprise, my friends from Toronto joined us there too. Nothing beats familiar faces with purple and pink powders. What a great day !

So if you're ever thinking to do a color run with your preschooler, I'd say," JUST DO IT !" and if your sis in law says she will wear a tutu with you in the run, I'd say, "DON'T BELIEVE IT !"

Yogurt honey arugula salad - Nothing beats fresh cut arugula from the garden

Last weekend we celebrated our anniversary. I told my hubby that I want to have a date at home and so we did. It was the best date and anniversary dinner so far.

I dropped the kids at our friend's place while my hubby cleaned the house and cooked for me. He picked lettuce and arugula from our garden and made this salad. I LOVED IT ! First of all... if you've never eaten arugula fresh pick then you've never eaten arugula =P. With lettuce, I like that I get a fresh batch each time I pick from my garden. But with arugula, the taste is way different from what I get in the store. This is the first year we planted arugula and it was so easy to plant too.

I am not much of a salad eater, but I like this yogurt dressing. It's low fat, light, refreshing and so easy to make.

So I am sharing this idea with you. Maybe it's obvious for many people, but we never used yogurt for salad dressing before and we sure will continue to use it.

Veggies: Arugula, lettuce, red pepper, red onion, cucumber

Dressings:
- Low fat plain yogurt
- Honey to taste
- Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredient.

Sorry there is no exact measurement. This is my hubby cooking. He never use exact measurement.

And off course he cooked more stuff. But that's for another post. See you next time !

Coconut chocolate oat bite

Coco Oat Bite

Coco Choco Oat

Vegan. I am not a vegan, but I am trying to reduce processed food. This one is easy and my son loves it. So why not =?

Kid approved. My preschooler loves making this with me. Rolling the dough into a ball. It's almost like a play dough consistency - a bit stickier and chunkier.

You will like this if you like dates and you like chocolate. I happen to love both =). It's like chocolate bites but a bit sticky because it uses dates as opposed to sugar.

Hubby loves this for healthy energy breakfast.

Ingredients: 
- 1/2 cup of oat - ground until fine in food processor. You can also mix wheat germ in the oats if you want folic acid.
- 1/2 cup of pitted dates
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup of almond butter
- 2 - 4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup of shredded coconut or additional 4 tbsp of cocoa powder for dusting.

Instructions:
1. Ground oat in food processor until fine.
2. Add dates, cocoa powder, almond butter and vanilla extract in the food processor and ground them again.
3. Roll them into 1 - 2 tsp size ball.
4. Put the shredded coconut in a bowl. Lightly cover the chocolate bite with the coconut shred by rolling them in the bowl of coconut shred.
5. Refrigerate for at least 1 hr. Enjoy.

Homemade French Toast Challah

For those of you in Seattle area, you should try the French Toast Challah in Portage Bay Cafe. I love love love them so much.

Finally after seeing the recipe from Kudos Kitchen by Renee, I brave myself to make one this past weekend. I  must say I am proud of myself. The challah bread was easy to make and french toast is french toast. I just thawed berry mix from Costco to add to my french toast and voilaaa.... The only thing missing from the french toast is home made whip cream. There is always next time and there will be =). Yummm...

Avocado Butter Chocolate Cookie

No butter chocolate cookie

I love avocado. When I see a post that we can replace butter with avocado - I am super excited. Then I see a lot of post on using avocado as butter for chocolate cookie. That's IT !! I am doing it.

It's so easy and it's really yummy too. Proven by my kids (seen above enjoying the cookie) and my hubby.

I used the recipes from yummyeasyhealthy.com - minus the chocolate chips.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1⅓ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ⅓ cup coconut oil, melted
• ½ cup avocado, mashed or pureed in the food processor
• 3 egg whites
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a medium bowl, combine the flours, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a standing mixer bowl, blend the brown sugar and Truvia. Slowly beat in the coconut oil. Add in the mashed or blended avocado, egg whites, and vanilla. Blend on low speed until smooth.
3. Add the flour mixture and chocolate chips and blend on low speed until the dough is just combined. Dough will be crumbly. Refrigerate for about 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 300º F. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Roll the dough into small balls and place on cookie sheet. Flatten slightly and bake for 17-19 minutes (do not over bake!) Transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool. Enjoy!

Remlinger Farm

Summer is almost here! I am creating this year summer activity bucket list and cherishing what we did last summer.

As I go through my pics, I came across this one. We went to Remlinger Farm 2 years ago with a Groupon deal. This farm is definitely one of the biggest farm we've visited so far. Going with a 2.5 years old and 3 months old, we did not get a chance to do all of the attractions.

H was really into backhoe and transportation at that time so that's all we did. Haley really enjoys playing the manual backhoe. I don't think we've seen it in other places.

They also have petting zoo, but H was not really into petting at that time so we just stopped by. I did not recall seeing pony ride there, but I just saw it in their website now. Maybe it's new.

I love that they have food stand in the middle of the farm and that they have plenty of shaded area for me (mom carrying the baby) while dad is playing with the toddler. They also have a small farmer market section selling fruit and produce from their farm at the entrance.

Overall I think our kids was too small to fully enjoy this big farm at that time. I wonder maybe we should try this year since A and H are bigger now. I guess I'll watch out for Remlinger discount. What's your experience with Remlinger farm for 2 and 4 years old? Have you tried doing strawberry picking there?

Make your own pizza

Cooking pizza for kids

H loves pepperoni pizza and she had been asking for it many times. I thought why not make pizza with her. It's easy and fast enough that she can do it end to end. And it's FUN.

We tried it. We loved it. And we've been doing it together many times already. I even made H birthday party at our home as Make Your Own Pizza party.

The tips is to use tortilla as opposed to pizza dough because it is faster to bake so the kids don't have to wait a long time for their creation to get done. Plus we love the thin crispy pizza so tortilla is the thinnest you can get.

So here it is. Do you have other recipes that you love to cook with your kids?

Ingredients:
- Pepperoni (If you have a toddler, you may want to buy the small size pepperoni so they can eat it)
- Shredded cheese
- Tomato sauce
- Tortilla (I use the medium size to make it easier for the kids)
- Tomato sliced

Steps:

1. Me: Put each ingredients in bowl. Lay down the tortilla in a plate. Pre heat the oven to 400 F
2. Kids: Spread the tomato sauce. 
3. Kids: Put cheese on top
4. Kids: Decorate with pepperoni and tomato
5. Me: Bake it in oven for 12 mins.

Tiramisu Oat for breakfast? This overnight chocolate oat taste like one !

Tiramisu Overnight Oat

I love oatmeal, but not so for my hubby. I try the overnight oat because it is easy and I don't have to wait for it to cool down for my kids to eat; I mean it's the right temperature right of the bat.

To my surprise, my hubby also loves it. He actually begs me to make it almost daily, which I am happy to do. My daughter is also proud to *cook* healthy food for her dad.

I've seen so many overnight oat recipes with fruits online, but I am not a big fan of berries. So I use chocolate yogurt. Yes yes... some people may find that chocolate and yogurt do not match, but you gotta try this. Here it is our fave overnight oat recipe. What's yours?

Ingredients:
- 1 cup chocolate yogurt (I use Brown Cow). I tried using non fat yogurt but I find the result is not as smooth.
- 1/2 cup of oat or oat bran. My hubby likes it better with oat, but since oat bran has more fiber I sometimes mix them both.
- 2 tsp of chia seeds/wheat germ/flax seeds
- 2 tbsp milk

Steps:

1. Mix all ingredients in a glass jar. Stir well.
2. Refrigerate overnight.
3. Enjoy in the morning. Optional: My husband adds sliced almond in the morning before he eats it. 

Grow a grass head: *Gardening* for toddler/preschooler

Grass head 

H got this something similar to Grow-A-Pet Dog "Spike" from my sister in law last week. So perfect for her! She is such a nurturing girl (not sure where she gets that gene from). She loves watering our plants outside everyday. Our lettuce has been growing well because of her too. But lettuce, bulbs and others takes time to grow.

This grass head toy is so easy and perfect for toddler and preschooler. She watered it for two days and it's growing already. We did not even put it in a sunny location. You can see that she needs a hair cut by day 3 already, which is super awesome. Both H and A love scissor. I wish I had this a year back when H sneaked out and cut her own hair. Anyhow, the piggy got a hair cut from both H and A. And I think she LOVES her new hair cut.

Coconut crepes with blueberry fillings

Coconut crepe with blueberry yogurt

I saw a bag of coconut flour in Costco and I thought I should buy it. There must be a lot of Indonesian cakes recipe that use coconut flour. WRONG !!

So I searched for coconut flour recipes and I found this one from Kitchen Stewardship.
And I am hooked !

I am not doing gluten free diet and I don't like cherry so I modified it a bit. It is so yummy and easy to make. It tastes much better than regular crepes in my opinion especially if you love coconut smell. Top that with: My picky eater hubby loves it and it is LOW CARB - yayyyy !!! I've made it a couple times since.

Here is my modified version:

Made: 8 crepes (small ones - I would say for 2 adults)
Cooking time: 20 mins

Crepes:
- 2 eggs - put in warm water if you're just getting it out of fridge.
- 2 table spoons coconut oil coconut oil - melted
- 1 tbs maple syrup or agave
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 tbs coconut flour; sifted
- a pinch of cinnamon
- 1/3 cup of whole milk
- 1 tsp of vanilla

Filling
- 1 cup of yogurt (plain) or blueberry
- 1 tbsp of cream cheese (I use lowfat)
- 1/2 cup of frozen blue berries
- 2 tbsp of honey (if you use plain yogurt) - if you use blueberry yogurt then you don't need this

Steps for crepes:
1.  Whisk eggs, coconut oil, maple syrup, cinnamon, vanilla and salt. It's nice to have room temperature eggs, because coconut oil solidify fast so having a warmer egg will prevent that.
2. Add coconut flour and milk. Continue stirring until there is no big lumps.
3. Heat up small frying pan on medium heat. I use 8 - 10" non stick pan. I would say you have to use non stick pan because this batter breaks easily.
4. When hot, I scrape the left over coconut oil and brush it on the pan. Pour 1/4 cup of the batter and tilt the pan to spread out the batter.
5. Cook until dry (1 - 2 mins). Flip it for a short time (half a min).

Steps for filling:
1. Put all ingredients in blender.
2. Pour 2 - 3 tbs for each crepes. Fold the crepes. Enjoy...

For presentation, I sprinkle powder sugar on top, but honestly... it does not make a different. We ate ours without the powder sugar =).