Tag Archives: Family

Journey With Cookbooks #15

May 14, 2021 emily2jane Leave a comment

New recipe…

Creamy Ground Beef Pasta!!

Another google ground beef recipe. We still have a lot of ground beef to go. My mother can attest to it; she has seen the goods. 🤩

Do you notice the flowers in the background?

I was given anniversary flowers/ Mother’s Day flowers. The hubby did good!

Back to the food…

Looks so yummy!! I wish mine had looked like that…

Defrosting the beef…again imagine some calming music… Instead I had…

This is where I am at in my music from 10years ago…strange choices…

Browning the beef and cooking the curly-cue noodles!!

I tasted a few noodles just to make sure they were not poisonous. Not that I love noodles, but for the safety of my family 🤨

This recipe was not really what I expected. I grabbed the tomato sauce, but it didn’t really register in my mind. I thought this recipe was more of a cheesy Alfredo pasta…

I have gotten into the habit of trying to wash the dishes often throughout the day. Because then when it’s dinner time, all I have to do is dinner dishes. So I am probably in the kitchen, at the sink, about 70% of my day…

How could it be bad…? Three awesome ingredients will be added to meat. It already is delicious!

See how the google picture is so vibrant while mine is kind of boring. Probably because of the cheese type.

But it still tastes good. Yes. I tried it.

Have to have my healthy food… SALAD!! We also had some leftover Hawaiian rolls. It seems like I added a salad just for the refreshing green color. 😂

My food! I did not eat three Hawaiian rolls…I ate two though!

Overall another easy recipe. Especially since I got the ingredients measured out beforehand and I was able to just add as I needed. In total, it was only about 30min to make.

Look like picture: 6. The noodles are the same but the consistency and color are quite different. But I give it a 6 because compared to the photo only the color is different.

Taste: 8! A solid 8. Mostly because it was not what I expected. So my brain was a little shocked. Whereas the hubby and daughter loved it!! If you try this, there is a distinct tomato taste. Almost like a creamy tomato soup pasta. With meat. Can’t forget the meat!

Easiness: 10! Another easy, chill, calm recipe for a mom who is frazzled. I wasn’t frazzled today, but on a day where I am I will probably make this again.

So to sum this recipe up. Not what I expected. Still good however. And the family approved. So I’ll be adding it to my cookbook.

Thinking…I might make a secondary google inspired cookbook called: The Frazzled Mama. Then when I am uninspired to cook; I can find an easy recipe! 🤔 I like this plan!!

Enjoy!

Poetry, Reflections

Yellow!

May 13, 2021 emily2jane Leave a comment

You see me in the sunshine,

Especially in a sunset sky.

I sometimes peek through clouds,

Stretching to touch everywhere.

I shimmer around children’s smiles,

And even color their hair.

If you think of happy,

You will probably find me there.

…

Elizabeth’s outfit yesterday was my inspiration for the poem. Just a happy poem for a happy day.

Yesterday was the day to pick up Grandma!! So I decided Elizabeth would wear her new yellow dress.

I am so jealous because I love the color yellow, but I am unable to wear it.

But as I see Elizabeth in her dress, I think about a poetry book I used to read in my younger days…Ride A Purple Pelican. If you do not know this book, I definitely recommend it.

I sadly do not own it myself, but I will soon now that I remember.

Elizabeth is my very own Molly Day today. (Reference to the book)

Just a post of remembering memories. Watching my daughter’s childhood and remembering my own…❤️🌸

Have a great Thursday 🌼

Adventures, Reflections

My Garden This Year…!

May 7, 2021 emily2jane Leave a comment

Planting a garden here is difficult. If you live anywhere where it snows you understand. You have start your garden inside.

So I started with the green beans plants. I always put them in moist ziplock bags and hang them on windows. If you ever did that green bean science project in elementary school…that is what I do every March.

I forgot to take pictures, of course, because I didn’t think I would post this. But I did an entire package of bean seeds. So about sixty seeds.

But this post is about the transplanting from the starter seeding to the main pots. We were going to build big garden boxes this year but the snow would never go away, and the building materials have become unreasonably priced…so we opted for Home Depot buckets. Also for all my romaine lettuce, that I started from tiny seeds, I will be using various pot sizes that we already have. Because I originally planted seventy-two lettuce plants.

This is our potato plant. It’s our first year trying potatoes.

Back to the topic of transplanting…

Every water bottle has its own green bean plant. And my lettuce plants in the back look happy.

At this time I only have about fifty-six green bean plants. And some more will probably die after the moving of pots…

Well once I began, I realized I forgot to buy more soil, and Walmart is too far away to only spend about sixty dollars in soil. So I checked online to see difference of price.

Ace. Ace is closer and only two dollars more. Ace it is!

Elizabeth was helping me fill buckets. She will probably be bored soon.

They look so healthy!! But man does it take a lot of time.

We only have one tomato cage. So I am putting the big plants together. We will go buy some more at another time.

Do you see the roots…most of the plants were like this. It shows me that it needed to be transplanted maybe a week ago.

It’s about 12:30pm now so I have to feed my hungry thing…

Well I took a long lunch break. Elizabeth was over heated. She over heats if it is over 60 degrees outside. It was almost 80 today. So It’s 4pm now. I had to make sure Elizabeth was cooled off completely. She is watching a movie inside and I’m outside again with the baby monitor.

Since the lettuce plants are so fragile I just quickly finished. Everything is in its new pot and all watered!

Of course it is supposed to be cold and rainy tonight so I will have to put them back in the basement.

The transplanting was Saturday. Today this is a current photo.

Only five bean buckets survived and one lettuce bucket.

It is super tiny, but I have little green beans growing!! I feel like a proud mama of my baby plants. 😂

The potato plant is sad but still alive. The lettuce plants are still thriving. After moving pots, I’ve lost about ten more bean plants and about twenty lettuce plants. I don’t think the lettuce plants are too happy with the purple lighting. I think they prefer sunlight.

Hopefully the cold weather is gone and I can leave them outside soon… we shall see.

Enjoy your Friday!

Journey With Cookbooks, Reflections

Journey With Cookbooks #13

May 4, 2021 emily2jane Leave a comment

Mwahahahaha!

I have to admit. It is difficult to stay within just three cookbooks. There are only so many ground beef recipes…and we have a lot of ground beefs to go. So I turned to google again.

Looks easy. It says it takes a total 20min to make. 😎

So I guess I renounce my statement of number of cookbooks. But I will be continuing to share my cooking stories. Let’s begin.

Lots of chopped green onions. These are also from my indoor plant. So they are fresh!!

The longest part was defrosting the beef. I always forget hat it takes almost 30min to defrost.

Easy. Took the beef. Drain the fat, set aside.

Next I was to add all the other ingredients and let simmer. But I forgot to take a picture. But it was garlic, soy sauce, ginger powder, beef broth, various spices, and a whole cup of brown sugar…😳 but I realized why that much sugar later on…

The next step was to add watered cornstarch. I don’t use cornstarch. For no other reason than I never have any and I always forget to buy some. So instead you double the amount and use flour.

It will help thicken the beef mixture. The only difference between flour and cornstarch in sauces is cornstarch stirs in clear; while flour might be cloudy.

I’ve decided to listen through my iTunes music….it’s all the music I bought when I was a teenager…so most of it will probably be weird now…but maybe a few gems. Maybe…

As the meat is simmering for 8min you should also be cooking the noddles. It even suggested the spaghetti noodles. It was not a random decision. 🤓

The brown sugar is to glaze the noodles…🤔 ahhhh!

Hopefully it is good. It smells devine!

Finished!!

….Wow! It is delicious. Even the hubby said he thinks this is his new favorite ground beef noodle recipe. Mine too. I wish I could post the video of Elizabeth eating it….it is definitely her favorite too!

So…

Look Like Picture: Maybe an 8. Just because it looks like they used a different option on the noodles. The more authentic version. We might have to get some next time.

Taste: 10! 100% 10!!

Easiness: 10! Another put it all together and then enjoy! I sent this recipe to my family. It is definitely a dish my brothers and nephews would love.

Also…

The hubby made his chocolate chip cookies earlier so we already have dessert. It’s the normal nestle cookie recipe but somehow his cookies always come out amazing. One recipe I will not make; the hubby will always be in charge of chocolate chip cookies. And this time around he tried something new…

Nick’s friend gave us some fancy butter…if you love chocolate chip cookies, try making it with this butter….you will never be able to eat other cookies.

I’m usually good about not eating too many cookies… these ones I had 8 after dinner. I gained back all the weight I worked so hard to lose… 😩

Enjoy your night. I wish it to be filled with delicious food! But if it is filled with cookies…be strong…don’t eat too many! 🤣

Creativity, Life As A Mama

Life As A Mama #39

May 2, 2021 emily2jane Leave a comment

Just a nice day full of family time!

Since it was such a warm day…we walked to the store , Elizabeth and Daddy got ice cream. She got messy of course!
(Mine was at the house already.)

I asked for a smile and I got her go to expression…stick out tongue.

She asked for my sunglasses. She wanted to match daddy. 😂

Finish the happy day off with daddy, while watching the train fly by.❤️

It was a beautiful day. Hopefully more like that to come! Have a happy Sunday! 🤩

Creativity, Poetry

Oh well…

May 1, 2021 emily2jane 2 Comments

Happy.

Excited.

Wanting.

Smiles.

Shock.

Fear.

Anger.

Whining.

Screaming.

Tears.

…

Happy again.

…

Inspired by Elizabeth yesterday… It is finally warm outside so we decided to venture over and say hello to our new neighbors who moved in about one month ago. I asked Elizabeth and she said a very excited, “Yes!!”

Finally going to say something…I said, “Hi, finally we are able to come over and say hi…” then the water works and screaming began….

Sheesh…

At least the neighbors have two little kids so they understand, but that was really the worst kind of first impression ever…😓

We will try again another day. Hopefully it stays warm, so that it will be another day soon.

Oh, the emotional roller coaster of a two year old…

Journey With Cookbooks, Reflections

Journey With Cookbooks #12

April 29, 2021 emily2jane Leave a comment

So I choose a meat first. I decided on beef…but for some reason I was having trouble finding a simple ground beef recipe that we haven’t had yet in the cookbooks…

Nothing…maybe it was because I was uninspired but I found nothing…

Nothing…well that’s not completely true. I found a few in the casserole cookbook but none were sounding appetizing.

So I opted to one of my previous simple recipes…

It is a google recipe that I’ve edited, typed up, and printed into my goggle inspired cookbook.

So it says Korean…but since I didn’t have the right ingredients, when I first made it, I kind of Americanized it….so I apologize to the Koreans or foodies in the world that may cringe at some of my changes. Sorry. 😓

So first things first…defrost the beef…

It would take hours if I let it sit alone…so hot water, meet meat…

This is from the cow we bought…the meat doesn’t truly taste different to me, but when I cook it, it has a nice smell to it.

Funny story about our rice cooker. My brother didn’t end up wanting this rice cooker when he went back for his second year of college…so I took it. 🤓 And it still lives!! It’s about 4 years old. When it eventually dies I will be very sad…😞

Anyways back on topic. Rice is cooking!!

The sauce and meat cooking pan is prepared…

A little bit of olive oil and start cooking the meat. Just until no longer pink.

Can you guess what I decided to do while I waited for the meat to cook?

Get the dishes prepared for after dinner…🥸

It is not my blog unless doing dishes is mentioned at some point…

I decided to add my always green bean recipe. It’s not really a recipe…

You know when you cook something so often that you no longer measure…that would be my green beans. Some butter, green beans, some salt, a little pepper, a lite sprinkle of garlic powder…and a five finger pinch of brown sugar. Mix it up and let it simmer until you are done with everything else…

I changed my mind about the sauce…I wiped out the bit of fat at the bottom of the pan and added the sauce.

Yeah it means one more dish…but to be honest it was the same pot I used to boil Elizabeth’s noddles for Mac n cheese…so it was already used. Another confession…I just wiped it with a paper towel after lunch…But all it had was a couple stuck noodles. 🤪

Now I’m hungry. I wasn’t really hungry when I started. But now I’m a HUNGRY THING!!

We get a sushi rice. It’s the best! Costco!!

Green onions just add that extra yum! to certain foods. I usually add them to anything hat sounds remotely good.

I’ve been trying to be better at my rice consumption. I now measure out my rice. It also makes the plate look pretty and professional…but honestly it’s just for measuring purposes.

See this was a normal cooking process before I got the cookbooks. My google inspired cookbook is huge. I gave my siblings a copy for Christmas this last year.

Even though it’s a bit simple it was delicious!!

I guess I’ll rate them since this is a recipe after all…

Looks Like Picture: 10! I do remember the picture. It always looks the same.

Taste: 10! I always love this meal. It’s a little sweet, spicy, and salty. Everything you usually crave rolled into one recipe. In case you try it…if you do not like spicy don’t add the red pepper flakes. Or maybe just half… also my hubby wanted seconds but again I said no. Just because I knew ice cream was in the near future…

Easiness: 10! It’s pretty much an add everything together and wait. Also since I use a rice cooker it makes this meal extremely easy!

Also to give you an idea of amount of beef mixture it makes… I had about a small heaped 1/2 cup. The hubby…3/4 cup?? I think. And there probably 1 cup leftover. So for two people, it’s a one dinner and one lunch kind of meal.

Hopefully this recipe made you hungry. Usually I won’t post the recipe but since this one is a recipe I tweaked to work fo me I shared it.

Have a great dinner tonight!!

Creativity, Life As A Mama

Life As A Mama #38

April 26, 2021 emily2jane Leave a comment

Baby’s breakfast is prepared and looking yummy!!

Making our breakfasted has become just a routine…I can be done in less than 10min now. 😎 I decided to eat my peanut butter honey toast in the kitchen standing up.

As I finished my last bite…Elizabeth had finished hers…WOW!

She also…put her dishes in the sink and counter when she was done…

Now this I think is the biggest surprise for me…!

Like always doing the dishes after dinner. When a sudden, “Mama!” told me it must be that time.

Potty time!! When she was finally done going potty and ready to go back into the kitchen…I saw this…😳

Almost exactly the face I had after I saw this…I took a picture when it happened. Just because I knew this would be great comic content.

Elizabeth now clears her dishes and puts them in the dishwasher. 🥰 It’s so cute!! Also whenever we are watching a movie while eating out ice cream on the couch, she will take our bowls and spoons and put them in the sink. She takes care of mama! 😍

And I really shouldn’t be so shocked about the hubby doing the dishes…but it’s been almost four years since I saw that sight…

I guess… husbands in the world… if you want to confuse your wife do the dishes one night without saying anything… She, like me, will wonder if the world is ending.

Haha 😂 well enjoy your day!

Reflections

Sunday.

April 25, 2021 emily2jane 2 Comments

All day yesterday I thought it was Friday. I thought I would have one more day to pep myself up before going to church. But alas no…I woke up today, looked at my phone, and read Sunday.

Elizabeth will be happy. She loves going to church and greeting everyone. I just wish I had a day before being social to wake myself up.

So in my last post I said have a happy Friday…sorry to all of you…I have cut your weekend short.

Have a happy Sunday. I will try. The weather here is gloomy and gray.

I wonder is Spring will come this year…

So I’ll just say Elizabeth’s drawings is my Spring today…❤️