What a Difference a Day Makes

I had a really good day yesterday.  I rarely feel productive and efficient, but yesterday, I really thought I had it all together.  I baked, entertained my kids, made 3 meals, and even worked on the shop.  

That feeling was sure fleeting because today was a hard day.  My little one came down with some sort of stomach bug and threw up 3 times in the morning, twice in the car, and has had diarrhea every 30 minutes.  To prevent a horrible diaper rash, I'm washing her toosh in the sink under warm water instead of with wipes.  While carrying her to the sink in her diaper, the diarrhea leaked onto my shirt.  Not complaining here, just stating facts.  

Today's definitely not running as smoothly as yesterday, but seriously, why should I ever expect the days to run smoothly?  Haha.  We will all survive and thank goodness for Disney movies.  It's been a difficult day, but not necessarily a bad one.  

Anyhow, I baked these cookies yesterday, with the help of my children, and I think they're really delicious.  You can't even tell that they're whole wheat!  They're whole wheat oatmeal chocolate chip raisin cookies and even my husband and children eat them.  My husband even said they were good.  So, if you want a healthier option with simple ingredients, try these!  I took the recipe from here and just added some raisins.  If you do bake them, let me know how they turn out! 

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!  For Valentine's Day, my son and I made pink heart rice krispies treats.  They actually came out more coral pink, but we had fun doing it!  You can find the recipe on the back of the box or on ricekrispies.com

our coral pink rice krispies treats.

first, you had 3 tbsp of butter or margarine.

melt the better in a large saucepan, and add a package of mini marshmallows.

it should look something like this, but probably not as deep of a pink. haha.

add 6 cups of rice krispies to the sauce in the saucepan and mix well.  then, spread the mixture evenly on a 15" long cookie sheet.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It would have been prettier if I could find clear plastic bags, but the store was out. Also, here's the winner of the giveaway!

Indigofera Beauty Expert, please contact me at revolvingstyles@gmail.com to claim your prize!  Thanks everyone for entering and I will have another giveaway in a couple of weeks.  Hope everyone felt loved today (and everyday). <3

Comfort Food On the Go - Korean Kimbap

I hate thinking of what to make for dinner and I know 99.9% of moms out there agree.  Often, I want to make something and I'm missing the one key ingredient, so I have to think of something else.  What's great about kimbap (gheem-bhop) is that there are so many different combinations of ingredients you can use to make this.  The other reason why I love kimbap is that it's so portable and easy to feed kids if you're going on a short outing.  My son LOVES this.  He actually says, "I love kimbap."

My recipe is what I grew up on and it's not the healthiest, but it's hearty and it tastes good.  This is my comfort food and actually my mom's recipe. Other popular ingredients you can use are spam, bulgogi, cucumber, spinach, carrots, artificial crab meat, and canned tuna. 

Here are the ingredients you need for my family's kimbap with some minor changes.  Makes 8 rolls:
4 hot dogs, pan fried after cut, or boiled
3 eggs beaten, then fried into a large circle
1 layer of fish cake (pan fried and cut into long slices)
8 slices of daikon (comes pre packaged in long slices, or you can slice them yourself)
1 cup of kimchi (chopped and washed)
6 cups of rice ( I miss brown and white)
8 sheets of kim (seaweed)
sesame oil
salt
pepper

eggs, hot dog, and fish cake, cut into long slices

i wash the kimchi and slice it so that my son can eat it without the kimbap being too spicy

First, I need to prepare the rice.  Because I have a pressure cooker, my brown rice comes out sticky.  To make kimbap, you need soft sticky rice and the rice has to be completely cooled.  I season the rice with about 3 tbsp. of sesame oil, and salt and pepper to taste.  I don't season the kim, so the rice needs to not be bland.

I place the kim on a flat surface and using my hands covered with plastic kitchen gloves, I spread about 3/4 cup of rice onto the kim, leaving about 1/2 border of kim without rice on it.  A bamboo rolling mat is helpful to put under the kim, but I don't have time for that, so I just make do and roll the kimbap myself. 

Next, leave about an inch space at the bottom and start piling your ingredients on top of and next to each other.  See the picture below for a better idea.

You could make it look prettier than I did, but whenever I make this, I'm working as fast as I can and presentation is not an issue, even if I know I'm going to blog about it. :P

Start rolling slowly.  I don't have any pictures of rolling, but this blog does a much better job of explaining and providing visuals, so take a look for some technical pointers. I just make sure that after each roll, I gently "massage" the kimbap to make sure it's keeping it's shape and that it's tight and packed. 

Afterwards, you can just eat it as a whole, or I like to slice the roll up, which makes it easier for Jonah to eat.

Enjoy!

Banana Zucchini Bread

Now that I have a spacious kitchen with stainless steel appliances, I find myself transforming into the domestic wife and mother I always knew I could be.  Also, since our family is trying to save more money, I really try not to waste food.  So, when I saw 3 overly ripe bananas on my fruit stand, instead of just letting them rot more before I threw them out because I was too grossed out to eat them, I decided to make bread.  Usually, I make just banana bread, but my intake of vegetables has been lacking, so I decided to add zucchini and it came out deliciously!

The recipe is originally for 2 dozen muffins, but I didn't have the patience to make muffins, having only one muffin pan, so I made 6 muffins and 1 loaf of bread from this recipe.

Here's the recipe- Adapted from Taste of Home:
4 eggs beaten
3 medium overly ripened bananas mashed (about 1-1 1/2 cups)
1 cup of shredded unpeeled zucchini
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt


Preheat your oven at 350 degrees.

1.  Line 2 muffin pans with paper liners and set aside (or you can be like me and make 6 muffins and 1 loaf of bread)
2. In a bowl, beat the eggs, then blend in sugar and oil.
3. Add the bananas to the egg mixture and mix well.
4. In a separate bowl, stir the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.  Then stir this into the egg mixture, little by little. 
5. Fold in the shredded zucchini until all combined.
6. Fill the muffin cups halfway and bake for 15 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.  For bread, bake for 40-50 minutes at 350, or until a tester comes out clean.
7.  Remove from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.

I accidentally underbaked my bread, which is why it kind of caved in the middle.  What, I'm just becoming domestic, so give me a break.  Anyhow, the bread was so good that even my 21 month old ate it, and he doesn't like bread. 

If anyone else has any other good bread recipes out there, please let me know!