Arianna's first hair cut

So today, I decided to cut Arianna's bangs. She doesn't like ponytails. Her bangs were poking her eyes and it irritates her. (fyi: We have daddy's permission. Well, daddy was the one who wanted it to be cut anyway).

Look how long her bangs were

Her bangs are not poking her eyes anymore.. =)

Courtesy of Mommy.

I love you baby Arianna.

Double Bs (Beef Broccoli)

I kept asking my husband if he liked the beef and broccoli I made for dinner. And he said "YES". I couldn't believe it! LOL. I asked him about 6 times and he told me that his mom would like it. =)
So here's how I cooked it. I tried my best to take notes and measure everything.

Beef and Broccoli

3/4-1 lb sirloin beef , thinly sliced across the grain
fresh broccoli
1- julienne cut carrot
2 cloves of garlic minced
cooking oil

Marinade:
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp chinese cooking wine
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/2 tbsp cornstarch

sauce:
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
about 1/4 cup beef stock
cornstarch diluted in water

Marinate the beef with the marinade ingredients. Make sure all the sliced beef are coated. Marinate for 15-30 minutes. Mix together the ingredients for the sauce except for the diluted cornstarch.
Heat the frying pan and put about 3 tbsp of oil. Fry the beef and make sure all the beef are laying flat on the surface of the frying pan. Fry it 1 minute on each side. Remove the beef and drain it on paper towels. Discard all the liquid left in the pan. Add 2 tbsp of oil. Sautee garlic. (be careful not to burn the garlic). Add broccoli and carrots.Stir fry for a couple of minutes. Add the beef stock, cover and let the vegetables cook for about a 2 minutes. Add the sauce mixture in the middle f the frying pan, then the diluted cornstarch. Stir until the sauce is thickened. Serve over steamed rice.

This is how I egg roll

I was feeling motivated to cook dinner today. All morning, I was deciding what we're going to eat for dinner. For those who don't know me, I am very indecisive. I need a lot of time to think. LOL. I was about to give up and will just order pizza but then I was really motivated.

So about 1 pm, I have decided that we will have egg rolls, beef and broccoli and steamed rice for dinner. Too easy to say but it's a lot of work. Well, when Arianna woke up from her nap, I dragged her with me to the store to buy all the ingredients I needed.

So for the egg roll you will need:

Coleslaw mix. (the ones with green cabbage and carrots only). I didn't buy a whole green cabbage because I don't wanna cut it when I get home. But the package didn't have enough carrots so I julienne cut one carrot and add it to the cloeslaw mix. Call me lazy! haha! P.S. you're just gonna need about half or 3/4 of the package

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onions, diced
I/2 lb ground pork
egg roll wrappers (I didn't like the brand I bought (nasoya egg roll wraps.). I bought it just try a different wrapper. It didn't turned out how I wanted it to be. I should be loyal to my old lumpia wrappers).
about 1/4 cup of beef or chicken stock.
salt and pepper to taste
peanut or canola or vegetable oil

Heat the pan. Put oil and when it's hot, sautee garlic and onions. Add the ground pork til it's brown. Drain it on paper towels. Put the coleslaw mix in the pan and the stock. Stir and put back the ground pork in the pan. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook it til its alil bit tender. You don't want the vegetable to be soggy. Place the egg roll filling in a bowl and let it cool. Once it cooled down, wrap it in egg roll wrapper. Usually, when you buy an egg roll wrapper, there's a procedure in the back of the wrapper on how to wrap an egg roll. =)

Then fry them. I used peanut oil but you can also use canola or vegatable oil.

I also made a homemade sweet and sour sauce to go along with the egg rolls. When we went to the store, they didn't have the brand of sweet and sour sauce I like so I decided to make my own.

Sweet and sour sauce:

pineapple juice
pineapple chunks
ketchup
chopped green bell peppers
sugar to taste
Cornstach diluted in water

Put them altogether in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Your going to put the diluted conrstarch last to thickened the sauce.

Leche Flan

Flan is known as Leche Flan in the Philippines. My mom usually just makes leche flan during the holidays. Maybe because we only had a small portable oven so it's kinda hard to make leche flan. Well, I tried to make it years ago because my husband hasn't had it before. Unfortunately, my husband didn't like it because it tasted like crap so he decided to make it. He made his own recipe. I was surprise it turned out really good. By the way, my husband like to call it flan instead of "leche flan". haha!

Flan

You will need:
1cup brown sugar
2 whole eggs
6 egg yolks
1 can evaporated milk
1 can condensed milk
1 tbsp "real" vanilla extract

6-7 ramekins
sieve/strainer

Pre-heat oven 325 degrees F

in a saucepan dissolve brown sugar until the sugar has thickened without stirring on low heat. (You have to watch it so u know your not burning the sugar).
Pour the carmelized sugar into ramekins. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat 2 whole eggs and 6 egg yolksuntil well blended.
Strain the egg mixture.
Add the evaporated milk, condensed milk and vanilla. Mix with spoon until well blended.
Pour the custard mixture into the ramekins.
Place the ramekins in a large pan half filled with water.
Bake for approximately 1 hour.
Remove ramekins and place them on cooling rack.
When they cooled down, put them in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or until you are ready to eat it.
To remove the flan from the ramekin, run a knife on the sides of the flan. Put a plate over it and turn it over.

ENJOY!

Horchata

Making horchata (rice milk) is alot of work for me but it is all worth it. I really hope you would understand the procedure I wrote. My husband is sleeping right now so I can't ask him if I wrote the procedure right. (grammar wise)

You will need:
1 cup- long grain rice
8 cups of water
1- 12 oz. can evaporated milk ( I suggest to put 6 oz. of evap first so u can add more if you want more milk)
2 sticks of cinnamon sticks
3/4-1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)
ground cinnamon
iced cubes
strainer/seive
a pitcher
large bowl or another pitcher
cheesecloth
and lots of patience straining the rice. lol

Procedure:
1. Soak long grain rice in water overnight.
2. Discard the water.
3. Put the rice in a blender with 4 cups of water then blend it.
4. Using a strainer/sieve, slowly strain the mixture to a large bowl.
5. Put the rice that u strained back in the blender then put the other 4 cups of water in. Blend.
6. do #4.
7. Strain again the mixture in the pitcher using the cheesecloth.
8. Place the sugar, evaporated milk, cinnamon sticks and vanilla in the pitcher and stir well.
9. Pour the horchata over iced cubes and a generous ground cinnamon.
10. Enjoy drinking it.

Well, the very first time I had horchata when I was working at a mexican restaurant. The cook showed me how to make it fresh. Of course he was eyeballing the ingredients. So grateful they hired me to work there eventhough I didn't have any experince waitressing at that time. They even showed me how to cook mexican rice. Never tried making it but if I am motivated enough, I will try to make it in a couple of days or so.

My blogspot address for the nth time

Last night, we had fun visiting our friends in Marysville. We got home around 11pm , everyone was tired but me. My husband and baby Arianna slept right away when we got home and I was just laying on bed and couldn't sleep. So I decided to think of what name I should change my blog address to, instead of counting sheep.  I came up with "mydiligentmoments.blogspot.com". I got up from the bed , went on the computer and changed it.

When my husband came home from work today, I told him about my blog. He looked at me and said "Really? You named your blog like that?"
Me: "Why? Does it sound stupid?"
husband: "yes"
me: "now, i feel embarrass because i put it on facebook."

We just laughed and laughed and laughed..... I am just glad my husband told me that it sounded stupid. No one would have told me but him. =)

Anyhow, after watching my one of favorite shows, I put Arianna to bed so I can think of a better address for my blog. So this is what I came up with.

http://survivingthequixoticlife.blogspot.com/

Not bad huh? I really think it's WAY BETTER than "mydiligentmoments". HAHAHAHA!I think I changed my blog address for like 6 times already. I'm done changing my blog address. Now I am moving on to rearraging my layouts and chaning the template. Crossing my fingers!

Didn't last

Arianna and I made it to church today. We were not late. We were actually 5 minutes early before the sacrament meeting started and I am proud of it. haha! We are usually late and I have too many reasons to give you like, "didn't wake up early", "set the alarm on pm instead of am", and the list goes on.

We usually sit at the back of the congregation because the little one wants to say hi to everybody. What I mean about that is, she will go to you, looking all nice and stuff but after a few seconds she will grab something from you like a paper or your hymnbook, or if you have kids with books or toys, she will grab those and take off. LOL.  I always use 4 chairs for the 2 of us. I use the 2 chairs to block the 2 ends so Arianna won't get out. But today, she was a monkey. She tried to crawl underneath the chair, didn't work so she climbed and girl, she MADE it on top of the chair and went down like a lightning. She was fast! The chairs don't work anymore so we basically just spent the whole sacrament meeting in the hallway. Thank goodness for hallway speakers! I actually got to hear the first speaker.

Arianna LOVES to walk in the hallway, and taps the glass entrance door. She's learning how to run. She fell on her face today bumped her lip on the floor, (there's a lil blood), cried for lil bit then run again. I wonder how the floor taste like? lol.

So today, we DIDN'T LAST til the the church meetings ended. We left an hour and a half early. I wanted to stay so I could attend the classes specially the relief society. I miss going there. We have 3 more months til Arianna goes in the nursery.

Arianna is a handful. There's no lie about that but I still love her a lot, an "infinite love". She does funny little things that makes me laugh and I thank her for that. I don't blame her if mommy doesn't go to the classes. It's not her fault. If mommy really wants to stay, she can. Don't forget the saying: "if there's a will, there's a way".

Well, we'll see if that saying will work next Sunday. ;D

Seven Years

The last time I had Jollibee was 2003. That was before I left home to go to BYUH (Brigham Young University-Hawaii). Man, that was a very longgggg time. So when I heard that South center mall  (which is about 2 hours drive from my house) will have Jollibee, I became so excited. I kept on checking their website when it will open.


Two weeks ago, we actually went to the mall and checked it out. Jollibee is not open yet but Chowking (another Filipino food chain) is. I didn't like the food there but I finished eating  my halo-halo. It wasn't the greatest but it's better than nothing. LOL.


But today, before we dropped off my sister to the airport, we stopped by and got some Jollibee. I haven't had it for SEVEN YEARS and my sister for 5 good years so we were pretty excited. Man, there was a long line but we made it.


My husband actually had Jollibee when his ship pulled port into subic. He just had the burger. Of course this time, he still just had the burger. LOL. Too scared to try something else, nah, just kidding, but I am glad he liked it. 


pepsi and coconut pandan with tapioca.





 

One Month

My sister and her husband visited us before they move to Alaska. Nathan was just here for 2 weeks then left and my sister decided to extend her vacation for 2 more weeks and I was glad she did!

I had one month off on :

*washing the dishes
*watching Arianna(i.e. when i go take a shower, etc.)
*putting the dogs outside
*cleaning the kitchen

but most of all, I had one month of:

*sisters's bonding
*sister's company
*speaking "tagalog" (our language) all day
*getting hooked watching Grey's Anatomy
*watching movies
*and many more...

I am sad my sister left today. I wish her and my brother in-law all the best in their new journey-- ALASKA!

deep sigh......

Memos Out of the blue

So today, we were just hanging out in the house. Nothing was planned.

Then, I guess my husband got really bored and told us to get ready because we're going to MEMOS. I was like "really? You wanna drive  an hour and a half just to eat memos burrritos?". My husband likes their burritos. I have to say that I am not a fan of having potatoes in my burrito. So I had a burrito with no potatoes in it and it wasn't bad but I LOVE their tomatillo salsa. I used to work at a mexican restaurant as a food server. The cook and my bosses always showed me how to cook their food like mexican rice, beans, salsa for the chips and the green salsa (tomatillo salsa) but I haven't tried making them at home. Well, I made some homemade horchata (rice milk) a long time ago and we loved it!

 

Then, we decided to drive to Alderwood mall. My husband ended up buying new pots and pans at sears! Woohoo!!! He wanted to buy it last Christmas and I just said no because we don't need it. But today, it was on sale, so I let him buy it.

Later, we went to cold stones. "yummy! yummy! Ice cream in my tummy!" LOL. The very first time I had cold stones was when my husband and I were dating in Hawaii. He took me there because he knows how I LOVE ice cream. good times!

In conclusion, it wasn't a boring day after all. Thanks for my spontaneous husband. Gotta love him.

One pound

Arianna didn't gain any weight since when she was 9 months old so her doctor had a little concern. She started interviewing my husband and I on our baby's 12 month check up appointment about what she eats for a day. She even weighed Arianna 3 times just to make sure. She told us to come back about a month and check Arianna's weight again. So we came back and Arianna was 13 months old. The doctor weighed her again twice because the first time it looked like Arianna lost weight. The second weighing, it was right. She lost 4 ounces. This time my husband wasn't with me because he was at work so the pressure was on me. The doctor asked me again. The doctor was kinda worried and it made me feel 100 times worried. She asked if Arianna had fever/diarrhea/throw up and I said, "Three days ago she had a fever and my husband and I think it's from her teething. No diarrhea or throw up". The doctor said we need to do some tests to make sure nothing's wrong with Arianna. So I said ok. The problem I had on that day was the phlebotomist. I dont think she really knew what she was doing. She was digging on my baby's left arm and she couldn't find her vein but it was going on for a while and I couldn't stand it anymore so I asked if they can do it on the right arm instead. I just felt I had to say something so she would stop pushing the needle just to find the tiny vein. And yeah, she found a vein on Arianna's right arm and it went fast! whew. I felt like crying but I had to be strong for Arianna. 

The results came in and the doctor called me with good news. Everything is normal! What a relief!


So today,  we had an appointment to see Arianna's dietician. (yeah, we had to do it because the doctor said). well, the dietician asked about our weight and height. I was very thankful because she will see that the 2 short parents like Tony and I will not make Arianna a tall and heavy baby. lol. Well, the dietician reviewed Arianna's food journal that I was required to do, and said I was feeding her right except for the oreo, fries and cheetos I gave her. (i defended myself that i only gave 1 oreo, about 6 fries and 2 cheetos the entire 2 weeks) of course she said that those are junk food. Well, I guess she was right. She told me about trying this brand of yogurt for Arianna because there's fat in it and she told me that it's kinda expensive. I looked at the nutrition facts and the total fat is 0g so I had to ask about it. (The doctor and the dietician want Arianna to gain weight so they're trying to give ideas what food I should give her). The dietician said "Hmm. That's weird. There's no fat in it but there's protein which is still good for her." I just said ok and smiled. The appointment lasted for 45 mintues and the dietician decided to weigh Arianna. And guess what? ARIANNA GAINED A POUND! I am just sooo glad that I wanted to celebrate! LOL. So yeah, the dietician wasn't bad. She gave me a couple of helpful ideas.


So here's the yogurt she was talking about. I haven't had it and since there's no fat in it it might be good for me! lol

got this picture from google

Lunch Bunch

Lunch Bunch is a potluck lunch get together activity with the ladies from the church. We get together once a month. I can say that I love going there not because I get to eat different kinds of delicious food but because I get to mingle and talk to other mommies. Plus, Arianna can play with other kids.

We used to have theme every month. But for the last three months, we did potlucks, like bring whatever you wanna bring. But next lunch bunch will be different. The ladies decided to have the theme back. I totally agreed with them. It's going to be "all about fall" theme. Hmm... I have to plan now what food I will bring since I've been bringing Filipino foods like pancit and lumpias. LOL

I brought my sister with me today at lunch bunch. She loved the camarel apple cake Amy made and Dianna's guacamole. When we were in the car, she asked me "Who made the guacamole?" I said: "Dianna. Why?"
Lovely: "because i dont eat guacamole but her guacamole was sooooo good."

Then, when we got home, she saw that we have a yellow cake mix and said "u know that we have the cake mix right?" I said "yeah?" Lovely: "So we can make the cake Amy made." I told her "I just checked the recipe online and we need caramels, apples,vanilla pudding , etc." Lovely: "ok then"

My sister cracks me up! HAHAHA!

I have to say, I love Dana's homemade salsa!
I am glad I kept this calling to be the assigned person for Lunch Bunch. Sister Gheen was right. It's a great way for me to socialize with other ladies from the church. =)

Banana Muffins

My sister decided to make some banana muffins. She didn't wanna waste the 3 bananas we had in the house. They were too ripe to eat. She used her mother in-law's recipe. And she put cream cheese frosting and dust of cinnamon on top of the muffins. They were gone and eaten in one day. Haha! They were YUMMY!

Artisan bread #2

I liked the outside but not the inside. I think I made it too thick this time.

What's for dinner?

My sweet husband made pulled pork. I can say that it's better than the first time he made it. =) I put coleslaw in the pulled sandwich and ate it with baked beans on the side. YUMMY!!!

Trail

Exercising is one of the things I don't like doing. So when we woke up this morning, it was gloomy and it looked like it was gonna rain so I thought we were going to changed our plan to walk on the trail on base. Around noon, the sun appeared. I felt like the sun read my mind that I didn't really wanna go for a walk but Tony and my sister sticked to the plan. (Poor me.)

So we went to Seaview trail on Navy base. It has a really nice view of the ocean as you walk through the trail. I LOVED it.  My sister had my camera so she took a lot of  pictures. =)




Bunny #1
Photo by : Me
We saw a lot of bunnies by the trail.

Bunny #2
Photo by: Me

Photo taken by my sister Lovely





table tennis A.K.A. pingpong

We went to the convergence zone at the Navy base today.  Since last night, I lost at air hockey game, I want some revenge. So I asked Tony to play pingpong with me. I know for sure he's not going to win. Haha! And I was right. It felt good. We played three sets and I won in all of them. bwahaha. I asked my sister to play with me also but she said she's good like she didn't wanna play. I know she was just scared to be beaten by me. LOL. I know I sound cocky but if you are a competitive person, you know how I feel. I learned that we are not good in all things. I am good in some things that Tony and my sister are not good at and vice versa.

Examples:
Lovely(my sister) is good in singing and playing instruments and I suck at them.
Tony beats me on swimming laps. He knows how to fix a lot of things that I don't know how. and I really think he's a better cook than I am.

I really had fun today. Here are a couple of pictures to remember that I beat Tony at playing pingpong. hehehe!

When an artisan bread became a "Flat" Bread

I made my first bread. I got the recipe from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a day. I actually had this bread when my friend Angel made it. I really liked it so I decided to make one today.

It didn't turned out how I like it to be. It looked like a flat bread but the taste and the texture were still the same as an artisan bread. My husband told me that I didn't mold the dough the way it should be. I said I was trying to make it a round one but it didn't. Oh well. Good thing I still have some dough in the fridge. i will make some again tomorrow.

I am not advertising my cheap cutting board. LOL. But yeah, we ate half of it so that means it wasn't bad.

Movie Night

One of the things my husband and I have in common is watching movies. We are just so lucky that we can go to the drive-in theater in the island. We don't have to worry about Arianna being loud or bothering someone. It's very convenient for us.

So today, we went to Blue Fox drive in theater. While we were waiting for the movie to start (the movie didn't start til it's dark outside), we went to the arcade and played some games. We played air hockey and I actually suck at it. At first game, I played with my sister and yeah, she's good. I was getting frustrated because I couldn't score so I asked Tony to play for me. And yeah, Tony sucks too. LOL. Since competitiveness runs in the family, Tony actually played again with my sister and GUESS WHAT? He lost again. haha.. I was convinced that I will beat Tony so we played. I was WRONG. I lost again. I guess air hockey is not my game.We told my sister that she's been playing air hockey that's why she's that good. Tony and I gave up so we played other games instead. We exhange our tickets for 2 airheads. Never had it before. For me, it was an "OK" candy.

We watched "Despicable Me". I liked it.

(I got this image from Google)

Fun day

Today, my sister and I decided to take Arianna to Convergence Zone in the Navy Base. It's an indoor playground not just for kids but for adults too. There's pingpong, billiards, air hockey, bowling,and etc. Arianna loves playing with other kids. She thinks the kids play with her. She is so cute.

After playing at the Convergence Zone, we went to Mcdonald's for lunch.

 

Then, we went home to change clothes to go to the pool by our house.

with Tita Lovely

with Mommy

splashies!