End of semester/end of 2nd trimester

Yay, I'm on vacation for 2 weeks!!! It has been a good semester at school because I was at the most enjoyable phrase of pregnancy, or so I hear.

Looking back, it's been a quite pleasant 3 months, except for that terrible cough last week. I seriously thought I'd never get better. John slept on the couch for over a week. After lots of honey lemon water and a couple bottles of Robitussin DM, I'm finally over it now. I sill don't know what caused it and how it could be prevented in the future.

I also get full really easy nowadays. Half a sandwich or 6 dumplings plus some fruit would fill me up. And I don't feel hungry any more, which sucks, cuz I want to eat. But every time I eat a little bit more than I should, my stomach pumps up like a balloon, so tight and uncomfortable. Seriously, my morning bump is half the size of the day bump. I guess it'll only get worse.

It's been so nice outside. I'm already feeling hot and stuffy. I don't know how I'm gonna get through the summer. I wish we could take a trip somewhere, but I'm lazy and we're saving up for a big trip, so we'll just chill in good old Provo.

Our end-0f-semester potluck

There's always a dance when there're Mexicans.
My ELC classes

My Selnate class

Happy Summer, everyone!!

John's famous Armadillo Eggs

WARNING: SPICY, SPICY, SPICY

This is John's specialty treat, one of the few things he LOVEs. It's by no means a diet food. We only make them on certain occasions when we could share them with other people. Don't let the name fool you either. It has nothing to do with armadillos or eggs. I guess the finished product looks like eggs.

Today we made them for John's elementary school reunion :-)
How I wish I knew this cute boy! I hope our kid will be this cute :-)

Ingredients: (yields 25 servings)
48 oz of pickled jalapenos
2 boxes (4 cups) of Jiffy corn muffin mix
2 boxes of Pork Oven Fry
2lbs pork sausage (Jimmy Dean is the best.)
2lbs Monteray jack Cheese
2-4 eggs

Heat Oven to 350F.

1. Grate cheese. Destem and deseed peppers so they are hollow.
2. Stuff peppers with cheese. (picture 1)
3. Combine leftover cheese with all 2lbs of sausage. Add the corn muffin mix. Mash with hand till they are combined. (Picture 2)
4. Roll out small sausage cake (the size of a large egg) to roll the stuffed pepper in. Shape it into an egg shape. (Picture 3)
5. Beat a couple eggs in a bowl. In another bowl, get the oven fry ready. (Picture 4)
6. Roll the sausage wrapped peppers in the egg, then roll them on the oven fry. (Picture 5)
7. Lay them on a baking sheet.
8. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes.

Note: Do not use "Shake n Bake" in place of "Pork Oven Fry". Also La Costens peppers are the best flavor.

Picture 1

picture 2

Picture 3

Picture 4

Picture 5

Finished product. Enjoy!!

My Version of Chinese Fast Food

This is my version of Chinese fast food. When you order a lunch box in China, one of the popular choices will be some sort of vegetable-meat stir-fry served over rice or noodles.

I like this recipe because you can use anything you have in your fridge. Also you get different kinds of vegetables in one serving. I serve it over whole-grain rice or buckwheat noodles to make it healthier.

Ingredients:
1/2 pound of ground or cubed pork (or chicken, or beef)
Assorted vegetables cubed (I like different colors and textures. My favorite combination is eggplant, celery, carrot, green onion, and mushroom.But you can throw in whatever you have at hand.)
1 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tbsp Oyster sauce (if you don't have it, use 1 tsp sugar instead)
a pinch of Salt
a pinch of Pepper

1. Heat up a little olive oil in the pan.
2. Add the meat, fry it until it changes color.
3. Add vegetables. Make sure you add the easy-to-cook vegetables last. Add carrot, onions etc first so they finish cooking at the same time.
3. About 10 minutes later, you have your lunch :-) Serve over brown rice or buckwheat noodles.

the Easter Egg Hunt-Adult Version

Easter weekend was relaxing. It involved conference, heavy breakfast food, bbq, Easter egg hunt, bridal shower, and more conference. You'd think Easter egg hunt is only fun for children, but John managed to have some fun.

They were stuck @ the door for like 2 minutes because they all wanna get out first!

Ready-Set...

GO!!!!
Let the wrestling start!
It's really not a good strategy to wrestle your brothers when you could be finding Easter eggs!!

My smart baby avoided the fight and scored on the mini golf court!!

Look how many eggs we got! We were supposed to get 8 per person! Haha, we win!!

An easy and tasty way to eat your vegies

As John describes it, "this pancake kinda grows on ya". This is a vegie cake my mom used to make for us all the time for breakfast. What can I say, we're Chinese; we love vegetables. But with a few variation, Americans may learn to like it as well.

And it's so easy to make I can whip it up in 15 minutes.

Basic ingredients:

3 eggs beaten
1 cup flour
3/4 cup water or chicken broth
1 zucchini grated
3 green onion chopped
1 carrot grated
salt and pepper to taste

Optional:

some lemon juice and zest (This is just for John since he'll eat anything with lemons).
Some black sesame seeds (I always have them handy so I can remember to put some in my food)

Mix everything orderly. Heat the frying pan with a little olive oil on medium heat. Scoop 1/2 cup of batter into the pan. Flatten it so it's thin. Fry each side for a couple minutes when it's golden brown.

Variations:
Add chicken, shrimps, beef, or pork; and add any other vegetables you like.

I usually go with chicken. I slice them into strips and marinate them in soy sauce and oyster sauce for 5 minutes. Add them in the mixture right before I put it in the frying pan.

John likes it when there's meat in it; I'm the opposite. So it works for both of us.

My Healthy Sweet Potato Pancakes

Ever since I saw my baby sucking in the last ultrasound, I've had great motivation to eat healthier. I feel like she's sucking on whatever I'm feeding her :-) I've always been a pretty healthy eater, loving vegies, fruit, not sugar, or fat. Lately I've been paying even more attention to the food I eat to make sure nothing bad goes into my system. I experimented different combinations of stir-fry vegies and even my picky-eater husband liked some of the stuff I experimented.

This morning I decided to experiment with the sweet potatoes and make some pancakes out of them. John ate two of the huge pancakes I made, so that tells you that it's not bad. Here's the recipe.

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup flour (I used all-purpose because I'm out of whole wheat.)
1/4 cup ground flaxseed (you can use wheat gems instead)
1/3 cup chopped toasted nuts of your choice (I used almond; walnut or pecan should do)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup apple juice or white grape juice (I didn't have wither, so I just used milk)
1 cup mashed sweet potatoes (about 1 medium size)
2 tbsp oil (I used olive oil, canola should do)
2 large eggs beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup finely chopped apricots (or raisins, dried cranberries) (optional)

1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowel.
2. Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowel.
3. Add the wet mixture into the dry one.
4. Heat up the pan, add a little oil (or spray). Spoon 1/2 cup of batter into the pan, spread it lightly to flatten. (use a 1/4 cup if you ant it to be smaller)
5. Flip the pancake once until golden brown.
6. Drizzle some syrup, top with strawberries or blueberries or anything you like. Enjoy!

22-week old parents :-)

It's a GIRL!!!

There is our little princess! So cute :-)

We just came back from the ultrasound. It's a GIRL!!!!!! We're so excited! Everything is going well. The baby is a little bigger than expected so they moved my due date to August 1st, 3 days ahead.

It was so fun to see her sucking, moving, stretching... Listening to her strong heart beat was also fun! She keeps moving around and it was hard to catch her in a still shot :-)


Me at 20 weeks

My Crochet Fun!

Sister Harding is an expert of crocheting. When we went over for Sunday dinner last month, she agreed to teach me to crochet a baby blanket. Without knowing the gender of the baby, I picked this Ocean yarn from her crochet closet.

It took me a month of my free time to complete this little thing. I'm not good, but I'm fast :-)

My teacher Sister Harding
The uneven length on the bottom shows my inexperience. Oh well the baby won't mind.

I learned to make these flowers and the headband from youtube :-)

I also made this cute pair of baby booties. I had to size it down a lot, but John still thinks it's too big. I really don't know much about a newborn :-)

It's been fun learning new things. The only drawback is I spent too much time on it and John feels neglected :-)

The pregnancy so far

I consider myself one of the luckier women regarding pregnancy.

Nausea
Starting last week, the nausea has calmed down, and that makes me SO happy!! I can actually sit on the couch without being bothered my the smell of the wall flower, the oven (except when pizza is being cooked in there), most of the food, and John's deodorant. I can actually handle raw meat and start cooking again. I feel so bad that John has to feed himself for the past several months and that means junk food mostly.

I am grateful for my cousin Megan. She basically fed me for the last couple of months. I would send her raw materials and she would cook them for me. I'm so spoiled right now having had a great personal cook for so long. She has made me less homesick. I think I might have jumped on a plane and went home if she hadn't been here!

Cravings
I did have some strange cravings: green apples, grapefruits, RADISHES, nectarines, dried Chinese plums, SPAM, and fermented bean-curd. I'm just glad that most of them are healthy. The first 2 caused teeth problems for me so I had to stop. I don't know how I started the radishes craving, but OMG I would buy all the radishes at Macey's every time I go and devour them in a couple of days. The grocery guy there finally asked me whether I had a secret recipe with radishes :-) John thinks I at least tripled the radish sales at Macey's :-)
I first started eating nectarines because they were on sale at Buy Low. I remember eating 8 pounds of nectarine over one weekend- that is two days ladies and gentlemen!! Crazy! John was afraid that I was going to have a fruit instead of a baby.
I think I know why I liked the SPAM, mostly because it reminded me of these sausages I love from China. I've always loved the fermented bean-curd, but it has too much sodium in one little chunk, so I decided to stop eating them.
the Chinese sausages (just looking at them makes me want have some)

the fermented bean-curds

Food aversion
I LOVE FOOD, almost any food! So I never thought one day certain food would make me sick, especially food that used to be my favorite, namely seafood and meat! Fish used to be my favorite, but I couldn't even stand the thought of it for the past little while; same with shrimps. I never liked pizza, so it's no surprising that pizza would make me sick. I could look at the ads and throw up :-)

Energy level
At the beginning of the pregnancy, I was tired all the time. I remember coming home from work at 5, and falling asleep on the couch by 7. When I was tutoring in the lab from 3 to 5, I couldn't keep my eyes open sometimes.

Now it's a lot better. I still sleep a lot but I think that's just because I LOVE sleeping and my body is giving me a perfect excuse to sleep as much as I want :-)

Hopefully the baby continues to treat me nicely so I'll have the desire to have another one someday :-)

I love my young women!!!

Being the Young Woman Personal Progress Specialist, I was in charge of the new beginnings activity this year. I decided to do something fun to review the YW values and standards. So I downloaded a jeopardy template from the internet and put together a show. It turned out great. Everyone loved the game and more importantly they learned something from it.

What's New with Personal Progress.

Jeopardy!!
Notice the 80s theme!

We had color-coded food for each value color :-)

I love my calling!