My obsession for carrying snacks around only became more intensified once I had Bebe. She’s always been a pretty good eater, but now that she’s a preschooler and growing like a sunflower she is always in need of food. Within an hour (sometimes sooner) of eating breakfast or lunch she’ll tell me she’s hungry and if she could please have a snack. Then there’s actual snack-time around 10:30 AM or 3:30 PM during which she also requires a snack. Let’s just say that I never leave the house without snacks – for her or for me.

My two-favorite store bought granola bars were always chewy chocolate chip by Quaker and crunchy peanut butter by Nature Valley. I always kept a box of the chewy chocolate chip granola bars at my office, and they hold-up well in the car or a purse, although the condition of the chocolate chips were never guaranteed in warmer weather.

I’ve been thinking about trying to make a batch of granola bars at home but wasn’t really inspired until my friend brought a batch to Bebe’s ballet class and she mentioned that she couldn’t get the bars to hold their shape. The ones she made were crunchy granola bars, and while I have plans (and the ingredients) to make a batch of crunchy ones, I found a recipe for chewy granola bars and it’s a no-baking required recipe, and quite frankly, this mama can’t pass up an easy no-bake recipe to try. It’s definitely a keeper.

I made a couple batches of these chewy chocolate chip granola bars for Bebe’s Earth Day Carnival at preschool and the kids seemed to enjoy it, probably because it’s got a nice sweetness about them. The good part is that there are no additives or preservatives and they’re wholesome. I made another version of this chewy granola bar which I’ll share shortly.

Now, for pure entertainments sake or because I have too much time on my hands this afternoon (or because you have nothing better to do at this time than read this or if you don’t, just skip it and go to the recipe), I thought I’d share my lunch time conversation with my 3-year old. It went something like this:

Bebe: What’s this mommy? Is it a wedding movie? [She brought me the Princess Bride DVD because I left it out, hoping to watch my favorite movie that I haven't seen in a very long time.]

Me: Yes, it is.

Bebe: Tell me the story mommy? What happens?

Me: Well, the girl, who isn’t really a princess but looks like a princess because she’s wearing a tiara [photo on the DVD cover] falls in love with a farm boy who becomes a pirate. Then there’s an evil prince that kidnaps the pretty girl (which is like Bananas Gorilla (from Richard Scary’s books) stealing something, in this case a person, I explain), and the pirate saves the girl and then she marries the pirate and they live happily ever after.

Bebe: That’s a short movie. The princess marries the pirate?

Me: Yes.

Bebe: No, mommy! That’s not right. The princess is supposed to marry the prince.

Me: [I laugh.]

Bebe: After I get married, maybe I’ll have babies and maybe I’ll have a doggie. You’ll still live here, and I’m going to live somewhere else maybe. But you can come see me!

Me: [I laugh, because this is one of the stories I've told her, about what might happen when she grows up.]

Bebe: Do you know what other house I’m going to live in? Well after I get married I’m gonna live in a different house. Nene [her big sis] is still gonna live in [names our town], Mommy and Daddy gonna still live in [names our town] too.

Bebe: Daddy’s going to be so shocked. Maybe I shouldn’t do that. Maybe you should stop me from doing that.

Me: Doing what?

Bebe: Getting married! I don’t want to get married.

Me: How come you don’t want to get married?

Bebe: Because.

Me: Because why? [She doesn't answer me, but I think it's because she doesn't want to move away yet and live in a different house than us.]

Bebe: Mommy is that what you did? You got married and had babies?

Me: Yes, I married Daddy and had you – you’re my baby.

Bebe: Oh. Do you have other babies? Casie? What about baby Maddie or Quentin? Are they your babies?

Me: No, they are Auntie M’s babies, remember? They are your cousins.

Bebe: Oh. You have a brother, and it starts with the letter “T”. What does it  [T] sound like mommy? “Ta-Ta-Ta”

Me: What does that have to do with being married?

Bebe: Well, that’s your brother, and I tell him to not put shoes in my room because there’s a sign on my door with ‘no shoes’.

Me: What does that have to do with being married? Auntie M got married to Uncle T.

Bebe: That makes sense, mommy. Who lives with Uncle T? Uncle, Auntie M, Maddie and Quentin. They don’t have a lot of nieces. Maybe they need more.

Me: What? [That would mean I would need to have more babies for my brother to have more nieces but of course my Bebe doesn't get this.]

Bebe: Maybe we can get them a dog since not a lot of people live with them.

Me: [Laughing] Maybe.

Bebe: [Topics of conversation quickly jump from one to the next.] Did some of the people take out your blood?

Me: [I had my blood drawn this morning.] Yes, a lady drew my blood.

Bebe: How did they do that?

Me: A phlebotomist is someone who takes blood, so she did it.

Bebe: How?

Me: With a needle.

Bebe: Did they put it back in after? [The blood.]

Me: No, they had to keep my blood for tests.

Bebe: Did it hurt?

Me: No not really.

Bebe: I’m brave at the doctors.

Me: Yes, yes you are very brave at the doctors.

Bebe: How about aunts? Do aunts get married? [Another topic jump.]

Me: What kind of aunts?

Bebe: Bugs, like insects.

Me: No, bugs don’t get married.

Bebe: Ok, mommy, let’s color and draw your blood. Or you can draw a blood pool. [Bebe had swim lesson at the pool the other day. Sometimes we draw pictures of the pool, but with water.]

Me: [Laughing.] Why do I want to draw my blood or a blood pool? [I realize it's because I told her the phlebotomist DREW my blood. I'm cracking up at this point because there's still confusion about someone taking my blood and she thinks that somebody drew a picture of my blood.]

Bebe: How do they draw your blood?

Me: With a needle.

Bebe: That’s silly! Do you want to draw a blood pool instead with my markers?

Me: [Laughing] I love you Bebe.

Bebe: Am I the funniest girl?

Me: Yes, you are.

So there you have it. Total nonsensical, yet sensical conversations between my three year-old and myself. This went on for a good 10 minutes or so. She would just keep on talking if we kept the conversation going. She certainly talks a lot… And she’s funny. Definitely keeps me entertained.

- A day in my life.

Tips for Successful Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars:

1. Line square tin pan with parchment paper for easily removing bars from the pan. Grease exposed sides.

2. Use a cylindrical jar to press down the chewy granola mixture into the pan. Press down A LOT. Wait to add the chocolate chips until the granola mixture has cooled and press down with a jar, not with your hands (so the chips don’t melt).

3. Prior to cutting the bars, refrigerate the chewy granola bar in the pan for 15 – 20 minutes. Makes sure the mixture is holding together and it makes them easier to cut.

Many who have never babied and cared for a pet, might not understand those of us who hold our puppies so dear to our heart and love them as members of our own family. Exactly two months ago, on February 22, 2013 I lost my dear sweet Casie. She was my first baby, even before Bebe E was born, and I often referred to Casie as my “other baby” to Bebe E, who promptly began referring to Casie as my “daughter”.

I remember clearly the day that I adopted Casie from the SCPA. It was around this time in Spring, 15 years ago and she was only about 10 weeks old. I was shocked and saddened by the fact that someone had thrown her and her litter of siblings in a trash bag and dumped them down the sewer on a stormy day in Los Angeles. This made headlines on local TV and in the L.A. Times, compelling me to go to the SPCA to adopt one of the abandoned puppies. As fate would have it, Casie was only one of three puppies remaining that quickly came to my side as I entered the adoption room. From that point on, I was hers and she was mine.

Some friends had asked if I named Casie (pronounced K-C) after K.C. & Jo Jo the hip-hop/r&b artists, but I think I really just liked the name Casie, primarily because Casey Martin was making headlines in golf around the time that I adopted Casie. I was also just learning how to play golf and found a new leisurely sport that my un-athletic self could keep up with.

… This post isn’t easy to write, and I must have started a number of drafts to write about my loss, but I just couldn’t do it. Finally, as I realized the other day that almost two months have gone by since Casie’s death, I knew that Casie deserved to be mentioned on my family journal / blog, as she was a very important part of my life and my family.

It took me equally as long, to be able to actually talk about having lost my sweet Casie. I still get teary-eyed when I think of her, but I’m left with only thoughtful and loving memories of her gentle sweet nature and silly memories of her princess-like personality, and her quirky fondness for Satsuma tangerines. I loved her soft fur, floppy ears and will always remember her smiling and looking up at me with her right ear up, and her left ear down (photographed above).

Casie entered my life during a time of many transitions and she grew up with me while I went to graduate school, found my place in the world, got married, went through pregnancy and had my little Bebe E. She even spent the last three years watching Bebe E grow up. In the last few years however, Casie’s most important job was looking after my parents. When I moved from Los Angeles to my current home, I couldn’t take Casie with me, and I knew it wouldn’t be fair to her when I couldn’t give her the attention that she was used to, so she looked after my parents in L.A. and kept them company during their retirement.

One of my greatest joys of visiting L.A. was seeing my other baby. It was fun watching Bebe E grow-up around Casie. Casie kept an eye on Bebe E and Bebe seemed to enjoy having her big furry friend around.

That is, Bebe E enjoyed having Casie around when she knew where the doggie was, and not surprising her around a corner as she was learning how to crawl. Casie looks a bit sad and concerned that this little person is unhappy, or perhaps Casie is just uncomfortable that someone is invading her under-the-dining-table-space.

For the most part, Bebe E and Casie seemed to enjoy each other’s company. Here Casie is pictured lounging on the lawn with my Bebe and my Dad, who just happened to be Casie’s best buddy.

Casie had the fluffiest fur, and her ears were quite possibly the softest and bestest ears ever! I’m so happy that Bebe E had the chance to grow up with Casie in her life and she too has good memories of our puppy dog.

Photographed below, Casie is walking around at Bebe E’s 3rd birthday party looking happy as can be with one ear down and one ear up.

After we took Casie to the hospital, Bebe E asked a few times if we should make Casie a get well card so that she will get better. It’s hard explaining to a three year old that Casie passed away and that she couldn’t get better.

Bebe E still asks me if I miss my daughter, Casie, but she tells me that Casie is OK because she is playing with Stella now and Cookie Monster. (Stella is another dog my parents lost not too long ago and Cookie Monster is Bebe E ‘s beta fish and first pet that she lost after a year of caring for him.)

Bebe E occasionally sings me songs about Casie and how much we love her. She uses her princess microphone to sing me these songs and it’s quite touching. At my parents house, Bebe E sometimes asks me if I would like for her to play a song on the piano about Casie. It is usually a soft melody of a few keys that she plays slowly and beautifully – she always plays one key at a time, never banging a handful of keys at once. Sometimes Bebe E draws me pictures of Casie. Most recently, we adopted a stuffed animal fox from the L.A. Zoo’s gift shop, and sometimes she refers to her fox as her doggie Casie (in some ways it looks more like a dog than a fox) and she asks me if I would like to hug Casie.

In her own way, I know that Bebe E is grieving Casie too. Right after Casie passed away, Bebe E asked me if Casie was going to come back and if we could see Casie, but after I told her that we couldn’t see her anymore and that she was up in the stars with Cookie Monster and Stella, I think she began to accept this as being OK. She still tells me on occasion that she misses Casie. I know how Bebe E feels…

I’m really lucky that I spent 15 years of my life with Casie. She was, and always will be, the best dog I’ve ever had the good fortune of knowing and loving with all my heart. I miss her terribly every day and think of her often.

Thank you, Casie, for gracing us with your life.

February 1, 1998 – February 22, 2013

I’m not sure how many months have gone by since I posted anything on my blog. Ok, maybe it’s only been a few weeks and/or approaching one month since my absence, but it certainly seems longer. Honestly, I’m not even sure how I used to post at least three new posts per week. I look back now and think I was crazy. :) Either that, or I was getting much less sleep than I’m getting now.

Nothing special has happened over the past month to warrant my absence. Bebe fought one cold and has another sore throat today. We’ve been spending a bit more time having picnics after school with her pre-school buddies and enjoying more play dates at the park. On park days where we experienced warmer weather, on the verge of what I call hot (I have a low tolerance for hot weather), a nap was often in order, not just for the kiddo, but also for this Mama. I shared this info with my Mom who promptly reminded me that it was because I’m getting old that I get tired after spending time in the sun.

Thanks for the reminder, Mom.

I’ve also shared with my Mom that it’s nearly impossible to clean the house because as soon as everything is put-away in it’s rightful place, after 10 minutes of the Bebe tornado, the place looks just as messy as it did before I spent an hour cleaning, if not messier. Clearly, the Cleaning Fairy isn’t doing a very good job. Oh, and my Mom says, “It was the same with you and your brother, but I cleaned-up daily.” Ok, thanks for the tip Mom.

As for our family’s Cleaning Fairy, she used to visit us every night with good deeds of picking up the toys that weren’t put away and taking them away to give to children who didn’t have as many toys as Bebe. This was good motivation for our little one to pick-up her toys at the end of each day, but the Cleaning Fairy stopped visiting as often when Bebe seemed afraid that this Fairy was going to break into our home and take things away. In hindsight, I suppose the Cleaning Fairy could potentially be scary to a 3 -year old.

Even though I haven’t posted anything recently on my blog, I’ve still been taking an occasional picture here and there. Thank goodness, because last week I made Shabu-shabu, or hot pot, and given our wacky SoCal weather with dreary cold skies and sprinkles, shabu-shabu doesn’t seem too out of season. Hot pot isn’t just for cold winter nights as it is in Japan. I’ve been known to break Japanese etiquette and serve shabu-shabu (post and recipe here) during the Spring and Summer seasons, if only to satisfy a simple craving.

I had forgotten about chicken tsukune (meatballs) when I mentioned to my husband that I wanted to eat shabu. I quickly gave up on the idea since we didn’t have enough meat and I wasn’t in the mood to make a run to the Japanese supermarket for thin-cut shabu meat. That’s when my husband graciously reminded me that we had ground chicken in the freezer and that we hadn’t had  tsukune meatballs in a while.

My Mom often added tsukune to our shabu-shabu and it always added nice variety to our hot pot. It’s also really simple to make and only requires three ingredients: ground chicken, grated ginger, and corn or potato starch.

To learn more about Japanese shabu-shabu hot pot, follow this link.

I’ve been thinking about green pancakes ever since a friend of mine posted a picture of the green pancakes that they served at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Monica (website here). I knew both Bebe and Big Onechan (big sis) would get a kick out of seeing mini green pancakes for breakfast when they woke up on St. Patrick’s Day.

I was thinking about how I could make the pancakes green without having to use food coloring, which I’ve used sparingly in the past when making mini mochi or what we call chi chi dango mochi (recipe available here). I immediately thought of my green smoothies, and how vibrant green they always are. Their color is usually attributed to the handfuls of fresh spinach that I add to the smoothie, but surprisingly there is very little spinach taste.

So this morning I blended up cold water with a cup of fresh green spinach leaves and replaced my green water with the water that our favorite Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake Mix calls for. :) No artificial green food coloring, just extra iron and nutrients in our otherwise carb-laden, un-nutritious pancakes!

Never mind that my pancakes looked a little on the overcooked side (notice the slightly burnt edges?)… these were still fluffy as can be… and as vibrantly green as can be! Our pancakes always turn out better when my husband cooks them and I just mix the batter.

Big Onechan asked, “did you just add green food coloring?” I told a white lie and said, “yes”, although my blender with leftover green liquid was sitting on the counter. I knew if I told her the pancakes were colored with fresh, nutrient-rich spinach water she would be biased against the pancakes. Without this knowledge she went on to consume at least 4 or 5 pancakes, drenched in syrup and whip cream. After breakfast, I came clean with the secret green ingredient, and of course after looking closely at the leftover green liquid in the blender, she gave me a prompt, “eeeeeeeew!”

One day, when Big Onechan has her own kids, perhaps she’ll remember green spinach pancakes and choose that over green food coloring. Maybe. :)

Bebe on the other hand, who is used to seeing me make green smoothies and actually enjoys her version of a sweet green smoothie, was excited about pouring the green water into the pancake mix as she helped me make breakfast this morning. She was perhaps even more excited when I told her that we would be adding chocolate chips to our pancakes.

Who doesn’t love chocolate chips in their pancakes?

In addition to green pancakes, I made green eggs and bacon to serve along side our green pancakes (yes, reminiscent of green eggs and ham). Recipe for green eggs (and photo) is available here. It’s basically a scramble of broccoli, spinach, and onions. It was delicious and I’m happy to report that the kids ate it without a single complaint. What can I say, you can’t go wrong with green food on St. Patrick’s Day!

This recipe for green pancakes is pretty straightforward. Use your favorite pancake mix, and replace water with green liquid, aka spinach water. Add chocolate chips for an extra treat and top with your favorite pure maple syrup, whip cream or powdered sugar. Oh, and maybe a little pat of butter too.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

One day, when I’m much older and the kids are all grown up, I’ll look back at this time and remember how much I enjoyed making a big deal of holidays such as St. Patrick’s Day. I always try to find a few arts and crafts for Bebe to celebrate with, but for a family that loves to eat, celebrating with green food on St. Patrick’s Day is also a lot of fun.

This morning I made two dishes. The first, green eggs and bacon, is a spin off the green hourensou (that’s Japanese for spinach) tamagoyaki (that’s Japanese egg roulade and the recipe is available here). The second dish I made are green pancakes using our favorite Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake Mix. Hey, I’m a busy Mom, short-cuts are OK once in a while. This post is coming right up next!

Because we had leftover broccoli crowns from last night’s dinner, I minced up the broccoli “tree”, both the “trunk” and the “leaves” into teeny tiny pieces. Then I used the cooked spinach idea from my spinach tamagoyaki (egg roulade), along with some diced yellow onions and made a savory green egg scramble.

The bacon was my husband’s idea. I rarely buy bacon, but when we send him to the market, it’s what he comes home with. But it turned out that green eggs and ham, er bacon, go really well together. :) And he makes good chewy bacon.

Sometimes, I try something that is not original, yet somewhat new to my breakfast repertoire, and all of a sudden I’m obsessed with it. This tends to happen often, case in point my green smoothie obsession which has lately subsided, but I still get cravings for, if I go longer than four days without one.

A few weeks ago I decided to buy plain Greek yogurt, which is different than the nonfat vanilla yogurt or fruity greek yogurt which are part of my routine. I know, straying from my comfort zone… ooooh! Well, buying this plain Greek yogurt was the best thing ever because the first  night I ate it for dessert. Just as you see it above, with homemade granola (recipe available here) sans dried fruits, toasted almond slices honey AND mini yogurt chips. OH so yummy!

However, Greek yogurt for dessert is apparently not an original idea. We went to Pinkberry on Sunday night and guess what “new product” they’re serving? Yes, Greek yogurt with a choice of dessert-like toppings. I guess it’s too late to create my own Greek yogurt dessert shoppe if Pinkberry is already on the ball!

It’s OK Pinkberry, my career aspirations aren’t crushed. I’ll just stick to Greek yogurt for breakfast at home and inexpensive Greek yogurt “dessert” in the comfort of my own home.

So here you have it. My breakfast of champions for the last two weeks and running. It really does taste awesome because of the contrast between crunchy homemade granola and thick, creamy yogurt. I dare you to give it a try! I even got Nene (Bebe E’s big sis) to eat a bowl for dessert last night, but perhaps this was because we were out of ice cream… My husband, on the other hand, won’t go near Greek yogurt. He says he’ll stick to Yoplait.

It seems that on a sunny, crisp day like today, I might feel better off spending some time outdoors, but yesterday’s three-mile walk has once again left my knee in a slightly uncomfortable state, and I’m slightly more comfortable relaxing quietly indoors. Fortunately, my laptop is now fully functional and I’m happy to report that Mac and I are friends again since I am finally able to access some of the photos that were seemingly lost on a deserted island.

I suppose you could say I’m finally motivated to play a little catch-up on my blog.

Last month, we celebrated Chinese New Year on February 10, 2013. This holiday is always a moving target and I’m proud to share that over the past three years, I’ve gotten better and better at remembering to Google this holiday in January to find out when it is. Now I’m really on top of things because I can proudly announce that in 2014, Chinese New Year will be celebrated on January 31st and I’ve already marked my calendar.

This year, on Chinese New Year I made a chicken and vegetable chow mein recipe that I learned from my friend C many, many years ago. My Mom used to make chow mein for us growing up, and while I enjoyed it, I actually prefer my friend C’s recipe much better, and not surprisingly my Mom has said that she likes this recipe better too.

Sometimes it’s OK to let go of old traditions and start new ones.

Despite the fact that I enjoy this chow mein quite a bit, I only make this maybe once or twice a year, but I think I’ve gotten a lot faster at making this dish than when I first made it almost a decade ago. It requires a number of ingredients, but half of the ingredients are canned Chinese vegetables, and the half are fresh veggies, then there are the noodles which need to be boiled and then pan-fried but I found some great noodles that only require a 2-minute hot water bath prior to frying them. Don’t let the ingredient list deter you from trying the recipe. It’s a great homemade dish that you’ll probably find has less sodium than what you’ll get from take-out chow mein at a Chinese restaurant.

As for our Chinese New Year’s crafts this year, with the help of Pinterest and a new mommy friend from preschool, Bebe E and I created a number of wonderful crafts.

Lucky Kumquat Tree

I love how my little one wanted to put happy faces on the kumquats. I noticed afterwards that she also made a few sad faces. That’s just life, I suppose – some days good, some days not so good.

Lucky Goldfish

From the perspective of a 3-year old, goldfish have two arms, two legs, and a little nose. When I asked Bebe E about the little green circles, she told me those were the fishy’s scales.

Paper Chain Snake in Grass

Lucky for us we still had paper rings from the time that Auntie S babysat Bebe E, because we found a great use for them!

Hand Print Art Snake

My daughter is very creative. She gave her snake blue flowing hair. Beautiful. Not surprisingly she chose red and pink for the body of her snake. I’ve always known that Bebe E has long fingers, like myself and my paternal grandmother, but it was surprising to see on paper, just how long her fingerprints actually are.

Red Lantern with Happiness Character

Ok, if you read Chinese characters or kanji, the symbol might mean something along the lines of happiness. In Japanese, happiness is called, “koufuku” but I failed to write the first kanji character “kou” so what you see pictured below is “fuku”, or the latter part of the happiness. Does this mean the lantern is only half-happy?

We invited my BFF over for dinner on Chinese New Year and she asked about the type of egg noodles I use for the chow mein. This is what the fresh egg noodles look like. These can be found in the refrigerated section of the Asian supermarket.

May your Year of the Snake be filled with good health, happiness and prosperity.

What motivates me to post this, however, is knowing that one day Bebe E will remember this creamy soup that she enjoyed and wonder how I made it, and she’ll be able to look it up on our family recipe journal. This brings a smile to my face.

Lately, while we’re eating dinner, if she likes something, she will say to me, “Mmm, yummy! Mommy, I really like your food you make for me.” I like to respond with, “I made it with love and kindness.” She usually just smiles and says, “thank you.”

Honestly, what more could a Mommy ask for!

So finally, finally, here’s our family’s latest favorite soup. I think the recipe is pretty forgiving and you can adapt the soup to your preference of thickness and richness. The base for the soup is similar to our favorite chicken corn chowder soup (recipe available here). It’s just in time for our incoming rain”storm”. Every time it rains in Southern California it is a MAJOR event, so we’re bracing ourselves with a big pot of soup.

You can’t have a blog post without photos. But I finally realized this morning that I can continue to blog, despite the fact that my iPhoto application on my laptop has been completely out-of-commission for about a week now. I can’t upload any photos from my camera to my laptop, and I can’t access any photos that were previously uploaded prior to my tech-mess.

Apparently, my iPhoto application is busy updating my library of 4,728, 137 files.

Do I even HAVE 4,728,137 photos in my library?

Whatever my lovely MacBook Pro is up to, I don’t like it. It’s preventing me from accessing iPhoto whilst it updates, my laptop seems slower, and sadly, it’s only on number 858,478, which means it looks as though I’ll have to deal with this for at least another two and half weeks.

Oh, and did I mention I can’t shut my laptop down AT ALL? Yup, it’s because iPhoto refuses to allow the system to shut down while it’s updating 4,728,137 files. So my laptop is also wasting electricity and probably ruining inches of our earth’s precious rainforest. Great.

On the bright side, this morning I finally realized that my  iPhone actually takes semi-decent photos that I can email to myself, open on my laptop, edit in Picasa, and then upload to my blog. All without the help of iPhoto. Of course, I didn’t haven’t to share all of the tedious details of my disdain for my laptop, but let’s just say I feel better now that I’ve vented, perhaps at the expense of your bored ears.

So today I took a photo of Bebe’s lunch, because I don’t have anything else exciting to post at the moment.

For some reason, Bebe E doesn’t care much for sandwiches. She would prefer to eat her meat, cheese and bread separately. Once in a while I can get her to eat honey ham or turkey if it’s in a Hawaiian King’s roll or if I make her mini sandwich squares using bread from Japanese supermarket. She refuses to eat store-bought bread from the regular grocery store. It’s a challenging sandwich situation that I face.

What Bebe E loves however, are “bento” or traditional Japanese packed lunches made with rice, vegetables and protein. She prefers that I place her bento box in a brown paper sack, just like the ones her Nene (older sister) takes with her to school.

For me, making bento is actually easier than making a sandwich in the morning, because all it requires of me is to pack leftovers from dinner. Yes, it’s THAT easy. Then, I’ll warm-up leftover rice and then make mini onigiri in my rice ball mold which makes three at a time and saves time.

Today, however, I had leftover meat from last night’s dinner, so I decided to make a small batch of wontons while Bebe E was at school. (Follow recipe link here for my mother-in-law’s Chinese style wontons.) Then I packed leftover veggies: edamame / soybeans (another Bebe E favorite) and “soft” carrots (she likes her carrots par-boiled and soft, not crunchy – - – I know, she is a bit high maintenance like her mother) and I made her furikake onigiri / rice balls seasoned with Japanese rice seasoning. (Follow recipe link for our favorite salmon rice balls.)

I’ll usually pack a separate plastic container with sliced fruit, berries or a tangerine.

There you have it, Bebe E ‘s Thursday bento. Needless to say, she was happy with her lunch today.

Happy Bebe = Happy Mommy, technology challenges aside.

Every once in a while, a decadent, rich, chocolaty treat is perfect for celebrating a birthday or a special occasion such as Valentine’s Day. Fortunately for our family, every year we celebrate two such special occasions during the week of Valentine’s Day.

I had almost forgotten about this simple chocolaty cake that my friend’s mom taught me back in high school or college. It’s simple because it uses cake mix out of the box, but it’s special because a few secret ingredients are added to make it extra rich and decadent.

For those of you who stopped reading at the words, “cake mix out of the box”, please keep an open mind and consider this recipe, because there might come a day where you’re pressed for time and need a beautiful cake at a moment’s notice. I promise, this won’t disappoint! :)

The two secret ingredients are chocolate pudding mix and light sour cream, although at this point you might as well use full-fat sour cream if you’re going to indulge in cake anyway.

The original recipe from my friend’s mom uses dark chocolate cake mix, but I love it with red velvet too. In the past, I’ve also tried this recipe with strawberry cake mix, vanilla pudding mix and white chocolate chips and it’s just as lovely as the chocolate version. Feel free to play around with the flavors of this recipe. It won’t disappoint! However, if you’re not looking for a rich, sweet, thick, moist cake… it’s best that you don’t bother with this one.

As for my life these days, I’ve taken a little step back from being so connected to technology, namely Instagram, Twitter, FaceBook, my laptop, and yes, even my blog… My iPhone, while fabulous, has actually made it a bit too convenient for me to stay connected through many social technology platforms but I realized that it was also taking away from the attention that I want to give to my little one. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not the type of mommy who ignores her child in favor of Twitter or texting! :)

Bebe E only has a few short years before she is off to kindergarten and elementary school and she already sees me on the phone enough, but when I address her, and talk to her, I try very hard to make a point of looking at her, looking in her eyes, and giving her the attention and respect that I would also expect in return from her.

That being said, the last few weeks I’ve been trying to make the most of my time with her, before she is off to elementary school. With the Valentine’s and Lunar New Year holidays, we’ve been busy with crafts and fun activities such as baking the cake you see in this post. In addition, a mommy-friend from Bebe E’s preschool inspired me to play “school” more often at home. This was an activity that we often “played” before Bebe E started preschool, where we pretended to be in school as I taught Bebe E (and her school friends – aka stuffed animals and her “baby”) basic concepts such as the alphabet, counting etc. Since we actually started preschool, I hadn’t placed much emphasis on pretend school and learning at home.

Now you’re all caught up on where I’ve been the past two weeks while I was M.I.A on the blog.

As for our Valentine’s Day this year, I’m not sure what I’m going to make for the hubster. Last year, I made him almond jello, a childhood favorite (recipe post is available here), but I haven’t decided what to cook this year. Usually when Valentine’s Day falls on a weekday, its just like any other school night where I make dinner for the family at home. I think last year I might have even saved my husband the trouble of getting me a gift by hand selecting a box of my favorite See’s Candies myself. (This is what happens after several years of marriage.)

Last year, Bebe E and I celebrated Valentine’s Day with a holiday themed book and we made almond jello (for Daddy) and other crafts together. The tradition remains the same this year in that I found another Valentine’s Day book that I think Bebe E will really enjoy. I’m also making her a special Valentine’s Day envelope and we’ll do more crafts together as well as to finish up our Valentine’s Day cards that we didn’t get to today. I’ll share more on the crafts as time permits.

I’m keeping with the theme of 2013 which is simplicity. Our Valentine’s Day will be simple, yet lovely and memorable.

May your February 14th be just as simple and lovely.

Happy Valentine’s Day!