a hippie with a minivan

Beef, noodle, veggie Pho… yummy…

This is just one of those non recipes… Most of my cooking is made this way…

Today.. It started with this…

A few beef shanks, bones and some slightly freezer burned steak roasting in a pan with a few onions…

Then after a bit more than an hour the stock was started with the roasted beef and onion, all the pan drippings, two heads of garlic, a few large pieces of ginger, star anise, carrots and a few stalks of celery and then covered with water…

After a few hours of simmering, I let it cool, adjusted the seasonings (a bit of tamari and garlic powder were perfect) and then skimmed the fat and strained it leaving a beautiful and fragrant beef broth…

The wok came out and in went a bit of peanut oil and thinly sliced beef marinated in Hoisen sauce for a few seconds, then set it aside…

Then a bit more peanut oil went into my wok along with ginger, garlic, Chinese cabbage, thinly cut celery, carrots and bean sprouts… I added a few ladles of stock and covered until cooked but not soggy… and then set that aside also…

A few toy choy went into the wok… and then in a bit of water with a bit of Tamari and some noodles while I reheated the broth…

When everything was ready, the noodles went into the bowl… then the veggies, the beef and the toy choy with a a few ladles of broth on top…

A squeeze of lime, a bit of Sriracha Chile sauce and it was perfect…

A hearty bowl of delicious goodness…

little update…

What a bad blogger I have been… I haven’t been posting much lately…

Summers seem to be a hard time to post for me and in the last week or so summer has really hit here… We had a mild and rainy June, July and begining of August but now it is hot and humid and unbearable at times… I am so happy we made the switch in Janurary and now have our rooms downstairs in the basement… At least we are able to sleep pretty well…

The pregnancy is going well, I am nearing 18 weeks now and I can’t believe how fast it is going… I felt the baby move a lot at about 12-13 weeks but now in the last three weeks I haven’t almost any movement… I feel distant thumps once in a while but not as much movement as I am used to feeling at this time in the pregnancy… I am pretty sure that the placenta is in front so that would explain the lack of feeling, I am just looking forward to getting the bigger kicks soon…

I was getting a bit confused about the dates and I felt that I was measuring bigger for a while so last week I went to see a midwife friend of mine and she gave me a second opinion and everything looks to be on track now… but neither of us can explain how I was able to hear the HB so soon and why I was able to hear it where I heard it…

I haven’t felt much nausea in the last week which feels great but I am not hungry for much either… I am still eating bagels with goat cheese and hot pepper jelly everyday and craving sour and sweet things… I found some yellow plums yesterday and there are only two left from the box… I can’t get enough of that combination…

The boys went with my mom again last week for two nights and it was a lot easier with Khéna this time around… we went blueberry picking and did a bit of shopping and he was a lot more content about not having his brothers around than last time… My mom brought them back on Friday afternoon and then on Saturday we went to a party with Simon’s Family… it was gorgeous and hot outside and the boys played and had a lot of fun… we also broke the news to his family about the babe…of course everyone’s reaction was that it was time to have a girl… but they seems genuinely happy for us which nice to see… I honestly wish that we saw more of that side of the family more often…

I can’t believe that we are mid August already… soon the temps will go down and I will start cooking more and sharing more here… well… hopefully… 🙂

heartbeat…

I was able to get a little sound clip of the heartbeat last week and thought that I would share… it is the first time that I have heard the heartbeat this clear in any of my pregnancies…

At first in the clip you hear the normal heart beat sound but then you start hearing actual thumping.. hearing the thumping noise in the doppler was really a first and I have to admit it was amazing to hear… which is why I had to get the recording…

Heartbeat

Enjoy 🙂

Frozen Grapes…

This is such a simple snack that feels like such a treat… It is just one of those things that you don’t think about sharing because it is so simple.

Just wash some grapes and throw them in the freezer… really.. that’s it… and what comes out of the freezer are these tasty little treats that everyone seems to love…

You bite into the crisp outside and the inside has frozen into a sorbet like texture…

Eat them straight from the freezer (or use a bowl if you wish) or throw them into your favourite cold drink…

Am I not in the second trimester now?

Physically I have felt great for the whole beginning of the pregnancy, a few aversions but not much else… then the second trimester hit and the tiredness and nausea kicked in… I know that for some people they have nausea nearly the whole pregnancy but for most it seems to taper at the end of the first trimester… I really never thought that it could start then.

A few weeks ago I woke up completely dizzy and had trouble walking… my blood pressure was a bit low, so I drank some water then a bit of coffee and had something with a bit of salt… I went in the kitchen to do something and I gagged and then literally ran to the bathroom to throw up… that has never happened to me when I was pregnant, it was such a weird feeling…

Since then I have this slight nausea that seems to follow me everywhere and I have even thrown up more times than I am willing to count…

No food sounds appealing to me… I am often not even hungry and have to force myself to eat… I have too many times cooked a meal that I won’t eat and just ended up snacking or eating something completely different… At the moment the easiest thing to go down (besides Sushi 😉 ) is a bagel with goat cheese and hot pepper jelly… But at least it is something, even though I might eat it more than once a day…

I don’t understand it!! why now??