Busy but Blessed

I would call this my usual Weekend Rewind post, but liked this title better.

Friday night we made homemade pizza and went to bed early. But after busy weeks we love going to bed and catching up on the sleep we've missed.

Saturday we actually set our alarm, because there was much to do. We went for a 5 mile run...which was also Daniel's longest run ever!! woo hoo!!! He wants to do the half with me in May, and i'm pretty sure he'll do just fine.

Saturday was a gorgeous day, so we loved being outside if even for just a short time.

After cleaning up we headed to Chick fil then attacked grocery shopping. I'm starting to menu plan a few weeks in advance, so my goal is to do the big shopping every 2 weeks, with just a quick trip to the store for the bare essentials on the off weeks.

Saturday afternoon we picked up our Chinese students that we host. They've been wanting to show us how to cook a few Chinese dishes, and we have been dying to learn! So we headed to the local Asian market to pick up the things we would need.

I didn't know what all the ingredients were, but i had no doubt that it would all be delicious!!!

They even let me help. It was interesting bc they used chopsticks for a lot of the stirring and cooking.

Dexin's first time to use a can opener. He was pretty excited!

It was REALLLLY smoky in our apartment from all the hot oils being used, which you can see in the pics. The fire alarm might have gone off and there might have been a few sparks in the kitchen.

Dexin is about to start making the eggplant dish. I'm not usually a fan of eggplant, but when it's cooked with oil, ginger, garlic, pork, green onion, etc... what is NOT to love? ha!

Daniel was pretty excited!

Group pic, ha!!

Here are just some random pics....

(look! there's my homemade bread!)

These are the HOTTEST peppers ever!! Hua Jiao!

 Don't be afraid of the Doufu!!! When cooked right, it's amazing!!

We had 9 dishes total...

From left to right:

Eggplant

Egg/Tomato

Shrimp Doufu (tofu) -light colored dish

Kung pow chicken-SO spicy and delish!

Pork Doufou (big glass bowl in middle)

Green leafy vegetable (i only know the chinese name, ha!)

Seaweed/egg soup

The tortilla looking dish is called Bing, and is so amazingly delicous i can't even tell you. It's like a sesame crepe, that i could eat for the rest of my life. It was our dessert!

This one was probably my fave...it's the stalk/stem of what green peas grow on. I made sure this dish was right next to me, ha!

Kung pow chicken or Gong Bao Ji Ding

The entire time we were eating we kept making lots of yummy sounds and exclaiming how good everything tasted. Seriously, chinese food in america is nothing like true Chinese food. Ohhhhh the yumminess!!!!!!!

We were so grateful that our students wanted to cook for us and share their culinary skills. We had the best time learning how they cooked each dish and finding new foods and spices we didn't know about before. We love learning other cultures! Most of dinner conversation centered around culture comparisons and Chinese traditions. It was a truly wonderful night!!!!

We went to church today, came home and had leftovers, and have been busy cleaning and working on stuff that needs to get done. I mentioned menu planning, here is what this week looks like:

Mon: Tilapia, orzo pasta, vegetable

Tues/Wed: Zuppa Toscana (gotta get our kale!)

Thurs/Fri: Creamy Chicken vegetable pasta

Sat: out

With running in the evenings it's too hard to come home, run, and try to cook every night. i try to make meals that will last us 2 nights so when we run we can just come home and eat!

We're expecting a good amount of snow/sleet/ice on Tuesday. If you know me, this warms my soul and brings a lot of joy to my heart! i l.o.v.e snow days!!! 

how was ya'lls weekend? what do you think of the food??

love

laura