Chicken Stir Fry

This is the best stir fry I have ever had. I love stir fries of all kinds, but this is the best! The recipe is from Shenli's mom, and I wrote it down when she taught me how to make it, but at the time I remember thinking "I know this is a terrible place to write it down, but I'm sure I will remember it later!" And...I have no clue where I wrote it down now. So I'm trying to recreate it from memory!

The cool thing about this stir fry is that you can make it with chicken for a full meal, or leave out the chicken (just start at the part where you put in vegetables), and have it as a delicious side dish for any other Asian meal! Also, I am not putting exact measurements for most of the things below. It can be made as big or small as you need, and you can use as much or as little of everything as you think tastes good.

Chicken Stir Fry
Recipe: Alicia Lund (adapted by Eliza Lund)

Chicken breast(s)
Corn starch, for chicken
Oil, for the pan
Minced garlic
Soy sauce (Alicia recommends Kikkoman for cooking, but La Choy for eating)
Oyster sauce
Sesame oil, optional
Cornstarch mixed with water (about 1 tsp cornstarch in 1 cup water)
Additional water
Vegetables - broccoli, carrots, pea pods, bell pepper (I prefer red), zucchini, etc. Anything is possible!

Cut the chicken breast into thin, long slices and coat with corn starch (about 1 tsp for 1 chicken breast - it doesn't have to fully coat the chicken). Heat 2-3 tsp of oil in a large fry pan to medium-high heat. Add the chicken and stir constantly to fry the chicken until it is cooked through.

Cut up the vegetables. Alicia cut up the broccoli into small pieces, but left the stems fairly long. The carrots get cut into thin thin slices, cut on the diagonal. Pea pods can be left whole or cut in half for smaller bites.

Add the vegetables, garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil to taste to the chicken. For enough food to feed two people, I usually use about 1 tsp soy sauce, and 1-2 Tbl of oyster sauce. I don't usually use sesame oil, but it will give it more depth of flavor. I also use about 1 clove garlic. But as Alicia taught me, tasting it is the most important, and you will get better at knowing how much sauce you need to get a good flavor. Also add the cornstarch mixed with water to thicken.

Stir fry the vegetables and chicken until the vegetables turn bright and the sauce thickens. The vegetables will still be crisp. If you need to, add more sauces for flavor, or more cornstarch/water to thicken, or more water by itself to thin the sauce. You want the sauce to be slightly thin still by the end. Once everything is to your liking, serve immediately with rice.

Here are some additional things that can be done, that I don't do every time. It just depends on if you need to:
-You can add the vegetables in order from what cooks slowest to fastest. Broccoli is considered a fast-cooking vegetable, by the way, since you want it to still be crisp.
-If the vegetables aren't cooking fast enough, you can put the lid on the pan and steam them for a bit. This will help the vegetables finish cooking without drying out the chicken or burning the sauce.

My Happiness Project

If you haven't read The Happiness Project, I highly recommend it! I am not usually into self-help books or nonfiction, mostly because a lot of self-help books to me seem similar, and I am either doing many of the things in the books already, or else I am not ready to make some of the other changes!

But this book is different. Or maybe it just really clicked with me. Either way, I loved it! I loved that anyone could benefit from asking themselves what truly makes them happy. Since reading it, I find myself asking the question "what makes me more happy?" or "do I do this because it makes me actually happy?".

For instance, with eating right vs. eating pizza and brownies all day. Which one makes me more happy? I am still wrestling with that one though...so let's move on to some easier ones. :D

When my mom was in town, somehow the topic of napkins came up, and I mentioned that I only use napkins on special occasions. Clearly I have issues. But anyway, she said "Well, today is a special occasion!" and we used the napkins. Now I'm not saying that I never use napkins ever. But, for instance, if I cooked bacon and wanted to put it on a napkin or paper towel to remove the grease, I would take a napkin and rip it in half to use less. Because clearly I need to save those 97cent napkins so I don't have to buy them frequently!

Since my mom made that statement, I have now found myself considering every day a special occasion for many things. For instance, I now allow myself to use more plastic wrap, instead of reusing kind that is clearly meant for the trash. I run the dishwasher before we run out of dishes (I used to use random tupperware as bowls for my breakfast cereal, to save...dish soap I guess?). I do laundry more frequently. I wear my favorite clothes and shoes instead of saving them for some "special occasion". And here are a few big ones:

-I throw away bobby pins that are sharp because they have lost their plastic coating. Um hello, why would I put myself through pain of bobby pins rather than just buying new ones?!
-I buy makeup supplies. I had one makeup brush that was broken, so it was just the tip with the brush on it left. Why not just buy another!

Some might say, and I've pondered this myself too, that I am just being less conservative now, and becoming more wasteful. And sure, that is the case. BUT it is making me more happy! Having clean dishes makes me happy. Even more than the 'joy' I received from conserving water and dish soap.

I have some other happiness goals I want to tackle from this book, but that was the main one. To make myself happy by using up things. I highly recommend everyone read this book!

Baby Roy Turns 2 Months

Two whole months! It sure doesn't seem like a long time, especially since when I look at Roy, I swear he's at least several years old. Apart from the not moving much and not talking much, he feels like he understands enough to be quite old! I am sure all parents think that about their kids. They just seem so smart! Here are some fun things about Roy this month:

-He has a giant head. Okay, we knew it already (50th percentile for head circumference at birth! And combine that with only 3rd percentile for weight...it looks pretty cute and funny). But we recently got together with some friends who had a baby, and Roy really looked like he had a big head then!

-He is starting to make noises and smile. And it is the cutest darn thing! We spend so many hours each day trying to get him to coo at us, or smile. Shenli is the big winner in that category - he blows in Roy's face and Roy closes his eyes and gets a big smile on his face.

-I think he will roll over any day. He lays on his back and rocks side to side so violently. And he has been able to roll from tummy to back a few times, but not consistently.

-Nap time is turning into fool-the-parents time. He will be silent for a long time, and then start crying in his bed. As soon as we crack open the door to check on him, he will look directly at us and stop crying. He sure knows how to get us to pay attention to him!

-He is so content, we can take him anywhere! In the last week, we have taken him to church, some friends' house, and a baby shower. At all three places, he was totally content as long as we held him (which we, or someone else, did constantly!). Even if he is tired or hungry, if he is being held then he will just sit and watch the world go by.

-Next week, he gets his 2-month shots. I am excited to see how much he has grown, and for him to start really interacting with us!

He is learning to smile now!

His hair is an adventure every day

He loves Grandpa, but not so much the spider hat.

At night he enjoys taking off his clothes while inside his swaddler!

He looks so big now!

Roy's Baby Blessing and Our Miracles

We blessed Roy at church when he was six weeks old on Sunday, September 28th. There were three baby blessings that day! Two of my sisters and their families were able to come and be there with us. It was such a wonderful blessing! Roy was blessed in the white blanket that my Grandma Bonnie made that belonged to me. When Shenli held up Roy after the blessing for the congregation to see, there was an audible whisper that ran through the crowd. Roy's hair always causes quite a stir! We had moved into this ward just a few weeks before I had Roy and so we haven't been to church much at all. So now it is fun to get to know ward members with our new baby!

There have also been some wonderful miracles in our life lately that I wanted to record. The first was on Roy's blessing day. My dad's favorite hymn was #194, There Is a Green Hill Far Away. Since it is a Sacrament hymn, we sing it quite frequently of course, but throughout my life I have noticed that I tend to sing it in Sacrament meeting on important days in my life! Back at BYU in the ward I met Shenli, I gave a talk one Sunday early in the semester, and I was so nervous - but we sang that song and it calmed me. Shenli remembers noticing me during my talk, and so the hymn was there with us as we began our friendship and eventual marriage! The same thing happened on Roy's blessing day - Hymn #194 was our Sacrament hymn. I was nervous that day too, since we hadn't taken Roy anywhere for 3 hours before, and I was worried he would cry the whole time. But he was so wonderful at church, and I am grateful for my dad's favorite hymn being there with us.

The other miracle I wanted to mention was that the Lord always knows what we need and what we can handle. About a week ago now, I had a particularly stressful day. I have been working from home now and that sure takes up a lot of time and energy! I was in a grumpy mood from work, household chores, and Roy demanding so much (I know I know..he's not even 2 months! But sometimes it just gets to me...). At the end of the day as I was being sad, Shenli asked what I needed. I said "honestly, I just want to sleep 8 solid hours for once in my life again!" There was nothing Shenli could do about that of course, but it was the first thing that came to my mind. So I went to bed at 9pm that night, just after we put down Roy. And then...Roy slept until 3:45am! It was the first time he had "slept through the night", and I got almost 7 solid hours of sleep before I had to wake up. Since then, Roy has followed that same pattern - and although I don't go to bed at 9pm every night, I can get a solid chunk of sleep before Roy gets up to eat! The Lord truly knows what we need, and when we need it. Although it was just a little thing for me to get more sleep (and I'm sure that 8 solid hours is still a long ways off for me :D), the Lord blessed me in my hour of need. And I am so grateful!

Roy will be two months this week! I am sure I will write a little more about him, with some of the fun pictures he's taken lately! And I still have a few recipes up my sleeve, don't worry. I just need to make them again so I can get good pictures!