Shrimp & Chive Dumplings. This was first made for this and it is surprisingly easy and so delicious. It was our favorite dumplings out of the various we made that day and so it’s the one I choose to make when I have a dumpling itch. I need to stock up on more wrappers so that dumpling dinners can happen more often.

Malaysian Chicken Curry. I have made this before too, but this time I used a different (hot!) curry powder and boy was it hot! I also made a batch without the spice for the girls and they weren’t fans, but Ben and I totally were. If it’s got spice (and a lot of it), it’s almost guaranteed we will love it.

Steak and Tequila Lime Chicken Fajitas. Fast and good. I had a steak and chicken breast option with lots of bell peppers and onions, throw in some avocado and pretty much everyone is a fan!

Vietnamese Chicken Pho. Oh. My. Gosh. Ben and I love eating pho and we tried making it once, but it cost so much (and took so much time!) to make that we figured we’ll just get it out to eat instead of make it again. Then I met Liz (Hi Liz!) and she told me about this recipe that her family has been making for years and it only takes 2 hours! And by golly, after two hours, I had pho! It was so good. Now, it was a bit oilier than we would prefer because the broth was made with a whole chicken, but next time to eliminate some of that fat, I would make the soup, then let it cool and put it the fridge so that the fat could separate, scoop the fat out, and then voila, it’s much better. The flavors are spot on and this is something I plan on making often. We love it that much!

Breakfast Pizza. We we’re pretty low on food in our fridge because we needed to make a run to the market, but I just grabbed things we had and experimented. I had some dough that I made a couple weeks ago and just froze, then I sprinkled herbs, added olives, sprinkled feta cheese, mozzarella, eggs, and shaved sweet potato and we had dinner. It was eh. I think I didn’t like the olives and I typically love olives, but something didn’t taste right to me. We all ate it, but I don’t think I will make this again.

Mexican Breakfast Pizza. Another experimental kind of dinner and I like this breakfast pizza much better than the previous. This one had fresh dough, soy-rizo (soy Mexican sausage), mozzarella, eggs, avocado, and lots of cilantro. I think the soy-rizo brought the flavor and we all really liked it. Plus, it had some spicy kick from the sausage, so that helped make it taste good for me.

Vietnamese Shrimp Pho. I wanted to try and make a shrimp pho after making the chicken one and I combined a few different recipes I found online, while sticking to some of the basics that Liz gave me in her recipe. This was a vegetable based broth and Ben says it came out creamier than he’s used to, but we both gobbled it up with seconds and thirds, so obviously we liked it. It is definitely good, but we like the broth of the chicken pho better. The girls really like the noodles and Brave was all about the shrimp.

These are some of the meals from the past couple weeks. I like cooking for my family and I am learning how to experiment. Not that it always comes out great, but I’m learning.

Week 10/22 – 10/26
Monday: Oven Fried Chicken with Asparagus and Sweet Potato
Tuesday: Turkey Meatloaf with Mashed Cauliflower (made here)
Wednesday: Cold Soba Salad with Dried Shiitake Dressing
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Pizza (or sushi)

Still need to get better at planning my meals around veggies. Ben does all the grocery shopping, so he picks all the veggies out and I usually plan around what he gets and never have recipes in mind ahead of time. It usually is roasted broccoli or mashed cauliflower because you can’t really go wrong with those options can you?! What are some of your favorite veggie dishes? I need some ideas!

Halloween is just around the corner and I made these simple headbands for a guest post over at Prudent Baby, so if you’re stuck and want something easy, these might just be it! We haven’t quite figured out what everyone will be dressing up as over here and True keeps reminding me I still have to sew hers (Oh time, where art thou?!), but this year’s motto is simple is best.

Have you figured out what you or your kids will be dressing up as? Maybe you’ll want to be a witch, kitty cat, magic dragon, or a ray of sunshine (which could easily be translated into Lady Liberty). If so, get the full instructions for the headbands here.

These girls are a hoot. Seriously. Brave went to school with her own homemade feather boutonniere and True’s always so cute with her choice of head accessory. And they make up the funniest jokes that don’t make sense!  True also gets mad if you tell her someone else is funnier than her. She insists she is the funniest and Brave will insists she is the sweetest, and they both say Soul is the rudest! See, I told you they’re funny!

on true: dress, misha lulu. shoes, salt-waters. on brave: dress, c/o tag you’re it. leggings, target. shoes, vintage.

Whew! That was a busy week and one of my best guy friends got married. Though I thought my bridesmaid days were over with this wedding, I was obviously wrong. It was such a beautiful celebration of love and grace, and a wonderful display and reminder of Christ and the church.

For me personally, it was also a reminder of trusting in God and finding joy in serving his people. It was so busy trying to juggle the girls, making sure we stayed on top of homeschooling, doing wedding prep (besides being a bridesmaid), and just managing all these other little things we have going on in our home. It was definitely a crazy week, but I am so thankful and blessed.

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness (I think this will be added in because I need to cultivate a stronger heart of thankfulness)…

In times of stress… pray. I fail at that often.

Glow took four steps! She did a few weeks ago and she took bigger ones this time around.

Soul’s a funny napper (see here). It gets funnier every time.

This cake topper is so cute! I can’t wait to try it out for a birthday!

I love Salvage Life’s new webshop!

Thankful for the Autumn weather we had this week. We even had rain! This coming week is supposed to be back in the 90’s, but by next weekend dip down into the 70’s again. I can’t wait!

I am so thankful for the BFF and her hubs for taking the big girls on an adventure on Saturday (and a sleepover) and letting Ben and me catch up on some things around the house.

Got to see our good friends from AZ and I am so grateful for them taking care of the 4 girls while I was doing wedding stuff and Ben was at work. It’s not easy watching 4 little girls. They were even brave enough to take them all to a restaurant!

Thankful for spending Sunday afternoon with church family hanging out at Umami Burger. It’s such a blessing to share life with these people and I don’t think Ben and I do it enough, but when we do get the chance, we always leave more refreshed and encouraged. God is good.

It was a crazy week, but there was much goodness amidst the busyness. How was your week? Anything you are particularly thankful for?

I got my first locket when I was in kindergarten from my parents and ever since then I have always had a soft spot for them. Maybe it’s also the influence of my mom who was constantly buying unique lockets for herself because she wanted to have pictures of us with her all the time. She was always so proud.

Here I am today and I have a little collection going. I’m proud of my little family and love having pictures of them adorn my neck. I have 4 total and all of them are vintage. My favorite place to go locket shopping is Jean Jean Vintage. It’s pretty much my favorite vintage jewelry shop. She always has the best selection (look at this 1930’s cameo locket) and even Ben’s knows this shop well because he often checks it to see what lockets are in stock. This black 1940’s one is my newest addition from Jean Jean Vintage, which is the same place where I got my other locket pictured. Besides, locket this lovely shop has a bunch of other pretty vintage jewelry. I love the shop so much that I try not to check often because I know I will always find something that I love and will have a hard time saying no to (like this needlepoint clutch, this art deco brooch, and this 1940’s cameo). Told you the shop was dangerously wonderful!

Well, I finally put a teeny picture in my locket, which is the same one that I blew up and put on the wall (I just cropped out mine and Ben’s face). I love how simple and striking this locket is with the black stone.  I know I have my locket my parents gave me so long ago somewhere and it has a picture of my mom and dad in it. I just need to find it. I want to get each of the girls their very own locket, but I am waiting to find something special. Wouldn’t it be so cute if somehow we found 4 matching little vintage ones?!

Do you collect something now that you’re mom used to collect when you were younger?

My girls are so girly! They love tutus, tiaras, pink, dancing, and princesses. Even with all their girlishness, lately they have really been loving Transformers and Spider Man. In a homage to their growing love for the transforming characters, I transformed them into an alienbot. What’s an alienbot? Well, an alien and robot put together of course!

on true: dress, vintage. leggings, gap kids. shoes, salt-waters. on brave: dress, misha lulu. shoes, converse.