Easy fried rice

Ingredients:

• 1 lb bag of frozen chopped peas and carrots
• 4 Chinese sausage links (lop chong), sliced in half and thinly chopped
• 6 eggs
• cooked white rice
• 1 clove minced garlic
• chopped green onions
• soy sauce

Directions:

1.  Prepare rice: I made 4 cups or rice in the rice cooker. While I let the rice cook, I prepared the sausages and chopped onions and minced garlic.
2. Scramble eggs in a pan. Set aside in a bowl and chop into smaller pieces.
3. Add oil to a large pan and cook the sausages for a few minutes.
4. Add some oil to pan and add minced garlic and onions. Stir around for 1-2 minutes.
5. Add in the chopped peas and carrots. Stir until veggies are cooked.
6. Add a little more oil to pan (if needed).  Add in the white rice and stir.  Mix the veggies and sausages into the white rice.
7. Add soy sauce to taste and stir all ingredients for a few more minutes.

Stuffed bitter melon soup

Ingredients

• 3 bitter melons, cut in 1 1/2 pieces with inside seeds taken out. 
• 1 lb ground pork
• bean thread
• minced garlic or garlic powder
• black pepper
• fish sauce
• green onion

Directions

1. Soak bean thread in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain and cut into small pieces. 
2. Cut bitter melon in 1 1/2 in. pieces. Take out insides/seeds. Rinse with water.
3. Take mince garlic and black pepper and mix with ground pork.
4. Add 2-3 tbsp of fish sauce and bean thread to ground pork mixture.
5. Stuff bitter melon with pork.
6. Add 4-5 cups of water in pot, boil.
7. Add stuffed bitter melons into pot. Season with fish sauce.
8. Cook for 45 minutes or until bitter melon is soft.
9. Garnish with chopped green onion and cilantro.

Stir fry bitter melon with egg

Ingredients

• bitter melon cut in thin slices
• crushed garlic
• soy sauce or fish sauce
• oil

Directions

1. Heat oil in pan.
2. Stir fry garlic.
3. Add bitter melon slices and stir for 10 minutes.
4. Add fish sauce or soy sauce to taste.
5. Add beaten eggs and stir until eggs are cooked.

Ga kho gung (Vietnamese braised chicken)

Ingredients

• 1 lb dark meat chicken
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 knob of ginger, julienne cut
•  1 tsp ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp oil 

Directions

1. Caramelize sugar in pan, stir until brown. Add to bigger pot.
2. Add chicken, garlic, onion and ginger, stir 2 minutes.
3. Add salt, fish sauce, pepper and water, stir and cover pot with top. Keep on high heat. 
4. Cook for 15 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.

Rau muong xao thit

Ingredients

• rau muong
• thin sliced beef
• fish sauce
• minced garlic
• chopped onions
• oil

Directions

1.  Add oil to pan. Add garlic, onions and beef and stir until meat is cooked.
2. Transfer meat to bowl, set aside. Add in rau muong and stir in pan until vegetable looks wilted.
3. Add back in the beef. Add fish sauce and garlic to taste.
4. Stir 7-10 minutes. 

Stir fry tofu with lemongrass

Ingredients

• thin chopped lemongrass
• chopped green onions
• oil
• tofu
• fish sauce

Directions

1. Add oil to pan. Add onions and lemongrass to pan and stir.
2. Add in tofu and fish sauce and stir 10 minutes.

Alex is 3 months old!

My adorable baby boy is growing so fast! So fast that he could barely fit into his blazer for his monthly picture. I found this Baby GAP blazer at a thrift store for $3! I kept saving it for when he could finally fit into it or for a special occasion and now I waited too long that this is sadly the only time he will get to wear it! But atleast I got some cute photos from it!

At 3 months, he is babbling a lot more and louder as well! I love to hear him 'talk'. He has also started playing with his hands, putting them in his mouth and grabbing/pulling things (like my hair!). I can also see two tiny teethes starting to appear on his lower front gum line, which I assume is causing his to drool like crazy! He is very playful and active little baby!