Weekly Favorites 1/25

Hi everyone. 

Education
This week I've found these really cute letter and number heart puzzles to do with your preschoolers/kindergarteners. They are perfect for a Valentine's day theme so I'm planning to try them next month with Little Guy. As I linked to their activities many times earlier, Totshooling is a great site to find free educational printable activities for preschoolers and kindergarteners. If you find it useful, make sure to subscribe to their newsletter because there are more free printables for subscribers and I found most of them really good.

Finance

Now that I've sort of started to take control of my time (thanks in part to bullet journaling), I've started to work on our finance. Our financial situation has improved dramatically in the past couple of years, which is good, but it also made us lazy about our financial dicisions. So I've decided to make more conscious decisions with regards to our money. These two articles, How to Make a Spending Plan and Why I'm Tracking Every Single Purchase I Make in 2017 put me on track.

Yum!

Lastly, I have this yummy White Bean and Avocado Baked Burritos recipe for you. I've made this a couple of times before and it's always been a hit. This time, in addition to making brritos as per the recipe, I just baked the fillings to cut down on the amount of wheat I eat. I did cover the fillings by putting a tortilla over the fillings so it won't dry while baking but did not eat it together. It was delicious this way too.

If you liked these stories don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Flipboard to get notified as soon as I share them. Have a wonderful day :)

Weekly Favorites 1/4

I hope you all had a wonderful winter holiday with friends and families.  Sadly some nasty colds caught us all and our holiday wasn´t as eventful and active as we had planned. But we instead had a goood rest and a warm family time sitting in front of the fire or watching a few movies together, so that wasn´t bad after all.

Here are my favorite reads these past weeks:

Education

As an introvert myself, I wish one of my teachers had thought of this when I was a student:
How to teach a young introvert

Some great tips for a teacher who's just come back to school: 
Teacher tips for the first day back from winter break

Home

I wish I came across this article before I had that birthday party

10 Little Things To Do Before Company Arrives

Have you ever thought it'd be awesome if things you created with Lego blocks actually moved? Now they're making that thought come true. And kids can learn how to code too. Sounds very fun.

Lego Boost teaches kids how to bring blocks to life with code 

Music

This article explains how a piano was invetned pretty well. I listened to the recording after reading the article, and I could easily imagine the people back then amazed at this new instrument, perhaps with a little skepticism. Beautiful sound.

What does the world oldest surviving piano sound like

Yum!

I've recently tried this Creamy Butternut Squash Linguine with Fried Sage, and really liked it. I thought the sage might get overpowering but actually it just adds a nice salty accent to the pasta. I'd add more next time. If you omit the red pepper flakes, it'll be very kid friendly. My son loved it too.

Miscellaneous

An inspiring article for these first days of a new year to set goals, decide how to approach your goals and work on it. I've started to make my 100 things to do list too. Hope it helps me reach my goals, as right now they are very messy and I need some structure to tackle it.
How To Invest In Yourself

I remember how sad I felt when I heard of the passing of Alan Rickman. Seems like he was indeed a good person. RIP

Kate Winslet Remembers Alan Rickman Using His Harry Potter Fortune for Good

And speaking of Harry Potter, here's a fun little article:

J.K. Rowling’s 12 Biggest ‘Harry Potter’ Revelations of 2016

I know Christmas is over but here are two fun articles about some unique (and maybe a bit strange) " Christmas traditions" in Japan:

Why Japan is Obsessed with Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas

Why the Japanese Eat Cake For Christmas

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

If you liked these stories don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Flipboard to get notified as soon as I share them

Koi Fish Cookies for Children's Day

Many of you may be celebrating Cinco de Mayo today, but here at Crafty Mochi's house we're celebrating Children's Day that's held also on May 5th in Japan! As the name suggests, Children's day celebrates children's healthy growth and happiness. Typically koi fish streamers are displayed to celebrate this day, like the ones shown in the wall hanging below. And I made some koi fish cookies too!

I've made these koi fish cookies last year too with only chocolate icing, but this year I decided to make them more colorful. The green icing on the top koi fish uses matcha green tea. Isn't that a beautiful color? 

Little guy can't get enough of these cookies. Last year he was still too small to actually eat cookies (although his eyes were telling me he wanted to eat them. hehe.). What a difference one year can make!

Here's how I made the koi-shaped cookies. It's fairly simple.

Step 1: Make cookie dough following your favorite sugar cookie recipe. Roll out the dough. Cut the excess around the edges and make a rectangle. Cut in half lengthwise and cut also crosswise to make small rectangles. I just eyeballed the size of each rectangle but you can of course measure to make them precise. (I hear bakers tend to be precise. not me lol)

Step 2: Cut off a small triangle from one side of the rectangle piece to make a fish tail. I used my star-shaped cookie cutter to trim off the tail side but you can use a knife too. Don't put away these small triangles just yet (see step 3).

Step 3: Using the triangles cut off from the tail side of the rectangle piece, make a small ball and attach it to the head side of the fish. This will become the fish's eye. I made 2-3 eyes from one triangle piece.

Step 4: Bake according to your recipe's direction. Cool the baked cookies before starting to decorate.

Step 5: Now the decoration time!

Place a drop of your icing onto the center of the eye and write a "W" on the body. Pretty easy!

You can also spread clear or white icing over the fish and decorate with sprinkles too, like the third koi fish on the first photo. I used coloring pens for the second fish. I love the convenience of these pens! 

almond parmesan

I could see the fall has come because one day when I opened my pinterest page, it was filled with butternut squash recipes. In fact, I just made creamy butternut squash pasta the previous night*. I don't look forward to chilly days but I love fall comfort foods and fall colors.

Among the recipes I found on my pinterest page, this roasted butternut squash with kale and almond pecan parmesan particularly caught my eyes. It looked so comforting and delicious. I still had some butternut squash so immediately tried this. I had to made some modifications because I didn't have all the ingredients. I even had to omit pecan from the almond pecan parmesan but I loved it! It perfectly fit this particular recipe but I can see that it also goes with many other dishes. For example, I made pasta salad the next day for lunch and sprinkled some of my almond parmesan. It was oh so good. I'm going to have to make the original pecan version too. It must be delicious.

I modified her recipe to make almond parmesan as follows. I omitted the pecan, reduced the amount of the nutritional yeast and olive oil by half, and added salt to taste. 

Do you have favorite butternut squash recipes?

* I made this pasta the following way. First, I steamed the butternut squash and mashed it. I put some aside for babyfood. Then, I thinned out the rest of the mashed butternut squash in a pan with water and coconut milk over medium heat, and added nutritional yeast and other seasonings. yum.

[vegan mofo day 14] Lentils Shepherd's Pie and Baby Shepherd's Pie

I love shepherd's pie. I think it's one of the most comforting foods. I don't know if it's the mashed potatoes or the fact that it's baked (I love baked foods), or the combination of moist filling and soft, silky layer, but I just like it. On one Thanksgiving, my MIL made a vegan shepherd's pie as a main dish for me. It was awesome. Who needs turkey for Thanksgiving if there's shepherd's pie (well, I don't want turkey if I had only salad and bread anyways but you know what I mean :) ).

I made the filling by sauteing diced carrots, green beans, corn and lentils. I seasoned them with celery seeds, sage, fennel seeds, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, salt and pepper. The fennel seeds added an interesting kick to the taste and I liked it. Sorry I didn't really measure any of the ingredients, so there's no recipe.

I also made a baby version of shepherd's pie. This turn out to be really cute and tasty :)

I happened to have all the ingredients pureed or diced in the freezer already so I just needed to assemble them. Pretty easy but looks... can I say impressive?

Baby Shepherd's Pie 

ingredients

1 Tablespoon each of pureed lentils, green beans

1 Tablespoon of steamed carrots, diced into tiny pieces

a tiny amount of olive oil

2 Tablespoons of mashed potato

(I'd add some herbs if I've introduced them already)

1) mix the vegetables and lentils with a small amount of olive oil in a warm pan

2) place the vegetable mixture in an oven safe container

3) place the mashed potato over the vegetable mixture

4) baked in the oven for about 10 minutes at 400F

5) Serve at a room temperature or chilled (not directly from the oven. it'll be too hot for little ones!)

 

 As always please make sure your baby can tolerate all the ingredients and consult with your pediatrician if you have any concerns.

[vegan mofo day 11] how to: super easy and quick lunch "rice bowl with greens"

This is my super easy, inexpensive lunch I usually whip up. It looks simple but, seasoned with soy sauce, nutritional yeast, and garlic, it actually is pretty flavorful and yummy :) If you already have cooked rice and chopped greens at hand (say, you chopped extra veggies at your dinner prep the previous night), it cooks up really fast too, which is a huge plus for a busy lunchtime (or cooks this in the morning to put it in your lunchbox, maybe?).

Since it's so easy, I don't know if I can even call this a "recipe" but I thought of writing down how-to in case somebody's looking for a quick and nutritious lunch. Hope you'll enjoy it :)

Rice Bowl with Greens How to

ingredients

canola oil*

A clove of garlic, sliced

Chopped greens of your choice, e.g. broccoli, kale, cabbage, brussels sprouts are my usual choices

1-2 teaspoons of nutritional yeast

garlic powder

salt and pepper

A bowl of cooked rice (leftovers work perfectly!)

soy sauce

* you can use other types of oil too, but I like the flavor that the combination of canola oil and soy sauce creates. It reminds me of egg rice bowls I used to eat in pre-vegan days. More on that sometime.

1) Heat the oil in the pan at medium-high heat. You might want to use a little bit more oil than you usually use to stir fry vegetables as the extra oil will coat the rice later. Place the slices of garlic and heat until they become fragrant.

2) Put the chopped veggies and turn the heat up. Fry the veggies.

I like crunchier and a bit burned vegetables, but if you like softer stir fried veggies, you might want to keep the heat to medium high.

3) In the meantime, if your rice was sitting in the fridge, warm it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Don't worry if it's not warmed through. It will be cooked again in the pan later. If you've cooked your rice fresh, skip this process.

4) When the veggies are done, add the nutritional yeast, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste.

5) Turn off the heat. Add the rice and mix with the veggies in the pan. The remaining heat will cook the rice without frying.

6) Drizzle the soy sauce to your liking.

7) Dig in!

variations

• add beans or diced tofu to make it a more substantial meal. Black beans or chickpeas are my favorites for this. Add them after the vegetables
• add drops of sriracha sauce before you eat to spice it up!
• add pieces of nori sheets after the heat is turned off (just before adding the soy sauce)
• add sesame seeds