National Breast Cancer Awareness Month- Price is Right Episode!

A few weeks ago, Guliana Rancic posted on her Instagram about a special breast cancer episode for The Price Is Right... My mom LOVES the price is right... she has watched it religiously since 1978. She has always dreamed about playing this game show- and I wanted to do this for her!

I went to get tickets and wrote in about my mom's condition. I haven't really blogged about my mom's recent battles with cancer- I think it deserves it's own post- but for now, know that my mother is a breast cancer survivor since March 2013.

within 2-3 minutes of registering, I was emailed 2 tickets to the show. Convincing my mom to go was harder than I thought. I had to track her health and make sure she was able to handle the day. It was over 10 hours from the minute we left the house until I dropped her off. Since she's currently in treatment, I didn't want to over exert her. We decided NOT to go until that morning when I took her temperature, made sure her IV's were properly flushed then I checked and double checked that she was feeling well enough to go... 

The process to attend the show is tedious and strenuous. 

**First off- if you're going to have a Cancer Special with Cancer Patients who are currently in treatment, it's probably best to NOT make your guest stand in the sun. Many of the patients left because they were in radiation treatment and couldn't risk being out in the heat.** 

WE came prepared!! We had packed lunch, 3 bottles of water (2 cold and 1 frozen), an umbrella.. and if I was smart, I should have brought her a camping chair... We stood in line for 45 minutes before they issued us a number- In line, there were random boulders- I had her sit on them while we waited. She brought an umbrella and that really helped keep her out of the sun ... Once we got our number- our 5 hour journey began.. 

We waited for 5 hours to register, get our photo taken, get interviewed and go through security... before we entered the studio. In 5 hours, we waited in 3 lines... got our photos taken twice.. ate lunch, ate snacks.. drank all our water and finished 2 MORE bottles (5 total)... had a group interview and then found our seats for the show... it was exhausting!

I have never seen my mom so excited about life.. she cheered, hollered and was full of smiles. We didn't get picked- BUT the lady next to us did!! She was the 5th contestant to be called!!! 

I snuck my phone into the studio (shame on me) and took some great photos of me and my mom!!

We got to meet Drew Carey and Guliana Rancic! 

We got Guliana's autograph and the announcer!

The best thing about the show was seeing how happy my mom was. She had so much fun! They gave all the members in the audience REALLY nice gifts too! I already saw them on ebay the other day. lol

It was such an amazing experience to have with my mom. She is a fighter, a survivor, a warrior. I don't know how she finds the strength to keep fighting, but she does and she is my hero for it. My mom is my hero, I have so much respect for her and I am beyond blessed that she is my mother!!! Please keep her in your daily prayers- she is fighting a battle that seems never ending but I know she will persevere. she is strong and incredible!!

Keep an eye out for us on October 1st @ 10 AM PST or 11 AM ET on CBS!!!

Toddler Meals: Hearty Breakfasts

Alright, Here is my Breakfast Edition of Toddler Meals! I feel like I'm over posting about food, so I will only post once a month from now on. Its just SOOOO much fun feeding Landon. He's such a foodie!

Bacon w/ Brown Rice Omelette and waffles

Well, it doesn't look an omelette, but it is. I had to chop it up so he could use a fork to eat it.

in a bowl, beat eggs with brown rice trio and bacon

cook in skillet.. serve!

earths best waffles are easy, organic and yummy- we top it with fruit.. no syrup or butter (boo, I'm so boring!)

banana... because he loves bananas. 

We also serve breakfast with Steel Cut Oatmeal (prepared in our crockpot over night) with coconut yogurt and prunes EVERY MORNING!

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Scrambled Eggs and Waffles

Eggs have been a huge staple in our breakfast. If Landon will eat it, I will serve it. My husband loves eggs for breakfast and I really don't mind preparing it every morning for them. The best think about feeding my boys breakfast is- it forces me to eat as well!

For easy breakfast- Just scramble some eggs with almond milk (or any type of milk). Milk makes the eggs extra fluffy!

served with fresh cut strawberries and waffles

We threw in some organic cereal for fun!

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Scrambled Eggs with Cheese and Avocado and fruit

For an extra protein in our breakfast,  I sometimes add avocado and cheese to our breakfast. Landon Loves it. 

served with raspberries and Oatmeal with Yogurt and prunes!

enjoy!

Toddler Meals: Healthy Lunches

Pita Sandwiches w/ Chips and Guacamole

Pita Bread is our Go To for lunch. we like it with cheese, turkey meat, avocado, PB & J, Egg Salad, etc.. Its easier for him to eat than bread. 

Have you tried Dragon fruit? Its like a mild kiwi, High in vitamin C, fiber and antioxidants. I like it because it's sweeter and not as tart as a kiwi. He can eat about 1/2 a dragon fruit. 

Chips and Guacamole is also popular in our house. I mash an avocado and add a little salt, pepper and diced tomatoes... quick and easy and super yum!

we love string cheese as a go to snack or with meals. We eat organic string cheese from Wholefoods. There are days where we eat 3-4 in a day!

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Almond Butter Sandwiches & Crackers and Hummus

Now that Landon is 1, we are testing different types of nuts... Last week, we tested cashew butter.. This week is almond butter.

Almond butter is an alternative to peanut butter! It contains significantly more fiber, calcium, potassium, and iron. At our local whole foods, we make our own almond butter... It definitely tastes better!

We also give Landon almond milk because it has a higher calcium intake than cows milk. 

There are days where I just throw quick meals together... 

So before we headed to the park, I made Landon an almond butter sandwich with whole wheat bread. I cut off the crust because it was super hard. 

Gluten free rice crackers with roasted pepper hummus.. 

Cut string cheese (his favorite) 

Watermelon & blue berries... Now, if your lil one is a constipated, watermelon hydrates you and really cleans out your system! 

I rarely give Landon sandwiches, he's not a big fan.. But it's easier than carrying soup or rice to the park. :)

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Pasta and Egg Scramble with Meatballs

for a quick and easy meal, cook up some pasta.. sauteed it with some frozen veggies then add 1 egg. scramble it up and serve. Its pretty tasty for a toddler. he loves it! 

we make homemade meatballs and freeze them in small batches so they're always readily available... earths best also makes tasty meatballs located in your freezer section.

we eat this at breakfast or lunch. to alternate, you can use rice, quinoa or even buckwheat.

Enjoy!

Toddler Meals: Healthy Dinners

Here are 4 easy meals for you and your little ones... 

Sautéed chicken & veggies

I'm super asian when it comes to dinner. A meal is never a meal unless it has rice... since we are eating green in our home- Landon gets a pretty healthy diet. Everything is sauteed and we use No salt when cooking and very little soy sauce (99% of the time, we use ZERO soy sauce.. and let me tell you, IT IS HARD!!)

we make Quinoa in large batches, enough to last us 2-3 days. I just pre-cook it and pop it in the fridge. 

I've been cutting out chicken breast in itty bitty little chunks- makes it super easy for Landon to chew and eat. 

3 tbsp coconut oil

2 pc chicken breast- diced small

1 tbsp soy sauce

3 cloves of garlic- minced

1/2 cup water

cut green beans

cut broccoli 

cut cauliflower

- heat coconut oil on medium in a skillet...

-sautee chicken with garlic.. season with your favorite seasoning. 

- add water to create a broth

add green beans, broccoli, cauliflower.. 

lower heat.. cover with lid and let steam until veggies are cooked to your preference. We eat our veggies crispy.. So, I will remove most of it and leave about 2 cups of food for Landon to enjoy for dinner and lunch the following day.

served with 3oz almond milk, watermelon and Blueberry coconut yogurt.

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Sweet & Sour Chicken Dinner

Dinner: sweet & sour chicken with brown rice trio and butternut squash/ kale soup.

Butternut squash soup: 

We buy pre-cut organic butternut squash at Wholefoods.. I put it in the our baby Breeza to cook (yes, we are now using our baby food processor as a soup maker!) 

Put squash in the processor with 2 cups kale.. Press "squash" it will steam for 20 minutes & blend.

Once cooked, I add 2 cup of chicken broth, 1/2 cup almond milk.. Steam 5 minutes.. Serve! 

Sweet & Sour Chicken: 

Chop 2 pieces of chicken breast in small cubes..

Cook on medium with coconut oil..

Once chicken is cooked, add 1/3 bottle if "grandmas sweet and sour sauce".. Cook for 5 minutes & serve.

It's has kick of spicy but Landon loves it! I offer it shredded and I throw some in our bullet and give it a few swirls to ground it up.. It makes it easier for Landon to chew and eat. 

Brown Rice Trio:

Brown rice, buckwheat, quinoa, lentils with sweet potato..

Dinner was served with: blueberries, 1 apricot, blueberry coconut yogurt, 2oz almond milk. 

Lately, we've been giving Landon a fork to use during his meals.. It's hit or miss. He really loves stabbing his food but gets frustrated because he can't feed himself fast enough.. He also refuses to touch food with his hands.. He will only use his hands to eat snacks and fruit. 

**after about 5 minutes of self feeding.. I threw the chicken, rice and soup together and spoon fed him.. Much faster!**

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Pretty easy meal for a starving toddler. My kid loves fish with rice. 

Place Cod on a large sheet of foil- add fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper and a little white wine. wrap foil and bake in oven @ 375 for 25 minutes. 

steam green beans with garlic, coconut oil and 1/4 cup of water. simple and healthy. 

We make sure our veggies are sauteed super soft.

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Quinoa & Sweet Potato Chili

I found this amazing on Pinterest! I've made it about 4-5 times and we are obsessed with it!!

I've switched up the recipe a few times and it always tastes just as yummy! It's so hearty and cozy! 

we make our chili in the crockpot too! It takes about 3-4 hours on high, 6-7 hours on low, and about 1 hour on our stove top.

for my family- we use the following ingredients:

1- medium sized sweet potato diced

1- small onion

3- cloves of garlic

1-cup of quiona uncooked

1/2 pack of uncooked peas

1- can of kidney beans- rinsed

1- carrot diced

1 lb ground beef, turkey meat or diced chicken breast

1/2 can of tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce

2 cups of water or chicken broth

cook meat with coconut oil on medium... add in onions and garlic with a skillet

Grease crockpot with coconut oil:

Add cooked meat & all ingredients into crockpot.. Set on low to cook 6-8 hours or high to cook 3-4. 

serve with sliced avocado. 

its soOOoooo GOOD!

What Landon Wore

It cracks me up to watch Landon walk around in flip flops. its just so cute!  He's wearing one of my favorite casual shirts during our vacation to Santa Barbara!

Landon's Date Night: Pretend City

My sister, who loves Landon SO much, has requested a monthly date night with him. I decided to document their adventures! 

We live in Orange County, CA so there's so much stuff they can do together. On their first outing, she took him to Pretend City located in Irvine. When they walked away hand in hand, I literally cried. It's so great that he has an aunty that wants to spend time with him and he loves her so much!! 

Pretend City is a little discovery center for young children to explore, discover and play. It's a little interactive town! This place is a little gem! 

When you enter the city, there's an art center, library.. This place is simple and fun. I love that they make it kid friendly for children of all ages! He was able to reach anything and everything. It wasn't gimmicky like chuck e cheese where you have to spend a ton of money... It was also small enough that he could run around freely and not get lost!

His favorite activity was grocery shopping for cauliflower.. He kept buying cauliflower then returning it. 

He was OBSESSED with home living, at home he gets excited to use the blender, vacuum and blow dryer!

The arts & craft center was super cute! They offer 3 crafts a day. 

The farm had real live chickens for kids observe. Adorable right? 

Water town was a great place too! There's really nothing bad here! Everything is perfect for a child his age!

Through the town, there were different cars to ride.. He loved the gas station, fire station and the police station.

Thanks Aunty Cat! Where are you taking him next?!!! 

Toddler Meals: Mac & Cheese with a Twist

There was a recent facebook post where a mother was ridiculed for feeding her child mac & cheese.

for those of you who have decided against processed food.. all I have to say is: Good Luck with that.

We try to keep Landon's meals as normal as possible but we also expose him to TONS of different foods.

I honored that mother by making Landon Mac & Cheese that very evening. Mac & Cheese with a twist:

We prepared a box of Annies Gluten Free Mac & Cheese.

once finished, I threw a few pieces of leftover steamed cauliflower, broccoli and baked chicken in our bullet and gave it a whirl- minced it all up and added the mixture to his mac & cheese.

I steamed 1 small sweet potato, 1 small potato and 1 cup cauliflower. mashed. added salt & pepper.

served with watermelon.

it was a hit! 

Toddler Meals: Burgers & Fries

there are days where we stop by our favorite fast food joint for a good old fashioned kids meal!

Wendy's has a special where their kidsmeal is only $1.99 after 4pm.

Landon eats 1/2 a cheeseburger plain with fries, string cheese and plums. we also let him taste the frosty which he LOVES LOVES LOVES!

Toddler Meals: Homemade Pizza!

Yes.. Homemade pizza! Have you ever heard of Naan bread? I'm not sure what culture it originate from, but I buy it at Wholefoods!  It's soooo yummy! 

I brush grape seed oil on the bread

Then for the pizza sauce, I use 2oz puree broccoli & 1 tbsp spaghetti sauce. Spread it on the bread.. 

Diced mushrooms, green peppers and cooked bacon 

Cover Shredded mozzarella cheese!  

Cook in the toaster oven at 400• for 15-20 minutes. 

Served with steamed veggies and fresh plums! 

I made one for myself and it was delicious!!! 

Enjoy!

Landon is 15 months

Landon turned 15 months 3 days ago. How does it happen so quickly? Where does the time go?? I guess we're having too much fun!

Weight: We haven't had an official doctors weigh in, but he fluctuates between 21-24lbs. It all depends on the time of day. He definitely had a growth spurt recently, we're finding that his seat belts are a little short!

Health: We are SUPER healthy and active, I'm nervous for winter to come but hopefully we won't have it too hard. We have to be extremely careful with Landon's health since my mom is in treatment (for cancer). If we slightly think someone is coming down with anything (sniffling, sneezing, belly ache) we stay quarantined for 4-5 days to make sure we don't pass anything to my mom!

Sleep: Jeez, everyday is a gamble. Overall he's a very good sleeper. He ranges between 12-14 hours a day. Some days he takes 1.5-3 hour naps.. some days he takes one nap others two... bed time is the same routine. I noticed that no matter what time he goes to bed, he wakes up at the same time everyday. 7-7:30. We're travelling a lot and I'm just now realizing what a crazy sleeper he is. He is like a Tasmanian devil in bed.. he tosses and turns... talks and laughs in his sleep.. its nuts!

Diet:  currently inhales anything and everything. If he isn't in the mood to eat something, I puree it and dip it in yogurt. if he absolutely hates something, I will feed it everyday for breakfast lunch and dinner until he accepts it. he loves food.  We're having issues with Landon LOVING food (especially sweets and snacks) so much that he will go around and ask people for food... aunts, uncles.. and as much as everyone loves him, I don't want him sharing food with other people or children... HOW do I make it stop?

Social:  Landon is super social. he enjoys waving and saying "hi" to everyone around him. He also says "bye bye" to everyone that passes him. He enjoys walking the mall now so that's a lot of fun... NOT!! He is enrolled in swimming and gymnastics. I think I might pick up a gymboree music class this month and we are now members of pretend city... a little "town" where kids can go play. 

Crying: Last month, we had issues with me leaving him.. lately, he's "accepted" that this is life. He no longer cries when I leave him. He's pretty tough! We get a little fake cry when he falls- but this kid is super careful. He is very inquisitive and safe, he will methodically think about every move his makes. He is amazing at figuring out stuff. I love to watch him explore with purpose!

LOVES: balls, cars, climbing, swinging, water, swimming, his dogs, books, puzzles, stacking toys and going on rides with his bike, wagon and car.

Clothes: we are in a weird range of clothing sizes... h&m: 6-9 & 9-12. Gap, old navy and Zara: 12-18 months. carters: 18-24. its crazy how much sizes run! Seeing him with other children his age, I know hes much bigger than most so I don't worry about the "size" of clothes. I just buy what's cute and what's cute! We did do a lot of shopping lately! You can see our fall wardrobe HERE

Milestones- he is 89% in underwear. He only wears diapers during nap time, bedtime and when we're out in public. He also tells us when he has to go "poo" (poo is for pee, poo and toots), he puts his own potty seats on, sits on the toilet- when he's done, he counts to "10" (says: 1, 2, 10),  likes to wipe himself with toilet paper..  CUTEST THING EVER. Other milestones: puts himself to sleep without fussing, enjoys spoon feeding himself food, and successfully completes puzzles, we spend about 30 minutes a day with "learning" time, where we work on his cognitive skills! 

New Words: snack. he will say "snack" then sit down in the kitchen and wait for snacks. He also says, stack when he stacks his toys... counts 1, 2 and 10... 

Treat "tweeet" (for the dogs), hot dog "haw daw", leiah (our poodle) "yeayah" maddox (our yorkie) "dado", toilet paper "tee tee" for wiping when hes done peeing in the toilet, Eat "eee", Shoe, Socks "so", shirt "shhht", shorts "Shot", bird "Bur", Tree "Tee", hello "heyo", Bye "buh bye".. pap pap (grandpa), ba (grandma), more, banana "bah", Dada, dog "dah", Ba (grandma), please "peaz", done, poo, help "hew", up "puh", water "wahwah", bottle "bah", milk "bah"...

signs: eat, milk, more, all done, please

Travels: took a 4 hour car ride to Santa Barbara.. almost lost our minds. took a 4.5 hour flight to Pennsylvania and that was pleasant! Hes a great traveler!

Must Haves: ball, car, books, snacks and mickey mouse club.

Teeth: still has 8. where are his molars???? his hands are constantly digging in his mouth lately so I'm sure teeth are planning on popping up soon.. we're just too afraid of his teeth to dig around... its sooOOOo scary! if he's chewing on something, I have to use a pho spoon to help as a barrier for my fingers! anytime he gets near us, we have to say, "no bite"- he will then stop, blow raspberries and run off!