Life is Beautiful

Motherhood, Sewing, Family

Christmas Party Inspiration with a Pumpkin cream cheese ice-cream rollrecipe

~ EAT

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #NestleHolidayBaking #CollectiveBias I’ll be sharing with you my pumpkin cream cheese ice-cream roll recipe! I love ice-cream rolls and I love pumpkin cream cheese rolls so I thought it would be perfect to combine the two that I love!
 
 
In my Korean culture, dessert usually meant fruits. Koreans find American desserts too sweet and if you’ve had their desserts like cake, it’s not overwhelmingly sweet. But this pumpkin cream cheese ice-cream roll was a huge hit with my parents! I served it with lots of various fruits to make sure they didn’t stray too far from their usual desserts. I put 3/4 c. of sugar instead of the 1 c. the recipe asks for, make sure to play around with the recipe to make it perfect for you!

 

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Ice-cream Roll
 
Ingredients:
 
CAKE:
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2/3 cup 100% pure pumkin puree
CREAM CHEESE ICE-CREAM FILLING
 
  • 4 C. half and half
  • 1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk
  • 1 pkg. cream cheese
  • 2 T. vanilla extract
Directions:
 
FOR CAKE:
PREHEAT oven to 375° F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a thin, cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar.

COMBINE flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.

BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. (If using a dark-colored pan, begin checking for doneness at 11 minutes.) Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

FOR FILLING:
BEAT In large bowl, combine ingredients; mix well. Pour into ice cream freezer container. Freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. Freeze leftovers.Carefully unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Re roll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

COOKING TIP:Make sure to put enough powdered sugar on the towel so the cake will not stick to the towel when it’s rolled up.
Party Instructions:
  • Use a gold sequin fabric as a backdrop.
  • Use red fabric or tablecloth for the table.
  • For the gold bottles, I used the bottles from sparkling apple cider, emptied and dried it and spray painted it gold. Put a single flower on it with fillers.
  • Serve the pumpkin ice-cream roll with various fruits.
Click below to download these cute free printables!
Use NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Refrigerated Cookie Dough, NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Red and Green Morsels, NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk for any of your Holiday desserts, they can all be found at Wal Mart. My kids and I are planning on baking some chocolate chip cookies using the green and red morsels, they’re going to love it!
For ideas on delicious recipes go to Flavorful Moments Pinterest board and Very Best Baking.

I’d love to hear about your favorite recipes to use during the busy holiday season!

Follow Nestlé on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.

7 Tips to Raising a Non-picky Eater

~ EAT

 
 
 
 
Whenever I post these bento lunches or dinners I cook got my family, I get a lot of comments from people asking, “Your kids really eat this? How did you raise such non-picky eaters?” I didn’t realize they were non-picky eaters until these comments!
 
All of my kids are good eaters who will at least try a bite of something new, and I guess I’ve been taking it for granted?! So I’m sharing with you the rules or things I’ve implemented in my family that might have helped my kids be good eaters.
 
 
 
Sautéed mushrooms & cherry tomatoes in olive oil
Sea salt & garlic powder
Grapes picked fresh from our backyard the morning of
Butter, garlic & olive oil orzo pasta
Babybel cheese
Gushers
 
 
 

 

 
Steamed sweet potatoes
Roasted Brussels sprouts
1/2 a peach
Coconut chips
A chocolate coin
 
 

How to Raise a Non-picky Eater

  • We have a “3 thank-you bites” rule. Unless they find it too spicy or were allergic to it or some legit excuse like they just don’t want to eat a live, squirmy octopus, they need to take 3 thank-you bites as an appreciation to the person who cooked it, even if they don’t like it.

 

  • I am not a fan of kids menus at restaurants. It actually bothers me that they’re almost always the exact same menus such as chicken nuggets, chicken fingers, macaroni & cheese, or pizza! Not to mention they’re about $2-3 cheaper than an adult menu with way less of a portion and not even good food, so I usually have my kids share two adult meals between the 3 of them, or just have each of them order an adult menu and then take the rest home to eat as leftovers. “Why go out to eat if you’re going to get the same foods all the time at every restaurant?”, you can hear me saying once in awhile. That’s not to say they’ve never gotten a macaroni & cheese kids meal, I let them get it once in a blue moon but most of the time I have them order from the adult menu and they want to eat the same foods I am eating anyway!

 

  • I ate whatever I wanted while pregnant and while I was nursing. Except for monitoring the intake of seafood or a ton of junk food while I was expecting, since some seafood contain high levels of mercury that’s found to be harmful for your baby, and obviously, the less nutritious junk food isn’t good for the baby. I don’t drink alcohol, soda or smoke or eat raw meat, so those weren’t a problem for me to begin with. My personal theory is that when I’m nursing, different foods that I eat produce different tasting milk, thus introducing to the baby different flavors. And my babies weren’t colicky or gave me a reason to seriously worry about what not to eat, so I guess I was lucky.

 

  • I listened to my instincts when feeding my baby. Instead of reading an article on how you shouldn’t feed egg whites, peanut butter, fish, berries, or wheat and adhering to it without question, I trusted my intuition and if it felt okay, I ate it or fed it to the baby. Keep in mind- I solely breastfed my babies until they were at least 9 months old, some I went as long as 18 months. I didn’t feed my baby popcorn or grapes or things that they can choke easily, but fed them peanut butter, fish, egg whites, berries and wheat after they turned about 1.

 

  • I introduced them to a lot of variety of foods from different cultures after they initially started with rice cereal and poi(Hawaiian food that my husband said was one of the best things babies can eat), and baby foods of pureed fruits and vegetables. This is when they are curious, excited and the most open-minded about trying different kinds of foods! So take advantage of that trust and open-mindedness to have them try a variety!

 

  • “You don’t know if you’ll like it until you try it.” is a phrase I said to my kids until they now say it themselves while trying a new vegetable or something that doesn’t look very appealing because that’s of course true, how are you going to know you don’t like it if you haven’t even tried it? Unless it’s something way off your comfort zone like the live octopus I mentioned(Koreans love that stuff!), then you don’t have to try it. 
 
  • If you don’t like dinner, that’s too bad. If you don’t like the food I made for you, then you don’t get another option. If you found it too spicy, or the food is causing discomfort, then I’ll make something else for you, but those are the exceptions. My kids are not allergic to anything that we are aware of, so that’s not an issue for us either. You eat what me and dad eat and make for you, I am not going to make another meal for you because you’d rather eat macaroni & cheese(which I’ve only made for them once in their lifetime, my girls recently told me disapprovingly).

 

  • I continue to cook many different types of foods from different countries for dinner. My kids love oxtail soup & kimchi from Korea, fish balls & black bean paste from China, tamarind sauce from Thai, duck, raw fish, squid, octopus, oysters, mussels, to name a few. Introducing them to many different types of foods helps them to be open minded and adventurous with their food. 
 
 
I believe having these guidelines and rules have helped my kids to be non-picky eaters and by eating a variety of foods that each offer different nutrients and benefits, they are able to live a healthy life. 

How do you provide a healthy lifestyle for your family?


 

 

Bento Lunch for my Girls

~ EAT

This post is part of the National Milk Life Campaign’s Back-to-School program. Two of my kids are now in school all day, it’s so crazy how fast this stage came. I remember last year on the first day of school when my oldest went to school all day, I was so sad and in a wreck. I missed her so much. My second daughter was still in Kindergarten so she got out at 11:20 and picking her up and realizing that I wouldn’t see my oldest daughter for another 4 more hours made my heart ache. So this year, I thought I was going to lose it when both of my girls went, but you know what? After I dropped them off on their first day of school, I wasn’t sad one bit. Hahaha, so I thought, “Am I a bad mom? Why am I not sad at all?” I felt this way for about 2 months but just last week, I shed a tear one morning when I dropped my girls off and realized I wouldn’t see them for 7+ hours. I told my mom that it took me 2 months to be sad about it which surprised me and she told me it’s because I still have a child with me at home. She said the day I drop my youngest child off at school for all day, it’ll hit me really hard. I guess I don’t have to worry about that for another 4 more years! 
So since both of my girls are in school all day, they eat school lunches or home lunches, depending on the school lunch’s menu and if the girls want to eat it or not. We print out the school lunch menu schedule in the beginning of every month so they go through it and mark the days they want to eat school lunch, and the days they’d rather eat home lunch. The school lunch menus are actually pretty good, and my girls end up eating about half school lunch and half home lunch. The days they eat home lunch,I pack them a drink, it’s either water or barley tea, no exceptions. My girls call me the juice & soda Nazi and t.v and iPad Nazi. The days I don’t pack them a drink, it’s so that they could go get milk from their school. They give out milk for free to the students during lunch time and it’s a good way to make sure they get the protein and the calcium they need.
Here are 3 lunches I made for the girls this past month. I love looking at what other parents pack for their kids lunches to get ideas, so you can get some ideas from mine!

Bento lunch ideas
Pita bread sandwich w/ cucumbers, sprouts, tomatoes, turkey & cheese
Pineapple moon cake
Roasted chestnuts
Cherry tomatoes
Sliced apples
Bento lunch ideas
Sliced persimmons
Roasted coconut flakes
Fresh-picked  raspberries 
Tortilla sandwich w/ turkey, lettuce, cheddar cheese, tomatoes
Bento lunch ideas
White rice
Mini-sausages sauteed in ketchup & b.b.q sauce
Fresh-picked raspberries
Homemade strawberry/raspberry fruit roll-ups
Cucumber kimchi


My bento lunches are definitely “Asian-ized”, don’t you think? With the pineapple moon cake, roasted chestnuts, sliced persimmons(if you’ve never had them, try it, they’re so good!), cucumber kimchi and rice & sausages. I grew up not drinking milk when growing up in Korea and even when we moved to the States because my parents don’t drink milk(which is pretty common for Koreans), so I want to make sure my girls get enough calcium. So they usually drink a glass of milk in the morning with their breakfast, and then at school. I emphasize to my kids the importance of eating a good, healthy breakfast with protein so that they stay full and content, since that’s proven to have the kids be more alert and do better in school! I mean, I am Asian and all, so I do expect my kids to get straight A’s. 😉

We now have a giveaway exclusively for my readers where a winner will receive two gift cards worth the amount of a two free month’s supply of milk (valued at $36). All you have to do is comment below with an answer to this question:
How do you include milk throughout the day to make healthy snacks or meals?

Visit MilkLife.com for some fun recipes.

5 Delicious Make-Ahead Breakfast Ideas

~ EAT

Do any of you mothers struggle in the morning to getting the kids ready, fed, and out the door on time? I feel we are rushed every morning to get them in the car and I am so tired in the morning. I’ve been wanting to make healthy breakfasts ahead of time and I am sharing with you 5 delicious breakfast recipes that you can make ahead of time so that your mornings won’t be so rushed!
As a part of the National Milk Life Campaign’s Back-to-School program, I had a chance to learn about the benefits of milk that I didn’t know before. I agreed to be a part of this campaign while letting them know that I didn’t believe cow milk is the healthiest milk option for my children and I preferred serving them almond milk or rice milk. I was actually surprised that milk isn’t as bad as I thought it was! I’ll talk bout that after these mouth-watering recipes!
1. Grab-and-Go Mini Breakfast Casseroles Recipe
Grab-and-Go Mini Breakfast Casseroles Recipe
2. Peanut Butter and Banana Breakfast Sushi Recipe
Peanut Butter and Banana Breakfast Sushi Recipe
3. Monster Breakfast Pizza

Monster Breakfast Pizza
4. Broccoli and Cheese Frittatas

Broccoli and Cheese Frittatas
5. Breakfast Bars

Breakfast Bars

I had a chance to listen to a Registered Dietitian, Holley Grainger about the benefits of milk. Here are some facts I’ve learned that I thought was interesting.

1. Kids are drinking way too much soda.

I knew kids love to drink soda, but look at that huge jump on soda! I found this surprising since I hardly let my kids drink soda and was upset when my two girls were 2 and 3 years old and have never drank a sip of soda in their life, went to a 3 year old’s birthday party where the only drink option they had was Sprite! They even had Sprite ice-cubes they put in the soda and called it “fancy juice” and served it to every guest. I didn’t want to be difficult or cause trouble so I let the girls drink it and they both said, “Ooh, mommy, what is this spicy juice?” Haha. But I was not happy they didn’t even offer another kind of drink, maybe I am not normal? But I wouldn’t serve soda at a 3 year old’s birthday party, am I weird or too over-protective of their health? I wanted to let them live their life as long as possible without ever drinking soda. This graph is interesting since milk is the only drink shown that has been declining.

 2. The older we get, the less milk we drink.

This graph is showing us that the recommended intake actually gets higher the older we get but we are consuming less the older we get. Ages 2-3 years is the only age where it’s recommended intake is met.
3. Almond milk isn’t as nutritious as I thought it was!

While almond milk is higher in calcium and Vitamin B-12, it has no phosphorus and potassium. I honestly believed almond milk had all the nutrients that a cows milk had plus more. So I found this surprising. We’ve been feeding my son rice milk recently and it’s not as nutritious as I thought it was either.
Another thing I was reminded of is that getting enough calcium from infant to age 20 helps you reach your tallest height potential. I knew milk helps with growth and bone health but reading it from an official source makes me wish I drank milk growing up! I never drank milk, my parents are lactose intolerant and milk was never an item we had in our refrigerator! Ahhh, maybe I could have been taller and actually played basketball in HS when my PE teacher asked me to try out for the basketball team! Haha. But seriously….

We now have a small giveaway exclusively for my readers where a winner will receive two gift cards worth the amount of a two free month’s supply of milk (valued at $36). All you have to do is comment below with an answer to this question by Sept.23rd:

Which tips about milk surprised you the most? 

Good luck!

Go to MilkTruth.com to learn more about milk.

Slow Cooker Apple Beer Roast Beef Recipe

~ EAT

This post is in partnership with Apple Beer. The recipe and the opinions are 100% my own. 

Awesome roast beef recipe

Roast Beef Recipe
Slow Cooker roast beef recipe
With the weather getting more chilly and Halloween & Thanksgiving just around the corner, it’s this time of the year when I start making lots of crock pot recipes. My favorite thing to make in the crock pot is meat, nothing else can top the tenderness of the meat that falls apart at the touch than a slow-cooked crock pot! I played around and came up with this recipe using some of the ingredients of my favorite crock pot recipes. I used simple ingredients that brings out and enhance the flavor of meat, instead of hiding the flavor with heavy sauces and over-powering flavors. So if you are a true meat lover and love and appreciate the flavor of the meat itself, you’ll love this recipe!

Apple Beer Roast Beef Recipe 
Ingredients
  • 1 3-5 pound beef roast
  • Carrots
  • 1 1/2 cups Apple Beer
  • 1 cup water
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 4 dashes of Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 tsp. rosemary
  • salt and pepper to taste


Directions

1. Turn on the slow cooker in low setting. Place beef roast in slow cooker.
2. Add in all the ingredients,
3. Cook for 7 hours.
4. Season with salt and pepper according to your preference.
When I attended Build Your Blog Conference back In February, Apple Beer was one of the sponsors there and I got to taste test the apple beer. It was delicious! I loved that it’s an all natural drink that is alcohol-free, caffeine-free and gluten-free. The ingredients are simple and ingredients that I can read and recognize, which is a huge factor for me. My kids loved it, which is not surprising since they love all “spicy drinks” we let them drink on rare occasions. Jay on the other hand is not a big fan of apple flavored sodas, so he took a little sip and he said, “Hmm, it’s the best apple flavored sodas I’ve had.” Which if you knew him, he is very hard to please and doesn’t give compliments hardly, so that means a lot coming from him! The flavor is clean and crisp and I love the taste. I am not a soda drinker but I will drink this apple beer without guilt any day! 
You can purchase Apple Beer at many Wal Mart stores or at Winco Foods if you’re in the west. Visit Apple Beer to see where you can get your hands on some for yourself!