I’ve always tried to be healthy. I would stay away from cake and candy, drank skim milk and ate low fat packaged foods (this was before I knew fat was good for you). Being healthy was part of our childhood. My mom bought us vitamins, she made us drink Chinese teas after we ate fried foods to detox, and we drank green powders to boost our immune systems.
When I started working, I bought a gym membership. During this time, I started to put the most stress on my body. I worked at a start-up company with a lot of work and too few employees. I worked everyday, 10-14 hours. The couple of times a week I went to the gym and the healthy meals were no where near enough to help my body recover from the lack of sleep and constant stress.
I stopped working when my oldest daughter was 2. The long work hours, trying to spend time with my family, and not being present in anything got to be too much.
After I had my youngest daughter, I had the normal months of fatigue from around the clock feedings and also taking care of a toddler. After six months, the baby was sleeping almost through the night, I was getting into a routine taking care of both children, but I still felt tired all of the time, even after 8 hours of sleep. I was tired, my brain was always in a fog, I had eczema all over my hands and stomach, and I had a 5-second episode when my face twitched and I could not stop.
Something was wrong.
I went to see my primary care physician, she ran blood tests, and the results came back that I was very vitamin B12 deficient. B12 is an essential nutrient for your body because it helps make DNA and red blood cells. It also helps produce the myelin sheath, the insulation around the nerves that helps them carryout messages throughout the body. Because the body needs B12 in so many places, when you become deficient, the symptoms range from fatigue to weight loss to neurological problems.
My physician had me take a B12 supplement and wrote the names of a gastroenterologist and neurologist to go and see. This was the start of months of seeing different doctors, blood tests, hospital procedures, and a lot of Internet research.
In my next blog post, I’ll describe this experience and why I no longer believe in conventional medicine.
Stay tuned,
The Dumpling Mama xo
The gut is your digestive track, a tube that starts at your mouth and ends in your anus.
A healthy gut has tight protein bonds holding the enterocytes wall together. 
A leaky gut has damaged or altered protein bonds resulting in holes in the enterocytes wall. Pathogens such as partially digested proteins, friendly bacteria that is suppose to stay inside the gut, toxic substances and waste leak through the wall. The body identifies these foreign substances and attacks with the gut resident immune cells and also sends backup from resident immune cells from other body parts like the liver.
This year, the girls chose a vacation for their birthday instead of a 
First game was called “Junk in the Trunk”. Everyone puts on a belt that had an empty tissue box filled with ping pong balls strapped to it. Princess’ team were the Big Kids. Baby’s team were the Little Kids. The team that shook all their ping pong balls out of the tissue box hole first won.
The kids had a blast shaking, jumping, dancing their ping pong balls out.
Next game, balloon darts. I taped balloons to poster board and taped a tack behind each balloon. Big Kid and Little Kid teams were given bean bags to throw at the balloons and push them to the tacks. Whoever popped all the balloons on their board won.
This game was crazy fun! The kids got really into it and were throwing the bean bags so hard.
It ended up being a tie because the last 6 balloons were taking a very long time to pop.
The cotton ball and spoon game was an oldie but a goodie. With a spoon in their mouths, kids had to scoop cotton balls from one bowl and walk it to another bowl. If they dropped the ball, they had to start all over.
The licorice and marshmallow game is one of my favorites. I played it at almost all of my birthday parties growing up. I hung a marshmallow on the bottom of a licorice string. Without hands, the kids had to eat from the top of the licorice to the marshmallow.
This game has no age limits. Big Kids and Little Kids had equal amounts of fun.
Princess lost her front tooth a few days before the party. Some say this was an advantage.
Last game was a memory game. I brought out a tray of things and named them all for everyone. After a couple of minutes, I hid the tray of things and the kids have to write down what they remember. This game was messed up because I had a separate tray for the Little Kids and handouts with pictures so they just had to circle the things they remembered because they can’t spell but I left home in a rush and forgot it all. Oh well, thankfully the fun of the previous games hid this mistake.
After the games, the kids put their hot dog orders in.
The macaroni and cheese hot dog was the favorite. It usually is.
The kids ate picnic style.
The party was totally chaotic and crazy but I think everyone had a good time.
The overflow of parents stayed outside where it was quiet. Yes, that is Grouchy Husband out there also…
The girls had so much fun with their friends, it was worth the crazy hour and a half.
Happy 5th and 8th Birthdays girls! Mama loves you always xo
Dice 1-1/2 cups of scallions, green and white parts. Put them in a pile on a large plate.
Shred 2 cups of carrots. Put them in a pile next to the scallions on a large plate.
Dice 2 cups of mushrooms. Use shiitake, button, or portobello. Put these also in a pile on the large plate.
Dice 2 cups of a green vegetable like asparagus. You can also use peas. I like to have at least 3 different vegetables (not counting scallions). Put them in a pile on a large plate.
Dice 12 pieces of bacon. I keep these on the cutting board.
Crack 5 eggs and 1/4 teaspoon of salt in a bowl and beat until scrambled.
Melt 2 teaspoons of ghee. Cook the scrambled eggs. Put them in a bowl (I use the bowl they were scrambled in). Scrape all the egg out of the skillet or wok.
Use a knife to cut the egg into smaller pieces.
Cook the diced bacon for about 4 minutes.
Remove the bacon before it gets too crispy. Bacon should be soft and crispy on the ends.
To cook the vegetables you are going to follow these same 4 steps:
3. Throw in 2 cups of the vegetable and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Cook 3-4 minutes until soft.
Cook the green vegetables with the 4 steps.
Cook the mushrooms with the 4 steps.
As you cook the vegetables put them back in piles on the plate.
The rice should be cooked now. Stir it slowly to fluff and loosen from the side of the pot.
Melt a teaspoon of ghee and cook the rest of the scallions for 15 seconds. Put in the rice and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Mix together for 30 seconds.
Put in the egg, bacon and vegetables on top of the rice.
Mix everything together. If I’m using a skillet, I’ll use 2 large spoons to mix. If I’m using a wok, I’ll use a wok spatula.
Pour in the 2 tablespoons of coconut aminos and 1 tablespoons of fish oil. Thoroughly mix with the rice. You can replace the coconut aminos and fish oil with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.
I’m old school when I cook rice. It was the first thing my grandmother taught me to cook. I cook it in a stainless steel pot. I’m not comfortable with the off-gasing of harmful chemicals boiling a plastic bag of rice in water. Non-stick freaks me out so I don’t use a rice cooker because the bowls are usually non-stick. I could never tell my grandmother you can make rice by boiling it in a plastic bag, she would think I was crazy!
In my rice bag, I store my measurement cup. It’s one of my kiddie cups and close enough to 8 oz. Whatever cup you use (measuring cup, kidding cup, etc), use it to measure both your rice and water.
Measure 2 cups of rice.
Pour into your pot.
Uncooked rice is covered with starch from processing. If you don’t clean it off, it will make the rice very gluey. To clean, fill the pot with water covering the rice.
Pick up a handful of rice and rub it between your fingers in the water.
Use the water to get the handful of rice off your hand. Repeat this process with 3 more different handfuls of rice (total of 4 handfuls).
Drain the water from the rice.
Fill the pot with water again and clean 4 handfuls of rice. If the water your draining is still very cloudy, fill the pot with water and clean handfuls one last time. The water does not need to be completely clear, but you should be able to see the rice.
Once the rice is clean, fill the pot with 2 cups of water.
Make sure all of the rice is under the water.
Cover the pot and cook on high.
When the water is boiling, turn the burner to low. Steam will by coming through the lid when the water is boiling, uncover and make sure the water is fully boiling before turning to low.
Cook for 20 minutes. Uncover and check out your perfectly fluffy rice.
My time with Gung (公), maternal grandfather in Chinese, will always be like the picture above; stoic, asking if I’m hungry, laughing at my broken Chinese. Gung is 92 years old and the last couple months he has been in the hospital and rehabilitation center. His health has declined during this time and is weak and sometimes hallucinates. I just visited him last week after he had been away from home for over a month. I convinced myself it was because life has been busy. There was talk of organs starting to not work and no more the doctors could do. I didn’t know if I would visit him, I didn’t know if I wanted memories of him in this fragile state.
White cut poached chicken is one of the healthiest and easiest meals. It’s a 
Start with a whole chicken between 4.5 – 5 lbs. Try to buy one that is free range, organic, or recently processed (butchered) for the best taste and most nutritious. Before you start cooking the chicken leave it on the counter until it is room temperature to help the meat stay tender.
Fill a pot of water enough to just cover the chicken completely. If you are unsure of just how much water, put the chicken into the pot and fill until the chicken is just covered and then take the chicken out. Bring the water to a boil.
Place the chicken into the water and bring the water to a boil again. Place the neck, liver, heart, or anything else that came with the chicken.
Once the water is boiling, use thongs to lift the chicken from the inside cavity.
Hold the chicken up and tilt slightly to drain the water from the inside cavity slowly. This is to ensure the water inside the raw cavity is drained and doesn’t get stuck inside uncooked.
Place the chicken back into the water, ensuring water has filled the inside cavity. Bring the water to a boil again.
Once the water has boiled, lower the heat to a slow simmer where one or two steams of bubbles are coming from the bottom of the pot.
Put a pair of chopsticks over the top of the pot and then place the lid of the pot on top of the chopsticks. This helps to circulate the heat and keep an eye on the simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes.
Place the chicken back into the pot and bring the water to a boil.
Turn off the stove, take the chicken out of the water and onto a plate. Cover the top and bottom of the chicken with salt.
Let the chicken sit for 20 minutes before serving. You can carve or cut, this is where the name white cut chicken came from. Or peel the chicken off the bone also known as shredding.
A bonus is the nutritious broth from the boiled chicken. I usually boil 2 chickens (one after another) in the same broth which results in a delicious broth ready for drinking. If you only boil 1 chicken, you’ll need to add more bones to boil into a flavorful broth.
Going out for dim sum is a very happy time for my family. We go as a multi-generation group from my grandparents to my children and we always go hungry because these are some of our favorite foods. Here is how I have an awesome dim sum experience.
This can be somewhat cryptic because the dishes most likely have been translated exactly from their Chinese characters. Don’t be surprised if you see misspellings and no pictures. Here are some of my favorites that are worth trying.
Shrimp dumpling
Cilantro and Scallion rice roll. This is vegetarian but some have meat and they are all delicious.
Bean curd skin roll
Steamed spare ribs
Sticky rice in lotus leaf
Shanghainese Soup Dumplings
Turnip cake with XO Sauce
I went to a baby shower recently for a friend having her third baby. It was a surprise because most woman wouldn’t agree to a shower for a third child, but it was lovely and a great time. Most baby shower gifts are purchased from a registry. As a Chinese-American, I love to include Chinese tradition in an American occasion. I wish good luck and prosperity to the soon-to-be born baby and parents with a 
The shower was at a cute cafe that served a French brunch menu all day. Love the French.
The table was decorated so pretty.
We waited patiently for the pregnant-mommy to show up.
It was a wonderful celebration and she was so surprised.
What made the time even better was the dads took the kids to the aquarium one block away.