Love Ourselves a Little more than yesterday

Hi friends and hello to February of 2026! Hope y’all make it through the winter storm a few weeks ago! This time, I made an unwise decision to go grocery shopping a day or two prior to the winter storm for our February VegUp blog recipe testing (as I thought I might be stuck at home for a few days)… Let me share with you what I came to conclusion about that plan, two words: “POOR PLANNING!”. Why? I think you might already be able to picture what happened to me at the store. I ended up having to be creative about my ingredients choices.  LOL! But hey, that’s the fun part of home-cooked meals: cooks what we have and within our capability (skills, kitchen tools, budget, as well as our preferences). The benefits of home-cooked meals are 1) better food choices, 2) better control of ingredients, 3) budget friendly, 4) strong family bond. Although we talked about home cooking being much healthier, it does require a little bit of knowledge and planning to ensure the quality of food. HOW?

• Practice a balance diet

  • Making half of our plate with non-starchy veggies and fruits (mostly veggies);

  • Fill a quarter of the plate with protein (do alternate your protein choices, don’t forget your plant-based protein such as beans, soy, and nuts/seeds);

  • Fill the last part of your plate with grain (try to focus on whole grains).

• Eat in moderation: every food has its own goods and bad, if we have a better control of how much we eat them, we have better control in our overall health.

• Add variety: like mentioned earlier, every food has its own impact on our health. If we try to incorporate a variety of food in our diet, we have a wider nutrient intake! 

If you are new to home-cooked meals, you might find it kind of challenging in the beginning, but once you give your a little more patience and keep practicing, you will eventually get a hang of it! Remember, you are not alone in this battle, you have me here to help you! I will try my very best to show you an easier pathway of healthy eating at home.

Okay! I will stop talking about the theory and start sharing what we shall cook this February.

Scrambled egg with asparagus and leeks: Why not eat some vegetables at breakfast? Not common, I know! Why follow other’s diet patterns, when we can be better than them? As I mentioned earlier, I was shopping during the winter storm, I did not have leeks at the time, I ended up substituting with shallot and some green onions! It still tastes very good! I also paired my scrambled eggs with home baked breakfast potatoes and fresh berries. The recipe is adapted from Feasting at Home.

Stir-fried green beans with chicken: This is a typical Chinese family-style side dish. This type of stir-fried vegetables recipe is one of the easier ways to incorporate vegetables into our daily eating. It requires zero to minimum cooking skills! How to serve? I typically pair my stir-fried vegetables with a bowl of rice (this time, I had mixed grain which I got it for years ago at the Asian grocery store) and some protein (I had spicy Szechuan Mapo Tofu, you can choose to pair with stir-fry black pepper beef or teriyaki chicken). The recipe is inspired by the Woks of Life.

Nourish bowl: Need something different for the Buddha bowl recipe? This nourish bowl is surprisingly delicious! I was very hesitant to try this recipe when I saw it, because the ingredients sounded kind of strange to me, but I did it anyway. Mine nourish bowl had an even weirder combination, as I did not quite acquire all the ingredients mentioned in the recipe at the time. I ended up building my bowl with roasted broccoli, roasted curry chickpeas, carrot slaw, mixed grains, and baby spinach, topped with turmeric dressing. If you are like me, are an adventurous eater, and always welcome new recipes, this is the recipe for you. The recipe is adapted from Feasting at Home