H-Mart grocery haul

We made a trip to H-Mart, and I unintentionally ended up with a big grocery haul. Lol! Isn’t that how it always happens?

To me, H-Mart is like the Target of grocery stores. I go in with my short list, and I somehow always come out with a cart full of way more than I had planned.

Travis and the boys heading into H-Mart.

Over the past few months, I’ve become increasingly interested in Japanese and Korean home cooking, especially the simple, everyday meals families prepare. So, I decided it was time to explore a few ingredients that were completely new to me.

Travis was able to help me pick out some of the products. He was stationed in South Korea for about a year, and he said he ate out at a lot of the restaurants (which he loved!). He even took a cooking class while he was living in Korea.

The boys helping Dad get the jasmine rice, and Zaya photo-bombing with a peace sign. Lol

This trip, I picked up seaweed snacks, sesame oil, sushi rice, Japanese mayonnaise, and a few other items that caught my attention along the way.

Travis and I were using our phones to google which seaweed brands were good for making gimbap and sushi rolls. As we were trying very hard to determine which brand to get, a lovely Korean woman, who was also shopping in the store, overheard our conversation and walked up to us offering to help.

She was so sweet. She showed us which seaweed brands she uses to make gimbap. We smiled and thanked her profusely for her kindness. That helped us so much!

The kids, of course, were especially interested in the ramyun aisle.

One of the things I enjoy most about cooking is learning something new. I love learning how to cook many different types of foods. I may not know exactly what I’m doing yet, but that’s part of the fun!

Every new ingredient, recipe, and kitchen experiment teaches me a little more than I knew the day before.

Here are some photos from our H-Mart grocery store haul.

This 25-pound bag of jasmine rice was on sale for less than $20!

Now the real adventure begins: figuring out what to make first! Do you enjoy learning how to cook different types of recipes?

💜 XO


Homemade peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

These are the homemade peanut butter chocolate chip cookies Zaya (5) and I made together earlier this week.

These cookies are delicious! Trust me when I say—after you make these yummy treats, it will be hard to eat just one peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. 😋🍪

RECIPE: PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Ingredients:

  • ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
  • ½ cup creamy peanut butter
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¾ tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ½ cup chocolate chips, maybe? Lol (but tbh, I just poured in the desired amount of chocolate chips that I wanted 😅.)

Baking Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Cream together softened butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until fluffy.
  3. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
  4. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and salt.
  5. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
  6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  7. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on the baking sheet.
  8. Use a fork to make the classic criss-cross pattern on top.
  9. Bake 10 – 12 minutes, until edges are lightly golden.
  10. Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes before eating or putting the cookies in your desired cookie storage container.

This batch makes a small amount of cookies. So, I ended up making a second batch of cookie dough. That’s how much we love these peanut butter chocolate chip cookies! 😍🍪

For the second batch of dough, I rolled it into about 1-inch balls and placed in a container. Then, I stored the dough in my refrigerator.

When you’re ready to make more cookies, if you want to make the classic criss-cross design on the dough, you’ll need to leave the dough out at room temperature for a few minutes so the dough can soften.

That way it’ll be easier to press the fork onto the top of the dough to make the criss-cross patterns.

Otherwise, the dough will just break apart if you don’t let it soften a bit first.

Enjoy! 💜 XO


Happy Friday

Three things to reflect on in honor of September 11th.