26 hours, 1 hour of sleep ~ Part 2 April 21, 2008

4:30 in the morning we are dropped off at the air port with 3 bags to check, 2 carry on bags, 2 personal bags and a stroller. 3 check in bags are on wheels. 1 carry on is on wheels, 1 is a duffel bag, and we had the stroller… Wait a minute. We have 2 adults, and a 2 year old. Who is going to pull the 5 things on wheels and carry the half asleep toddler? We should of listened to Johns friend and got one of those carts to put all the bags.
Oh well, so I push the stroller with the toddler, carrying 1 personal bag, the duffel bag, while pulling the other carry on and John tried to push and pull 3 big bags on rollers. That’s my man. (hee hee hee)
We get to the check in counter. All of our bags check in at under 40 pounds. Oooooh, I’m good…

On to the next hurdle, “Going through Security”.

Take off the shoes, take off the jackets, take out the 2 lap tops and put them on separate trays, fold the stroller down, take out both of the 7.5 by 8 baggies with our 3.4 ounces or less liquids, and the other zip lock bag for the toddler with all of her 2 packs of 8 oz Organic Milk and 1 pack of 8 oz Soy Dream + 2 fruit cups (which may be allowed on board but must be declared to the TSA at the security checkpoint for screening.), have toddler put stuffed animal to be screened as well.
We got our bag on rollers checked because of our camera, but everything else went surprisingly smooth.

Before getting on the flight I get a mocha and a bagel and take my echinacea. The flight from Detroit to Newark was very rocky. I got air sick for the very first time in 31 years of traveling. I’m regretting the Mocha I decided to get before I got on the plane. Thank GOD it was a short flight.

Newark Air Port is HUGE. We got out, started to walk, John calling T-Mobile to tell them to unlock our phones for the ???teen time before we leave the country and end up not having a phone. Yes, they can unlock your phone and you can buy a pre-paid SIM card in the other country and use your PHONE!! (I do recommend you on doing this maybe a month ahead of time to avoid what we went through. We just found out that Japanese cel phones don’t use sim cards though… So can’t use the phone anyway for other countries that do have sim cards.)
Any who, we had to walk a bit and then catch the little People Mover to go to the next terminal, where our plane was taking off from. We had to go through security again. (ugh) This time the TSA stopped me and told me that I couldn’t bring in that much milk. I told him that I knew that you could bring that amount for my Toddler as long as I declared it, do to the information on their web site, he let us go. And he thought I had no clue… (But just in case they give you a hard time, make sure you bring a print out of the airline carry on restrictions so that you have proof.)

It was about 11 am, so we decided to get some subs before we board onto our 13 hour flight. As some of you may know, I thought we were only going to get a lunch on this 13 hour flight so I thought about eating and packing as much food as I can before I got onto this plane… Turns out I was a bit wrong.
During this 13 hour flight we got lunch, a snack of pretzels, dinner, breakfast and even ice cream. I’ve always hated food on the plane, especially the meat and fish are gross! So I called ahead of time and ordered a special needs meal for Zu and myself. We are vegetarian for this flight and Zu, because of her chronic constipation, is Vegan. Our meal turned out to be surprisingly good, but one of the bad things was, is that they only got Zu’s special needs order, and not mine… (sob) That’s okay though, Zu ended up sleeping through the Palak Paneer dinner, which was pretty good, except for the fact that Continental doesn’t know what Vegan means, or they don’t know that Paneer is cheese. And during lunch, she wanted the chicken nugget like patty that was in my Chicken sandwich, that the flight attendant said, “Sorry for not having your Vegetarian meal, but we have chicken or fish, would you like that instead?” Vegetarian…, chicken…? fish…? I had no idea those were vegetables. Well, I went for the, vegetarian meal substitute, Chicken and Zu liked it. Breakfast was a more curry like dish. Zu was sleeping so I ate it for her. Apparently all vegetarians are Indian, or Indian lovers to have some sort of curry in all 3 meals of the day. Oh, did I forget to mention that the veggie burger served for lunch had a hint of curry and coriander to it?

So in honor of my pretty good Vegan (Indian) flight menu, here’s a recipe for the Continental Vegan.

Chicken Tomato Curry:

• 400g of Boneless Skinless Chicken Thigh Meat
• 1 onion
• 1~2 carrots
• 1 can of black beans (drained)
• 1~2 knobs of garlic (minced)
• 1 knob of ginger (grated)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp curry powder
• 1 large can of crushed tomato
• 1 cube of chicken bullon
• 1/4 tsp galam masala (if available)
• 1 tbsp oregano
• 1 tbsp basil
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 a lemon
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• a dollop of plain yogurt for garnishment

In a large Le Creuset pot (or large pot with lid), on medium heat, brown the chicken with 1 tbsp of the butter. To the same pan, add the vegetables with the rest of the butter and saute until tender. Add all other ingredients except the yogurt and mix well. Cover and turn heat down to simmer. Cook for about an hour. That’s all! Serve with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream and eat it with your favorite Nan or rice.

Not sleeping yet…

26 hours, 1 hour of sleep ~ Part 1 April 17, 2008

This could get long so I am splitting this story in several parts.

It’s been 8 years since I’ve been in Japan, and our first trip as a family to Japan.

Flying with my daughter has always been surprisingly fabulous. She sleeps, hangs out in the seat, and just chills. But this time it’s not that 4~5 hour flight to San Diego, it’s a 1 hour flight to Newark, 3 hour wait until the next flight, then a 13 hour flight to Narita (Tokyo, Japan), 2 hour bus ride, then the one and a half hour car ride to Mt. Fuji. A lot longer.

Our day started at 4 am (Eastern Time) and ended at 6 am (Eastern Time) = 26 hours.

10:30pm, we go to bed. An hour later than when we really wanted to, but we had to get all of our bags to weigh less than 40 lb. I’ve been packing and getting ready for this trip for a week! Making sure I had everything I need and not more than what I need. Packing for 2 months is kind of hard. Luckily we are flying to a country that has everything, if we forgot anything.
Packing carry-on for toddlers takes a lot of thinking. Let’s go over my list:

1. Laptop with toddler games (Sesame Street), DVD’s in a small CD case, and head set.
2. Playdough (pack of 3, $1) with plastic knife and fork (disposable, just in case they lose it, it doesn’t matter)
3. Crayons and coloring book. Compliments of the Mazda dealership)
4. Stickers, to stick anywhere. Thank you Whole foods for all the free stickers!
5. Lots of small snacks, salty to the savory. Not too many sweets or they will be so hyper that they won’t stay in their seats.
6. Sweatshirt for the cold flight.
7. An extra set of clothing. Just in case of an accident.
8. Night time diapers, so you don’t have to freqent the bathroom to change them.
9. Ear Planes. For air pressure relief. & a echinacea sucker for strengthening immune system and pressure relief.
10. And a secret life saver. One fun toy that you don’t let your child know that you bought, and bust it out when you ran out of everything and you need something. I got her a few pets from the Pet Shop collection.

That’s all that was in Zu’s bag for this flight.
Our other carry on (since I read the itinerary wrong and thought they ONLY served lunch on this 13 hour flight), we packed grapes, bananas (you can buy fruit at the airport but they tend to be over priced), sandwiches, a couple onigiri, snacks, candy, neck pillows, eye mask, ear plugs, thick socks, poncho (can be used to wear or as a blanket), books, sudoku (get a gel pen, they usually don’t explode on flights), plug adapter for laptop (most of the time you need a EmPower adapter, you can find one at Target for about $40 in the electronics section), camera, and toiletry kit.

Our alarm clock went off at 3:30am. John (my husband) tells me that we have 30 more minutes until we have to wake up. So Not True!! We had to leave in 30 minutes to check in for our flight at 6:40am. He’s lucky I’m one of those people who can’t really fall back asleep after once waken up.
We get ready, Johns friend comes to pick us up. 3:50am get Zu (our daughter) and put her in the car. We packed most of the stuff in the car the night before. Smart way to travel if your leaving on a Red Eye or some thing super early like our flight. We got out of the house with practically no delay.

Now here’s a menu for some carry on food that I packed.
Onigiri (rice ball) for 2+toddler

• 1 and 1/4 cup frozen rice nuked.
• Salt & pepper
• Tuna
• Vinegar (you can use tuna, but I don’t recommend it for long flights)
• Sugar
• Soy Sauce
• Scallions finely chopped
• Sea Weed

In a bowl mix 2 tbsp tuna or salmon, 1/2 tsp vinegar, 1/2 tsp soy sauce, 1/4 tsp sugar, scallions and salt & pepper to taste.
Take 1/2 cup rice, make a little ball wrapping the 1/3 of the tuna mixture. Wrap with sea weed.
Repeat with 1/2 cup rice, and finally with 1/4 cup rice for toddler.
Very yummy and very satisfying for a small snack. Here’s a link to How To Video.

This is all for prepping for that International flight. This is “PreRestless in 26 hours”.

Continues….

Recipe for Changing Weather April 4, 2008

I have a soar throat. I don’t know if it’s because we are going from upper 20 degrees weather to 50 degree weather, but I have this sucks.
I can take vomiting, sitting on the toilet, running a feaver, or a stuffy nose, but I can’t stand having a soar throat! You can’t swallow anything, talking is painful, and soar throat medicine is probably the worst because it just numbs other parts of your mouth that don’t need the numbing…

So here’s are some recipe’s for my swollen, soar throat.

Seafood Corn Chowder Soup

• 1 or 2 slices of bacon cut into small pieces
• 1 tbsp. Buttery Sticks
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 1 Yukon Gold potato
• 1 celery stalk
• 1/4 cup carrots
• 1/4 cup yam
• 1/4 cup green pepper
• 1 cup frozen whole corn kernels
• 1 & a 1/2 tbsp. flour
• 2 tsp. vegetable Better Than bouillon
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup organic 2% milk
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp. parsley
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1/2 cup Kani-Kama (immitation crab) or real crab if you have the money to spend.
• 1 cup of frozen seafood blend. (I get the one from Trader Joe’s that has shrimp, bay scallops, & calamari pieces in it)
• salt & pepper to taste

Brown the bacon pieces in a 4 qt. Le Creuset pot (or any other pot with lid). Dice all the vegetables (not the corn) into small pieces, about 1/4″ cube or less. Add butter into pot, with the vegetables and cook for about 5min. lid closed until vegetables are soft.
Sprinkle flour over vegetables, using a sifter and stirring constantly to coat everything. Add the water, bouillon, cover and cook on low for 10min. stir occasionally. Add the frozen corn, cover and cook for another 5 min. Add milk and cook for another 5 min.
Add Kani Kama and frozen seafood and cook for another 7~10 min. Until seafood is cooked through. That’s it!

You can sprinkle it with some Sharp Cheddar & paprika. Serve with some crunchy bread to those who don’t have a soar throat, and you can have the soup over rice. Japanese style! (We put everything over rice)

So now comes the dessert.
A soothing gelatin treat to satisfy my sweet tooth after dinner.

Milk Kanten (Agar Agar)

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup organic 2% milk
• 1 tbsp organic Fat Free Milk
• 3 tbsp organic cane sugar
• 20 grams of Kantenko (agar agar) about 2~3 tsp’s
• 1 can of sliced mango

Put 1 cup of the water in a sauce pan and sprinkle the Kanten (agar agar) on top. (Do not put it on the burner yet) Let it sit for 5~10 min.
Mean while, dissolve the powdered skim milk in 1 cup of 2% milk and set aside. Turn the burner on medium low and wait until simmer. Stir for 2 min., or until the Kanten has disolved. Add sugar, the skim milk + 2% milk, turn the burner off, and stir.
Line a 6″ by 8″ glass storage container with the well drained mango pieces and pour the liquid milk Kanten over them. Let it sit aside until cool and then put in the fridge until firm. (about 3 hours)

It’s sweet and cold to sooth that soar throat. Yummm!