Ganbei, Mommy!

A working mom's life blog

Recent Posts

  • October Activities in Greater Denver

    October really came and went this year, and we had so much fun. The kids had Fall Break, and we also got to try a lot of new things.

    We started in early October with discounted tickets (early bird gets the worm!) to Boo at the Zoo in Denver. It wasn’t that crowded yet (we went at 6:30 on a Friday night), and we got to see a lot of the cryptids and also the animals! The elephants were chilling indoors, and we loved the reptiles and cockroaches too (not all of us, but they were fun and educational nonetheless).

    During fall break, we went with some friends to Elitch Gardens’ Fun By Day event as we mostly little ones under 12 so Fright by Night may be too scary. They were quite creative, allowing folks to wear costumes, but we opted out so we could be ride-maxxing instead. The kids loved the last chance to enjoy some warmth and sun on Shipwreck Falls. We arrived around 2 in the afternoon and left by 5 as it was getting a bit windy and cold. Fall has arrived, indeed!

    The week after, we also visited the Denver Botanical Gardens’ at Chatfield Farms in Littleton, and got to enjoy the corn maze, barrel rides, and picking our own pumpkin. We picked a classic orange pumpkin to make a jack-o-lantern (which was later chomped on by the squirrels), and a warty pumpkin that we sliced and got to share with everyone. I later baked some pieces we could simply enjoy together in some porridge for breakfast.

    A special shoutout to the wonderful lunch we had afterwards at the nearby Texas Roadhouse. Their manager and entire staff are wonderful, and we sat near Willie’s Corner (we love a fellow Willie Nelson fan). The bone-in ribeye the adults shared we sublime, and the kids loved their chicken tenders and burgers too. Of course, we got to take home that famous Texas Roadhouse bread. 5 stars!

    For the actual Halloween night, we had friends over for a small get-together to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. We have a lot of boomers and Halloween fans, so full-size candy bars were ample! Unfortunately, this year there were a lot more teens who were trick-or-treating early (last year they didn’t come out until dark), and someone was a bit of a porch pirate and took our buckets and dumped the entire contents into their pillowcases and then ran. But yes, we caught them on our Ring camera log (smh).

    All in all, a wonderful season was had. Wishing everyone and theirs a Happy Halloween and Samhain (for those who are witchy and celebrate)!

    Love, Ganbei Mommy

  • First post – chicken soup for fall!

    So I decided to start a blog. I wanted to start one for my sanity, and also to find ways to express creativity and joy in my life. And most of my life is spent with my family, so I’ll be sharing snippets of what we do, eat, and live around the greater Denver area.

    Since fall is here in October and we were hit with a cold spell, like any other mom, I thought it would be good to start with a nice chicken soup. We also try to balance our groceries, and like any suburban almond mom, we do prefer more organic food, so I made a run to our local Sprouts.

    For a classic chicken soup, I got the following Sprouts chicken broth, organic ginger and garlic, and fresh green onions.

    We tend to get meat at Costco, so I had defrosted a pack of chicken thighs, and then began the easy prep.

    Honestly, it’s just quickly slicing the ginger, smashing the garlic, and then chopping the green onions into longer pieces. I also throw in some goji berries (about 15) and a few Chinese red dates (dried jujube fruits). These look smaller, but they’re actually huge ones we got from Xinjiang.

    Once everything has been thrown in the pot, I pour in the entire box of chicken broth and match with the same amount of water. For those who like a saltier and savory soup, you can add some salt now, but I prefer to wait until everything is done so everyone can customize.

    Next, turning the Instant Pot to “Soup / Broth” for 1 hour and 30 minutes, and sometimes 1 hour and 40 minutes if the chicken thighs are particularly thiccc (iykyk).

    And voila! A delicious meal for dinner. I also love to cook some vermicelli separately so it’s like a chicken noodle soup.

    Ganbei, Mommy!