My domesticity level went up a notch this week after I completed my challenge from Ashley at Delish-Blog.com. We had a great meal on Wednesday night that didn’t consist of anything that needed to be heated in the microwave (seriously can not remember the last time that happened), and now we have a bunch of frozen stuffed wontons that we can use for another night.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have most of the ingredients needed in my pantry already. I do have a pretty sad excuse for a pantry, though, and looked at this as a way to add some fun new ingredients that might inspire me to try other new recipes. I think the most expensive thing I had to buy was the 6.50 jar of white pepper. Of course, I was shopping at Central Market so my only options were both organic and costly. I’m pretty excited about the sesame seed oil. We have this wok we got for our wedding and I think we’ve used it twice, but I’m pumped to try out a stir fry now, or to use the oil to fry up some left over wontons as pot stickers.

I found the baby bok choy and figured out what a scallion was (I knew this at some point in my life, but forgot) after I asked the produce guy for some help. I did find a ::gag:: dead lady bug in the bok choy when I was cleaning it at home, but Scott swore up and down that that was fine and “normal”. I washed it off really well and felt better knowing it was going to be cooked.

Oh no!! Sorry swaddled babies!

By far, the hardest part of this recipe is the wonton making… well, not so much hard, just tedious. I made a double batch (enough for 60 wontons) and it probably took me a good hour to get them all done. That being said, actually making a wonton wasn’t too difficult. If you can swaddle a baby, you can make a wonton. In fact, my wontons ended up looking a lot like little swaddled babies, leading me to henceforth call this recipe “swaddled baby soup,” thus scarring my child for life.

Other than the wontons, this was a crazy easy dish to make. I didn’t even have to cut up very much (which is good because my knife skills are similar to those of a chimpanzee). The best part is it looked so gourmet when I was done and nothing at all like a chicken nugget.

Kendall started out with a plate full of some cut up wontons and stringy bok choy, but after noticing Scott and I were both eating out of bowls, he had a mini-meltdown over not getting a similar serving dish. As soon as I made him a little bowl of soup he was happy and ready to try it out. He shoved a couple fists full of wontons in his mouth and nommed on a couple leaves of bok choy (which were sort of stringy and hard to cut up, maybe better to cut it while raw if you hope to serve it to a toddler) before he started slapping the dog and the table with them. It was a pretty typical dinner reaction for him, and I was satisfied with the amount of food that actually made it down the hatch.

Scott LOVED it and so did I. We ate up the entire batch of 30 wontons! Overall, swaddled baby soup was a success. Can’t wait for the next challenge!

Kendall is 18 months and some change, and I’m so proud of him for eating bok choy

The idea came up to do a blog collaboration of sorts, and I loved it. See, Delish blog is about cooking, something I feel very intimidated by, but Ashley assures me that it is so easy to incorporate good, healthy, easy meals into my routine, especially if I plan ahead and freeze some. It’s the planning that always gets me, but I’m hoping this little project will force me to think ahead.

Photo property of Delish-Blog.com

This week she’s challenged me to make some Wonton Soup with Baby Bok Choy. I’m not going to lie, I’m a little scared. 1. I think my wontons are going to look like crumpled gum wrappers. 2. I have never seen bok choy in the grocery stores around here (although, admittedly, I’ve never looked). 3. I cringe at any recipe with more than 5 ingredients. I’m not going to let my hesitations stop me, though. I’m going to make my grocery list, head to the store, and try these bad boys out sometime this week. I’ll be blogging about it on Friday.

Now, I hope I’m not alone on this endeavor so I’m challenging you, too. I would love if some of you try it out and let me know how you liked it. You can blog about it and link here if you’d like, or just comment on Friday. Make sure to check the recipe out here, and feel free to comment on Ashley’s blog with any questions. Good luck!

Kendall is 18 months old and I’m determined to become slightly more domestic in the kitchen. We’re all pretty sick of chicken nuggets.