Koole Mom Kitchen

Koole Mom Kitchen A place for authentic Vietnamese/Saigonese cuisine | Embracing motherhood with love, chaos, & fun | Sharing my love for food and yoga.

Let's connect and be Koole! Hi, I’m Diem Koole (formerly Nguyen)—a mom to two energetic ‘tornado’ kids! We love cooking, traveling, hiking, and making silly memories together. This page is where I share my daily life as a mom—juggling the chaos while keeping things (mostly) intact. Let’s connect and have some fun with us!

24/08/2026

My daughter: “Hey Ziri, play SWIM by BTS.” 😂

Also my daughter 5 seconds later:

“Hey Mommy, can you turn it on for me?” 😂😂😂

We can invent Siri, Google, Alexa, and every AI assistant in the world…

But apparently, “Hey Mommy” is still the most advanced technology.

✨ AI emotional detection
✨ Voice assistant
✨ Human remote control
✨ 24/7 availability
✨ No subscription required

Mommy™ — powered by love, caffeine, and absolutely no personal space. 😂❤️

20/08/2026

Albondigas for dinner! 🍲❤️

My mother-in-law gave me a serious surplus of zucchini from her garden, so I had to get creative with ways to use A LOT of it. 😂

My answer? Albondigas soup.

Tender ground beef meatballs, lots of zucchini, and a rich, comforting broth—it turned out to be the perfect way to put that zucchini to work.

Sometimes the best recipes start with, “Okay…what am I going to do with ALL of this?” 😂

18/08/2026

Some kids respond well to verbal reminders followed by consequences.

Not my lovely daughter. 😂

For over a year, she’s been fighting to be the first, the best, the winner of all time—even when it comes to brushing her teeth. If she wasn’t first, we’d get hitting, kicking, and fighting with her brother.

Sending her to her room was our first consequence, but clearly… it wasn’t working.

So last night, I created this little visual board for her. 🪥✨

It shows her choices:
NOW or WAIT 5 MINUTES → THINK → CHOOSE → CONSEQUENCE

And I made everything cute and animated because, apparently, my girl responds better to a cute visual than to Mom repeating herself 500 times. 😂

She LOVED it.

And this morning? She was proud to be second after her brother. 🥹

A great start to the day!

Sometimes parenting isn’t about finding the perfect consequence. It’s about finding the language your child understands. ❤️

14/08/2026

Finally the weather is nice after a brutal summer heat

10/08/2026

A real motherhood moment. ❤️

I was in the middle of making dinner when my baby girl asked me to help her spell “The Cat in the Hat Is Back.”

I knew it would take a while. She’s learning phonics, sounding out words, and figuring out spelling—and she was SO eager to learn.

So I delayed dinner for a few minutes.

Watching her conquer that little task was more rewarding than getting dinner done a few minutes sooner. 🥹

Of course, this isn’t always possible when we have our own priorities and responsibilities. But whenever I can choose my kids over my own agenda, I try to.

Because one day, they won’t ask me to help anymore. And those little moments? I’ll miss them. ❤️

07/08/2026

Water spinach. Ong choy. Rau muống. 🌱

It’s officially rau muống season! 🇻🇳

I introduced my favorite veggie to my family… and now they’re HOOKED. 😂

Funny enough, this humble veggie is pretty much an everyday staple in Vietnam, but here in the U.S., it can feel like a luxury vegetable. 💰🌿

Me in Vietnam: “It’s just rau muống.”
Me in America: “Excuse me, this is a delicacy.” 😂💰💵

If you know, you know. 💚

05/08/2026

Last weekend, we celebrated my grandpa’s life. He was the one who brought my family to America from Vietnam, and thanks to him, I met my husband and built my own beautiful family.

We miss him, love him, and will be forever grateful for everything he did for our family. ❤️

This celebration also gave me an opportunity to reinforce with my kids where I came from and the family history that brought us here. My kids adored him. My baby girl said, “I miss Ông Cố (Great-Grandpa). I wish he could play with me more.” 🥺

I’m grateful that my husband and children had plenty of time to get to know him and visit him while he was still with us. I was also surprised by how deeply my kids understood the news and how much sadness and compassion they showed—far beyond what I expected.

I never want to shield them from loss or unexpected, life-changing events. Instead, we talk through our feelings and process everything together, even at a young age. ❤️

31/07/2026

Some jobs still require Mom in person. 😂

28/07/2026

Speaking Vietnamese with my kids takes a lot of effort, but it’s something that’s deeply important to me. ❤️

I’d love to hear from other bilingual parents—what do you do to help your children learn and speak your language?

It’s not that my kids don’t want to learn. I think it’s my responsibility to create opportunities for them to hear and practice Vietnamese. My daughter doesn’t understand much yet, but my son can repeat after me, and that gives me hope. 🥹

27/07/2026

Fresh Clam Linguine with Fresh Herbs, pairs well with homemade garlic butter bread. Simple ingredients, homemade food, and a whole lot of love. ❤️

This is my everyday passion: feeding my family, being part of my kids’ world, helping them with homework…
And then doing it all over again the next day. 🥰

I don’t really believe in “quick and easy” recipes because I care about the quality of the food my family eats. But I’ll call this recipe quick-ish—definitely much quicker than making pho! 😂

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