Thrifty Month Meals

This week I only spent $7.25 on groceries.  I totally splurged.  We had a cousin sleepover and I bought the girls donuts...it was only my niece and Maya.  I wanted some much needed veggies, since apparently I don't have enough frozen veggies or in our canned storage.  I only bought bananas, a red pepper, 2 small broccoli crowns, 2 zucchinis, and carrots.  Oh, and don't forget the donuts.  Since, I was buying stuff that it wasn't on the budget, I swapped fresh milk for powder milk.  It was okay with hot cocoa, but not so welcomed in our cereal this morning.  Lesson learned.
Some corrections from last week's dinners and this week's meal plan:
Last Friday:  No pizza.  Instead we made 4 batches of churros and took it to church...dinner was all kinds of appetizers and treats.
Saturday: Kids Mac n' cheese.  Adults, we went out to dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day.
Sunday:  We ended up going to Kristen's house and she provided us with dinner.  We provided the bread.
Monday: Again, at Kristen's to bring kids back from sleepover.  We had pizzas.
Tuesday:  Chicken with Guajillo sauce, veggies and brown rice.
Wednesday: Home made flour tortillas, turned into quesadillas and broccoli.
Thursday: Taco soup. Made my own taco seasoning mix and ranch mix.
Friday: Leftovers...we have a bit of everything.
Saturday: Minestroni soup
Sunday: Frozen 3 cheese pasta with homemade sauce and veggies

***New Lesson learned.  As I was cleaning out our garage and rearranging furniture in our house, I found lots of fruits and veggies, like carrots, green beans, and spinach, in our garage.  I'd recommend going over what you have in storage, before going to the store and shopping.  I didn't feel too bad not using those veggies, since they are part of my shelves...yes, I used my cans in boxes to serve as the legs of my shelves. You know what I'll be doing later today.

Back in the States

We made a quick stop in Mexicali...just to get Mexi-Chinese food.  It was good with its own Mexican flair. Newel went to get the food, while we waited in line at the border crossing.  We ate our delicious meal and then crossed the border.

We drove the rest of the day through Arizona in some back roads.  The road was build along with the shape of the sand dunes, so we felt like we were on a mini roller coaster most of the drive.  Then, we made to Las Vegas and spent the night at the Golden Nugget.  The rooms were so fancy and nice.  I didn't mind staying there one bit.  The following morning, I went to Trader Joe's to get my goodies and then we went for a swim at the pool. The kids and Newel really liked going down the slide with the sharks. The tank was really cool.  The water temperature wasn't too bad.
After our swim, we washed up and started our trip back home.
This time Grandma and Paka didn't go with us.  It felt so weird to leave Grandma at the hotel. I felt like it was not right, like it was incomplete.  She was supposed to be getting in the car with us and go home, just like we had done the previous year.  Luckily, a few weeks later, Grandma took a one way plane ride to UT.  It's been so nice having her back.
What a great trip!  I can't wait to do it again.

San Felipe

Once we arrived to San Felipe, we had to figure out where we were going to stay.  This time of the year is not the tourist season, so the places looked a bit run down.  We spent hours trying to find the right place to stay. We had our guide book which gave us a good insight at the places.  One of the places we checked out is this giant condominium place.  I can't remember the name...but, it was quite fancy and quite out of our budget to stay.  It was quite fancy and it has my taste in furniture and decorating, but we were not planning on staying indoors the entire time.  We'd rather use that money on eating out.
As a side note: We don't do resort vacations.We don't like to stay at a resort the entire time.  That's not how we do our vacations.  I guess we are more hands on type of tourists.  The idea of staying at a fancy resort drinking fancy drinks by the side of a pool sounds dreadfully boring.  May be for a day, that would be fun, but then, I'd be bored out of my mind.  I don't think you get to experience the real place you are visiting by staying at a resort. That being said...San Felipe is not a fancy place.  The place is a bit sad looking and a bit run down.  It appears there was over speculation about the growth of the place, but it ran out of money. There are a lot of empty and unfinished buildings in the area.  Also, this is a great place for foreigners to retire, but they don't live in the actual city.  They mostly live in these gated communities with way too much security and keep to themselves.  They don't really interact with the locals...I think they (retirees) are kind of silly for missing out on the real experience.

Walking around San Felipe

So, off we went, and we practically looked at every hotel in the area, until we found the right place for us, with the right commodities (by the beach), for the right price. Later, there will be a photo of the place we stayed.  Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the place, but the rooms were clean and when we needed something, it was quickly provided to us.  Also, it was just a few minutes walk to the Wharf of San Felipe.
We liked walking by the beach and watching the fishermen arrive with their catch.  The kids really liked looking at the crab carcasses, shells, and enjoying the outdoors.   Arden had a bit of croup the previous night, so we didn't let him swim in the cold water...although the following day we did let him get a bit wet.  The sunset was gorgeous and it was so relaxing to be there.

Even though the book recommended a few places to eat, we asked the locals, where was THE place to eat.

Fishermen

The locals recommended Chuys and it didn't disappoint! Even though we were in Mexico, our kids ordered hamburgers, WHAT? However, they were pretty delicious and not American style.  These burgers were well seasoned and savory. Also, they serve fresh clams, on the house, and they were the best clams I've ever had. It was so good, we went back for dinner the following night.  Also, the service was great.

At Chuys

We enjoyed our leisure walk back home that evening.  It was so great to be creating such fun memories.  I hope my children are actually grateful for these experiences.
I know people freak out about Mexico's drug war and lack of safety, but I felt so safe in San Felipe.  I felt so safe, the following morning I got up and went out for a run. Me, big chicken me went running by myself...and I lived to tell about it. 
Later, we ate breakfast at the hotel and even though the view was great, the food was not worth writing home about...
We were getting excited to see the tide go down, so after breakfast, we rushed to get our swimming suits (even though we were not planning on swimming) and went to play by the water.  Of course Arden and Maya were in beach heaven.  We practically had the beach to ourselves.

Our hotel in the back

Newel wanted to try out going on the dune buggies, but we didn't know where to rent them. Some places only rented ATV and that didn't seem safe to ride with our kids. So after we playing by the beach, we checked out over priced properties that were sold to foreigners in over secured gated communities.  It was okay...I guess.


Then, we headed to the Valle de los Gigantes (Valley of the Giants).  The giants are those amazing cactus tree we are standing by.  Those trees are hundreds and others are thousands of years old. No kidding.  We walked for a while, but didn't hike the entire trail, since it's recommended to go in a all wheel vehicle...our minivan wasn't going to make it.

Cactus older than us

Those giants were impressive. It's amazing to me, how those cacti are not extinct since it takes almost a hundred years before they can even start germinating. And out of those thousands of seeds, may be one of them, might make it into becoming a tiny cactus, if all of the conditions are right. The hike around the Valley was really interesting.


The photo where Arden is standing by the small cacti plants, the bigger one is about 70 years old and the smaller one is about 20 years old.  Crazy.
After our trip to the Valle de los Gigantes, we stopped by our own private beach.  We played and collected some shells.

This beach was pretty cool because it had a bunch of sand dunes and people were driving their ATVs and other vehicles.
After the beach, we headed back to the hotel to wash up a bit and change out of our sandy clothes.  We walked back to the wharf. This was a festive night, being the 31st of December.  There were vendors selling hot chocolate, churros, and other goodies. We made a quick stop at another fish taco stand. The fish tacos were good, but the kids were in the mood for more hamburgers.  So, off we went to our favorite restaurant.  This time we special ordered some of the dishes and we were not disappointed with the results.

After dinner, we bought some fireworks and set them off by the beach...that was fun. We were worried we were going to get in trouble, but around 10PM, people started the New Year's celebration and fireworks, 10 times bigger than our puny stuff were going off until about 12:30.  We didn't go to the hotel restaurant to celebrate.  We were kind of tired from that day's adventures, so we stayed in our rooms and relaxed.

The following morning, we packed our bags, got ready for church and then headed to a panaderia (bakery) to get our breakfast. We also bought freshly squeezed orange juice and headed to the church's parking lot to enjoy our breakfast.
Church was great.  It was like a mini United Nations with people from different parts of the world.  I served as translator.  I hadn't translated in about 5 years, it was fun and at times confusing since I had to translate in both languages.
After church services, we headed north to Mexicali and back to the States.

Thrifty Month Update

Last week I noted for our Sunday dinner we had roasted chicken.
Yes, we had roasted chicken, but the chicken was used for 3 meals.  First, the roasted chicken.  We also had fresh veggies from Bountiful Baskets, so we ate mashed potatoes and asparagus with our dinner.  For dessert, brownies.
Second, I cut the chicken wings (who likes to eat those, anyways?) before I roasted the chicken and used the wings to make chicken broth. I also used the chicken's organs that come in the chicken, to make the broth. Later, in the week, I used the broth to make tortilla soup.
Third, after we ate all we wanted from our delicious roasted chicken (it was a good size chicken) I shredded the leftovers and used them to make chicken pot pie with mashed potatoes for the following Sunday's dinner.

So here's the updated menu from last week and our menu for this week.  So far, I haven't repeated any meals, or I've made some variation of it.
Last Monday: Cobb Salad
Tuesday: Chilli and I found a good corn bread recipe...the secret...soak your corn meal for 5 minutes before it gets added to the rest of the ingredients. Soaking helps you make moist corn bread. The chili was a combination of a food storage mix that my family doesn't like and my own recipe I make all of the time, which they like. 
Wednesday: Tortilla Soup.  Newel had me make a salsa for his work lunch party, so I used some of the leftover cilantro and avocados for the soup.  After all, if this was a real emergency and someone had given me these items, I would have used them as well.
Thursday: Leftover pork and tortillas from Newel's work lunch party.  I also thawed some pinto beans. It was a grand meal.
Friday: The kids had Mac n' cheese, while we went to a banquet dinner at BYU.
Saturday: Kids had some chicken pot pie and we had dinner at a party we were invited to.
Sunday: Chicken pot pie with mashed potatoes and bread.  Some of the veggies were fresh, others were FFF. Also, I'd like to note, that we took the meal to my sister-in-law's house and we were all ate the pot pie...that's 11 people.  We didn't eat a lot because we had also had a bunch of treats before dinner.

This week:
Monday: Split pea soup with a couple of sausages and bread. Some of the veggies are fresh and others FFS.
Tuesday: Black beans and rice with some of the sausages to give the food some meaty flavor.
Wednesday: gnocchi with pasta sauce and leftover sausages...yes, I'm stretching the use of those sausages =)
Thursday: Chicken with Alfredo sauce and mushrooms (canned) and pasta and some type of veggies.
Friday: White pizza.  I'm using the leftover Alfredo sauce and thinly sliced potatoes and corn and feta cheese.  I had something similar years ago at Bucca di Beppo and I liked it. Although, my pizza will be heart shaped and made with whole wheat.

We were kind of naughty this past weekend and splurged.  We went out to Burger King and Del Taco...we spent a total of $16.00.  I had coupons.  Also, we had a babysitter on Friday and Saturday night.  However, I bought the eggs and milk on sale last week and spent less than $4.50. And that was buying 2 doz. eggs, 1/2 gal chocolate milk, and 1 gallon of milk.  It was a manager's special at Walgreens.
This week I splurged and I bought 1/2 gallon of skim milk and 1/2 almond milk and some much needed feminine products...if you know what I mean...I wasn't planning on going old school on that. So far we've spent about $75.00 this month on food.
                   $16.00 eating out
                   $10.00 personal items
                    $42.00 babysitting
and gas for the car.
I've also found I'm in need of carrots.  Apparently, I used them a lot on my cooking and I don't have any in storage. I've had to pick them out of the veggie mix FFS

Mexico-Ensenada

After crossing the border, we headed straight to Ensenada.  It was getting late, by the time we crossed the border and there was some crazy fog, so it was getting darker than usual.  We didn't want to be on the road at night.  We're adventurous, but not dumb or reckless.  After we found our favorite hotel, El Rey Sol, we started our walk through the wharf.  Newel was in his happy place, walking through the streets of Mexico, drinking one of his favorite Mexican sodas and heading out to a taco stand for dinner.
We really like walking around.  We checked out our favorite stand for fish tacos by El Mercado Negro, but it was closed.  So we headed out to the other place that was recommended to us last year we were visiting.  The food was great. Next time we go to Ensenada, we'll have to have a comparison of both places and see who has the best fish tacos.

We also made a quick stop at the market and checked out all of the yummy fish. Too bad we can't bring that home with us to the States.

Then, we walked back to the hotel...but first we had to get some of the corn mix of butter, cheese, chili, and other good stuff, followed by some delicious churros.

We had a great night sleep and the following morning we headed to the restaurant that is owned by the hotel.  It was the best Mexican breakfast food I've ever had. It was so good.  After that meal...the other places we ate breakfast at were a complete disappointment. 

Arden at the Hotel

It was a beautiful day when we took off to San Felipe.   We were ready to continue our adventure.

Food Storage Month

So this month, our goal is to eat mainly food storage foods or what we have at home.  At the beginning of the month I didn't really stock up on food.  However, I went to the store and bought vegetable oil, in case we're in the mood for greasy foods this month.  We're only buying milk and eggs, and this past week I did submit a food order from Bountiful Baskets, so I could get our sandwich breads. I can't make good bread if my life depended on it. So far, we've spent $66.00...I forgot I also bought some candy for good behavior rewards and for Valentine's Day.
Here's our dinner menu so far:
Monday: Homemade tamales (had in the freezer) and white beans (From Food Storage)
Tuesday: Chicken curry with vegetables (from food storage) and white rice (needed to use FFS)
Wednesday: Rice and beans (FFS)
Thursday: Corn chowder with homemade cornbread(FFS)
Friday: Homemade whole wheat pepperoni pizza, frozen corn, and endemame (FFS)
Saturday: Spaghetti and pasta (all FFS)
Sunday: Roasted chicken, potatoes, and food storage veggie mix.

This upcoming week:
M: Cobb Salad
T: Chilli with corn bread...still working on finding a good recipe.
 W: loaded baked potatoes with chilli and salad.
R: Split Pea soup, homemade bread of some sort.
F: Mac n' cheese for the kids.  Newel and I have a dinner party to attend.
We're not starving and we're eating pretty balanced meals.  We still get in our veggies and fruits.
Our breakfasts and lunches are also pretty good.

Things I've noticed so far:
Since I'm also not shopping for anything else, clothes, toilet paper, etc.  I have more time to do other things I need to get done, ex: Indexing, blogging, working on Maya's baby book.
I've more conscientious about not wasting food.  I've never been a big waster, but I'm making sure we don't load up on cheese on our meals, since it has to last until the end of the month. I'm also trying to find multiple use for a meat, a veggie, etc.

Balboa Park

Balboa Park is just so awesome.  It makes it even greater when you have fabulous weather like we had. 
This was the Walters' final day in San Diego, but we still made the most of it.  After a hearty continental breakfast at our hotel. Did I mention how good the breakfast was at our hotel?  Well, it was way better than expected. It was yummy.

At the museum

Enjoying the greenery

Once we arrived to the park, it was hard to decide what to do.  So we walked around for a while and enjoyed the greenery.  We checked out some of the buildings, lost my children a couple of times.  Yeah, that was a bit of a scare for a paranoid mom like me.

A place Kristen was really liking was the Artisan's Corner...or something like that.  These are shops/galleries ran by the artists and you can see them working on their creations.  That was neat.  While, we were shopping, Newel took some of the kids to ride the mini train.

Then, we decided to check out a museum...or did we first go to the museum and then the Artist Corner.  I can't remember the order of things.  It's a good thing I'm writing this now, otherwise, I might not remember this at all next week.

I think it was the Natural History.  Anyways, it was pretty cool.  I specially liked the decomposing beetle infested gorilla skull.  No really, I thought it was interesting.

Later, the kids went on the historical Merry-go-round.  One of my most enjoyable moments was watching Arden trying to grab a ring from a stick end.  It's a game they have at the ride. If you grab a brass ring, then you got to ride again for free.  He was not able to grab one.  He missed it several times, by centimeters.  However, I really liked watching his drive. He was so close and he was such a good sport afterward.

Posing for the cameras

It was getting late, so we had to leave the Walters at the parking lot while they took the road back home and we headed into Mexico for the next part of our adventure.

San Diego Zoo

I can't believe we were at the zoo all day long.  The place was so huge.  I had forgotten how big it was.
Our adventure started at the petting zoo...then, we realized we could experience the same thing in Utah.  So we headed to other sections of the zoo.

Tab eaten by the lion

We looked at insects, birds, different types of animals from all parts of the world.

It was almost overwhelming. Where do we go?  Can we see it all?


One of the animals we mostly enjoyed was petting the giant ancient tortoises.  Can you believe one of them was born the year Abraham Lincoln became president?
 They were such nice and peaceful creatures.  Oh, the best part is, if  you have one, you don't have to feed for a year.  Yep, it can go that long without eating.  There was something so neat about these guys.


As the day went by, we started to get a bit tired and there was so much more to see. So we hopped on the guided tour bus and had a chance to see a lot of the other animals we wouldn't have been able to see by walking.  Also, we were able to recharge our batteries with snacks and rest.  With that little break, we were ready for the rest of our adventure.

Smile Polar Bear

I don't know if I've mentioned how Kristen brought a trunk load of snacks and meals.  It saved us a ton of money on overpriced food at the places we visited.  With the exception of one night, we ate snacks and meals she planned.  She did an amazing job. Between the snacks she brought and we brought, we were set...who needs overpriced potato chips?

Another animal that impressed me was the rhinoceros.  It is built to fight.  It's armor body is a definite warning statement: DON'T MESS WITH ME!


We all really liked looking at the pigmy hippopotamus family.  They were so cute, but I didn't include their photo.

Resting on Fake Santa

We also found the primates to be quite amusing.




This was the first time I had a chance to see the panda bears in action.  Last time I visited the park, they were just sleeping...this time, the group was active.

Pandas in action

We had such a fun trip.  At the end of our adventure, Paka got lost in the parking lot and Newel made a rap song on his I-Phone with his T-Pain app.  It was funny.

La Jolla

La Jolla is such a fun place.  Once we finally found a place to park, we got our food and had a picnic.  It was such a nice picnic.  We ate our goodies, while the kids played on the trees.

Maya and Tabitha were the biggest fans of these trees.  We had to convince them there were more things to see.

Peas in a Pod

On our way to see the sea lions or seals, we saw this neat squirrel.  It knew there was no danger so it hung out and posed for us.  It was so interesting to watch. Also, I was a little jealous he gets to live by this beautiful scenery.

So jealous he gets to live here.

I'm not a good photographer, by any means, but I thought his posing made it easy to take good photos of him.  I wonder if this squirrel knows how lucky it really is.





We couldn't get over how nice the day was.  We really enjoyed being outdoors.  Can you see how happy we are?


We finally arrived to see the sea lions or were they seals?  Anyways, La Jolla has them both.


After Arden arrived to the dock blocking thingie and he lost his shoe.  We quickly lowered him nearby the seals/sea lions, but he had to do it in a hurry.  I guess there's a group of seal/sea lions advocates who don't let you get near them and they yell at you.  So we had to hurry.

Arden rescuing his shoe

Then, we headed to play at the beach, while we waited for the tide to go down.

We were all in heaven. 





We played by the water...





We played in sand....




We got more than our toes wet....






Some played with kelp...




And of course the weather continued to be great!



Once the tide was low enough we headed to the tide pools and the 'cave.'  I will say though, these tide pools are not as good as the ones we used to go in Half Moon Bay. However, we still got a chance to experience looking at sea creatures and touching them.



Once the sun was about to set, we headed to an island and I can't remember the name.  We wanted to see the sunset, so we headed off to the beach at this island.   We had to limit the playing water time for the kids at this place since they were barely getting dry and we had not brought change of clothing.  They weren't too happy about this, but they lived.  They still got to make circles in the sand. 

Then, we walked to the Coronado Hotel and checked it out.  It was pretty fancy on the outside and on the inside. 

I thought it was kind of funny how they had an ice skating rink.  Of course we wanted nothing to do with ice and cold.

After the sunset, we headed back to downtown San Diego, by the docks and enjoyed some dinner at a restaurant.  After dinner, we headed back to our hotel for some more swimming time.