All Natural

Believe it or not, I had my very first visit to a Whole Foods during our trip to the coast. We have a couple of Whole Foods near us, but I never felt the need to go there especially since it's very expensive and I get my satisfaction from Trader Joe's. 

I decided to pick up a couple of dinner items to eat while I watched the infamous LOST finale. The husband and I are still debating about the ending and its theories associated. We can't help ourselves. I love it! Any LOST fans out there? What are your thoughts?

Oh, as I digress. Getting back to Whole Foods. Ahh yes. So I wanted to purchase a couple of items for my dinner. I remember reading a  review about Whole Foods and their wonderful tasting natural honey roasted peanut butter. It wasn't a  high praising review, but for some reason, it clenched my curiosity and I just had to swoop up one!

I didn't get the opportunity to run the peanuts threw the intimidating machine, but I was able to snag an already pre-packed one. 

Yesterday morning, the hubs decides to make himself a peanut butter and jelly toasted sandwich for his breakfast and I remembered that we bought the au natural peanut butter. I was ecstatic to try it, and man, oh, man, this stuff was gooooooooood!!! 

 
What I love most about this peanut butter, or natural peanut butter in general is that it has no preservatives, but what I dislike about it is that it is pretty expensive! 

Happy Anniversary!

Two years today I married the other half of my heart.

 In celebration of our 2 years, we ventured off to the California coast for some rest and relaxation. We stayed in the charming town of Los Gatos which is about 15 minutes away from the coast of Santa Cruz-Capitola area.  


We were so smitten by the town. From the lively small town feeling in the downtown area to the oh-so charming yet modern homes surrounding the area made me want to say, " I'd like to live here one day." Yeah, I loved it that much. 


We found a Japanese restaurant called Hachi Ju Hachi in Saratoga which is a couple of towns next to Los Gatos. After reading the many high reviews on Yelp, I knew it would be place the husband would love to try since he's such a Japanese enthusiast.  

It truly was an authentic Japanese restaurant. No mayo based sushi rolls at this place. Our favorite dish was the yellowtail. It screamed freshness from the very first bite! 

We also relaxed at the beach in Capitola, dined at a very dog friendly restaurant (psst, they even had a doggy menu!), and ended it with watching the 4 hour finale of LOST. Yes, we are the romantics. 

Oh, can't forget what the hubby bought. Since, the second year is the "cotton" year, he bought me some flannel pj's from a cute company called,  
" The Cat's Pajama's.  

Surprised that I've never seen/heard of these pj's. They have the cutest prints!  From cupcakes, hearts, to sushi!
 
Since I'm in love with our dog, Maddie, he bought me the snow dog pj prints. hahahah, gotta laugh!

 

Wants.

I want these.

While shopping for my Pre Teen book, The Carrie Diaries, at our local Barnes and Noble, I stumbled upon these cute little owl bookends. I showed the husband and he kinda gave me a weird look as if I was bazonkers for liking such a thing. Le sigh. He'll never understand. 

 

TGIF

Happy Friday Everyone! I get to celebrate an "actual" Friday with all of you. Usually, my Fridays are on a Sunday, a Wednesday, a Thursday. Celebrating " Fridays" on an actual Friday is like every 2 weeks or so and it makes me feel kinda normal, like I have a Monday through Friday kind of job. Do you think I said the word Friday enough in this paragraph? 

Today, I woke up around noon which is atypical of me. Darn night shift. I hardly get any sleep because of you. But,  its okay. The sun is shining out and I wanted to take full advantage of it. Ofcourse, what do I do? I stay in and bake cookies. Aren't those saved for rainy days? 

I've been craving the peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies from the recipe adapted from the infamous Magnolia Bakery in NYC. Ever since I made them a few months back, I've been dying to have another one. But, I resisted for some time as they literally are like crack. No lie. I brought them into work when I first made them and every single person was eating like 4-5 cookies each. Add that up and that's all whole meal already! 

While my picture doesn't do the cookies justice, Smitten Kitchen's picture sure will.  

 

 

I bought my mamasita a mother's day gift. I figure, since she always goes on walks, why not purchase her a little shuffle? I know that she's not one to be tech savvy, but hey, I want to introduce her to future.  I wanted to get her the green or white one, but my local Target didn't have it in those colors. So, she's stuck with a plain silver one. I'm so hoping that she uses it. I think she'd really enjoy it. What did you get your mom for Mother's Day?

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend! I can't wait for tonight as we are going to grub on some Thai food tonight!

 

 

Ahh, finally something semi-worthy to blog about! Its been quiet these past few months amongst the Dubyah household. Nothing really special has been happening except just literally enjoying the sunshine at its finest. I don't know what it is with me these days, but I try to get out every chance I get whenever I see the forecast set for extremely sunny days, or even semi sunny days. Heck, I'll take anything so long as it's not dewey drops. 

So here's what's been going. Please excuse my randomness. 

I was surprised that the hubs purchased Maddie the Bacon Breakfast and Eggs treats that my dad lovingly gives her when she's at my parents house. She loooooves them! I guess when he saw that there was a $1 off coupon making the total come to a mere $1.29, he spontaneously without a single apprehension tossed it into our shopping cart. Wow. That was a first! 

They are meant to replicate an actual breakfast. Too funny, yes? 

Today, I cooked, no wait attempted to make a third Filipino dish called Chicken Afritada. When I saw that my girlfriend on Facebook was making it, I thought, why not? I'll give it a go. Don't you just love how Facebook can inadvertently cause you do so something spontaneously? 

Looked at  this recipe and didn't think it looked too complicated. 


One and a half hours later, I produced this! 

I can't wait to eat it for dinner when I go into work tonight. For those that are wanting to be in the "know",  chicken afritada is baseically a chicken and/or pork dish that is tomato based with potatoes, peas, and carrots. Oh yeah, and us Filipino's for some odd reason are obsessed with putting hot dogs or vienna sausages in our foods. So, with tradition, I put some hot dogs in my chicken afritada. But, ah, only the best hot dogs! They were cut up Nathan's hot dogs!

Someone's Junk is Another Person's Treasure

Yesterday afternoon I made a trip to our local Goodwill in hopes of finding some good treasures. I love shopping at thrift stores. Just love it. Love it even more after reading blogs that give a breath of fresh new life to an old pieces of furniture.I just feel so inspired to do the same exact thing.

On this trip, I was in search of a fruit bowl. I was getting tired of seeing our fruit in its plastic bags sitting on the counter. Plus it was starting to get in the way. I blame it on the hubs for purchasing a 5lb bag of naval oranges. 

So, with an item in mind, I went and came out with this. 

I also snagged a couple of vases for $0.50! This one is sitting on our mantel for the time being. I can't wait to purchase some nice looking succulents to put them in. But, I'm sure that it can function as a bowl to put things in like paperclips/rubberbands on your desk or cotton swabs/cotton balls in your bathroom.

Do you enjoy shopping at thrift stores? What have you purchased that is your absolute favorite?

Getting' out of dodge!

I just can't get enough of this yummy weather we've been getting here. Every time it's my day off, I try to get up early and soak up all the sun I can get! I feel as though Mr. Rain is going to make his appearance soon.

Yesterday was one of those days. Even though, I worked the night before, I was determined to not stay home and head on out to one of my favorite places to hang on a beautiful day--- 4th Street in Berkeley, CA. They have a slew of little shops and restaurants allowing you to  just walk around and peruse. My most favorite stores there is the Crate and Barrel Outlet, Paper Source and ofcourse, Anthropologie! 

Maddie got to go to one of her favorite stores,  George!   She got to eat up a Lamb treat for free, courtesy of the sales associate that gave her one. I was going to get her some because I noticed that she loved it. But, when I saw that they were $5/lb, I opted to not to. Sorry Maddie.

For the most part, the hubs and I just sat in front of Peet's, people watched and just talked about stuff going on at work and in our lives. It was lovely because we were truly enjoying the day. 


Where is your favorite place to hang out on a beautiful day?