Post-Post-Post Christmas Sale Shopping Rocks!

It's been ages since I stepped foot into a Kmart. I don't even know where the nearest Kmart is in my city. I blame the Walmart culture. They are everywhere. But, I really wish there were more Kmart stores around me because they have far better products in their store. Always have a soft heart for Miss Martha Stewart. As always her products rock, but man, Miss Jacqueline Smith. Have you guys seen her bedding? Holy Crap. Just like the movie, " Sweet Home Alabama, " I'm going to say, " That Jacqueline Smith sure knows what she's doing." 

Anyways, as I digress.... me and my mamasita went to her local Kmart because her BFF told her that they were having a 90% sale on their Christmas stuff. Initial reaction: there's just going to be JUNK! 

Oooh, I was sorely wrong. I scored all this stuff for a whopping $3. Two rolls of Martha Stewart wrapping paper. Could not pass that shiz up for $0.39! WTF? Ridiculous, right? Scored some boxes for like $0.19! Even more ridiculous!

It gets worse. So, next door is a Big Lots. I'm going to be old school and call them Pick n' Save! Hah! There's my age out the door. Anyways, this past year, I baked a whole lotta' cookies partly due to inspiration from my girlfriends who were also baking during the holidays, but also because I was being thrifty with my $$ this year. I had tons of fun trying out different cookie recipes. Although, I thought they tasted really good at home, I was nervous to give them out for fear that the recipients wouldn't feel the same way. I lack the confidence as I'm a newbie to this whole cookie baking stuff.  

When it came time to wrap the cookies, I had the difficult time digesting the cost of a tin can. Dear God, $4 for a tin can??? Really? So, instead I purchased little white boxes that wrapped them in pretty ribbon. Ahh, but this time around, I got smart! Found a whole bunch of Christmas tin cans for $0.20! You betcha I filled up my cart with all this clanging!

So, last week's menu planning was yet another successful week! My personal favorite of the week were the Banh Mi's, aka, Vietnamese Sandwiches.

I think the most important aspect of this sandwich is the bread. The hubs was insistent on purchasing the baguette from the Vietnamese restaurants. When I asked him why can't we just purchase a baguette from the regular grocery store? His response. The bread at the Vietnamese restaurants are way better. 

and, Oh, he indeed was right. It was much softer inside and was descently still good the next day! Oh, and the freshness of the bread? Sooo good! They baked it the day we bought it. The price? $1 per baguette! Can't beat that right? 

In the midst of cooking, we finally managed to put up our solar lights out in our backyard.  It's been what? About 6 months since we got them. My wonderful parents spoiled us again and purchased us these lights when they saw that they were on sale! 

The solar lights come with rechargeable batters inside of them. You would have to put them in areas that have direct sunlight in order for them to recharge during the day and light up at night.  Thank goodness for having sun over the weekend because I was a little bit worried that we wouldn't be able to charge them. 


I did get rather obsessive though. I kept observing during the day from morning to mid afternoon where the sun was shining and where it moved during the day. Hopefully, I didn't disturb our drip system as the hubs pointed out. Wups! Didn't think about that. I guess we'll find out when its time to turn back on the drips! 

Here they are scattered sporadically in our backyard. Unlike the hubs, I knew they were to be scattered around the area. He thought they were to be lined along the cement. I think he was thinking of lights that go in front of your house along the steps. He's such a city boy, I swear! 


The lights did light up at night even though they had only 1 day of recharge. The instructions tell you that they need at least 2 days. Phew! Although, they aren't as bright as non-solar lights, they do light up just enough to give light in the backyard.

Food Planning is fun!

The weekly menu planning that I did was a success all around! I do have to admit that I was suppose to cook last Friday, but with working my ass off {literally} at work, I needed a huge break and a cold draft beer. I picked up where I started and continued on with the last two meals of the week though! So, no food wasted. Phew!


My favorite thus far of last  week's menu was the Wasabi & Panko Crusted Pork Chops with Gingered Soy Sauce.  Although I didn't follow the recipe to the T, like I didn't use egg whites and I didn't have any Sherry or Sake on hand. It still came out pretty darn flavorful and I think I'm going to keep this recipe in rotation! 

For the upcoming week, here's the plan. 

Thursday: Vietnamese Sandwiches, aka Banh Mi Thit Heo Nuong

I've been craving these sandwiches like no other these days. I think I can seriously eat these every single day. They are that good. Let's hope they taste as good as the Vietnamese places where I purchase them.








Sunday: Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp 

Monday:  Chicken with Artichokes and Angel Hair Pasta

Tuesday: Spinach Cheese  Manicotti

Wednesday: Flank Steak with Mashed Potatoes

Taking Control.

The other day I blogged about how I want to start effectively plan out my meals at home.  Well today is the day! I officially started the planning and I gotta say that I'm pretty darn proud of myself. Again, let's hope that I can stick with this plan. I'm counting on the fact that I can keep myself accountable by blogging my weekly meals here and then discussing them afterwards. 

Since I work night shifts, I only planned the meals on nights when I'm off. Hubby is pretty much on his own on my work nights and I'm not too worried as he can make do on his own. 

I also tried to plan out meals with ingredients we have at home already and need to use and plus I took the advice of HappeyWifey and stuck to ingredients that are sorta close together in order to avoid going way over budget. Capeesh? 

Here's my plan for the week of January 18th-January 24th.

Monday: Thai Chicken Saute.

Picture taken from Cooking Light

Tuesday: Wasabi & Panko Crusted Pork with Gingered Soy Sauce

Picture taken from Cooking Light

Friday: Homemade Pizza

I saw this recipe while perusing the food blogs I read. It was a pizza recipe with Cremini Mushrooms, Wilted Spinach, Butternut Squash and Feta Cheese. The picture is really what sold me, otherwise, if I saw this on paper only, I think I'd pass on it because really...it does sound like a hot mess.

Picture taken from Sugar & Spice by Celeste

Saturday: Celebrating my Mom's Birthday.

Sunday: Turkey Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes and Veggies

Need I say more? The husband bought a sh*tload of potatoes yesterday and so what better way to use them by making up some whipped potatoes!

So there you have it folks! My meals planned out for the week! I'm super excited about this. I actually had alot of fun planning out the meals.

Dinner last night was a success! We actually invited a few guests over because one of them was living in the Phillippines for about a year. There's a slight chance that he may return back to the homeland and thus, we won't be able to see him for God knows how long again.

The hubs and I made Japanese Curry and Pork Tonkatsu. All of our guests had never before had the pleasure of eating Japanese Curry so they were really looking forward to the treat.  Unlike, Southern California, Japanese Curry is not really known up in Northern California. I think the closest Curry House is in Cupertino, Ca.

While making dinner, some of us enjoyed a glass or two of some really good white wine. I decided to open up a bottle that one of our good friends gifted us over the Holidays. It was a bottle of 2008 Blackstone Malvasia Bianca, Limited Release. If you like slightly sweet wines, then you may like this one, too! 

Post dinner, we enjoyed some hot tea and coffee and ofcourse some Ginger Elizabeth chocolates. It's a little chocolate shop that opened up in midtown Sacramento a few years ago. Cute chocolate boutique. Any woman would do a double take whenever they pass this store.  

I've been dying, quite literally, to get my butt over there to try and sample a few of their stuff. But, I could just never make it over there. Thankfully, one of our friends brought over a little brown box of chocolates for all of us to sample and enjoy our coffee/tea with.  Oooh, I think I was teased with a bit of heaven. Indeed, yes. 


I just wished that last night's dinner was on a weekend night so that we all could have stayed much longer and gabbed about anything and everything through the night.  Cheers!

New Resolution: Cooking More Often.

Wow, so far this has been 3 posts within a 4 day timespan. Not bad, Stacy... Not Bad. Let's hope that I can keep this up.

Last night, I tried out a new recipe. It was the Beef Stragonoff from the Cooking Light website. In the past, I usually make Beef Stragonoff the easy way which was brown up some steak and throw in a can of Cream of Mushroom, a little bit of water, and let it simmer for a half an hour or so. Any of you guys make it this way?

It was super easy to make and tasted pretty good considering that I didn't add the Dry Sherry and the Fresh Flat Leaf Parlsey (um, why did I just capitalize the first letter of each word? LOL) because I just couldn't find it in my local grocery store.

I did feel pretty good about eating it, too! Made it with whole grain egg noodles and low fat sour cream. It was creaaaaaaaamy all the way! 

I'm pretty sure that this recipe would be good with grilled chicken, too!

This cooking thing has got me thinking. My friend, Bernbaby, subscribes to the Cooking Light magazine and her routine is to choose recipes for the week, go grocery shopping and make a different dish everyday. I really want to try or get somewhat near Bernbaby's routine. It's not only cost effective but more healthier, too! 

Tonight's dinner is Pork Tonkatsu and Japanese Curry. By the way, if you are in the market for a good Japanese Curry, try out the brand,  Kokumaru.  It can be found at your local Asian market or for sure at your local Japanese market.

I'll also probably make a heaping bowl of turkey chili since the weather we've been having has been kinda chilly.

Have you guys started cooking more?

Over the weekend, I participated in celebrating my sorority sister's, aka running buddy, baby shower.  It was held at her parents house and hosted by another one of my sorority sister who is her BFF.

 

No details were spared as her BFF did an excellent job in decorating the place, providing the yummy food, and creating the games.  Heck, Running Buddy even had a sash around her.

I gotta say that the diaper game where you melt chocolate candy bars in the diaper and guess what candy bar is in them was pretty hard. She pretty much got a few candy bars that looked the same. No Snickers, c'mon??? Guess what though? Appparently, I've been eating way too much candy because I knew what I was talking about! I won!

I won me some $5 Footlonooooooooooooong! Woo to the Hoo! Should come in handy when I'm broke as a joke and need me some lunch.

I gotta say that I loved all the various onsies hanging around the kitchen and family room. They were so cute!!! By the way, she's having a baby girl and honestly, girl clothing are way more cuter than boys. I had the hardest time choosing which outfits to buy her. I wanted to buy Baby A every single item I saw!!!

There was so much yummy little finger foods. My personal fave. The homemade potstickers which were running buddy's grandma's recipe. Her grandma gave her the secret recipe and not her mom. Hah. Gotta love that story and awww at the same time that she would give it to her only granddaughter. Running Buddy... do you take orders?

I had a great time spending time with everyone and showering Baby A with plenty of gifts.  If you guys are interested, you can follow Running Buddy's pregnancy journey here.