The Adventures of a Calamari Queen
Christian, Wife, Mommy, Homemaker, Retired nurse, Fur-mama,living a simple and minimal life!
Happy Birthday America! I’m so grateful that I’m living here in U.S.A:-) We are just staying here at home for the day, cleaned the yard, had yummy drinks and later tonight we will watch Les Miserable in Seattle! Have a safe 4th of July celebration!!
We had a great weekend celebrating our Riley’s 2nd birthday. We had a simple dinner with my In laws here at our house (my Dad In Law prepared pulled pork) and Hubby took care of side dishes. Aside from that, it was a really relaxing weekend here at home. We watched a couple of movies, Church, arranged my stockpile,watched the U.S Olympics trials like they’re paying us:-)..our weekend in pics:-)
Today (June 30th) is our Riley Puss’s 2nd birthday! My In laws will be coming over for dinner to celebrate our love’s birthday with us. Riley is our mini schnauzer who is such a blessing in our family. We got him when he was only 10 weeks old, and now he’s 2! Time just flies so fast, I do miss how tiny he was when we got him. I still remember when Zach could carry him in his palm. Happy Birthday Riley Puss Bates, you are so loved! Some of my favorite pics of our birthday boy:
I shopped at 4 different stores this week,because I had a Safeway catalina that expired this week and I wanted to use it. Target is in the same area as our Safeway and I had some target coupons I wanted to use. My Target trip was “sort of free” because I used a gift card (from a rebate) so no Out of Pocket from me. Target had lots of clearance items in their coffee section,so I got 2 coffees. Then this morning, I shopped at Walgreens because I wanted to get free Suave products (I’m surprised that they are well stocked in this). After Walgreens I checked out Fred Meyer (kroger affiliate) because the two stores are just in the same area. Fred Meyer had a sale on their milk this week, $1 for their 1/2 galloon, original price is $1.85, I got 6 and I didn’t take pictures because I put them in the refrigerator right away.
We had dinner at Tandoori Fire Bar and Grill restaurant in Redmond last Saturday night because Hubby has been kinda craving Indian food lately. I’m not a big Indian food fan but I can take it. The spices are kinda strong for my taste, so I tend to just eat the same thing(I always order chicken tikka masala). That’s the main reason why we rarely eat Indian dishes/cuisine, but Zach really likes Indian food. It’s been a while now since we had Indian food, so I suggested to Zach that we check this place at Redmond. The food was really good! I liked all the dishes we ordered and the Mango Lassi was the best I’ve had. So good that we had to create one at home because I can’t stop talking about it to my Hubs! The food was great but the service was awful, they only had two people working on a busy Saturday night and we had to wait for our food for a while and it took our check 30 minutes to arrive or something. Anyways, it was still a great night with my Junlaboo!
Hubby made this drink tonight,it’s really good! We went to an Indian restaurant last night and I had a mango Lassi drink. It was so good, like really, really good. Creamy, and sweet! Mango is one of my favorite fruits and nothing beats Phillipine mangoes. They’re the best in the world! This is Jamie Oliver’s Mango Lassi recipe (from the food network).
Our Fred Meyer (Kroger affiliate) is having a good sale on their Pineapple this week (originally $3.79) and now they’re on sale for $1. I got 3, but I think I’ll get more tomorrow before the sale ends. I got free toothpaste from Walgreens after sales and coupons. They were out of stock of their Suave products, too bad because it’s such a good deal even without coupons.
SAVINGS PART 2!!
It’s friday night here,Hubby wanted to get some cold stone ice cream, I asked him to stop at Walgreens because I’m curious if they restocked their Suave products and they did!! So I was able to get the free Suave shampoos tonight!
We had this Red Snapper dish early this week. We got this fish in the Filipino store/market and knew right away that we’re gonna have Escabeche. I grow up eating Red Snapper (in the Philippines it’s called MAya-Maya),aside from Tuna (tuna belly),it is my favorite kind of fish. I forgot how expensive they are. I try to get wild caught fish whenever I can instead of farm raised, even though it is more expensive. I just feel like the flavor is really superior in wild fish. Anyways, I wasn’t thinking about the price when I got it, all I know is that it’s coming home with me. I’m just sharing this because I find it expensive , $18 for this medium size fish. Is that too much for a fish?I honestly don’t know. Although, once I had a bite of the crispy, meaty fish,and the sweet and sour sauce ,I and the Hubs totally agreed that it was worth it. So worth IT! I prepared it Escabeche style. I deep fried the fish then made a sweet and sour sauce. I sautéed onions, garlic, carrots, green peppers and then added the sweet and sour sauce once the veggies were soft and tender. Then I poured the sauce on top of the fried fish and served it over boiled rice.
Summer is officially here and to welcome our summer I grilled Blue cheese burgers (Ina Garten inspired) and made Apple, blue cheese salad (Pioneer Woman recipe) and it was delicious dinner. We got our burger patties from Fischers market here in Issaquah and it’s really good meat. Hubby and I are thinking of getting a BBQ grill for our yard so we can enjoy grilling outside. We have a charcoal one right now, but we are thinking of getting a gas one. Cheers to summer!!
Another quick stir fry recipe I cooked last week ( Recipe from The Everyday Chinese Cookbook)
Ingredients:
1lb. rump steak
2 tbsp. sesame seeds
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 oz. mushrooms,quartered
1 large green peppers,seeded,cut into strips
4 spring onions,chopped diagonally
boiled rice,to serve
For the Marinade:
2 tsp cornflour
2 tbsp chinese rice wine or dry sherry
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 in fresh root ginger grated, 1 garlic clove,crushed
few drops of tabasco sauce
Procedure:
1. Trim the steak and cut into thin strips.
2. Make the marinade. In a bowl, blend the cornflour with the rice wine,then stir in the lemon juice,soy sauce,tabasco sauce,ginger and garlic. Stir in the steak strips,cover and leave in a cool place for 3-4 hours.
3. Place the sesame seeds in a wok or large frying pan and dry fry over a moderate heat, shaking the pan,until the seeds are golden. Set aside.
4. Heat the sesame and vegetable oils in the wok or frying pan. Drain the steak, reserving the marinade, and stir fry a few pieces at a time until browned. Remove with a slotted spoon.
5. Add the mushrooms and green pepper and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the spring onions and cook for 1 minute more.
6. Return the steak to the wok or frying pan, together with the reserved marinade, and stir over a moderate heat for a further 2 minutes until the ingredients are evenly coated with glaze. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds and serve immediately with boiled rice.