The Adventures of a Calamari Queen

Hello Friends! Where did the time Go? It’s already June, Mia will be done with school this month, so let the summer fun begin! We have lots of plans these coming months with family visiting us too, we are really excited! We enrolled Mia in soccer and golf lessons too. We’ve been having nice summery weather this past week (it’s been rainy today though) so we started planting our garden and hopefully this will be a successful gardening year!

Our view from the kitchen couple of nights ago! God reminding us how beautiful His creation is:) Amazing!

Hubs and I got to have a lunch date when my In laws offered to watch the kids. We had Ramen at our fave place:) We stopped at Home Depot and Fred Meyer to get herbs/vegetables for our garden.

We had a simple Memorial Day at the house. Thank You to all the men and women (and their families) that gave their life for our country’s freedom. We had the usual burgers and side dishes for the gathering. Hubs baked our buns and it was a hit!

We’ve been going to the park a lot too because Mia loves playing on the monkey bars!

Have a great evening friends!

Hi Friends! How’s it going? It’s been a busy day here because the kids had dental appointments this morning (it’s exhausting!HA), I did some grocery shopping, organized the freezer/pantry, house chores! It’s been a nice day though, so that’s a bonus. Our spring so far has not been garden friendly weather. I so want to start planting some vegetables and herbs but Hubs doesn’t think that’s a good idea yet. I’ve been “collecting ” some herbs like chives and parsley so far and used them in my cooking this week.

We had a couple of nice, sunny days this week, and the kids love going to the park, biking/scooting around our area. We’ve been going there everyday this week.

I checked our grocery store’s weekly ad and they had a decent sale on their meat/chicken. With the price increases/inflation/supply chain issues I wanted to take advantage of these sales and thank God I was able to. Last week, I wanted to get some pork ribs because they were on sale but everything was empty/sold out. My kids love a Filipino dish called “Pork nilaga” or Pork ribs soup, so I’m always looking for a decent pork ribs sale. I got some chips too!HA.. Summer will be here before we know it! We like to go to the lake and junky salty chips are nice to have! I’m proud of my savings!LOL

This week is an exciting week for me because my Mother’s day gift from Hubs and family arrived and I’ve been having fun using them. Hubs gifted me with the new iPad, it’s nice to have quality gadgets! Mia got to use it too, she has a subscription for the ABC mouse app.

My sisters asked me what I wanted for Mother’s day and I’ve been eyeing this new Staub everyday pan. I’m on a personal “no spend” challenge(no way I would buy this using my own money)HA ,so when they asked what can they give me, this is what I wanted. I really like the size and color of this but to be honest this is one heavy pan!

My In laws gave me money for Mother’s day and this is what I bought!LOL. I just love Staub quality and this size is perfect for soups/braising smaller quantity/servings.

I made Chicken Hamonado (Filipino chicken stew) for the first time and Hubs liked it! The kids weren’t big fans, they wanted adobo over this.

I made korean beef lettuce wraps this week too for lunch. Perfect with kimchi.

I baked banana bread yesterday and everybody liked it! Surprisingly it turned out great. I’m not a baker so I had low expectations about this bread!HA

Anyways, I hope you have a great weekend friends! Stay safe and take care:)

Hi Friends! Happy Saturday. I thought it was going to be a rainy day for us but I was pleasantly surprised that most of the time we’ve had the sun shining (since yesterday). We had a playdate with Mia’s friends and had a nice walk around the neighborhood! Lot’s of pretty trees and flowers surrounding us:) I’m so grateful to live in a well maintained community (in terms of trees/plants). Our HOA are expensive in my opinion.HA! I did some decluttering in the kids playroom and I’m continuing to donate and get rid of toys that they hardly use/play with. I plan to make an area for our homeschool this year. We are going to homeschool the kids this coming school year. We are excited!

He got so tired after playing with Big sis and her friends!

I made this Filipino dish called “Crispy Pata” yesterday (Crispy pork hocks). I used the air fryer, so no splattering around the kitchen. We are satisfied with the result. I had to boil/tenderize the meat for 1 hour in the stove though before air frying.

I’m so glad this room is decluttered. Hubs watched the kids this morning so I can really focus and get this room clean. The kids love spending time here so this gets messy quickly.

We had lunch with my In laws too earlier. It’s been a while since we had been out with them. We normally get together at our house. Thank God the kids “behaved”!HA

For dinner tonight, Hubs made Ahi Poke! We enjoyed this and it hit the spot! We rarely have this because the tuna is quite expensive.UGH! $38 per pound. Lord have mercy with all these prices:)

Have a great evening friends! Stay safe and Take Care:)

Hello Friends! Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms/mommy figures in the world. I hope you had a wonderful day and that your family and friends celebrated you today! My Hubs and kids spoiled me this weekend. Hubs prepared breakfast and we enjoyed cheesy waffles, eggs and cupcakes! YUM:) Matthew was dedicated at Church today too. He was such a good boy while our Pastor was praying with all the other kids and their families. We then had late lunch together with my In laws (and Auntie/Uncle). It’s my MILs birthday too so we had double celebrations. We ordered food from our local Thai restaurant and we all enjoyed lunch. Food was so good:)

Waiting for Matthew’s dedication. We got there early so the church was still empty. We talked to our Pastor and other families. It’s a mother’s day tradition at our church to have baby dedications. We couldn’t do it last year because of Covid.

Have a great night friends! Going to relax and enjoy my Sunday night:) Take care and stay safe!

Hello Friends! Today, Mia and I had a little tea party at her Preschool in celebration of Mother’s day this Sunday. It was so special with them performing for all of us moms. The teachers set a beautiful table with the kids crafts of flowers and they had chocolates all over. They served tea, strawberry short cake, cookies! Mia said “I love tea party, it’s like somebody’s having a birthday party” HA! We don’t have big plans for this coming Mother’s Day, we are going to have a family dinner because there’s also a birthday celebration in the family. Matthew will be dedicated at our Church in the morning. It will be a busy day! Happy Mothers Day to all the Moms:) We have one of the most important jobs in the world.

Have a great Mother’s Day Weekend Friends! Stay safe

Hi Friends! We had a nice sunny weekend this week, so we did a little walking around our neighborhood and park time with the kids! Had dinner at Chic Fil A and enjoyed some Kdrama at night (Hubs and I finished Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) Lame ending in my opinion!HA. I’m feeling productive too because I did declutter a part of our master closet. I have to visit the donation center this week to get these bags out of my sight. I was able to read two of my books too! Currently reading a Charlotte Mason book and Last Lecture. We had a relaxing and productive weekend, so that was good!

Have a great and restful Sunday evening friends! Take Care and God bless:)

Hubs and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary earlier this month. We wanted to have dinner at our favorite restaurant but Matthew wasn’t feeling well so we postponed it and just had dinner at home. We still wanted to have a nice yummy meal so Hubs went to Costco to get some King Crab legs and steaks. Delicious!

Time flies so fast for sure! I can’t believe it’s been 14 years already, we’ve been together for 17 years and married for 14 years! We pray that God continue to bless and protect our marriage:)

Today we got to have a playdate with Mia’s friend from school (her BFF Isabella). She was so excited to see her friend and play with her toys!LOL. Matthew went along too but the girls doesn’t want him around!HA. I’m exhausted chasing him around their house and at the park.

My little treat today! HA Starbucks red velvet loaf. My first time to have this as I normally get their lemon loaf. This one is good! I don’t eat the frosting so it isn’t too sweet (just how I like it).

We plan to relax at home for the rest of the afternoon and go to the park again later for another playdate with our neighbor!

I’m excited for the weekend! We have no plans but relaxing at home:)

Take care and be safe friends!

Hi friends! How’s your week going? It’s been a while since I posted. I’ve been busy this month with Mia’s spring break (she’s back to school now), we did a little weekend getaway to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. We hosted Easter this year so this month has been a little hectic.

We kept this Easter year simple and less chaotic! I decided not to give any baskets for the kids because I know my In laws will give them Easter goodies. They really don’t need anything and we want to teach them the real meaning of Easter and what Jesus did on the cross for our sake. We joined one Easter egg hunt at Mia’s school though. Kids had fun and got lots of candies!

We had Ham, Potato Augratin, Asparagus, deviled eggs, Carrot cake (baked from scratch by Hubs) for our Easter dinner! YUM:)

Hi Friends! Happy Thursday and last day of March:) I’ve been happy with my meal planning and preparations lately because I truly kept it simple and did not make a big deal out of it lately. I try to cook from scratch most of the time and enjoy takeout/eat out at least once or twice a week. I also double (the portion) of what I cook so we can have left overs too. I don’t do elaborate meals because with young kids I just don’t have the desire and energy to do that:) I do get ready to eat/frozen meals from the store too (Hello Trader Joes frozen meals!) when I don’t want to cook and when it’s just me and the kids and Hubs has a busy day at work.

The kids are used to eating Filipino/America food so most of the time I don’t need to make separate meals for everybody. Our breakfasts are usually the same thing like eggs,toasts/bread,cereal,oatmeal. Lunches are leftovers,sandwiches,”snacky” food like cheese,meat,vegetables,fruits. So for dinner we have some kind of meat/seafood/pasta and roasted veggies and rice. I look online (foodnetwork website most of the time) for simple recipes and my cookbooks for inspirations.

Here are some of the dinners we’ve had these past weeks:

I made this Taiwanese Beef Noodle dish this month, and it was tasty:)

One of my fave filipino dishes is Kare-Kare (Oxtail stew in peanut sauce). The kids don’t eat this so they had meatballs and pasta when Hubs and I devoured this!HA

Happy cooking friends! Stay safe and Take Care:)

Hi Friends! One of our local farm stores had baby chicks and ducks in their store so we decided to bring the kids there because we thought they might like to see them, but NOPE they were not interested! HA. We ended up getting milkshakes at XXX after so the trip would not be a big waste. We liked the milkshake but we didn’t like the price tag of $15 for a large milkshake! I know everybody is talking about “INFLATION” but it is getting ridiculous. We got a sandwich earlier after church and it was $12 per sandwich!:/)

I asked the Hubs to bake Pandesal (Filipino bread roll)for us and it’s so good! Perfect with butter or cheese paired with coffee. Reminds me so much of the Philippines.

Matthew and I have been going out for community walks this week. Spring is finally here because the flowers and trees are blooming all over!

My Big girl enjoying some park time this weekend!

Have a great rest of your weekend friends! Take care and stay safe:)