The Adventures of a Calamari Queen – Page 32 – Christian, Wife, Mommy, Homemaker, Retired nurse, Fur-mama,living a simple and minimal life!

Baby Stuff!

Hello Everyone! Happy Tuesday! We only have 7 weeks to go before our due date and we are starting to get ready and prepare for our baby’s arrival. A couple of months ago (I think I was 5 months preggy here; I’m 8 months now) we invited our In laws to join us as we checked out baby stuff and help us decide what to get for the babe. We visited 2 stores (Babies R Us and Buy Buy baby) they are pretty close to each other,thus we decided to check them both. Both stores are overwhelming but we did have fun checking and testing baby items. A lot of the items are too gimmicky for us and we didn’t fall for the trap! We didn’t end up buying a single thing.

After our time at Buy Buy Baby and Babies R US, we had a late lunch at Bahama Breeze (it’s an American/Caribbean type of restaurant). We’ve only been here twice and we always enjoyed the atmosphere (it’s quite large too) and loved the food and drinks.

Hubbys Order: Caribbean style Lobster Mac and Cheese Lightly fried lobster tail with griddled Bahamian mac & cheese. Served with roasted bell pepper sauce, homemade chimichurri and green beans)

My food: Yellowtail Snapper Veracruz Grilled Yellowtail topped with vine-ripened tomatoes and Spanish olives. Served with yellow rice, Cuban black beans and sweet plantains)

Washington State Fair 2016!

Hello Friends! How are you all doing? I’m still here, getting heavy because of the pregnancy, but doing good all in all. A little busy with classes related to pregnancy (newborn class, breastfeeding, childbirth and labor,etc). We still have classes to attend in the coming weeks. It’s been hectic but exciting times for sure. Anyways, early this week my husband and I went to the Washington state fair to watch one of my favorite Christian bands, For King and Country (Matt Maher performed too). I love their music and there’s no way I’m going to miss their performance here in WA (they’ve been here before and I missed it). So fun to see them perform and hear their testimonies and relationship with the Lord. Fair food was a big bonus too!

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Pike Place Market!

Hello friends! Happy weekend! For the last weekend that my sis was here, we went to Seattle and browsed Pike place. We love the Market! It’s such a tourist destination but you’d be surprised that a lot of locals still visit the area on a regular basis. Before heading to the market we first had lunch at our favorite pizza place in Seattle “Serious Pie”. If you love gourmet pizza you have to try this one. It’s so worth it! We always order their Penn clove clam, pancetta and lemon thyme (my fave on their menu). It’s a small place so don’t be surprised if you’ll share tables with strangers. After our lunch, off to the market we went to eat more food! We stopped at Le Panier to get macaroons and coffee. My sister bought an over priced roast sweet corn ($5 each!) I didn’t want to participate in that nonsense! HA Surprisingly, the line was crazy long! Photo overload about to happen:

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Flowers at Pike Place Market are the best!

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As if we didn’t eat too much that afternoon, we decided to stop at Triple X to get their Pineapple Banana milkshake.

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Daniel’s Broiler!

Hi everyone! When my sister visited us it was her birthday week, so we treated her at a steak house. She wanted to try something other than John Howie’s (our favorite), since we went there the last time she visited. So we decided to go to Daniel’s Broiler in Seattle. It has a nice ambiance (water view of Lake Union), decent steaks (a little overpriced in my opinion), live music, and great service. It’s a nice place to celebrate a birthday! Last time we had dinner here, they over cooked the Hubs steak, so I was glad that this time they got it right! After we enjoyed a scrumptious dinner, it was nice of them to give my sister a complimentary chocolate molten cake (very rich!) for her to enjoy/celebrate her birthday with. We decided to share her dessert because we were all so full already. Another lovely dinner shared with family!

2016_07_26_DSC_7626 — Space needle in the back!

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2016_07_26_DSC_7633 — Dungeness Crab and Artichoke dip with crostini!

2016_07_26_DSC_7635 — Crispy Fried Calamari

2016_07_26_DSC_7637 — Daniel’s Delmonico (Bone-in New York 20 oz) Hubbys order

2016_07_26_DSC_7638 — My order: Filet Mignon

2016_07_26_DSC_7640 — we shared 2 sides: Grilled mushrooms and sweet yellow corn (this was a big disappointment,the sweet corn were not sweet at all:(

2016_07_26_DSC_7641 — Sis order: Daniel’s cut filet mignon 12 oz

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2016_07_26_DSC_7643 — The Birthday celebrant!

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2016_07_26_DSC_7650 — complimentary dessert!

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Leavenworth,WA!

Hi everyone! How are you all doing? We’re all doing great here, enjoying a nice summer week in the PNW (sunny all week!) and having a restful August. We’ve had such a busy July. I’m posting about our trip to Leavenworth last month when my sister visited us. We all love this little Bavarian town (2 hours drive from our house). It’s such a darling place to spend the day. Fun shops, good food and cozy ambiance is what I always associate with Leavenworth.

We had lunch at the famous Munchen Haus! As always the line was long, but their service is always quick so no worries there. We enjoyed some brats( I had the Jalapeno and Cheddar sausage! YUM!!), pretzels (according to Hubs he prefers Auntie Annies! HA!) and fresh squeezed lemonade. Aside from the food and the atmosphere, I really loved that they are pet friendly, so it was no problem having Riley with us.

Till next time Leavenworth!

2016_07_26_DSC_7663 — Hubs and SIs and Riley At Smallwood’s Harvest!

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2016_07_26_DSC_7675 — Sis and I (my 6 months baby bump),Riley

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Falls Buffet!

Hello Friends! It’s been a while since my last post. July was super busy here, there’s always an activity every weekend for us. My sister visited us for a week, we visited Leavenworth, we had my Hubs childhood friend and his family one weekend, and another weekend we celebrated my Sis In Law’s birthday. I’m looking forward to have a restful and not so busy August.

Anyways, when my sister visited we took her out to one of the “famous” buffets here in Washington. The Falls Buffet at Snoqualmie Casino. Every Tuesday night is their King Crab Buffet ($36.95 +tax/person). We went together with our friends Faye and Roger and their kids.I personally think it’s worth it for the amount of crabs we enjoyed that night. They also have other options like asian cuisines, pizza and pasta, Prime Rib. People lined up because of the crabs. I’ve only been here during their Crab buffet and we always had a good experience. We will most likely be back here sometimes when we have family and friends visiting who wants to eat some king crabs!

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Exciting news!

Hello Friends! How are you all doing?! It’s been a while since my last post because it’s been a busy week in our corner. My sister was visiting us for a week, she is living and working in New Zealand. We spent lots of time together, just hanging out and catching up. We also have some exciting news to share, WE ARE PREGNANT!!! It’s been a long journey for us but we are so blessed and thanking God for this gift and all praises to Him. Hubs and I (and our fur baby Riley) are so excited to meet our little babe before the year ends. Baby is due this fall. Looking forward to sharing more of our pregnancy journey with you all!

2016_07_05_DSC_7588 — 4th of July family pic!

What’s for Dinner?

Hello friends! It’s been a while since I posted some of our dinners that we’ve been enjoying. I’ve cooked every now and then but for the last 2 months we’ve been ordering/take out off and on. I really need to step up because I want to save more money when it comes to our grocery budget.I plan to do that this July! Wish me luck!

This may seem like a lot of food in one post( I even forgot to take pics of some of our dinners), but these are some of the dishes we’ve had for the last 2 months (May and June) excluding some of our dinners out. I plan to make a separate post about that! Happy eating friends!

mung bean soup and green beans adobo (filipino dishes)

seafood feast at home! grilled hamachi collar,baby squid in adobo,leftover clam soup

pork milanese,mashed potato,roast brussel sprouts

Some of our take out food lately:

Mexican food from our fave local taqueria:

We had dinners with friends and family too:

Happy Birthday, Riley!

Happy 6th birthday to our fur baby Riley! We got donuts from Top Pot and gave the birthday boy just a little bite! We love our birthday boy!

Father’s Day 2016!

Hello everyone! I wanted to share our Father’s Day this year (I know it’s kinda late). It’s just fun to look back on how we spent our day celebrating with the family. My Dad passed away 3 years ago (Happy Father’s day in Heaven Pa), so it’s just my Dad IL,and my brother(he’s in the Philippines though) who I get to celebrate Fathers day. We had a simple dinner at home for my DIL. My husband went to the asian market and got lots of goodies for his Dad! It’s dangerous if I send Hubs alone to get groceries because he doesn’t stick to my list and blows my grocery budget! My DIL wanted some clams and mussels, so we cooked some in butter and white wine, along with some crabs, some sushi (fresh geoduck and uni), and wagyu steak (so DECADENT and worth the price, IMO). It was a nice sunny Sunday afternoon too,so we had dinner out on our patio. Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there (a belated one!).

Hubs made watermelon juice too!so refreshing and perfect on a summer night!