We went to Army Navy (again) because the big boys (the husband and my son) wanted to eat Bully Boy burgers again. My mom and I shared an order of chicken quesadilla and my dad ordered a burrito. My daughter feasted on chips and fries. It was a very laidback atmosphere since you eat outside on wooden tables, like a backyard. No serving by waitresses in french maid outfits. Your number is called when your order is ready!
Thanks to amazing deals at Deal Grocer, I was able to get some vouchers at the following restaurants: Antonio’s, Zucchini’s and Bubba Gump! I am excited as to when we can finally use those coupons. I am so busy blocking out dates in my calendar that I am finding it hard to understand the details under the Medicare part D plan I need to work on.
Can you tell how much I love food? 
A lot has been said about the health benefits of fine wines. Actually, it does not have to be a bottle of premier wine or even a bottle of rare wine. Even your ordinary red wine which costs less than $10 could provide you with numerous health benefits. Below are just some of them.
• Reduce bad cholesterol. A lot has been said about bad cholesterol. They are called bad because they can increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases. The Resveratrol that is found in wines can help lower this risk by reducing bad cholesterol.
• Reduce weight. Wine can increase your body’s metabolism so moderate drinking can actually give you smaller waists and lower body mass.
• Prevents cancer. Regularly drinking red wine is found to help in decreasing the risk of cancer. Although it does not cure cancer, the phytochemicals and polyphenols found in red wine can fight chemicals and properties of cancer cells.
There are a lot of health benefits that red wine supposedly offers. However, keep in mind that in everything, moderation is the key. Do not think that it is okay to go on a wine-drinking spree. Limit your consumption to a glass of red wine per day to be able to maximize its health benefits.
There was a time when my family would eat out every weekend, usually after hearing mass. This was when we had no house help and cooking just wasn’t one of my strong points. Since I hold the budget, I would always justify eating out once a week, reasoning out the kids need to go out, I need to go out, after being cooped up at home all week (Yes, we really do not go out). We don’t eat at fancy restaurants, we eat at the usual places kids love to eat – Jollibee, KFC, Pizza Hut – but since my family eats a lot, our bill always remains high. When my son discovered Japanese food, he would request we go to Teriyaki Boy, Tokyo Tokyo or Pepper Steak. Of course, after eating, if Starbucks is near the area (which it almost always is thanks to my great planning and foresight!), I would squeeze in my favorite caramel macchiato (iced if it’s hot, like these days).
As you can see, eating out can put a strain to one’s budget most especially if you do not have a big budget to begin with. Imagine spending 500-800 bucks on one meal every week, multiply that by four and you spend 2000-3200 bucks a month. For us, that would be enough to pay a monthly electric bill!
So when the new year rolled in, we decided to limit eating out to once a month. We also avoided any instances wherein we would be taking out food. For example, if we are going out for errands in the afternoon, we make sure there will be dinner once we arrive at night, so we don’t need to order food on the way home. It also helped a lot that we had house help so cooking became a regular thing for us. We do our best to entertain ourselves at home, that is why we had cable installed, bought a media player to store movies and TV series in and bought an XBOX Kinect 360. There is of course online games for the husband. He loves a good round of poker and it’s too bad I don’t even know how to play so he usually plays online and sometimes even plays in slot tournaments. I don’t really regulate him since he knows how to control himself.
This is Yellow Cab’s New York Finest pizza – my kids never get tired of this, so even if I want to try and order a different pizza (say like, Dear Darla), I cannot, because it will just be a waste of money as I would be the only one eating it.
