There are some pretty cool freebies available now and free events coming up soon!
Free LEGO Bricktober Events at Toys R Us
Free Samples of Bragg Delight Seasonings & Nutritional Yeast
Free Sample of Meow Mix Single Servings Cups
Free Sample of Carnation Breakfast Essentials
It’s that time of year again! Time for Brick or Treat at Legoland, and Henry is so excited!
Brick-or-Treat Party Nights is every Saturday night until Halloween (Sept. 30, Oct. 7, 14, 21, & 28). Besides yummy treats at Trick or Treat Stations (with more than one million pieces of candy), there are tons of other fun to be had!
We’ll be going up on the 14th to check it out. I’ll be posting photos on Instagram throughout the day, so make sure to follow me!
Brick-or-Treat Party Nights is a special event and admission can be purchased for as low as $49 if purchased online in advance. New this year, guests can purchase a full second day Resort Hopper ticket to enjoy LEGOLAND California, SEA LIFE aquarium and LEGOLAND® Water Park. Special event ticket holders can enjoy costume contests, trick-or-treating at candy stations filled with tasty goodies and other surprises, festive music and live entertainment. LEGOLAND California and SEA LIFE aquarium are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on select dates throughout October and LEGOLAND Water Park is open weekends 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. through October 29. With special event admission to Brick-or-Treat Party Nights on September 30, October 7, 14, 21 and 28, guests can extend their day until 9 p.m. at both LEGOLAND California and SEA LIFE aquarium to enjoy all of the Halloween festivities-plus- add on a second day Resort Hopper ticket to extend the fun all weekend long. For exclusive savings and more information, visit www.BRICKORTREAT.com or call 760-918-5346.
This week has been crazy, and it’s just Tuesday! Mr. is sick, so our usual routine has been thrown off.
I’m just posting dinners for our meal plan. The kiddos usually have a small toasted bagel with cream cheese for breakfast along with fruit. Hubs likes Oatmeal (my recipe for an easy almost instant oatmeal mix can be found here) if he’s got time, otherwise he and I have protein shakes with frozen bananas and PB2.
Lunches for Lil’ Man are usually Peanut butter and crackers, fruit, milk, a protein muffin (aka a kid cupcake), and applesauce cup. He takes his lunch every day! Hubs usually has a protein shake or I pack him leftovers or a frozen entree.
Bitty Bird and I usually have leftovers from the night before, or soup, sandwiches, quesadillas. She eats almost anything!
We’re pretty stocked up of food for the next week or so- We’ll need milk, cream cheese, and cheese. I’ll probably hit up Costco tomorrow.
Monday:
Tuesday:
Weds:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
The menu may change, as I pull stuff out of the pantry to rotate what we’ve got (I am trying to cut down on waste, and put the older stuff up front to get eaten first).
Ok, so pictures with this post because I didn’t think about writing it down until after we had already eaten second helpings. I didn’t think you’d want to see a pic of an empty, dirty skillet.
This recipe is inspired by what I had in the cupboard. I really wanted tacos, but we didn’t have any of the usual fixins’, so I rummaged through the cupboard and the spice rack and here is what I came up with.
If you are wondering why didn’t I just go to the store, or send the Mister…. You mst be new here! I pride myself on being able to use it up, make do, or go without. But a woman should never be denied tacos, or a reasonable facsimile.
Beefy Taco Skillet (serves 6, maybe more)
Ingredients
Directions
Serve with Tortillas and a green salad. Despite having a whole can of soup and water in it, it is not soupy at all. Cooking it on medium really tightens it up, especially once the rice is added.
When I make this again, I will be adding more veggies: 2 onions, 3 bell peppers (one red, one green, and once yellow), and 2 cups of corn kernels (probably frozen). I may also omit the can of water and add a can of salt-free diced tomatoes in their own juice. All of these changes will add bulk to the entree without adding too many more calories.
You could also top this with crushed tortilla chips and a little chopped cilantro (I am one of those people who can’t eat cilantro- it tastes like soap and makes my tummy urpy).
I’m just posting dinners for our meal plan. The kiddos usually have a small toasted bagel with cream cheese for breakfast along with fruit. Hubs likes Oatmeal (my recipe for an easy almost instant oatmeal mix can be found here) if he’s got time, otherwise he and I have protein shakes with frozen bananas and PB2.
Lunches for Lil’ Man are usually Peanut butter and crackers, fruit, milk, a protein muffin (aka a kid cupcake), and applesauce cup. He takes his lunch every day! Hubs usually has a protein shake or I pack him leftovers or a frozen entree.
Bitty Bird and I usually have leftovers from the night before, or soup, sandwiches, quesadillas. She eats almost anything!
We’re pretty stocked up of food for the next week or so- We’ll need milk, cream cheese, and cheese. I’ll probably hit up Costco tomorrow.
Monday:
Tuesday:
Weds:
Thursday:
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:
The menu may change, as I pull stuff out of the pantry to rotate what we’ve got (I am trying to cut down on waste, and put the older stuff up front to get eaten first).
We’ve got a busy week with ABA Therapy three times, a Lego Movie event, a Lego event at our local Library, and a trip to Legoland on Saturday (just me and my Lil’ Man!). I’ve made sure to fill up our snack backpack and wash out our water bottles.
San Diego, CA area readers, this post is a huge blessing for those who may be facing a little food insecurity right now. Feeding the Flock is a local 501c3 non profit organization. Their goal is to “feed you physically and spiritually.”
Two Fridays a month they are offering free food boxes containing various fresh and shelf-stable food, perfect for anyone who may need a just a little help.
There is no proof of need required, just sign up here. When you pick up your box, don’t forget your ID.
You can also check up with Feeding the Flock on Facebook. They have lots of great local events helping those in need and the under served. They are looking for volunteers for their events, so if you aren’t in need, but want to help (with time or supplies), contact them!
Tomorrow is 7/11/17 and that means FREE SLURPEES at 7-11. From 11am-7pm, most (like 99%) of 7/11’s in the US will offer a free special sized Slurpee. WOO HOO.
It is also Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A! That means if you show up in a cow themed costume/apparel from opening until 7pm, you will recive some sort of free food!
To find the full details and a list of what you can receive for free, check out this page. Kids get a kids meal, and adults get an entree (but free is free, so woo hoo!).
We love free events! In order to participate and keep our our out of pocket low, I re-purpose stuff around the house to suit our needs for the event. Last year I made Henry and myself shirts and kept them. His shirt was a little too big and thankfully he has grown up, not out. It might be a little shorter than he’d like, but it will do. he’s got black shorts to wear as well )I’ll probably wear black yoga pants).
I painted a Cow onsie for Bitty Bird last year, but it doesn’t fit. I think I gave it to someone who was going to have a baby.
I made tails from pieces of felt, and pinned them to the shirts (and the back of Bitty’s tutu). We will be re-using our tails again this year too. I’ll be making new ears for all of us. Mine will be attached to hair clips, Henry’s will be on a head band.
I dug through her closet and found a black shirt for her, a white tutu, and a headband that I can sew a couple cow ears onto. To cow-ify it, I painted white spots onto the shirt.
To keep the paint from seeping through the shirt and the paint sticking the shirt together, I re-used an old Amazon shipping envelope.
We had all of this stuff in the house, so it will cost us nothing! I will be kicking down a few bucks for a large sugar free lemonade!
Are you going to either event tomorrow?
I love to cook. When US Family Guide and Home Chef offered me two free meals for two, I jumped at the chance. Home Chef delivers ready to cook meal kits. The shopping and most of the prep work is done! You get just enough of each ingredient, and you add minimal ingredients that are already in your pantry (salt, pepper, oil, water).
Each Dish comes with a recipe page that its into a 3-ring binder (which is included in your first order FREE). Directions are step by step with photos, and all ingredients are listed on the card in case you want to make it yourself from scratch again.
So, I got my first kit in the mail last month, but right away something was off. Some of 
the veggies were not in good shape. 
I called customer service in the hopes they could just resend me the spoiled ingredients, but instead they gave me credit for two more meals, which wouldn’t have been a problem, but that meant it was another week before I could do my review.
I improvised with the steak salad. I had a bag of Romaine salad on hand, and some grape tomatoes to substitute for the ingredients that were not edible in the kit. The steak was great. Overall it was easy to prepare.
Last week, the replacement kit arrived. Again, similar issues with some of the more delicate produce (cucumber, grape tomatoes, Roma tomato), but this time I didn’t bother calling. I just tossed the inedible produce, and subbed in what I had in the fridge. I made the Goat Cheese and Bacon Naan flatbread pizzas first- They were so easy and tasty.
I made a few tweaks (I didn’t use the honey to caramelize the onions- That’s totally cheating!). I made this the same day the box arrived and I will definitely be making it again!
The other recipe that I received was the Shawarma Chicken Bowl.
The poor tomato and cucumber were both inedible. The cuke was frozen upon arrival (Due to it’s location in the box directly on top of a blue ice block), and the tomato looked like it had been knocked around a bit.
I improvised the dish a bit and it turned out ok. What I didn’t care for was that the seasoning on the meat and rice is the same. I did like how the chicken came out. It had a great level of seasoning and flavor. I grilled it on our outdoor BBQ.
OVERALL: Home Chef is a great way to try out new recipes if you are not an experienced cook. It was nice to open a box and have all of the ingredients all ready to prep and cook. It is expensive for a family- starting at $9.95 per serving. That is still WAY cheaper than going out to eat, and in my opinion, these dishes could be restaurant quality with a little work on the consumers end (using proper knife skills, reading and following directions completely). They worked great for us when we wanted to have a stay in date night and watch a Redbox.
I would be careful when choosing entrees not to pick ones with more delicate veggies, just because they tend not to travel well in the box with the blue ice type frozen blocks.
That’s the nice thing about Home Chef, you can choose your entrees out of a list of many. And the menu changes frequently, so you won’t get the same dishes again and again.
If you want to try Home Chef for yourself, Check out my post here with details on how you can save $30 off your first purchase!
Disclosure: I received this offer for free in exchange for my honest opinion. I received no monetary compensation, and all opinions are my own. Sometimes I utilize affiliate links. To learn more about my use of affiliate links, please visit my disclosure page.
School is out (for most of us, the rest will be getting out next week), and that means there are some parents (and kids) who usually rely on free or subsidized school lunches may find themselves wondering what to do.
Thankfully, a lot of great organizations have stepped up and partnered with local area school, rec centers, and civic organizations to provide free breakfasts, lunches, and snacks for al kids 18 and under this summer. For those of us in East County, here is a list of locations!
Those of us in the greater San Diego Area, there are a lot of great options all over town!
There is a kick off BBQ at Skyline Hills Park 6/21/17 10:30am-2:00pm! Parents eat free at this BBQ and there are all kinds of activities!
Lindo Lake in Lakeside is hosting a summer BBQ that’s free for kids, and only $4.00 for parents on August 15th! The best part is that each family leaves with 6 lbs. of fresh produce thanks to Feeding America! If the two lists above aren’t in your area, you can also turn to the USDA Find Summer Meals map here.
All of these programs are free and there is no proof of need and you do not have to sign up in advance. Just show up and hte kids get a tasty meal!
What I love about this program is that there are tons of rec centers hosting these lunches and they are usually adjacent to a playground, which means after a long morning of playing, the kids don’t have long to wait to get a yummy lunch!
Looking for a few ideas of summer fun with a nearby lunch?
If you know of more summer lunch programs for kids in San Diego County, I’d love to hear about them! Please leave a comment!
It seems like the second we pull out of the garage, two little voices announce in chorus, “I’m Hungry!!!” It’s not like they go without meals, like some sort of Dickens era soot faced moppet… But there is something about leaving the house that makes kids hungry. Especially when you are out and about during the summer.
To combat the chorus, we have a small backpack (Henry’s Pre-school Cars backpack) that is full of shelf stable snacks and drinks. While we are out having adventures, if the chorus starts up, I can pull out the backpack and soon everyone is happy.
Here are a few of our family’s favorite snacks and other stuff I keep in our snack bag (Amazon affiliate links for some items that you may have never seen):
While the initial outlay of money to buy a backpack and stock of food to keep in the car snack bag and water bottles way be steep (it was about $65 for us), you will save that much money in just a few weeks in the summer. You’ll be able to avoid drive-thru lines, and you can better control what your family is eating.
When we are going to be gone all day, I also pack a small soft sized cooler bag with blue ice and cold treats like frozen tubes of yogurt, berries, cheese, and cold cuts. I like using re-usable plastic containers, instead of zip top bags. They are usually better for keeping food cold and for squishable items like berries in good condition. These are all the same things that we eat for lunch during the school year, so our food budget in the summer does not increase.
Besides keeping your budget in check, there is another upside to having kids that eat regularly (even on the go): Behavior changes, like tantrums, can occur when kids blood sugar dips or they are hungry. Henry frequently doesn’t realize that he’s hungry until he’s OMGOSH SO HUNGRY that he’s Hangry. I offer him snacks every few hours in the summer, as we are so frequently on the go out with friends or at events in the summer during lunch time.
The main reason I use a backpack instead of a box is that I can quickly grab the bag out of the car and toss it into the basket of the stroller when we hit up the zoo, YMCA for swimming, or the park.
I’d love to hear what kind of snacks you take on the go for your summer adventures!
Hewes Family Fun 