Friday, October 3, 2014

First and second day of prenatal massage class

Class goes from 9 am to 6 pm each day. The class is about 80% hands on. The first day we learned bolstering, positioning, and draping. Then we did hip and leg work. Today we started with work on the pelvis, low back, and sacrum and finished with ribs, upper back, chest, and neck.

The first day I took a Lyft ride to and from class, and today I got brave an  took the bus. It mostly went ok, but I found out that one of the routes I took in the morning changes after 7pm. So it took me longer to get back to the place I am staying than it would have if I had known that.

The class provides a pretty good variety of snacks, which I did not know about beforehand, but I've been taking advantage of that. Yesterday we had bananas, apples, grapes, blueberry mini muffins, pumpkin donuts, and tea. Today we had some things left over from yesterday, plus they added assorted danishes, mandarin oranges, and a big bowl of assorted Halloween candy.

I ate dinner at the Air B and B I am staying at last night. Today I walked to a nearby seafood restaurant after class for dinner. It was a small, casual , and inexpensive restaurant. I got the shrimp dinner which came with about 8 enormous fried shrimp, fries, and salad. I also got a root beer. The total was less than $13 and the food was very good.

Yesterday:

Breakfast: banana, granola bars, pumpkin doughnut, grapes
Lunch: tuna salad with crackers, turkey pepperoni sticks, cashews, honeycrisp apple, caramel apple Oreos
Dinner:  chicken tortilla soup, peanut butter and honey sandwich
Snacks/desserts: mini muffins, cashews
Beverages: water

Today:

Breakfast: berry Danish, banana, half a pumpkin donut, grapes
Lunch: peanut butter and honey sandwich, mandarin orange, dried mangoes, caramel Apple Oreos
Dinner: fried shrimp, fries (I only ate one though. Fries are not my jam.), salad with ranch dressing
Snacks/desserts: cream cheese Danish, fun size Skittles, PB Snickers, and M&M's
Beverages: water, root beer

Thursday, October 2, 2014

First day in San Diego

I arrived in San Diego yesterday. I made breakfast at home before leaving for the airport, and brought it with me. Lunch was a few things I had picked up at Target right after I got here. For dinner I walked to a nearby bar and grill.

Breakfast: turkey and provolone sandwich with Dijon, banana
Lunch: turkey pepperoni sticks, dried mangoes
Dinner: Mexican veggie bowl with black beans, Pico de Gallo, avocado, a little queso, and some tortilla chips
Beverages: water, cranberry juice (on the plane), Hefeweizen

Jeremy said Winter boiled some noodles for dinner and ate them with leftover pasta sauce last night. He said they were going to the store today.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

I'm in San Diego and it's kind of hot here

It's in the 70's today. Maybe high 70's. I don't know, but I'm all sweaty. It was much cooler in Seattle when I left this morning. I am staying at a place I found on Airbnb.com for $55 a night. They have parrots. And dogs the size of small horses. I am renting a very small guest house in the back yard. It has a private bath and the room with the bed in it is maybe 8' by 10'.

I had to have four pillows for the class and rather than paying $25 for each checked bag to bring them with me, I bought them at Target for $4.04 each. I'll just leave them here when I go back. Of course I forgot to bring extra pillowcases though, so I also had to pay $9.99 for a set of two. I will be taking those back with me. I also bought some food so I don't have to eat out too much. I bought bread, peanut butter, honey, bananas, some tuna salad kits, some microwaveable soup cups, cashews, turkey pepperoni sticks, dried mangoes, apples, granola bars, and caramel apple Oreos. I also got some sandwich bags so I can pack lunch to take to class with me.

Last night on my way home I picked up a loaf of bread for $2.79, three bananas for $.67, and Jr. Mints for $.99. Our total spending for September was $448.46. Here's what I ate yesterday.

Breakfast: blueberry flavored Greek yogurt
Lunch: banana, salad with lettuce, quinoa, turkey deli meat, provolone cheese, and spicy ranch dressing
Dinner: leftover taco mac, cereal and milk
Snacks/desserts: PB cup cookies, Jr. Mints
Beverages: water

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Leftovers on Monday

I wound up having to go in to the dentist after my acupuncture appointment last night to pick up my partial. It was a long long day. I was pretty hungry by the time I got there. Thank god for free pretzels.

Breakfast: lemon flavored Greek yogurt
Lunch: salad with lettuce, quinoa, almonds, and balsamic vinaigrette, and a banana and black plum
Dinner: leftover broccoli potato cheese soup, turkey deli meat, cereal with milk
Snacks/desserts: PB cup cookies, white chocolate chips
Beverages: water

Tonight I have to run over to the massage studio I work at for a trade after I am done with my shift at the airport. I will pick up bread and some fruit since we are now out of both.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Taco mac for dinner

Yesterday was boring. Busy day at work. When I got home I used two pouches of pre cooked seasoned beef, the container of salsa I bought yesterday, the rest of the shredded cheeses, some half and half, some corn starch, and a pound and a half of pasta, to make taco mac for dinner. I had two bowls of it, plus two cookies, and more cashews than any human should ever eat at once.

This morning I am Bloaty McBloaterson, and I had to get up at six am to work a morning shift at the airport. There is a PTSA meeting tonight, but I think I will have to skip it. I have too much to do before I leave Wednesday morning. I am finding that I probably would not have much time for volunteering anyway, and I not understand the culture. They seriously have their own language, and it's not one I know.

Breakfast: banana, oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, and coconut milk creamer
Lunch: salad with lettuce, apple, almonds, and ginger sesame dressing, lemon flavored Greek yogurt
Dinner: taco mac
Snacks/desserts: peanut butter cup cookies, cashews
Beverages: water

Sunday, September 28, 2014

September is almost over

We picked up a few things from QFC yesterday. Ginger sesame salad dressing for $2.44 (on sale with coupon), a container of mild salsa for $1.99 (reduced for quick sale), a cucumber for $.99 and three bananas for $.99.

We have $5.99 left to get us through this Tuesday, but I'm not concerned at all. Compared to the last few months we actually have a lot of food left in the house. So much so that rather than worrying about making those last few dollars stretch until the end of the month, we are actually stocking up on a few things in preparation for next month,

I have been thinking about how we will do our budget for October, which will be different from usual since I will be in San Diego for six days for a prenatal massage certification class, and then the following weekend we are all going to Texas to visit my mom's side of the family. I have decided to budget only based on the number of days each of us is home, and out of town meals will not be counted against the food budget. We will do what we can to reasonably minimize how much we spend while out of town, but sticking to a budget of $5 per person per day while not at home would be extremely difficult. I'd like for us to able to fully enjoy our time away from home, and not worry too much about what we are spending.

So that means next month we will be budgeting $390. I am leaving early in the morning Oct 1st, so Winter and Jeremy will need to do some shopping while I am gone. We have lots of leftover soup in the freezer, and a pretty good stock of frozen chicken breast, frozen fruit, rice, pasta, and quinoa to help them out as well.

Yesterday I got up early and made pasta sauce in the crock pot. I used two 14 oz cans of diced tomatoes, two 7.4 oz boxes of tomato sauce, one finely grated zucchini (Winter doesn't like the texture), two turkey and pepper jack sausages, granulated garlic, Italian seasoning, two tablespoons of olive oil, and 1/3 cup of red wine. I love making pasta sauce in the crock pot because the flavors get really rich after slow cooking all day, and boiling pasta when you get home is very fast. The zucchini cooked down completely, and I couldn't really tell it was there. I was concerned the turkey sausage would be weird, like having hot dog slices in spaghetti sauce, but it turned out great.

Breakfast: apple spice flavored Greek yogurt
Lunch: turkey sandwich with dijon and lettuce, last of the pinto beans with shredded hot pepper jack cheese, nectarine
Dinner: spaghetti with turkey sausage spaghetti sauce
Snacks/desserts: oatmeal cookies, cashews
Beverages: coffee with vanilla coconut milk creamer, water