Five suitcases and this is what we lugged back to Japan with us.
2 big huge packs of bacon. These came from Cost u less. Like Costco. Each black box has three 1lb packages each. So 6 pounds/6 packages of bacon total enough for Fall and a great part of Winter. They were super cheap buying in bulk. Almost everything on my list was on sale. The pepperoni for example was on sale. Sale at Payless. Over 2 bucks off each pack at the register.
Pop, unroll and bake. Couldn't be easier. : ) Will be great for a lazy Sunday to have fast delicious cinnamon rolls. And crescent rolls with a meal or even rolled up with a hot dog and cheese and baked in the oven like the commercials always say. : ) Generic brand, the brand from the Payless store. As you know, if you've been reading long enough if it saves me money buying store brand yahoo. I'll take it. : )
Buffalo strips. Spicy all white chicken breast meat but in the buffalo wing spicy flavor. Bake in the oven. Some ranch dressing, baked potato and a salad. For a fast dinner.
Party size Stouffers lasagna, serves 12 according to the box. But for us, it stuffs everyone, everyone can have seconds, Noboru even thirds, lol. And there's still enough for lunch the following day. So it does last. The lasagna on sale. $5 off the usual price, couldn't believe it. The stuffed manicotti from Cost u less. This is a 2 pack so more then enough for a family of 4. Plus run to the bakery get a fresh baguette then butter it, quick simple salad. Dinner done. This will be perfect for a Friday or Saturday when I just wanna relax or a busy Wednesday when I'm running Noah to and from swim club. With Branden in tow. And it's too late to cook and I don't want to premake curry for the umpteenth time. So, yeah anything to mix it up a little is all.
Double pack for the manicotti. $10. Very good deal.
Huge pack of the mozzarella cheese, for pizza night. Western family/generic brand of Mexican blend cheese, perfect for taco night, tostada night, pork green chili night. And the string cheese for extra calcium for Branden and Noah.
Yummy helpers for when we make Mexican food. Again, living in Japan, unless I want to drive all the way to Tokyo to find a Mexican restaurant. And pay an arm and a leg. And many times it's not even very good. So, with my trusty cookbook. I now make my own, go figure. Corn tortillas $2 each pack of a dozen. I bought 5 packs. That way we can have tostadas, enchiladas. Beans. Yes, I make my own. Living and growing up in Denver, Colorado, we have probably the best Mexican food to be had. And canned beans just don't do it for me. So, I make my own. Super easy and tastes delicious. And cheap as chips! Cheaper probably. : ) Enchilada sauce premade in a can, it's a cheat but a good one and it's spicy. And we use the medium. Canned chili beans these are meatless and spicy the kind you'd put on nachos or make a chili cheese dog with. Cans of chili and jalapenos. And taco sauce in the green cans.
These are so good.
These are a double the size box. Of a normal sized box.
Everything I needed help with for Thanksgiving. 3 pumpkin pies. And the evaporated milk. 1 can of black olives and 1 can of whole cranberries, already have 1 can of each in my pantry already too. 2 foils of chicken gravy, huge plastic container of poultry gravy, $5.50 for that huge container. That was a buy right there! So about 480 yen for us. 4 big boxes of Stove Top stuffing, or the equivalent of 8 regular boxes. Enough for Thanksgiving and a few roast chicken dinners in winter to have as a side dish.
What? Gina you do not have a PS3. Yes you are right. : ) We only have up to PS2 and then we switched to the Wii. Anyway.... while I was in Guam, Noboru skyped me and said Taka. One of the guys that was also in Hawaii when we were. And we've known since before Branden was even born. It was all these 8 or so guys who lived in the same condo complex that welcomed me back to the condo after I had Branden. : ) Anyway, we've known these guys forever. And Noboru mentioned to Taka, "Gina and the boys went to Guam" and Taka asked if it wasn't any trouble, could I bring him back a Madden 2012. He'd reimburse us and he already has. I told Noboru, consider it done! That's what friends do and he'd do the same for us. I know it.
A 99 cent, turkey pan. It goes straight to the trash after it's been drained and the turkey has gone to the serving platter. A bit bent from transport but that's A-okay.
Add chicken as it says and make it a meal, lol. I also add broccoli in ours.
A family favorite of ours and something we buy every single time. These two meal helpers are always on our buy list every single trip we make. Pasta roni angel hair and rice a roni chicken flavor. Four boxes of each.
1 generic brand of grated parmesan, hey it all works the same. : ) And 6 cans of ravioli for the boys. Huh, you only count, 5 eh? : ) Yes, 1 can was hiding when I took the pic so he's pictured someplace else. : )
Prego pasta sauce. And Progresso Italian bread crumbs. The gold badge on the front says...America's favorite. : ) These make excellent chicken parmesan and also amazing meatballs.
The recipe's often found on the back. Chicken parmigiana. And afterwards I bake in the oven. Served over pasta, so excellent.
If you're an American, were you a Wonder kid growing up? I was! : ) A famous/well known brand of bread for us. We needed hamburger buns, and they're hard as heck to find in Japan especially in Fall. : ) So, it was just easier for me to buy these while there And Costco Makuhari did not have them last time we were there a month ago. And aha! That missing can of ravioli. Great for a quick afternoon weekend lunch. Or for when Noah has Winter obento and their meals go in the warmer. Mustard 1 dollar. generic brand X but I do not mind. And Miracle whip, again thinking about those Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches after the meals done and it's leftover city. : )
Baking. The honey grahams are for the cheesecakes I'm known to bake often in the Fall/Winter. Blueberry muffin mix, cinnamon crumb cake, and gingerbread mix that can either be used for ginger bread (cake) with a dollop of whipped cream like the box says or to make gingerbread men. And the Crisco is for greasing my tins. I have enough cake mix, frostings, brownie mix and chocolate chips to carry us through the next 4 months, without worry. And with these on top, we now have plenty of everything to enjoy these colder month's.
My favorite flavor of instant oatmeal in the winter time, is without a doubt cinnamon roll. This is so good in the colder month's. So, bought 2 boxes of those for the boys, should keep them nice and warm in the mornings before heading to school. : ) Kraft mac and cheese, 5 boxes, perfect amount, not too much... not too little. 2 Cost u less sized boxes of the Teddy Grahams variety pack, chocolate, honey and cinnamon.
Tortilla chips for salsa or guacamole or nachos, potato chips (are for the turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving) and Fritos for dipping. We also got, Pace hot salsa and cheese dip.
Cost u less/wholesale/warehouse type size of pudding cups.
Enough Irish creme, to last the Winter. I do love myself a cup of hot coffee in the mornings and I don't use sugar in my coffee but this is enough to sweeten my coffee with, in the mornings.
Tin foil wide enough to cover that 20 lb bird we ordered.
I was going to buy 1-2 boxes of hair color. That was the plan. However as luck would have it. Hair color was on sale in the Kmart ads and at the store they were only $3.50 a box. Super deal. This was a beautiful color. Btw, one lady was looking for 1 color and asked the woman working there said, 1 lady earlier had bought every single box in that color. Bummer for the lady who wanted it. So many ladies were buying these. So many carts all parked near the display. My cart included. : ) I bought this gorgeous shade of auburn, I'll feel like a ginger head all Fall and Winter now. : ) Will be coloring my hair tonight, in fact.
Five boxes, enough for 5 month's. It was a fabulous deal...even one this frugal mama couldn't deny or resist buying.
Christmas cards picked and bought. These are so cute.
Ivory, clean and simple! what does this smell like? It smells just like you'd think.... clean and simple. : )
Two shampoos, we use more shampoo at our house since Noboru and I use it. The boys use kids shampoo. And I'm the only one who uses conditoner, well Noah uses it in the winter because his hairs so fine, he gets static so easy. But yeah we run out of shampoo much faster. So why I picked 2. And the Suave knock off of Aveda. Smells great.
Ivory body wash when I use my nylon mesh cleansing towel or the kids use this too. Dove cucumber and green tea bar soap, Noboru prefers bar soap, and we use it too. And deodrant for me.
100 Advil tablets, Dimetapp cold and cough for kids. My American peditrician always rec'd this when Branden was a baby in Hawaii. And I've always used this. Our doc always rec'd this and said she used it on her kids. So, I trust it. Feminine wash, hey no embarssment for being clean. : ) And 3 tubes of toothpaste.
The kids meds, has, antihistimine, cough supressant and a nasal decongestant. They rarely get sick, like rarely ever, but if they do, this dries up any musus or boogers they might have had and totally stops their cough! This is 8oz. I also have 16 ounces, 2 (8) ounces of fever meds kids ibuprofin in stock. And I have 2 bags of kids cough drops in stock too. Plus they get their flu shot this week.
3 toilet deodorizers. 1 a month, so for 3 month's these should last. We use these in the downstairs toilet in case of guests.
Tic Tacs in my favorite flavor, yumm. And watching Extreme Couponing this past month, I can see how much Americans like Tic Tacs. Every person seems to buy these on that show. : ) I love all flavors except the white Tic Tacs, the white ones are too strong. : ( But these ones are perfect.
Table Runner, with these holidays almost upon us. Finding these was perfect and the price right up my alley.
Placemats. Seasons Greetings. These 4 placemats will be perfect for the Christmas season for years to come.
Plus the matching festive table runner.
Gobble gobble gobble...that's the sound we say turkey's make in the US. ; ) These 5 Thanksgiving placemats will be perfect for Thanksgivings for many years to come! And at $5 each. Plus they were on sale a bit and I have that pic in the other post. These are so pretty!
Thanksgiving table decorating kit! I tell ya, each year I slowly accumulate more things for each of the holidays dear to my heart and important to me and that I want to be important to the boys when they grow up. Just a little bit each year. Bit by bit, piece by piece.
Thanksgiving plates and napkins. I may use these plates or we might use the good plates we use for the holidays. Depending on how many dishes I want to end up with at the end of Thanksgiving will determine which plates we ultimately will use. : ) The holidays are pretty important to me and I want to make them special for both Branden and Noah.
These wrapping papers are for the shaon kai. Our shaon kai sub-group to be more precise. We are making 8 invititaions to the sensei's encho-sensei, gym teacher, etc. We decided to make 3 demensional invitations versus flat regular invitation cards. Somewhere between a fortune cookie shape, to diamond shape, with tie at top, hard to explain. But, we will cover them with something. They suggested wrapping paper. And said...I wonder if we can find any pretty wrapping paper. They had no idea I was going to Guam. But, I knew I had the chance to check Guam and sure enough they had these 2. So, I will be bringing it. If we can use it..great. If we can't... fine too. I'll bring it home and someday someone will have a birthday and I'll use this as wrapping paper then. : ) But I honestly think they'll love this and we'll use this. This is perfect, I think.
4 gossip mags/tabloids. I can't help it...I'm curious. The bottom left one...my affair with Ashton? How many times has he reportedly cheated? Quite a few. : ( Jen's romance with this guy on the bottom right. They make a beautiful couple. Top left, Kim and Kris the end. @_@, I so want to read this one! And the top right, what hapened to baby Lisa. I hope the mom didn't do it. The cops sort of think she did. I heard her interview, it didn't look so good what she said on that interview. : ( So, hopefully reading this will shed a bit more light on this for me.
Each year the kids get 1 "big" or expensive thing for Christmas. And then smaller things. And yes we do try to focus on the meaning of Christmas rather then the gift giving. But with having kids it does make us happy to see that smile or surprised look on their faces. And knowing you helped put that smile there... : ) The boys had wanted that new 3-DS. Noboru and I both vetoed it this Summer. And then, many things happened. All their friends ended up with it. Oh boy did we feel like mean ogre parents when it seemed pretty much all the kids in the neighborhood had it and ours didn't. While Noboru and I are adults and wiser and know the truth of... you really don't NEED it just because it may seem everyone else does. Then all Noboru's coworkers kids' all got it. Even his coworkers told Noboru about all the great features it has, how it makes halograms even and blah blah blah to infinity. Nope, we stuck to our guns. Be strong we said. Then they knocked the price down from $199!!!! To $169. That savings was definitely a swaying factor to why I was willing to bend or at least open up to the idea, but..... We still debated. We finally decided to...buy it, with the parental controls we can control stuff. And we would be also telling the boys to play in 2D for most of the time. we debated a bit more. And came to a conclusion around 10 days ago. And with Guam having zero sales tax. Noboru said, buy it in Guam, so it's even more of a savings. So, my dad knew ahead of time. While we were having lunch, I excused myself, ran to Game Stop, bought the games. Ran into Footlocker while my dad and the boys were still eating in the food court, so I chose the Footlocker, since they have a thick black and white bag, asked them for a bag, told them I was trying to hide a Christmas gift yadayada for my kids, they said, awwww for sure! And gave me a plastic footlocker bag, I then wrapped the Game Stop bag in that Footlocker bag, and then placed that into my canvas bag, just in case curious eyes would look in there, they would not see a thing! bwahaha, I have outsmarted my kids! All in the name of Christmas surprises and good cheer! Sorry boys! : )
And I also picked up (3) 3-DS games too. The Christmas shopping has officially begun. And I have things in my cart at Amazon, but I'll keep them there until Black Friday starts for us Americans...that way I can catch the best deals.
These were the last 2 DVD's we rented for October. No Strings Attached with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. This was funny, it made me laugh. I thought it was definitely a good rental and I am glad I saw it. The other one was, the Unknown with Matt Damon. In my opinion this movie was very slow. Without giving too much away. I'll say this. The first 10 minutes of the movie, amazing. Really captured my attention. Had high hopes for it. But after that, it had 3 different stories all happening they did all tie in eventually. But, again it went on and on and on.It didn't leave me wanting more, it had me happy the movie was over when it finally finished. Sorry to say that. Noboru also didn't care for it at all. I could sort of see where they were going with this, it just took way too long to get there. Felt like an eternity getting through that movie.
First 2 for the November rentals. Nanny McPhee Returns. Loved this! Our whole family loved Nanny McPhee the original one, Branden said he actually liked this one better then the first one. Both Branden and Noah laughed a lot during this. And this is a possible spoiler so don't read ahead if you haven't seen it yet... I won't say who, but a character from the original Nanny McPhee movie is in this one...and you won't realize it until the end. How they tied both the movies together like that, I loved it all the more. 2 thumbs way up for this one! The other one is Red Riding Hood, we haven't seen it yet, Noboru and I will watch this tonight after the boys go to sleep.
Still at it fitness wise. But, I must say, my October fitness minutes were crap. 855 fitness minutes. And ranking #9. Horrible of me, honestly. I have done so much better all the other month's, this year. In my defense though....I was extremely busy so I guess I should be proud I even could accomplish that. But ehhh. I know, I could do better. So, started November 1st, I've gone full throttle. Okay maybe that's much of a stretch but I've treadmilled 5 days a week. And done core training 3 times a week. I've really kicked it up a notch for this month. And I need to. October left me feeling really out of shape. Sigh. Anyway, I am in it for the long haul. So, I'm back to it. I swear, nobody can be harder on me...then me. : ) Ugh, well I'll get there. ; )
Hmm, I spy with my little eye...4 boys in the back yard. 3 elementary school aged boys and 1 yochien little boy back there. Branden, Genki, Keita and Noah. All having a beyblade battle. : ) In the privacy of our backyard, no one to bother them. I will sometimes bring out something. A big bowl of popcorn, or a batch of steamed sweet potatoes. Some drinks. Leftover Halloween treats. : )
Not my weekly shopping but my mini midweek run to pick up a few misc. things. This time, it was for extra containers of the big yogurts. And apples, these are the yellow ones, you can see from the price 298, each bag of 6. I also get the reds for about 9 apples for 500. Either way whoever has them, I'll buy them for my apple crisp. They're both sweet. Not too tart like the green ones, though we love those too, just not for crisp though. And I like buying my fruits and veggies as cheap as I can get them. I bought 2 bags, so ended up with 12 apples for 600 yen. 9 apples with go for the crisp and the rest can be for cutting up and just plain enjoying.
Mikans 100 yen a bag. I do prefer when they have a big sale on them and they are 150yen as many as you can stuff into a bag day. That is my favorite day to be at the store. They also have, how many pieces of chicken you can shove into a bag about once a month, I like that day too. : ) LOL. You ought to see me, the one lone foreign mama and the Japanese mama's trying to stuff as much as we can into our little clear bags, lol. It's quite fun really. The prices on fruit, etc surprise me when I go to the bigger cities. So much more expensive.
Last week we had curry we'd be having that night, rice on the side. So, I ran to the bakery to get 2 fresh baguettes of bread, I sliced and buttered them. Great for dunking your curry with. The bakery treats were for dessert. I really like Japanese bakeries, they make great things and not too overly sweet.
Another Nissen catalog came for me, this one I had been waiting for.
The catalogs for royal special members come in hard cover more like books, about half the time.Which makes them heavy and hard to carry, I prefer the normal paper catalog, much lighter. Though I guess the bright side is we get our catalogs earlier then most. I got the Spring catalog for 2012 over a month ago. And already ordered some cute cargo mini skirts, for Spring. Some of their clothes are really weird or not my style. But a lot of them are really my style and preppy and more my speed. Also to be fair, I order for the kids too. And blankets, house stuff etc. So it's not just me. Am I glad I'm a royal special whatever member? Honestly I really don't mind one way or the other. I've been one for a few years and I can't really see any major difference at all. : ) Sorry Nissen. : ) Gomen ne~
Saturday, this most recent Saturday Kouiki-kun came over to play. As you know, Kouki's little brother Kaito, will be in Noah's class come April. It's awesome that Branden and Kouiki are friends and in the same class. The dad's, Noboru and his dad are both in the father's club. And now Noah and Kaito will be future classmates. Each year we live in our tiny little town, we get closer knit ties. Our relationships and bonds grow deeper and deeper. This is one of the families we gave the cupcakes to on Halloween.
Nabe season has begun. In the colder month's. It's very common for us to have a 1 pot meal once a week. Curry one week. Cream stew the next. Beef stew the following week. And nabe another week. Something big, easy to cook all in one pot. I also like to make a big pot of chili concarne. Also, with the help of my cookbook, a big batch of pork green chili is amazing with a torilla, side of rice and beans. Anything in a big pot. That will warm our bodies and tummy's to the core. Yumm. The only thing about me when it comes to nabe though. Is my dislike of fish. I know...I know. My husband loves fish and it truly boggles his mind how someone could dislike it. But there you go. : ) And fish dashi is often found in nabes. And so often it is a challenge to find a nabe without it. But, my husband went with me to the store Saturday after the boys were done playing. And bless his heart, he read the back of the ingredients of many nabe pouches...he's such a star, lol. He found these. Branden also read the back of them to double confirm, ha! : ) And so we have spicy miso nabe. And Coco ichi nabe. These sound great to me. I also took a pic of each of them on my cell. And so when I shop during the winter without hubby which I do 99% of the time and I prefer it. Anyway.... now I know which ones to choose. But to be fair I do, do the same, Noboru dislikes onions hate could even be more like it : ).... and often if we cannot find the ingredient lists on potato salads etc, I will be the official taster/guinea pig to make sure there is no onion and he is safe. So yep, we help each other with that. : )
We had this one Sunday.
This one is for next week.
Also I made sweet and sour pork the other night. I really like this.
With nabe season here, and with that sale on these last week, we picked up 3 packages of them. So 9 total inside.
I swear my husband makes the prettiest nabe. Right down to the carrot flowers! All white meat chicken, and chicken balls. And many veggies. Daikon, cabbage, mushrooms, bean sprouts, etc.
Boiling away. The boys always love nabe night. I think Noboru does too. Everyone gets all chatty Cathy around the nabe pot.
We do switch seats for nabe night. The boys have to sit on the farther parts of the table. And they tell us what they want and we'll pick it out and put it in their bowls for them. Just makes us feel a little safer is all. As the veggies decreased a bit, we added udon. Yumm.
This morning our neighbor. Cut us a branch from his kaki tree. He brings us fresh kaki every 2 weeks in Winter. It's free, it's sweet and so delicious. Okay don't laugh at me or anything....but honestly....it's hard not to feel we're blessed. We live in a tiny quiet town. Surrounded by kind people and neighbors and friends. Fall's here, Winter's approaching. We're sort of getting all tucked in for the colder weather so to speak, not doing too much. Hanging home mostly. Watching good TV, renting good dvd's. Eating nice big one pot meals like chili, baked potato soup, nabes, curry. Just quietly, peacefully living.
Paranormal Activity 3 came to the movie theaters in the US last week. According to the commercials we see on TV. Anyway for us it was only a week delayed. Which made Noboru and I both happy, since we enjoyed the first Paranormal movie, we were sorta so so on the 2nd one though. But we've been watching the commercials for this new one. And it looks so freaking scary! The commercials on American TV say..."the last 15 minutes will mess you up for life!" @_@ Also the clips looked so scary. Noboru said right away when it comes out let's go. I said sure. He found out online it would come out for us in Japan, November 1st. But for our schedule we would be going a day after it opened, so he went online found the closest movies that had it in English. It was a pinch far. The first showing started at 10am-ish. So we quickly got both the boys sent to their schools that morning. Noboru had actually bought our tickets online a few days earlier and picked our seats. So, we were ready. Here we were pulling into the mall. Our first time being at this particular mall. It was in Ibaraki some place. Which is closer still for us versus driving to the city areas in Chiba plus considering traffic.
The mall was closed but the movie theater was the only thing opened. The security guard at the door asked if we were there to see the movie, he let us right in. A handful of people were also at the theater.
Picking our movie snacks.
We picked a large popcorn, half caramel half salt. It was a very small, large. : ) And a large melon soda. There were not so many people watching this when we did.... 3 women in the back, mid 40's if I were to take a guess. And then 1 couple, late 20 somethings couple could be early 30's. And then 1 lone 50-ish in age woman who sat in the front and she took a can of soda in because we all heard the can crack open during the commercials, but none of us minded a single bit. We just all acted like...we didn't hear that soda can just open. : )
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