Food Archives - Page 2 of 8

Looking For Some Good Lunch Meat Alternatives

March 20, 2019March 13, 2017 by Money Beagle

I’ve taken 2017 as a time to really focus on improving my health. I’ve been trying to get in better shape and make some healthier decisions. I’m 42. In the past, I would often brush off decisions I knew weren’t healthy by telling myself I could fix them down the road. Well, after hitting an age that’s roughly half of my expected life exptency, give or take a few years, I realized that road was getting shorter. One of the things I’ve thought to do is to come up with some lunch meat alternatives.

My Typical Lunch

I’m a brown bagger, which is something I’m proud of. Keeping my costs down for lunch has always been a big thing for me. I see people go out to eat every day, but I’m fine to sit at my desk and eat. This also gives me time to go for a walk.

Homemade Raisin Bran: Easy, Healthy, and Frugal

March 21, 2019September 22, 2016 by Money Beagle

Cereal is one of my favorite breakfast foods, and I’ve always loved Raisin Bran. Even as a kid, Raisin Bran was definitely in the rotation on the cereals I would look for in the cupboard, and my taste for it has stuck with me all throughout the years.

One thing that has changed, though, is my enjoyment of sugar. Back when I was a kid, Golden Grahams was my all time favorite and so I’d have that occasionally, until recently when I was eating it and realized that it was, well, absolutely disgusting to me now. I love sugary treats, but for breakfast, it just doesn’t work for me anymore.

Even Raisin Bran, in it’s original form as packaged by cereal makers like Kellogg or Post, is too sweet for the simple reason that they put sugar on their raisins. I guess they figure that people aren’t going to eat those pesky healthy raisins if they aren’t sweetened somehow.

But not for me.

Qdoba vs Chipotle: We Finally Tried Qdoba For The First Time

April 16, 2019April 18, 2016 by Money Beagle

Both Qdoba and Chipotle have been in business near our house for years. We don’t go all that often, maybe once every few months, but when we’ve wanted a big old burrito wrap (or bowl), we always ended up in the nearby Chipotle. However, Qdoba recently moved about a quarter mile down the road on the corner of one of the busiest intersections in the area. The short move definitely seems to have helped business, as it’s always hopping. It got us in the door, and we can now do a Qdoba vs Chipotle comparison.

Qdoba Vs Chipotle

OK, I’ll admit, part of what got us there was that we got a coupon in the mail. A good ‘Buy One, Get One Free’ deal will work anytime. But after we went, it made us realize that we’d been missing out!

It was pretty darn good! It wasn’t perfect but it definitely made the list as far as places we’d visit now and then.

Here are some of the things we learned:

Qdoba has Queso

Chipotle is very well publicized for offering only fresh ingredients. So they don’t offer anything the lines of gooey melted cheese. Well, as much as I like fresh ingredients, I also like gooey melted cheese, so Qdoba gives you that option. They have a couple of different varieties and they’ll put it on willingly for you.

12 Items We Always Have In Our Pantry

April 17, 2019March 28, 2016 by Money Beagle

We don’t have a walk in pantry, but we do have some shelving downstairs at the bottom of the stairs that houses our stock-up items and overflow items.

I was taking a look and noticed that there are some things that we always have. They either:

Are used in many planned meals we make
Can be used to throw something together

Why Thursday Night Is Pizza Night (For Now)

April 17, 2019March 24, 2016 by Money Beagle

Tonight is pizza night for us. And Thursday nights will be for a while, at least the next couple of months. And, it all has to do with….swim lessons!

How Swim Lessons Beget Pizza Night

Both of our kids have attended a not-for-profit co-op preschool during their age appropriate years. In order to keep tuition low, they do various fundraisers, and the biggest one has always been a silent auction held in March.

One of the items that has always been donated is a month membership to a nearby swim school. We have bid on it and been lucky enough to win every year. It usually saves us a bit of money for at least the free month compared to the regular tuition, plus we get some accessories like goggles and such.

Our Disney World Experience: Disney World Dining

April 17, 2019January 11, 2016 by Money Beagle

This is the 4th post in my series on our recent trip (November 2015) to Disney World. This was a huge trip for our family, one that we consider ‘once in a lifetime’ and that my wife planned out to give us the most magical and memorable experiences. I’ve already talked about our visits to the parks as well as our hotel, so I wanted to concentrate on Disney World Dining. It’s definitely worth a post of its own.

Meal Plan

We decided to dine at Disney with the standard meal plan. With that plan, you get one full service meal, one quick service meal, and one snack per day. You can divide how you use up your dining credits over the course of your trip. Our plan ended up technically being ‘free’ because we upgraded to a deluxe hotel during our stay, and Disney offered the ‘free dining’ option to entice visitors. And, it did as things were hopping!