SeaWorld San Antonio's All Day Dining

The Turd Monkeys near SeaWorld San Antonio's entrance :) 

Hey ya'll, it's been awhile! Today I wanted to quickly share my experience with the All Day Dining wristband at SeaWorld San Antonio. My family and I have participated in this deal a few times over the last few years and I always see posts in forums on if it's worth it or not. 

Let's break down the pricing really quick- it's $29.99 for adults and $16.99 for children. So with tax for my family of four, the total was just around $100. Sounds expensive BUT let's look at a few facts here. 

With the wristband there are several places that participate in the all day dining, I think there were around 6 or so? When you go to the dining place you get the entree, one side and one drink. This includes the children's meals as well. Let me give you a scenario, at the Shamu Smokehouse. Entrees here (and many other participating locations) include a meat item, fries and roll. So you still get another side like fresh strawberries, grapes, cakes, cookies, cobbler, etc. plus a fountain drink, sweet/unsweet tea, lemonade or bottled water.

Really quickly the average entree at any participating restaurant location is $9-$10 (before TAX). The side items are all $3.99 and bottled water or fountain drinks are $2.50-$3.00. So one meal for one adult averages around $17 or so. 

Children's meals are $6.50-$8.00 and include drinks. So plus the $3.99 side item, a total of $10-$12. 

So estimated total for my family of four if I didn't have the wristbands- $58!

And this is without any drinks throughout the day whatsoever. I see people without wristbands buying meals like this all the time. So to me it is way cheaper after just two meals and limitless bottles of water throughout the day. This past weekend when we were there, we drank over fifteen bottles of water between the four of us.

I will admit a few things here though, if we didn't purchase the wrist bands, we wouldn't get the additional sides and we would probably be using refillable water bottles. It would still be over $30 for a simple meal for the four of us and we go to SeaWorld from 9:00 am to at least 7:00 pm or later (especially during the summer night shows). 

I find it totally worth it, and some people complain about the lines and wasting time but if you go during earlier times 11 am for lunch there are very little lines on a SATURDAY during the summer! And if you hit up the restaurants near where a show is going on they tend to be less busy as well. 

Another tip- if you get to SeaWorld by 9-9:30, I would just pay for regular parking as this early in the day you will still be able to park pretty close, we always are able to park right next to the blue triangles where preferred parking starts. 

On a completely unrelated note- we are less than a week away from our vacation to the Florida Keys! Yay! 

If you are reading this blog please leave a comment- even if it's just a hello or I hate your blog, you suck at writing ;) 

Disclaimer : I am in no way affiliated with SeaWorld San Antonio, these are my opinions and I did NOT receive any of these items free or at a discounted price. I paid full price for them.  

Family Vacation

This time of year it's all about family and vacation. My family consists of me, The Husband and two boys, whom my husband refers to as "Turd Monkeys"..no idea where that came from. Anyway The boys are ages 5 and almost 9 (going on 18 some days). We have been saving up for awhile now and trying to decide where to go for vacation. We were thinking about the wonderful world of Mickey Mouse and friends but decided we would rather spend several days on the beach and not completely break the bank. 

Last year, we went to Arizona for 10 days, including 2 days of straight driving. We went with my dad and brother- let me just say 10 days with that much testosterone is probably 2-4 days too many :) Anyway we had a great time, went to the Grand Canyon, two zoos, and a few museums. 

Here we are at the Grand Canyon- My brother, The Husband (and his ridiculous hat), the "Turd Monkeys" and of course myself in all my scared sh*tless glory. 

Let me just say really quickly, I am afraid of heights. I was there for the picture and wanted to get up as quickly as possible, forget saving my children I wanted to get off that rock ASAP. My hands were sweating the whole nine yards. 

That being said, we are leaving for the Florida Keys in two weeks for a 6 day vacation- where we plan on Parasailing. Yes, you read that correctly. After my whole fear of heights, I promised the turd monkeys I would parasail with them. What can I say? I am a sucker for little boys with long eyelashes (both Turd Monkeys inherited this trait from The Husband) and pretty pretty pleases. 

I will blog about our vacation and hopefully- I will also VLOG about it as well. Yes- I said VLOG you will get to see me in all my chubby (curvy?) glory :)

The point? Yes, I know you probably read these blogs and say what is the freaking point to this, Carrie? What is it? Oh yes, it was to tell you I'm going on vacation and I will review restaurants, locations, and hotels we are staying at. Along with other random info on what activities the turd monkey's enjoyed, what they hated (let's be realistic, kids aren't going to be 100% happy on vacation- at least one disaster is bound to happen), and what I liked and didn't like and how much The Husband annoyed me ;) 

Thanks for reading ya'll! 

P.S. Like TJUKD on Facebook!

Hey Ya'll- My first How To Post!

Hey Ya'll! It seems like it has been forever since I've been on here! I was blogging daily with my green smoothie experience then I kinda stopped blogging for a week or two and posted a quick update but that's it. So I'm back :) I know ya'll all missed me- even though no one ever comments- I lurk on lots of blogs too so no worries! 

So today's blog is my first how to post! 

How To: Cut a Pineapple! 
I know you're thinking- um, I know how to cut a pineapple- boring! But I was taught this way to cut a pineapple through a high end restaurant I worked at. Why cut it this way versus just chopping off the skin quickly? 1) You save more pineapple "meat" this way and 2) It looks kinda pretty once it's all done with. I cut it like this even when I am freezing it for my GREEN smoothies :) 

So as you can see 1-3, this is a rather simple concept, lay the pineapple down and cut the top and end off.. like you didn't already know that- but hey ya'll, I gotta be through.

After all that fun, you start "shaving" off the skin. As you can see in the images, I am barely getting the skin off and it will leave the little "eyes" but trust me it will be okay here in a little bit :) 

After all is said and done, you should end up with something that looks like this- assuming your pineapple isn't missing part of itself. Please excuse the image- the only picture I took of the darn thing during this step was this one- thanks to The Husband talking to me.. husbands.. yeah.. anyway

Next you're going to take a paring knife (I even demonstrate the knife in the first picture), and make a small angled cut on each side of the eye and then remove it. Now some people cut these out by entire rows, this to me wastes pineapple in between so I prefer to do the eyes one and a time like shown- again I know time consuming but if you want to just whack that the thing and skip this all together- be my guest, I just have serious pineapple lossage issues :) 

This is what you should end up with- depending on the depth of your original cuts and removal of the eyes. 

 Here I cut the pineapple in half then at an angled cut, cut out the core of the pineapple. 

The finished product- all sliced up and ready to eat or freeze! 

See that wasn't so bad was it? Try it once and trust me it might not be the easiest but it does look pretty and you end up with much more pineapple "meat". 

Thanks for reading ya'll! 

Checking in..

So as ya'll all know (try saying that 5x's fast!), I have been done with the 10 day Green Smoothie Cleanse for 5 days now.  Okay so I fell off the bandwagon a little bit, I've had fried chicken strips (2 total) and my husband insisted I make brownies to take to our friends house so I've had a few brownies here and there but overall I'm doing pretty good.  

Have I kept the 14 pounds I lost during the 10 day cleanse off? no.. I've gained 3 pounds but I haven't worked out since getting off the cleanse either.. I know, I know and I totally take 100% of the blame for that one. I do eat salads or a smoothie everyday. 

I've found that a lot of things are way too sweet for me like sodas (I've only had two sips and I was completely disgusted!), ice cream, sweet tea (which in Texas is the #1 thing to drink) and even yogurt.. While at Chick-Fil-A, I ordered a side salad with a vinaigrette dressing and a yogurt parfait.. that yogurt was super sweet I only could take a few bites. 

My favorite thing to snack on- hummus (but for some reason one of the brands I love call it Hommus?) . I thought hummus was gross and didn't like it until now. I've found I love avocado hummus and I really really love Cedar's Sun-dried Tomato and Basil Hommus.

It is fabulous and delicious! I take some whole wheat pita pockets and cut them up- toast them in the oven and eat the hummus with them. Yummy and healthy snack!

I've been wanting to make hummus on my own but I can't find tahini paste anywhere- not even at my Super Target which usually has everything. So if any of ya'll know where I can find it- please help me out! 

Anyway I am going to be posting some tutorials soon as I can. 

See ya'll later!

DAY 10!!

Hey Ya'll! I made it to Day 10!! As discussed in much rambling detail, I was super hesitant to start this cleanse and I am so happy that I did! I have a lot more energy and I am not eating as much either which are two big pluses for me. An other big deal is that my snacking is well under control now. 

So now you're thinking- what's next? Well, I do still crave fast food so it's going to still be struggle but I do crave smoothies in the morning so that is a good thing. Tomorrow we are going out to eat,because the husband couldn't have his dinner with our friends and family for his birthday last week due to my cleanse (awesome hubby didn't make me suffer through that!). That sounds like temptation out the wazoo, I know!

So here's the plan I am going to make every effort to drink 2 smoothies a day with a small protein, sauteed or baked veggies with a salad for dinner (or lunch). And as for days that I am only able to drink one smoothie? Then I will have a salad as a meal and then the protein/veggie/salad combo for the other meal. Of course snacking will be in there here and there but only healthy snacks. I am going to steer myself away from breads/pastas as best I can and when I do want them I will eat small portions. At the end of this month I will revisit this idea and tell ya'll how it's going and anything new :) 

This has been an awesome journey and I am glad ya'll stopped by to read it. Continue to follow for much more and not just stuff about the green smoothie cleanse- I will be crafting, pinterest testing and so much more! 

Thank you all! 

Strawberry Apple Mango Smoothie

As you all know, I am on my smoothie cleanse right now and I figured I'd share the recipe that I had today on Day 9. I will say out of all the smoothies so far, I've enjoyed this one the most- or maybe I am just getting used to the smoothies who knows but after Day 10 I am definitely going to keep this one in rotation!

So in order to make this smoothie you need- spinach (or any greens will work but spinach's taste is easily masked than others), strawberries, mangoes, an apple, and water. The stevia and flax meal/seed are completely optional. 

I would also like to point out you don't have to have a Ninja or a high horse-powered blender to make smoothies- they just make the task easier and they hold a lot more ingredients. 

Above is three "handfuls" of spinach- I don't really like measuring that way because I have big man hands (seriously!) so people with tiny hands their spinach will vary, to me I kinda just do the three and make sure it looks "right"- not that that will be helpful to you. I would say 2-3 cups of spinach. 

While it's blending you can get your ingredients ready. I weighed mine versus using a measuring cup because the fruits aren't going to be able to fit into measuring cups easily. I believe my bag of strawberries said 100g of strawberries was equal to 3/4 cup. So I just used the bags serving sizes in grams and multiplied to get the right amount of fruit I needed. 

As you can see all the ingredients take up the entire 72 oz. capacity blender- which if your blender is smaller don't worry- just half the recipe as the recipe makes 3- 12oz-16oz. smoothies. Also, take note of the already blended spinach and water see how it's really smooth- that's the key to really smooth smoothie :) 

Now, don't be alarmed while it's blending- it will look weird and maybe even not so appetizing however, just let it do it's thing and blend, blend, blend.

Tada! See the awesomely smooth Strawberry Apple Mango Smoothie! This one came out a little thicker than I normally like mine but it turned out to taste really really good! 

If you're wondering why I used frozen fruit vs. fresh fruit, I really like my smoothies to be cold and I don't want them watered down with too much ice plus many times I can get some fruits cheaper frozen. 

Hope ya'll enjoy and share  in the comments below if you try this smoothie or if you have one you'd like me to try :) 





Strawberry Apple Mango Smoothie Recipe 
adapted from JJ Smith's 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse: Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 10 Days

3 Handfuls of Spinach
2 Cups of Water
1 Apple (any kind works, I used janagold) 
1 1/2 Cups Frozen Mangoes
2 Cups frozen strawberries
2 TB ground flax seeds
Stevia to taste (optional)
3-8 Ice Cubes

Directions:

Blend Spinach and Water until completely smooth. 
While that's blending you need to core and quarter your apple. 

Add rest of ingredients and blend until desired consistency 

(I blend mine in my ninja blender for roughly 3-4 minutes)

Then Enjoy (simple see!)

Day 9!

Look at that ya'll, I made it through day 9! Only one day left until I am done with the full cleanse! I will tell ya'll right now, this cleanse was not nearly as tough as I thought it would be. I have had good and bad days (as you can read), but overall I think anyone can do this cleanse. I just stuck to what the book said to eat and went from there. 

Today, I've been feeling great! No headaches but the cravings are still there a little bit in the back of my mind. I think the overall need for the cleanse for me was to help get my portions under control. I think by eating healthy the last 9 days, it promotes me to eat that way in the future. 

That's all for day 9 ya'll- I will be posting all about the day 9 smoothie on a separate post.

Day 8- Realizations

Hi ya'll! It's day 8 and I even went to the gym tonight and did 50 (yes 50!) minutes on the arc trainer. 

Real quick before you get to reading all the other info (like you actually read that far down but let's pretend ya'll do). This is the Arc trainer I keep raving about: 

And the image below is showing the estimated calories burned in a hour over 800 (which I took yesterday)!

Finally today's showing at just under 40 minutes I burned over 530 calories- I was moving quickly and I was trying to take an inconspicuous picture for ya'll so excuse the blurriness. But my point the 800 calories in a hour is extremely close because even at the rate I was going in an hour it would be 795 :) 

Okay done with that now on to the real reason ya'll are here- 

This cleanse has been trying but beneficial in that I have come to realize a few things:

1. I am an emotional eater.

I don't have the greatest relationship (not for the lack of trying) with my dad.. long story,short-I'm upset and no apologies are in sight. So after the emotional phone call all I could think about is cake, donuts, candy, heck even chicken strips and french fries. Why? Because I needed it to console me :( This just makes me even more sad because other than stopping myself now I don't know how to cure it. 

2. I am stronger mentally than I realized.

Due to the treacherous phone call above I ALMOST went into the fridge and grabbed a chocolate truffle then I was like screw that I'm going to run to McDonald's. But I just calmed my self down and made the husband and kiddo some dinner. Then I told myself I will not let that man ruin my life (my dad, not Ronald McDonald) or rather put a step back in my cleanse- that I have been doing so well on! 

3. People are sometimes selfish

Everyone is selfish at one point in their lives or another whether they want to admit it or not. I know there have been plenty instances in my life where I was completely selfish. However, for the most part I am the sweetest, kindest, most sarcastic person. I am only sarcastic and "mean" as my friends call it, towards the people I care about. I grew up being very much a "yes" person- no matter how the person treated me- good or bad- I always did stuff for them (and get your mind out the gutter!) like they didn't have time to celebrate my birthday but oh yours is next week? I'll be there. That type of deal. When I met The Husband, he said you can't let people do that to you. So I eventually evolved into my wonderful self that everyone loves :)

My point? Sometimes people who are extremely selfish and you are getting nothing but hurt from the relationship just aren't worth your selflessness. BUT little girls always want attention from their daddy's so that leaves me with one big daddy complex unfortunately. But I do recognize that he is a selfish person and distancing myself from him is probably best to not allow him to continue breaking my heart. Yeah, I for some reason thought parents weren't allowed to do that but silly me :( And yes even after all this you will see me standing there smiling like a patronized doting little daughter next to him :( 

4. My mom is the best mom 

See a pattern here? Still on the soapbox of "the phone call". My mom and dad have been divorced for over 20 years. My mom listens to me every single time I cry about him and every time I am angry at him. She listens and sometimes she joins in on the ranting but most of the time she just says she's sorry-he's a jerk and tells me she loves me. Yes at almost 30, I still need my mommy ;)

5. Working out is easier now

Thought I'd stay on the topic of "the phone call" huh? Nope. So over the last few days working out has been getting easier and I am more motivated to go and do it too. I normally do 30-40 minutes on the arc trainer but today I did 51 minutes. I could've pushed for the whole hour but I wanna go to the gym in the morning and ya know that 9 minutes might have convinced myself that I could skip :) Plus I wanted to tan... yes I tan and yes I know it's bad for my skin. I can hear my mother (who doesn't wear sunscreen 90% of the time because she forgets) saying, "Your going to get skin cancer from all that tanning!" To be honest that's one of the selling points for me joining Planet Fitness, because at $22 a month with a unlimited tanning and massage chairs it was already worth it ;) 

6. Sweating

This cleanse makes me sweat a ton or maybe it's just loosing the weight in general that's doing that? I've read different articles and sites saying when your overweight your body doesn't sweat properly. On the other hand the support group on Facebook says, sweating is the process of getting the toxins out too so it's probably a combination of both. But I  always remember that quote I read once:

Now, I would credit this photo but stupid pinterest allowing people to upload pins and images doesn't give me credit but just a link created by pinterest for the image so if you deserve credit email and I will be sure and credit you :) 

7. Photos and Instructions on this Blog

The biggest fault with my blog? Not enough photos and instructions! I was thinking while working out, how can I get more people on my blog to hear me?!? (cause I'm starved for attention ya'll!) For tomorrow's smoothie I will be listing the recipe and the instructions all for you guys- but I do recommend buying the book because JJ Smith has a lot of useful information in there that has helped me tons! Plus it will be the day 9 smoothie, so you can't do anything with that if you're really going to do the cleanse since the smoothies are all different from day 1-10- but if you wanna try it out to see if it's going to be something you like- that's the real motivation for me doing it :) So it's kinda like a catch 22 you see, I'm like see how easy and awesome this looks ya'll?!? But wait to actually do it you need to get the darn book! 

Okay I am done with my philosophical rants thoughts- see clearer mind- it even detoxes my mind! Tomorrow I will tell ya'll what my plans are for after the cleanse, from day 11 and forward. 

Day 7...

Hey ya'll- and don't give me that look either! I know, I know, I know I'm posting this late cause it is already day 8. I realized late last night as I was dozing off that I hadn't posted yesterday (Day 7) :(  

But luckily I had already typed it out before then-just hadn't logged into post so- quick recap of yesterday and then when I get back from the gym tonight (hopefully) I will post all about today (Day 8). 

Day 7

Today I felt the best I've felt out of all the days so far. I went to this gym this morning at 4 am! Yes- even though I stayed up reading a book until almost midnight the night before. Anyway, the cravings weren't there as much and overall just have had a lot of energy that I haven't before. 

I am realizing how much evenings are the worst part of all this- for me anyway. My husband is at work all day so I don't have temptations right in my face and although my son is here he's a sandwich type little guy (5 yrs. old) so he doesn't request anything too tempting other than the ice cream, which thanks to my smoothie kick he now requests smoothies like mommy :) By the time dinner rolls around and I am making dinner for them, I get more tempted to taste stuff. I am a chef (we will talk about that later) and I was always taught to taste everything as you are making it to ensure it has enough seasoning, I have to catch myself every time I try to lick my finger or test a sauce. So I have to ask the husband for help with that which annoys him because it's his "video game" time before dinner. Anyway that is why the nights are so hard for me, so I keep myself busy and let them eat then go get my smoothie after they leave the table. 

So I've made it to this point with only 3 days left in front of my of the full cleanse. I am tired from the lack of sleep last night and the early gym call so I will see ya'll tomorrow!

Day 6!

Holy crap! I've made it to Day 6! I only have 4 days left ya'll! Today's smoothie according to the 10 Day Green Smoothie Cleanse support group on Facebook (which can be found here), is one of the most raved about smoothies. I was extremely excited as it had fresh pineapple, peaches, bananas, and spinach- I mean what could go wrong there?! 

It was good however, I am realizing I am just not a big fan of blended up banana. This might be because I tend to like to eat bananas when they aren't really even ripe-which could be why I am have smoothie issues when blending them. Seriously ya'll, I eat bananas when they are barely turning yellow. Which any true banana connoisseur would know bananas really aren't truly ripe until they have big 'ole dark brown splotches on the skin- not my thing either- but I totally use brown bananas for banana bread because they are sweeter- true story ya'll! 

Okay.. off my soapbox :) Today has been harder on me for some reason, maybe because I didn't feel like snacking on any of the foods- I only ate a boiled egg, a tsp. of natural peanut butter and a smoothie Popsicle. I seriously felt like throwing in the towel today, I was about to tell my husband screw this, let's go to Olive Garden (totally been craving their pasta and breadsticks!). But I didn't I just sat my feisty little butt down and said don't do this to yourself- you've made it this far you're already on the downhill slope! 

Anyway I am gonna get ready for bed cause I am exhausted from all this today- I just keep my eye on the prize which is technically me getting a healthier lifestyle but I also have to tell myself Friday is the last day of no "real" food :) 

If anyone is thinking of doing the cleanse or has info they wanna share feel free to comment below or email me! 

Thanks for reading- see ya'll tomorrow! 

Day 4 and well Day 5

So (again) I skipped a day of blogging. I am currently on Day 5 of the Green Smoothie Cleanse- which means I am halfway there! But, let me back up a little and touch base on Day 4, I took some notes yesterday :)

Day 4 thoughts:

Day four was tough because it was my husband's birthday. Normally we go out to eat and get yummy drinks like the Renaissance Margarita (from Cheddar's) or a Texas Martini (Hula Hut and Chuy's). Anyway he opted for us to stay home so I wouldn't be too tempted and probably because I would be like a creepy stalker watching people eat food that I can't refuse to eat at this point :) I didn't have headaches anymore and not really withdrawals but more of a craving for junk food. Even on my calorie counting diets I always make sure to workout enough or save up enough calories to squeeze in some yummy junk food- which is exactly why I wanted to do this cleanse. I wanted to prove to myself I didn't need these things. Will I ever eat a brownie smothered with caramel sauce, ice cream and real whipped cream? Yes- 'cause that sounds freakin' delicious! But will I eat them everyday? No.

Day 5 so far has been okay. I have been wanting Subway sandwiches which is completely weird. My friends will tell you, I am totally against paying for lunch meat style sandwiches (and a lot of other types of sandwiches in general) and salads at restaurants/while eating out. Why? Because I can go buy really good  delicatessen meats and cheeses to make sandwiches that taste way better and at a fraction of the cost. I also was a culinary arts major so I have some education background here- what are the two most profitable items on menus? Salads and Pasta dishes. These things cost less than a dollar to make per serving. Anyway I rarely eat at sandwich style places like Subway, so I just find it odd I wanted that. The last time I paid for a sandwich like that? Over a year and a half ago at Which Which- and it was horrible! On the other hand, I also wanted Popeye's- which I totally understand why I'd want that :)  

I might blog again tonight when everything is said and done- but Sunday's are hard to find blogging time since I attend a university online and assignments are due on Sunday. And I procrastinate a lot- I know shocking right ;)