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.