[Coupon Shopping] Walgreens + CVS (6/14/2011 + 6/21/2011)

Sorry. I'm behind on posting my coupon shopping lists. These were my shopping results for the past 2 weeks for my own record. This week's shopping list will be posted very soon.


6/14/2011 Walgreens Shopping Trip ($77.35 $17.95 ~ 77% Saving)

• Gillette Fusion Power Razor


• Clairol Natural Instinct Hair Color


• Bayer Advanced Aspirin


• Lipton Green Tea x 2


• Colgate Toothbrush


• Dial Shower Gel x 2


• Visine Contacts


• Applied Health Calcium


• Blistex Lip Balm


• Nestle Crunch x 2 (filler)


• Dog Rawhide Bone (filler)

There's a $1 mail in rebate for Bayer Advanced Aspirin, and $10 RR left. If applied those, everything only cost $6.95!

[Laguna Niguel] [Asian Fusion] Pick Up Stix

Pick Up Stix
27000 Alicia Pkwy #D
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
(949) 643-0779
http://www.pickupstix.com

Sister-in-law gave me a Pick Up Stix gift card a while back. It had been sitting in my wallet for a long time, and I almost forgot about it. I was deciding on a place to get takeout because I was feeling lazy and didn't want to cook. Good I found the gift card. I called ahead to place my order, and they told me it would be ready in about 15 minutes.


Firecracker Chicken ($7.69)
Our brand new dish Firecracker Chicken starts sweet and finishes with a spicy kick! You'll love it!

Firecracker Chicken was supposed to be spicy, but not really spicy. I guess nothing taste spicy to us anymore after eating so much Szechuan Chinese food. The chicken was tender, and slightly sweet. Portion was on the smaller side for this item for some reason.

[Teddy & Twinkle] Do You Miss Us?

I haven't post pictures of Teddy and Twinkle for a while. They are wondering if anyone misses them? :-P



They're not only cute, but they have the best personality. Both of them are the sweetest dogs.

[Irvine] [Chinese] 101 Noodle Express

101 Noodle Express
魯味居
5408 Walnut Ave #A
Irvine, CA 92604
(949) 654-8542

101 Noodle Express is a well-known Northern Chinese restaurant specialized in dumplings and noodles in San Gabriel Valley. I've been to the Alhambra location once. Service was so bad that I never returned again. The Taiwanese eatery Nice Time Deli in Irvine closed down, and 101 Noodle Express took over the space. The restaurant opened about 2 weeks ago. We ate at Chong Qing Mei Wei in the same plaza, and saw a huge crowd waiting outside 101 Noodle Express. Dr. P accidentally left his credit card at Chong Qing that day. When we went back to get his card back a few days later, we decided to give this popular new restaurant a try. I thought maybe service would be better in Orange County as we experienced since we moved down here. Nope, we got the same SGV style service, and ate DISGUSTING RAW FOOD! There are just so many things wrong about this place.



They really cram this place up with tables and chairs. Tables and tables are so close together that not only it was difficult to get in and out, it was quite uncomfortable when you felt like you're sitting on the same table having dinner with strangers. Seriously, the tables were like 1 inch apart from each other. Also I had to put my chair in 45 degree angle and sit side way so my chair wouldn't bump into the guy who sat right behind me. We had the menu for about 10 minutes and nobody came to take our order. I flagged down a waitress to tell her we were ready to order. She just said ok and walked away. There were maybe 3 or 4 other tables wanting to order as well. The two ladies who sat next to us didn't even get their menu after 10 minutes. Finally when the waitress came to take our order, she offered absolutely no smile.

[Cook] Rice Cooker Butter Cake

My sister bought a Taiwanese cookbook called "你想吃的甜點電子鍋都會做" (Make Desserts with Rice Cooker). Seriously? I can make cakes in rice cooker? She let me borrow the book to try out some recipes.


奶油蛋糕 Butter Cake

The first cake I tried was a simple Butter Cake. It was made with eggs, sugar, pastry flour, baking powder, butter, and vanilla extract. I just mixed everything, leave it in the rice cooker, and press the cook button. The first time and machine beeped (to signal it is done), the cake wasn't even half done. It was still in that watery state. So I pressed the cook button one more time. The second time it beeped, it was completely done. the cake looked good, and it smelt good, too.

[Irvine] [Chinese] Chong Qing Mei Wei Szechwan Restaurant

Chong Qing Mei Wei Szechwan Restaurant
重慶美味川菜
5406 Walnut Ave #C
Irvine,CA 92618
(949) 651-8886

WE


風味冷菜 Cold Appetizer ($5.50)

LOVE

[Aliso Viejo] [Sandwiches] Subway

Subway
26921 Aliso Creek Rd #C
Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
(949) 360-1125
http://www.subway.com

I stopped by at Subway to get a sandwich for lunch. The featured $5 foot long sandwich of the month is Chipotle Chicken & Cheese. Sounds good.


Chipotle Chicken & Cheese ($5.00)
With tender, juicy chicken, melty cheese, red onion and rich smoky Chipotle Southwest Sauce, it's a taste bud tango.

So after I ordered the Chipotle Chicken & Cheese, the guy asked me to choose my bread, veggies, and sauce. If I have choices on all those things, then I could make my Chipotle Chicken & Cheese Sub into something completely different. I could order Chipotle Chicken & Cheese but make it into Ranch Chicken & No Cheese. Anyway, my point is, if they want to name a sandwich like Chipotle Chicken & Cheese, with detailed description of what is in the sandwich, then just make the sandwich like how they describe it. Make it with that rich smoky Chipotle Southwest sauce without asking me what kind of sauce do I want. Yes, toast the sub to make the cheese melt without asking me, because that was in the description of the sandwich. I do like the option of customizing your own sandwich, but sometimes it feel like such a hassle when I was asked a million questions when I simply want a Chipotle Chicken & Cheese sub.

[Cook] Chinese Herbal Stewed Chicken Soup

I always like Chinese Herbal sort of soup, either with chicken or lamb. Chinese herbal soup has a very unique aroma. It's hard to describe unless you've tried it yourself. Not only it tastes good, it also has a lot of health benefits.



I saw this Chinese Herbal Mix for Stewed Chicken at 99 Ranch Supermarket. All I needed to add was rice wine and chicken to make this soup. Very easy!

[City of Industry] [Japanese] Honda Ya Japanese Restaurant

Honda Ya Japanese Restaurant
17200 Railroad St
City of Industry, CA 91748
(626) 964-6777

It was my dear friend Sybil's birthday. She chose Honda-Ya as the place to have her birthday dinner. Our reservation was at 7:30pm on a Saturday night. The restaurant wasn't as busy as I thought it would be. At first we were seated at a table that was obviously way too small for 12 people (it could only sit 8 so I don't know why they gave us that table). We made a request to change to a bigger table, and they put several tables together in the tatami room for us. It was better that way because we felt almost like we had our private room. We ordered SO MUCH food. I wasn't able to get pictures for all the dishes (I think I only got maybe 1/5 of it, and the pictures were mostly blurry.... Damn alcohol!). But the night was more about friends than about food.


Cucumber

As soon as we sat down, we ordered a few pitchers of Kirin beer ($13.00/each). The complimentary salted cucumber was actually quite good with beer.

[Lake Forest] [Asian Fusion] Pei Wei Asian Diner

Pei Wei Asian Diner
23632 El Toro Rd #E
Lake Forest, CA 92630
(949) 860-2001
http://www.peiwei.com

We were on Pei Wei's email list, and received coupons to try their new Caramel Chicken for free with the purchase of one entree. We headed to Pei Wei on a Saturday night. The restaurant was packed. While we were waiting in line to place our order, a server helped us reserved a table. That was nice service.


Spicy Korean Steak ($8.50)
Korean hot pepper sauce, garlic, white mushrooms, onions, carrots, long beans, toasted sesame seeds

We decided to get two entrees and two free caramel chicken. Yeah, it was A LOT of food. But leftover Asian food is always good. For my entree, I picked Spicy Korean with Steak. When I had my first bite, I thought the dish was a bit salty. But I guess it was meant to be eaten with rice. When I ate it with rice, then it was alright. The beef was really tender. I liked the green beans and mushroom. The dish had good flavor, although it wasn't spicy nor Korean, but I enjoyed it. I asked for brown rice with the entree, but somehow got fried rice. No complaint here. The fried rice was great.

[Aliso Viejo] [Thai] Siamese Express

Siamese Express
26952 La Paz Rd #C
Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
(949) 831-0882

Ever since our first visit to Siamese Express, we've been back a few times for takeout food. Their food is authentic and seriously good. Dr. P did the ordering that night.


Tom Yum Chicken Soup ($8.25)

Tom Yum Chicken Soup was quite spicy. I think majority of their clientele are non-Asians, but they don't tone down the strong Thai flavor a bit. There were a lot of chicken and button mushroom in the soup.

Foodzie Tasting Box

Thanks to Foodbuzz and Foodzie, I received a free Foodzie Tasting Box to sample.



Foodzie Tasting Box is a monthly subscription program. For $19.99/month, you receive a box full of artisan products in single serving size delivered to your door. It's a great way to find out and try new products.

[Los Angeles] [Brazilian] M Grill

M Grill
3832 Wilshire Blvd,#202
Los Angeles,CA 90010
(213) 389-2770
http://www.m-grill.com

I had a $25 for $50 voucher at M Grill that I bought from OpenTable Spotlight. The plan that day was to go to Beverly Center to do some shopping with my sister. It was a perfect time to use my M Grill voucher for dinner after our shopping trip. I made reservation for two. My sister was saying "I don't think you need reservation on a weekday." We were glad that we made reservation because this place was completely full with tons of people waiting outside the door on a Wednesday night.


Cheese Rolls

These small cheese rolls were seriously addicting. I couldn't stop eating them. It tasted like a cream puff but with melted cheese inside. So delicious.

[Monrovia] [Deli] The Market Grill

The Market Grill
525 S Shamrock Ave
Monrovia, CA 91016
(626) 303-4314
http://www.themarketgrillmonrovia.com

My sister found The Market Grill on Yelp. It was the top rated restaurant in the city of Monrovia. My nice sister went to The Market Grill to get take us for us. She told us that this place is located inside a small convenience store in a residential neighborhood. People usually won't stop by the deli counter at a convenience store unless they're nearby. But this place has really good food. Words got around, and now people come from all over the place to try their sandwiches.


Chicken California Sandwich ($7.75)
Chicken, cheddar, tomatoes, spinach, avocado, garlic mayo

I was a little skeptical when sister told me about this place. How good can a sandwich be? Then I found out how GOOD can a sandwich be. This was the BEST chicken sandwich ever!

2 Fandango Movie Tickets for $9

What? 2 movie tickets for $9? That's even cheaper than one movie ticket at some places!!

Now you can get 2 movie tickets for only $9 from Living Social. You can redeem the tickets on Fandango.com for any theater on any movie you want. Perfect for a cheap date night! :-)

[El Monte] [Chinese] Ocean Bo Dim Sum Cafe

Ocean Bo Dim Sum Cafe
海寶點心美食坊
3944 N. Peck Road #1
El Monte,CA 91732
(626) 452-1818

I spent the night at my parents' house. The next morning I felt like having dim sum, but was too lazy to go out to a restaurant. So mom and I went to Ocean Bo Dim Sum Cafe to get some take out dim sum for breakfast.



All the dim sum were in the dim sum counter. You can order off their menu, or just look at the food and tell the counter girl what you want. Some of the items had probably been sitting there for a long time though because some of the stuff we got were already cold.

[Temple City] [Chinese] Happy Noodle

Happy Noodle
麵對面
4815 El Monte Ave
Temple City,CA 91780
(626) 279-7558

I'm back at my parent's house in San Gabriel Valley to take care of some business. My parents asked me where I would like to go to have dinner. I told them I wanted something we don't have in Orange County. So we went back to Happy Noodle. Dr. P is going to be jealous. He was just talking about going back to Happy Noodle next time we come up to LA.


小菜三拼 3 Items Combo Appetizer

3 Items Combo Appetizer came with spicy peanuts, mustard green with edamame and tofu, and seaweed. Everything was great. The spicy peanuts were pretty addicting. I couldn't stop eating them.

[Freebies] 6/7/2011

• Free samples of Miracle Whip


• Free sample of Trilipiderm Moisture Retention Creme


• Chips Ahoy is giving away 5,000 FREE Chewy Gooey cookies samples at noon EST every day through 6/9/11


• Free Charmin Extender toilet paper holder


• Free pack of low rise briefs or a pack of tees at Adidas Outlet Stores


• Free samples of Eucerin Everyday Protection


• FREE Personalized Card (Free shipping too!) from Cardstore, use coupon code "FREECARD"


• Blockbuster Express Free Movie Rental Codes
  
  
  
  • 22JMEB4 (good through 6/8)
  
  
  • 25ASJA9 (good through 6/13)
  
  
  • 29BACC2 (good through 6/13)
  
  
  • 25JBHS7 (good through 6/13)
  
  
  • 26RRAP8 (good through 6/13)
  
  
  
  

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[Laguna Beach] [American] K’ya Bistro & Bar

K’ya Bistro &Bar
1287 S Coast Hwy
Laguna Beach,CA 92651
(949) 376-9718
http://www.kyarestaurant.com

We finally went back to our favorite non-Asian restaurant down in Orange County, K'ya Bistro. We made a reservation for an early Sunday dinner at 5:30pm. The restaurant was completely full by 6:00pm. We saw people got turned away without reservations.


Mojitos (Classic / Wild Berry) ($12.00)
Bacardi Silver, fresh mint & lime muddled & chilled to refreshing perfection

I bought one of those discounted voucher for K'ya Bistro from TravelZoo. The voucher was good for 2 mojitos and 2 dishes. Our waitress told us they would take off the two most expensive dishes form the bill. Nice! Dr. P ordered a classic moijto, and I got a wild berry one. Both are super good, AND SUPER STRONG! My wild berry mojito tasted like yummy wild berry juice. But after finishing half of the mojito, I started feeling slightly buzzed. Dr. P gave me half of his because he wanted to drink wine. I passed out in the car on our way home after 1.5 mojitos. haha....

Dr. P's Work BBQ

Dr. P's boss organized a BBQ last night at a local park. They have a BBQ every year. When we went to the BBQ last year, we weren't married yet. This year Dr. P introduced me to his co-workers as "my wife". Some people still remember last year I was just "girlfriend". haha....



We had the BBQ at a park in Irvine from 5:30pm to 8:00pm. The weather was really nice. Perfect day and time to have a BBQ.

[Laguna Niguel] [Fast Food] Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A
28201 Crown Valley Parkway
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
(949) 448-8447
http://www.chick-fil-a.com

I had never had Chick-fil-A until we moved down to Orange County. Why don't we have Chick-fil-A in LA? After trying their spicy chicken sandwich once, we were hooked! Chick-fil-A has became one of our favorite fast food restaurants (the other one is, of course, In-N-Out!). I've been to Chick-fil-A in The District in Tustin, The Marketplace in Irvine, and the one in Walnut near Mt SAC. Then we moved down to South OC, and the closest one to our house is located in Laguna Niguel. I have to say this is the best Chick-fil-A I've been to.



Service is always good at Chick-fil-A. But the Laguna Niguel location has even better than good service. Everyone is always friendly and helpful. The manager is always on site, and always seems to be so happy to be there. They have someone who walks around to offer people anything they need. They'll take your drinks to get refills for you, get you condiments, or help you take away trash.

[City of Industry] [Coffee/Tea] Tea Station

Tea Station
加州茶棧
18558 Gale Ave #186
City of Industry, CA 91748
(626) 839-2588
http://www.teastation.us

After dinner at Haige Star Boulevard, we all decided to go have boba somewhere to sober up before driving home. First we went to MJ Cafe. The guy who worked at the cafe was standing outside the door. When he saw us walking up to the cafe, he told us that they were going to close in about 10 minutes, and the kitchen was closed. We told him that we only want to get drinks, and he said ok. Maybe because we were all speaking English and he thought we don't speak Chinese? When he went inside the cafe, he spoke to his friend who was waiting for him in Chinese and said, "Shxt! There are like 20 people who want to get drinks now. Fxxk. Shxt." So.... we left. Next stop, Tea Station at the new Four Seasons Plaza. As we were walking up to Tea Station, we saw a place with A LOT of people waiting outside. This place is called Meido Kissaten, and we saw waitress dressed in French Maid outfit at this tea house. It wasn't the slutty kind of costume, but more like the cute kind. The guys in our group were all like "should we go there instead?" haha.... But we didn't want to wait, so Tea Station it is.


熱波霸奶茶 Hot Boba Milk Tea ($6.50)

This Tea Station is EXPENSIVE! A hot boba milk tea is $6.50!!!! So Dr. P and I only ordered one to share. We asked for less sugar, and they made both the tea and the boba really well here. But still, $6.50 is way too expensive.

[Rowland Heights] [Chinese] Haige Star Boulevard

Haige Star Boulevard
海哥星光大道
18438 E Colima Rd #105
Rowland Heights, CA 91748
(626) 839-2438

My friend Tammy invited us out for dinner to her new found favorite restaurant, Haige Star Boulevard. She said it was so good that she with her fiancee, cousin, and cousin's husband had dinner there 4 days in a row! She told me that place has really good spicy crawfish. It's not like Boiling Crab kind of crawfish, but like a Chinese Szechuan style spicy crawfish. If they would go eat 4 days in a row and still want to go back again, food must be really good. Plus this place has a really strange name. So I want to go check it out more. haha....


麻辣花生 Fried Spicy Peanut ($4.99)

Fried Spicy Peanut was on the menu for $4.99, but they gave it to us for free. Maybe it was because my friends went there too often? The peanut looked really spicy with all the chili pepper, but it wasn't as spicy as I thought. I think they added some sugar too it, too. It was a mixture of spicy, salty, and sweet. It tasted even better with some beer. A pitcher of beer is $10 there. Spicy food really goes well with beer.

[Cook] Grilled Round Steak Dinner

I bought some round steak from Ralphs. It was labeled as "breakfast style". I think this is the kind of  steak you get when you order "egg and steak" at breakfast joints. The steak was cheap, and it also tasted cheap. The meat was tough even though it was cooked to medium. I didn't like the steak AT ALL! But Dr. P didn't mind it. He still finished the whole plate. What a good husband! haha....


Grilled Round Steak Dinner

To cook the steak, I buttered a hot grilled pan, seasoned the steak with grill seasoning for steak, and grilled each side for about 5 minutes.

[Cook] Turkey Meatloaf

I usually make plan on what to cook for dinner the night before. I'll take a quick look at my fridge, freezer, and pantry, and think about what can I make from what I have. Then I would put the frozen meat in the fridge to defrost. It should be ready by the time I cook for dinner the next day. Last night's creation was turkey meatloaf. The recipe was adapted from Health Magazine, but I made some modifications to use ingredients I had on hand. The meatloaf came out really soft and moist. Success!


Turkey Meatloaf

1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon steak sauce
1/3 cup water
3 tablespoon ketchup
1 pound ground turkey
1/2 cup bread crumb
1 egg

[Freebies] 6/1/2011

• Free game download for both PC and MAC on Amazon: Airport Mania: First Flight


• Free Fiber Choice samples from Sam’s Club


• Free Rachael Ray Nutrish Dog Food


• Free Pac-Man App for Android Devices on Amazon


• Free Worx Energy Drink Sample