Travel & Vacation: InOrbit Mall Hyderabad, India
Inorbit Mall in Hyderabad, India which had three main floors and additional ones with restaurants. It looks much like our malls back home but with a lot of different stores. Jake and I were touring the city and wanted a cool place to walk for a little bit so he took me to the mall. It was really neat seeing all the different stores, people, signs, and more!
The washer and dryers are much smaller in India (and these ones are even on pallets). You can’t do as many clothes per load but it’s better than doing them by hand.
Nestle Kit Kat’s in the store (with the old wrappers). The chocolate was pretty expensive in India but it was neat to see some familiar brands. When I came over to visit Jake that’s what I brought over for his team in India, a variety of chocolates to share. They were thrilled with all the chocolates and excited to take some home to share with their families.
One of the signs posted near the escalator in the mall…..some of them made us smile!
One of the signs “You are wearing bi-focal glasses, pause for a moment, focus on the steps before stepping on.” – Good point, I will have to let Brina and Karlie know the next time we go on an escalator!
While this sign probably is not as important in the USA, however, there are a lot of people in India who go barefoot. “Do not travel barefoot, be careful while using soft footwear.” I am not sure how they go barefoot on the hot hard ground and rocks makes my feet hurt looking them walking. They must have some tough callouses.
At one store instead of manican heads they used a flower bouquet and a round bush (interesting way to improvise)
View of the playground at the mall and the city of Hyderabad from the top floor of the mall. Those little black spots in the distance are cows trying to find some water or grass.
Fun City arcade with a bowling alley, bumper cars, rides, and fun games in the mall
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family and ways we relax. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Happy July 4th!
Fireworks display taken from our family trip to Disney!
Wishing you a very Happy July 4th!
Hope your day is full of fun with family and friends!
In celebration of Independence Day the girls drew a United States Flag on the sidewalk!
Save A Lot: Deals for the week of July 4 – 10, 2012
The Save A Lot weekly ad deals are listed below for your convenience. It is a great time to stock up on some Save A Lot deals. Sign up for the Smart Shopper Club, by doing so you will get a $5.00 off of $25.00 coupon!
Meats and Seafood
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast – $1.69 lb
Fairgrounds Hotdogs (12 oz) – $0.79
Chicken Drums or Thighs – $0.99 lb
Hickory Springs Bacon (12 oz) – $1.99
Ground Beef – $1.99
Grilling Steaks, Family Pack, T Bone, Rib Eye, and New York Strip – $6.99 lb
Boneless Butt Roast – $1.69
Assorted Pork Chops – $1.69 lb
Pick 5 for $19.99 promo on going! Pick any 5 specially marked packages of your favorite cuts or types of meats, vegetables and more. Here are a few of the specials they have going on with the Pick 5 for $19.99 this week (each item approximately $3.99):
Fridge and Freezer
Eggs (1 dozen) – $0.99
World’s Fair Ice Cream (56 oz) – $1.99
Mantia’s Pizza (20 – 21 oz) – $1.99
Coburn Farms Yogurt (6 oz) – $0.50
Frozen Buttermilk Pancakes (10 count) – $1.00
Bagged Ice (10 pounds) – $1.99
Sunny Delight (48 oz) – $1.00
Produce
Green Cabbage – $0.25 lb
Cucumbers – $0.29 each
Green Peppers – $0.39 each
Yellow Onions (3 pounds) – $0.99
Medium Vine Ripened Tomatoes – $0.69 lb
Lettuce $0.79 each
Potatoes (8 lbs) – $2.29
Household
Solo Red Cups (20 count) – $1.29
Wrightware Foam Plates (40 count) – $1.39
Styrofoam Coolers – $2.49
Grocery
Save A Lot Soft Drinks (12 packs) – $1.99
O’Days Mac & Cheese – $0.39
Kurtz Yellow Mustard (14 oz) – $0.69
Kurtz Ketchup (24 oz) – $0.99
McDaniel’s Classic Coffee Roast (33 oz) – $6.99
Kurtz Whole Dill or Hamburger Slices (32 oz) – $1.99
Portmann’s Salad Dressing (16 oz) – $1.69
Westcott Vegetable Oil (48 oz) – $2.99
Little Hugs Variety Juice Pack (160 oz) – $2.99
Del Monte Spaghetti Sauce (26.5 oz) – $0.99
Wylwood Canned Vegetables (14 – 15 oz) – $0.59
Granny Ella’s Vanilla Wafers (11 oz) – $1.79
Albany Bakery Sandwich Cookies – $1.99
Enhance Coffee Creamer (16 oz) – $2.29
Golden Flake Potato Chips (5 oz) – $1.50
Shelby Grove Sliced Peaches (29 oz) – $1.00
Save A Lot Today Toaster Pastries (11 oz) – $0.99
Ginger Evan Granulated Sugar (4 pounds) – $1.99
Duke’s Mayonnaise (32 oz) – $2.99
Crystal Drinking Water (24 pack) – $1.99
Remember you can use the $5/$25 printable coupon to sweeten these deals! Plus you can earn up to 5 additional $5 off $25 coupons for sharing the coupon with your friends. For more information about Save A Lot’s coupon policies go here. If you find additional deals or savings please let me know and I will add them to the list.
Travel & Vacation: Food & Fun in Hyderabad, India (Part 2)
Chef standing in front of a large tree inside the restaurant. Really neat place to visit with delicious food!
Anyone want some fresh fish for dinner? This is the display of fresh whole fish in the market, you could smell it long before you could see it!
Whole green curry chicken in the bakery ready to take home for dinner. It looks a little interesting but their curries were pretty good, however, I did not try this one.
This one in the meat section kind of made me sick looking at it……goat mutton. You could by goat brains to cook up for dinner (from what I hear it is a real treat). Not sure if I could muscle through this one and pretty sure the girls would have a hard time too because goats are “pets not food” in their little world.
What a great place to eat, the kids seem to LOVE it! Very neat idea for a restaurant…..an auto-rig shaw with a table and booths for families. The kids can play and drive it too!
The shark mouths (see the teeth) have “digustive” salts in the bowls. I didn’t try these because I noticed several people just using their hands to dip into the bowl instead of using the bowl to scoop it. Love the table too, the stand is a stack of tires!
The receipt for the dinner litteraly came in a tin “bill box”.
Puppet play and music in the entry of the restaurant
A variety of delicious Indian food – curry and rice, veggies, pasta and more!
Naan….the amazing Indian bread that is served with practically every meal.
Neat fresh watermelon fruit basket, looks yummy!
And the best is for last……dessert! Carrot cake and vanilla ice cream. The ice cream tasted different from what we get in the USA, it almost had a creamier texture. The carrot cake was good but not quite like my Mom’s homemade carrot cake! 🙂
Really neat Dadu Maluj Sandwiches with cool outer decorations on the outside that looked like alumimum fool and paint but it was edible.
Large waterfall outside another one of the Ohri’s restaurant buildings on the other side of town. Most of the Ohri’s buildings had several different types of restaurants in one building. You could choose to eat Indian, Chinese, American and once you get into the building. Some of them you had to book a reservation in advanced to get into they were so popular.
We went to one of Ohri’s really popular restaurants an India buffet. On this plate is a variety of meat cooked with Indian spices to try.
AMAZING Indian dish (I wish I could remember the name of it)! It makes my stomach growl just looking at it. It was a mix of sweet and crunchy, but it was a beans and meat mixture….so delicious!
One thing I didn’t realize until going over to India was they enjoy what we call “crunchy chicken”! It is normal to be eating a chicken dish and find a bone. I think they do it to add more flavor to the meal but it surprises you the first few times. You are just more careful when you eat chicken!
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family and ways we relax. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Travel & Vacation: Food & Fun in Hyderabad, India
Loved the dishes and food at Tadka! I snapped this picture as they were putting the items onto the plate, rice and curry went into the middle. Jake and I stopped here after several hours of touring the city (with a lot of walking in 100 plus weather) so it was nice to sit down and relax together. They asked Jake how he was doing and he made the comment that he was glad to be in the “cool” restaurant after seeing the sights in the city. After a few minutes we noticed the restaurant was getting really cold (they had turned the temperature down for us, it was freezing even for us).
The food was amazing and they literally would not stop serving us. Every time our drinks got to the halfway mark they would refill the cup and if our plates had space on them they would scoop some more food onto it. Someone was literally standing a few feet away the entire meal to make sure we had drinks, food, and to help in anyway. We counted seven waiters for this one meal (which was not uncommon).
At the end of each meal they almost always ask you to do a survey. The main waiter picked up the survey with the bill and his face went from serious to a beaming smile. He immediately went over to his manager to show off his glowing survey results. We were thrilled to add some extra sunshine into his day! Below are some more fun food adventures and other fun stuff while we were in Hyderabad:
Thankful for the opportunity to hang out for a few days with my man!
Delicious chicken curry dish at the Tadka restaurant
Huge bowl of water and red rose petals at the entrance of the restaurant!
Doorman at the Ohri’s restaurant
This is one of the pictures hanging up in one of the restaurants that we visited, hilarious! It says “The Good, The Bad, and the Idlis” Does it remind you of something? Maybe “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!”
My handsome man trying to figure out what to order! They have very colorful decor in the restaurants, notice the green chair to the left of Jake.
Tasty treat – two types of rice, naan, and curry
Yummy breakfast
Hot Coffee and juice for breakfast……every morning they brought us coffee. The waiter asked me the first day if I wanted coffee and I said yes since I had been traveling the past two days and needed to stay awake. Every day after that he brought me coffee as soon as he saw me enter the room, excellent service! A couple interesting things about the coffee – the coffee was much stronger than what I make and I never received a full cup (for some reason they deliver half cups of coffee no matter where you go).
Browsing the aisles of Hyper Savers (the local small version of “Walmart”) in Hyderabad. Their food was sold by rs per kilogram. Some of the food in the store I had never seen before.
The girls REALLY wanted us to bring back a suitcase full of coconuts, ha! We told them the you could find coconuts literally everywhere, even on the ground! For one whole coconut it is 15 RS (rupee) which is like us paying about 30 cents (great price for a coconut)!
The soda of choice! At least in Hyderabad the Pepsi products were more popular. The flavor was not the same, but Jake didn’t seem to mind too much.
The “Travel and Vacation” series is an insight into our trips together as a family and ways we relax. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun, and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Free Audio Book: “The Sword” by Bryan Litfin
For the month of July Christian Audio is offering a free download of an audio book . This month the audio book is The Sword by Bryan Litfin.
This novel of page-turning action and adventure poses the question, “If a society had no knowledge of Christianity, and then a Bible were discovered, what would happen?” Four hundred years after a deadly virus and nuclear war destroyed the modern world, a new and noble civilization emerges. In this kingdom, called Chiveis, snow-capped mountains provide protection, and fields and livestock provide food. The people live medieval-style lives, with almost no knowledge of the “ancient” world. Safe in their natural stronghold, the Chiveisi have everything they need, even their own religion. Christianity has been forgotten–until a young army scout comes across a strange book. (information from Christian Audio)
If you have been wanting to a book to listen to throughout the day or while driving then this is a great opportunity to get a book for free when you download it from Christian Audio in July. Make sure to submit your order by July 31, 2012 to get your free audio book. Thanks Christian Audio!
Song: “Here With Me” by MercyMe
Thankful that we serve a God that longs to have a relationship with us. Sometimes I find myself thinking why would he want to spend time with me? It’s during those times I am reminded of His amazing love even when I fail. I have found that when my heart is focus on things above all of the other things in life tend to fall into place.
I long for your embrace
Every single day
To meet you in this place
And see you face to faceWill you show me?
Reveal yourself to me
Because of your mercy
I fall down on my kneesAnd I can feel your presence here with me
Suddenly I’m lost within your beauty
Caught up in the wonder of your touch
Here in this moment I surrender to your loveNew Upromise eCoupons for July 2012
Upromise has posted their new eCoupons for the month of July 2012. Remember to activate your eCoupons to get additional savings. If you have not yet signed up for Upromise you can get more information regarding on our experience or directly at the Upromise website.
This month they have 41 coupons you can activate for bonus savings. Once you activate your eCoupons all you have to do is scan your rewards card or purchase the items at the store and the cash will be added to your account. You don’t even have to carry any coupons to get the rewards!
You can go to their website for more information on the Upromise program, it’s free to join.
Giveaway: “More Than Enough” by Dave Ramsey
I am thrilled to announce a new giveaway on Blessings Multiplied! The winner of this giveaway will receive the More Than Enough book by Dave Ramsey! I have read and listened to several of Dave Ramsey’s books including this one in the giveaway. This book discusses topics such as discipline, goal setting, accountability, patience, and generosity (both with your time and resources). To read more about what this book is about check out my earlier post on it. Here’s how to enter the giveaway:
- Sign up to follow my blog (if you haven’t done so already) and leave a comment below telling us how you follow Blessings Multiplied. Sign up to receive Blessings Multiplied via email or like on Facebook.
- You can get a bonus entry into the drawing if you leave a separate comment below sharing your best tip money saving tip.
All comments must be made by July 31st at 10:00 PM EST to be entered into the drawing.
What’s for Dinner: Our Weekly Menu Plan
It has been a fun and busy week filled with summer activities, juggling schedules, one car, and everything else that is going on. Thankfully our family enjoys an adventure because this summer has been a whirlwind of activity. In the middle of all the craziness their is a plan of action included our weekly dinner plan to help keep us on track. Here is our menu plan for the upcoming week:
Our Weekly Menu Plan
- Monday (Beef or Seafood Entree): Homemade Pizza, Cesar Salad
- Tuesday (Pasta or Pork Entree): Rotini Pasta Casserole, Easy Vegetable Bake
- Wednesday (Kid’s Night to Cook): Brina & Karlie’s Night to Cook Dinner (Hamburgers)
- Thursday (Chicken or Vegetarian Entree): Sesame Chicken Teriyaki, Thai Noodles
- Friday, Saturday, & Sunday: Leftovers, Family Preference, and Hosting
I have a general pattern I try to follow for my weekly Menu Plan (for example Monday we have a beef or seafood entree, Tuesday a pasta or pork entree and so forth). It is my goal, at least in the beginning, to have at least the main dish and one side planned. I will put together the remaining side dishes (veggies / fruits) based on the food items that need to be used up first and compliment the main entree.
Setting a weekly menu plan helps me utilize my time better, thus freeing up extra time to spend with my family. On the days that I am working longer hours I can prep the meal in advance so it will be easier to pull together once I am home. As I go through the menu planning process I will try to share some of our favorite family recipes. If there is a specific recipe you would like please let me know and I will do my best to accommodate (some recipes are a toss together meal and I do not use any set measurements).
As a family of four our life can get busy. What’s for Dinner is our weekly menu planning series and one of the ways to help keep us organized, on schedule, and within budget. Our family typically eats 6 to 7 dinner meals at home a week. We do try to go out to eat at least once a month as a special treat. Breakfasts are eaten at home before work and school, lunches are eaten at work, school, or home, so dinner is our main meal together as a family. Dinner is our time to reconnect, share, and enjoy being together after a busy day. Our weekly menu plan covers Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday only because the weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) is our time to spend with family and friends. The weekends tend to be more spontaneous and my husband (who is the better cook) likes pitching in therefore we keep the menu open for variety. We use up the leftovers throughout the week for our lunches and on the nights that we are busy or can’t cook.
Photo by Liz
