Happy Halloween!!

Wishing all our readers

A VERY HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

(have fun, be safe & go slow on the candy!)

“You Gotta See This” Video Contest

You know how Kevin and I would always give you guys a heads up if there are any fun or interesting contest/giveaway/freebies, right? Well, here is one you must totally check out. If you had laser surgery or if you are thinking of getting laser surgery done on your eyes, this contest is just for you! Check out the iLASIK Video Contest! It's by Abbott Medical Optics Inc. (AMO), a global leader in laser vision correction. They want to know how better vision can improve (or already has improved) people's lives.

They recently launched the "You Gotta See This" Video Contest and for a chance to win cash and prizes, they invited people to submit video entries of how improved vision has impacted their lives. I was just at their website and many people have already submitted their entries. There were all kinds of videos, from original music videos to videos on boxing and swimming! Basically, the videos were all about how their daily lives would improve with better vision.

For those of you who wanted to send in your entries but never got around to it, don't worry! The contest is still open!! What must you do exactly? Well, you have to make and submit a video in one of the following categories:

• My contacts are getting in the way of my good time
• My favorite sport or activity would be so much cooler with better vision
• You should see life after the iLASIK® Procedure

After submitting your video, it's now time to tell your friends to vote for you! The amount of votes collected is one of the key factors determining the winning video and of course, who wins a prize.

So, what are the prizes? There will be one Grand Prize winner selected from all the submitted videos and he/she will win $5,000! In each category, a First Prize and Second Prize winner will be selected (making it a total of 3 First Prize and 3 Second Prize winners). The First Prize winners will win a HDTV package, valued at $2,500 and the Second Prize winners will win the Flip UltraHD camcorder, valued at $199.99 respectively.

Isn't this is a cool contest? Go ahead and make your video today. Once you are done, submit your video at www.GottaSeeThisNow.com. You can also view and vote for all the other entries there. Now, will you please excuse me, I need to go work on my video now!

Boston Market Chicken Meal for $1!!

I found a really good deal online today! Oh, before I forget..this is not a paid post. It's just something good that I want to share with all our readers. For those of you who are following my tweeter, you would have seen my tweet about getting a piece of free grilled chicken from KFC on Monday. That's right, in conjunction with KFC declaring Oct 26 as UNFry Day, they gave out one piece of their new grilled chicken free, all day on Monday.

Sounds like a good deal, right? Well, check this out. Boston Market came up with an even better deal. They said " Hey, you don't need to declare a special day as unfry day, everyday should be a healthy unfried day"! So, to get the message across that everyday is an unfried day at Boston Market, they are giving away a Chicken Meal for only $1, this whole week! All you need to do is head over to their website to print out the coupon, show up at any Boston Market with that coupon and you can get a Chicken Meal for $1!! Of course one person is only allowed one coupon.

So, Kevin and I printed out our coupons and headed to the nearest Boston Market earlier today. We were expecting a lot of people..come on, you don't get such a great deal everyday! Not only that, it's Boston Market! I just love the food at Boston Market, it's really homestyle cooking at it's best :D Hmm, no line coming out from the door? That's a good sign! I read somewhere that a lady in the city had to wait in line for about 45 minutes, just to get her meal!

Wow, check this out! No line at all. We just walked up to the counter, showed them our coupon and got our food! I guess living in the suburbs has it's perks :D True enough, it was only $1 for the Chicken Meal (well, $1.07 with tax). The meal consist of choice between 3 pieces of dark meat or 1/4 white meat BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes and a cornbread. Not too shabby for a buck! I believe the value of the 3 piece dark meat meal is $6.29 and $7.29 for the 1/4 white meat meal.

Here is our $2.14 dinner! As usual, the chicken tasted great! I just love the taste of the mash potatoes, it has the 'real' mashed potatoes taste, unlike the powdery 'fake' tasting KFC mashed potatoes. The cornbread was yummy too. Man, how I wish we could get this for $1 everyday! :P Anyways, the promotion runs til Nov 1, 2009...so hurry up and go get your $1 chicken meal before the promotion ends!

Psssstt...I heard from the grapevine that El Pollo Loco is planning to come up with a promotion that trumps both the KFC and Boston Market promo. O00hh, I can't wait. I'm loving this current grilled chicken war among all the chicken places, it gets better by the day :P iLike! I'll keep my eyes and ears open and update all of you if I get any news about the El Pollo Loco or any other promotion. Meanwhile, enjoy your Boston Market meal! :D

*Click here for the coupon link. Some people have commented that the Boston Market website is really slow due to high traffic. If you are having problems getting on the Boston Market website, just email me and I'll send you the .jpg format of the coupon.

Get Over 1,000 TV Channels on LiveTV4me

As many of you know, both Kevin and I are huge Steeler fans! Back when we were living in Pittsburgh, we would never miss a game. Without fail, the TV would be on and we would watch ever game, live. Now that we are living in Jersey, we can't do that anymore. They would be showing the Giants or Jets game on TV instead. We've been trying to figure out how to continue watching Steeler games live when I came to know about livetv4me.com.

LiveTV4me.com? What's that? Well, LiveTV4me is a one-time software download that instantly connects your computer to an almost endless variety of live TV programming choices from around the world. For a one-time fee that’s less than one month of cable or satellite service, you can enjoy over 1000 live television channels from around the world whenever you want, wherever you want all from the convenience of your PC or laptop! That's right, for only a one time payment of $39.95, you can watch live sports, movies, news, music videos and thousands of other programs from the US and around the world! I'm so excited! This will mean that we can continue watching our football games live, every weekend! Not only that, I can also watch TV from the UK, Australia, South America, the Middle East and most importantly, my home, Malaysia (and other Asian countries too)! Since we travel quite a lot, it's also great for watching TV on the go. We can access it anytime, on our laptops! How cool is that?

So, how does it work? It's pretty simple actually. All you need is Internet connection. Then, just download the software from the website (it's so easy, it takes only about 3 minutes) and pay the one time activation fee of $39.95. Remember, there are no hidden fees, just a one time fee of $39.95 and you will never be billed again! Sounds too good to be true? Is it even legal? Yes! Don't worry, access is 100% legal, no matter how many channels you want to watch or for how long. So, what are you waiting for? Stop paying expensive monthly cable bills and head over to LiveTV4me.com to turn your PC into a TV today.

Crazy Eight Can Soup

It's been raining on and off for the past few weeks and it's been getting pretty chilly these days. It's just the perfect weather for staying home in our flannel pj's with a big bowl of hearty soup and a few slices of bread. I was searching for a good, easy and inexpensive hearty soup recipe when I saw one for the Crazy Eight Can Soup from Heather's blog. It looked yummy and pretty easy to make, so I figured I'll try making a batch. I've changed the recipe up a little (added in a few things) but it's pretty much the same as the original recipe.
Here's all the ingredients that you would need to make this hearty soup. Three cans of Progresso's Homestyle Minestrone Soup (the original recipe called for Campbell's but Heather is right, Progresso is better), one can of Rotel's Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies, one can of Hunt's Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes, one can of Whole Kernel Corn, one can of Sylvia's Seasoned Kidney Beans and one can of Seasoned Southern Style Black Eye Peas (the original recipe used two cans of Ranch Style Beans instead of Seasoned Kidney Beans and Southern Style Black Eye Peas). You would also need one lbs of ground beef, some hot Italian sausages and some elbow macaroni.

Start off by browning one lbs of ground beef and about 2 to 3 pieces of hot Italian sausages (that has been cut in smaller pieces) in a pan.

Once that's done, drain and place the beef and sausages into a large pot.

Now it's time to pour in the contents of the eight cans. Begin with the 3 cans of minestrone soup.

Next goes in the fire roasted tomatoes.

After that, pour in the diced tomatoes and green chilies. Remember, do not drain anything. Just pour everything into the pot.

In goes the seasoned kidney beans...

...followed by the southern style black eye peas.

Lastly, pour in the can of whole kernel corn.

Mix all the ingredients together well. Then, add in a few fistfuls of elbow macaroni and give it another good stir. Allow the soup to simmer for about an hour or so, then it's done!

Here it is! A big pot of hearty soup!! Doesn't it look yummy? It was such a big pot that after freezing some, we still had enough to eat for the next four days! It tasted great, so rich and hearty, with a lil spicy kick. Guess what? It tasted even better after reheating it the next day. We served the soup with some Cuban bread that we bought from our local bakery..mmm mmm mmmm! It's so yummy to eat, so easy to make and really inexpensive, this recipe is definitely a keeper!

Celebrate the holiday season in Branson!

The holiday season is almost here! Oh I just that time of the year, the holiday parties, the warm cosy feeling of spending time with the family...it's just magical. The holiday season is also a perfect time to go away for a family vacation. Thinking of doing that this holiday season? Well, I know just the place to go. Head over to Branson, Missouri to celebrate the holiday season together with your family in the warmth and comfort of an Ozark Mountain Christmas! Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing and Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel is currently offering some really exclusive packages, customized just for you and your family this holiday season.

Among the packages offered is the "It’s a Wonderful Life" Package. Starting at $329 per night and running from Nov 15 thru Dec 23, you’ll experience the ultimate holiday getaway for shopping, relaxation and entertainment. It includes breakfast as well as a Branson Landing passport loaded with discounts at dozens of shops and restaurants along with a treatment at Aspire Medical Spa. This sounds like a perfect vacation package for me!

For those of you with little ones, you should check out the "Santa’s Coming to Town" Package, starting at $189 per night. From Nov 15 thru Dec 23 , every Friday thru Sunday, children will enjoy Story Time with Mrs. Claus in the lobby of the Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel and Santa himself will deliver presents, cookies and milk to guest’s rooms! What a special treat for your kids! I'm sure they will remember this family vacation for a long long time.

So, need I say more? With these exciting holiday packages at the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing and Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel, you and your family are in for a true holiday treat! Head over to their website and book one of their awesome holiday packages today!

Tom's Restaurant - Manhattan, NYC

My friend Wilson, his wife Ing and their friend Fiona from Toronto was in town visiting two weeks ago, so we decided to meet up for dinner. Wilson and Ing now lives in Sdyney and it's been 8 years (back during our college days in Subang Jaya) since I last saw Wilson. I've never met Ing and Wilson also never had the opportunity to meet Kevin, so it was good that we had a chance to meet up.

Initially, we wanted to take them to one of the 'nice and chic' restaurants in either the Hells Kitchen or Greenwhich Village area but decided to have dinner here instead. We figured that there are nice restaurants in Sydney too, so we opted to take them somewhere a lil more touristy, to give them the full NYC experience :P Can you recognise this restaurant?

Here is a close up. Looks familiar? Well, it's Tom's Restaurant, or better known as Monk's Cafe in the ever popular TV sitcom Seinfeld! This is where Jerry and his friends would go to eat, in the show. It's located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, nearby to Columbia University. Early Seinfeld episodes showed the entire neon sign but later on, to avoid paying royalties, the Tom's part of the neon was cropped out, showing only the "RESTAURANT" wraparound.

Ahhhh, the group with our food. Just like the 'Cheers' pub in Boston, the interior looked very little like what we see on the show, as indoor scenes were filmed on a set in California. However, the walls of the restaurant were adorned with Seinfeld memorabilia, taken from the original set. So, how was the food, the service and was it expensive? Well, all five of us ordered from their daily specials. We got to choose a main from 11 different dishes that changes everyday and it comes with a cup of soup and a green salad. I initially ordered Roast Leg of Lamb with Mint Jelly ($10.00) but the waiter came back to tell me that they were out of that. So, I changed my order to Roast Loin of Pork with Apple Sauce ($10.00). I believed Wilson and Fiona also ordered that. After 1 min, the waiter returned, apologised profusely and said that they only have one more serving of Pork left. Also, they were out of Roast Turkey with Cranberry and Stuffing ($10.95), Kevin's order. Sooooo, we all had to look at the menu once again and this is what we had.

Everybody got Cream of Turkey Soup and a Green Salad (part of the daily specials). Kevin took the last order of Roast Loin of Pork with Apple Sauce ($10.00) and chose mixed vegetables and mash potatoes as his side. It looked dry to me but he said it wasn't that bad.

Ing had the Shish Kebab ($14.00) that was served on a bed of rice, with some mixed vegetables. That looked pretty good actually, I believed she liked it.

Wilson and Fiona both had fish, the Broiled Fillet of Sole ($14.00) with potatoes and vegetables for Wilson and the Stuffed Fillet of Sole ($15.00) for Fiona. Her sole was stuffed with crabmeat and baked. I guess both was alright, not the greatest but not bad either.

I ended up having the Stuffed Mushroom Dinner ($12.00) - royal mushroom caps stuffed with crabmeat. Again, it was just alright. Nothing stood out, it was just alright.

Overall, the food wasn't the best but the waiters were really friendly and the price was pretty affordable. I guess it's just the thrill of visiting the 'Seinfeld cafe'. I would recommend the place if you are a big Seinfeld fan. There are many cool memorabilia on the walls and if anything, just to get your photo in front of the restaurant. If you don't really care for Seinfeld, then there are many other diners with better food around town. We had a great time catching up with Wilson and meeting Ing as well as Fiona for the first time. Let's hope it will not be another 8 years before we can go out to dinner again! :D

Tom's Restaurant (Monk's Cafe from Seinfeld)
2880 Broadway (corner of Broadway & 112th Street)
New York, NY 10025
Tel: (212) 864-6137

Free Auto Insurance Quotes!

With the current state of our declining economy, we are doing everything we can to cut cost and save up (what ever little that we can) for a rainy day. Every little savings, be it using a coupon here and there or drinking regular instead of premium coffee, counts. I'm pretty sure many families across America are trying to do the same too. Kevin and I were talking about our current car insurance over the weekend and we realized that we are actually paying quite a lot for it!

So, we started looking around to compare auto insurance quotes. There are just so many companies out there, we realized that it would be really time consuming for us to get quotes from all those companies, let alone to sit down and compare them. It would involve hours on the phone, entering our information website by website on the Internet or lengthy meetings with individual insurance agents. Just when we were just about to give up, we found the website PremiumAutoInsurance.net.

PremiumAutoInsurance.net aspires to match you, the consumer with the best value in auto insurance rates possible in your area. Let me give you an example. While GEICO tends to offer some of the best coverage and lowest rates for certain people in certain areas, Liberty Mutual may provide better rates in other areas. What PremiumAutoInsurance.net does is allow you to get as many quotes from as many companies as possible, thus allowing you to get the best rates that you can. How do you do it? Well, all you need to do is enter your zip code on the main website. Just press submit to request rate information from a number of different companies who serve your location.

This are some of the companies that showed up when we entered our zip code. PremiumAutoInsurance.net's cutting edge technology allows you to instantly compare insurance coverage and premium quotes from multiple competing companies. The best part is, you only have to enter your information once instead of traveling from website to website. From the results, it found out that we can save a couple of hundred dollars just by switching to another auto insurance company! We got all that into in a few minutes!! How cool is that? So, if you are thinking of getting new auto insurance or thinking of changing your current one, head over to PremiumAutoInsurance.net to get your Free Auto Insurance Quotes and see how much you could be saving on auto insurance today!

Free Chocolate Dipped Fruit Boxes!!

Before I begin, I have to say that this is not a paid post. It's just something really cool that we would like to share with our readers :D I found out from a forum last Thursday that Edible Arrangements was giving away $1.5 million dollars worth of chocolate dipped fruit boxes (100,000 boxes) on their Facebook page. All we needed to do was to fill up a form and they will email us the coupon for the free fruit box. I have heard of Edible Arrangements and I've always wanted to try their products, but it's a bit on the expensive side. So, this is a good chance for me to see if it's any good or worth the money.

I received this coupon in my mailbox the very next day! Looks like I had the option to either print it out and take it to the nearest Edible Arrangements store to pick it up or I could redeem it online and get them to deliver the fruit boxes to my apartment (we just have to pay the shipping charges). We decided to print it out and head over to the Edible Arrangements in Nutley, NJ (about 10 minutes away from us) yesterday.

We found the shop without any problems and since there is a huge municipal parking lot behind the shop, there wasn't any parking problems too. It's located on Franklin Ave, the main town center of Nutley.

The store front was clean, neat and they had quite a lot of their products on display. It's pretty cool to actually see them in real life, since I have only visited their website and not thier store front. Now I know the actual size of the arrangements and stuff. The staff was also super friendly. When we gave them our coupons, they were really nice and told to wait for a bit while they prepare our fruit boxes at the back. You know how some stores would treat you differently if you walk in with a free coupon and are not a 'paying customer'? Well, not here! They were super nice and very professional :D

After waiting for about 5 minutes or so, the lady came out with an Edible Arrangements bag and told us that she has included 2 coupons for $4 off, for our next visit! How nice =) I was also pretty impressed with the packaging. I was expecting them to just hand us two boxes and that's it. There was a little card and a full glossy brochure, tied with a golden string, attached to the paper bag. Very nice. Wanna see what's inside?

Here is it! The 6 piece Chocolate Dipped Fruit Box (worth $15). I just love the packaging, with the bright red high quality box and a brown ribbon around it. So, what does the fruits look like?

Isn't it nice?? The coupon didn't specify what type of fruits we will be getting but it says on the website that it's up to the shop to decide - it could be strawberries, apples, oranges, bananas, pineapples or pears. We had some strawberries, apples and bananas. Is it worth $2.50 a piece? Well, all I can say is that it tasted really really good. You can taste that the chocolate is high quality chocolate and the fruits were really fresh. $2.50 for a piece of fruit is a little bit steep, but if you were to give it as a gift, I think that it's worth it. The whole presentation is really nice and it helps that the chocolate taste great too! Overall, we were really impressed with the professionalism of the staff, the packaging as well as taste of the product. Thank you Edible Arrangements for our two free boxes of Chocolate Dipped Fruits. We really enjoyed it!

* To get the coupon for your free box of 6 piece Chocolate Dipped Fruit Boxes, head over to http://facebook.com/dofruit . I believe the promotion runs til middle of November or til they hit 100,000 boxes (whichever comes first).

Charter On Demand - Your Fav Shows, Anytime

Both Kevin and I enjoy watching TV, be it reality shows, sitcoms, travel shows, cooking shows, home improvement shows...you name it, we watch it. However, as much as we like watching TV, we sometimes just do not have time to watch as much TV as we like. Sometimes the shows that we like come on at odd hours or when we are busy with other things.

What about movies? Sure, we love watching movies but again, we just don't have time to go to the cinema to catch one. What about renting? Well, it's such a hassle to get into the car, drive to the DVD rental shops, pick out one that we like (sometimes the one that we are looking for is not even available), pay for it and THEN go home to watch it. Boy, I'd rather not watch then go through all that.

I know we are not alone. There are many mommy bloggers who reads this blog. You are just so swamp with work, taking care of the kids, cleaning the house, making meals..the list goes on. Where can you find time to watch you favourite shows during their scheduled time? What about the kids? Sometimes the little ones just do not get it. When they want their Dora or Spongebob, they want it right then. They don't care that it's 1am in the morning. When they want something, they want it now! Is there even a solution to all this?

Guess what? There is! Charter On Demand is your answer. If you have Charter digital, you have On Demand. There are over 6,000 movies and shows to watch anytime you want. No waiting, no schedules. Missed one of your favorite shows like Heroes, 30 Rock, The Office? There are many of your favorites the day after they air on TV. Not only that, there are hundreds of HD show to choose from! How much extra will all that cost you? Well, it's FREE! Like I said, if you have Charter digital, you have On Demand. Don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself. You can learn more at charter.net/ondemand. Also, if you are on Facebook, you can get updates and fun extras on Charter’s Facebook page. So, hurry up and check out Charter On Demand today. I'm sure your family will thank you for it!

Empire Chinese Restaurant - Bloomfield, NJ

We received another Chinese take out menu under our door a few weekends ago (we get tons of take out menus under our door) but this particular menu caught our attention. It's for Empire Chinese Restaurant, which is located in Bloomfield, the neighborhood next to us.

What caught our attention was the coupons on the menu. Usually, it would be for a free can of soda or free wonton soup and eggrolls. This restaurant was a little bit different. We could get either a pint of Chicken with Broccoli or Honey Spare Ribs Tips for purchases over $25! That's not too bad at all....there are even more yummy free stuff for purchases over $35 and $55. Also, they have free delivery for orders over $10! Most places in our area would charge $1 -$2 for delivery. So, we decided to give this place a try.

We called to order our food ( unlike some other places, they could speak English well enough to understand our order the first time :P) and it arrived in about 25 minutes. Not too bad at all. Here is all the stuff that we ordered (ok, for those of you wondering, no, all that food is not for ONE meal...we ordered enough for three meals).

We ordered the fried scallops (8 pieces for $2.95) as our appetizer. The two eggrolls in the picture is part of the special combination plates that we ordered.

We ordered two different special combination plates. A combination plate comes with your choice of main dish, roast pork or chicken fried rice and an egg roll. This is our oder of Sweet Sour Chicken with Roast Pork Fried Rice ($6.65). The deep fried chicken in batter wasn't oily, in fact, it was light and fluffy. Very nice.

We also ordered the General Tso's Shrimp with Chicken Fried Rice ($6.65). I was pretty amazed that this dish was part of the combination plate choices. Usually, General Tso's Shrimp would be found under the 'House Specialities' section (meaning that it will be more expensive) in most other restaurants.

I've always heard about this dish called Moo Shu but I have never really gotten around to trying it. So, we decided to order one portion of that, just for education :P I ordered the Moo Shu Beef ($7.95) and it comes with 5 pancakes (really thin rice flour pancakes, something like the Malaysian popiah skin) and a tub of Peking duck sauce. You are supposed to spread the sauce on the pancake, place some of the stir fried beef and vege on it and roll it up. After taking a bite of the roll, I am hooked! The Moo Shu has now become one of my favorite Chinese take out dishes :P It's good!

This is the Honey Spare Rib Tips (with white rice enough for at least 2 people) that we got free because our order was above $25. It's not some sad small portion of rib tips but it was a large full portion! It tasted great, sticky and sweet, just now I like it!

Look, they even threw in 4 fortune cookies for free. These days, most Chinese delivery places would not give you free fortune cookies anymore. They would charge 25 cents a piece. So, that was a nice thing to receive. Our total bill to $25.90 (thanks to my kiasu calculations before I ordered, wanted to make sure we hit $25 but not too much over :P). $25.90 for so much food, I think it's really really worth it. We would definitely order from this place again!

Empire Chinese Restaurant
12 Arlington Avenue,
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
Tel: (973) 566-9996
Fax: (973) 566-6658

Experience the warmth and excitement of Branson

The leaves on the trees are beginning to change its colors, the days are getting shorter and there is a chill in the air. As much as we enjoy the beautiful colors of falls, we know that winter will be here soon. What do I love about winters? The holiday season! I just love spending the holiday season with family, sipping eggnog by the fireplace, feeling all cosy and warm while enjoying each others company. Thinking of going off somewhere for a family vacation this holiday season? Look no further. Branson, Missouri is the place to be.

Celebrate the holiday season by bringing the family together in the warmth and comfort of an Ozark Mountain Christmas. Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing and Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel is offering some really amazing exclusive packages for you and your family this holiday season.

Check out the It’s a Wonderful Life Package. Starting at $329 per night and running from Nov 15 thru Dec 23, you’ll experience the ultimate holiday getaway for shopping, relaxation and entertainment. It includes breakfast as well as a Branson Landing passport loaded with discounts at dozens of shops and restaurants along with a treatment at Aspire Medical Spa. Just perfect for somebody who is looking for some retail as well as spa therapy.

If you have little kids, you should check out the Santa’s Coming to Town Package, starting at $189 per night. From Nov 15 thru Dec 23 , every Friday thru Sunday, little ones will enjoy Story Time with Mrs. Claus in the lobby of the Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel and Santa himself will deliver presents, cookies and milk to guest’s rooms! What a special treat for your kids!

Here is something for the whole family. Your family will love the exclusive Polar Express Package starting at $289 for a family of four, which includes deluxe accommodations, first-class excursion on the Polar Express with dining car seating, hot cocoa and cookies along with a souvenir ceramic mug. The train runs Thursday to Sunday beginning Friday, Nov 6th. Advance reservations are required and additional tickets are available at $49.00 per adult and $39.00 for children ages 2-12.

So, what more can I say? With these exciting holiday packages at the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing and Hilton Branson Convention Center Hotel, you are in for a true holiday treat! Head over to their website and book your package today!!