banff national park

Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada had been on our travel list since we saw pictures of the glacial blue waters. The mountains (and award flights) were calling...

Canada is a sweet spot award redemption for using Delta miles, affectionately termed Sky Pesos in the points and miles world because it typically takes a lot of miles to redeem award flights. When our friend Adam noticed that DL award flights were extremely reasonable last spring, we decided to make a long August weekend of it, baby in tow and all. 

Airfare Breakdown: Delta MSP-YYC 

↟ 19,000 Skymiles + $55.36 for taxes per adult

↟ flights at this time of year cost at least $500, so this was a two cents/mile redemption which is good for DL

↟ $19.60 for lap infant taxes 

We would have loved to backpack or camp, but with a seven month old, we needed to keep things simple, sleep and budget friendly this time around. Points hotel options were a little interesting, but we made it work. We flew in late Friday evening and flew out early Monday morning, so it was convenient to stay right at the airport for those two nights and for the car rental pick up and drop off. For the other night, we stayed in Golden (about an hour outside of Banff NP and west of YoHo NP).

Hotel Breakdown: three nights

↟ Delta Calgary Airport In-Terminal Hotel for 20,000 Marriott points

↟ Holiday Inn Express and Suites Golden Kicking Horse for 20,000 IHG points 

↟ Delta Airport In-Terminal Hotel for 20,000 Marriott points

Car Rental Breakdown: Saturday morning-Sunday evening

↟ $144.33 for an intermediate car booked through Costco

↟ Offset using Barclays Arrival travel credit. Free is always a good price.

This was one of those trips that will be forever in our minds. Our little glory babe was due on this exact weekend a year prior, so it was a special weekend as we recounted sweet memories from our first pregnancy. Not only that, but Matt had just started walking about two weeks prior (since his Achilles rupture in May), and we had such fun exploring and making memories together as a family. 

On Instagram, I wrote... oh globetrotto, your first trip to the mountains, and it was a good one. you absolutely loved being in the airport and on the plane - literally the biggest smiles we have ever seen, happy shrieks, bouncing up and down, yet you still somehow managed to sleep most of the actual flights. we love seeing you explore new places, watch and learn from watching intently, and go with the flow. there were times in the car that it was so quiet, we thought you must be sleeping. but much to our surprise, you were wide awake, looking out the window and taking it all in. you were full of sweet snuggles, loved being cozied up with your sherpa blanket and Albert the donkey, and now have a second passport stamp. 

The only downside to visiting in August were the crowds (and lack of cribs...ha!). It was much too busy for our liking, but we tried to avoid all the people (unsuccessfully I might add) by doing as much as we could in the morning or late afternoon. Along with that, all (two) of the cribs were checked out (first come, first serve) at one of the hotels, so globetrotto had to sleep between us one night. He was quite pleased with the arrangement, but we sure didn't sleep well. 

We would love to return to Banff at some point, either in the winter to cross country ski or in late September when the larch trees are on full display. If Banff isn't already on your travel list, we highly recommend adding it. And if you are by chance planning a trip in 2017, Canada is currently waiving all national park fees this year in celebration of their 150th birthday. Who doesn't love free park entrance?!

Other area recommendations: 

↟ Phil & Sebastian Coffee Roasters + Sidewalk Citizens Bakery located in the east village at the Simmons Building: 618 Confluence Way SE in Calgary (there are six locations, but this is where the roasterie is located)

↟ Mount Norquay

↟ Lake Louise

↟ Moraine Lake

↟ Johnston Canyon

↟ the town of Banff

↟ Emerald Lake in YoHo National Park

↟ the Icefields Parkway

↟ Peyto Lake

lemon dill soup

In December, I finished the book The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell. It was very insightful and since then, we have embraced the Danish concept of hygge. We have been all about warm drinks, savory and simple comfort food, wool socks, slippers, sweaters, candles, dim lights, blankets, flannel, listening to vinyl, and most importantly -- togetherness at home. Winter is one of our favorite seasons, and despite the warm temperatures this week, we are still hoping for more snow before spring officially comes.

That being said, we have certain soup and chili recipes on repeat over here season after season, and this particular recipe has been in the rotation frequently this winter. I am fairly certain that this soup has been made at least once a week for the past two months. It is easy to make yet full of fresh flavor and just begs me to cozy up under a soft blanket with a mug of this in hand. I will sometimes eat it for lunch and dinner in the same day, and the best part is it is even better as leftovers when the flavors have a chance to meld.

lemon dill soup
from the book Savor, by Shauna Niequist

ingredients:
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots
olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups chicken or vegetable broth (i use homemade chicken stock)
1/2 cup brown rice (for a shortcut, use a packet of the trader joe's freezer brown rice)
2 cups chicken, cooked and shredded (for a shortcut, use a rotisserie chicken)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (i always add more)
4 sprigs fresh dill, finely chopped (dry dill works as well)
salt and pepper

directions:

saute the onion, celery, and carrots in olive oil until soft, then add garlic.

add broth and rice and allow rice to cook most of the way through.

five minutes before rice is cooked through, add chicken and lemon juice and dill.

add salt and pepper to taste. adjust dill and lemon according to taste preference.

>> i always add extra lemon and dill until it's just right. i will also add more chicken for additional protein and so it has a thicker consistency.

enjoy! and please by all means, cozy up under a blanket and savor this soup goodness.

homemade strawberry pop tarts

It's been one of those weeks over here with teething, colds, and lack of sleep. I tend to prefer cooking over baking (probably because I love to use recipes as a guideline and adjust ingredients freely which tends to not work as well when baking), but I really wanted to attempt homemade pop tarts as a special treat for Valentine's Day. With the week we were having, this was a fun distraction for me during nap time one afternoon with the extra bonus that the house smelled amazing for hours afterwards!

Since these pop tarts have both egg and dairy, O isn't able to taste test these (we did allergy testing a few weeks ago and learned that he is currently allergic to dairy), but M and I have been sharing one every evening after he is in bed. This is also an attempt to reintroduce egg back into my diet to see if O is still sensitive to it through nursing. So far, M has given raving reviews every time he bites into one, and O hasn't broken out (huge praise!). I highly recommend making these, especially if you have littles who love to help in the kitchen or eat sweet treats.

homemade strawberry pop tarts

ingredients for the pastry:
2 cups gluten free all purpose flour from trader joes
1 tablespoon organic sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold, cut roughly into 1" squares
1 large farm fresh egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 additional egg, whisked (for assembling pastries)

ingredients for the filling:
3/4 cup of my grandma's homemade strawberry jam

ingredients for the frosting:
1-2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
1 cup organic powdered sugar
juice from half a lemon
{optional} 2-3 drops of food coloring
{optional} sprinkles

directions:

mix the flour, sugar, and salt. add butter square one by one and mix with an electric mixer until the butter is pea size and the dough holds together.

in a small bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons milk and 1 egg.

add the milk and egg mixture to the bowl with the dough and mix with your hands until it is combined.

on a floured surface, knead the dough carefully until it doesn't stick.

divide the dough in half and roll out each half to form a 9 inch x 12 inch rectangle. one of the few times my marble rolling pin has been used. i really need to bake more...

once rolled, divide each rectangle of dough into twelve squares, using a knife to make clean cuts.

top half of the squares with a spoonful of strawberry jam and lay the other half on top, sealing the edges by pressing a fork into each side.

using a pastry brush (or in my case a spoon since i don't have one! again, i really should diversify my baking more...i tend to stick to crisps and cobblers), brush the whisked egg over half of your pop tart squares. i would also poke a few holes in the top because otherwise the pastry cracks while baking.

bake on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes (i cooked mine close to 25 minutes).

remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. cool completely before frosting.

mix all the frosting ingredients in a bowl until well combined and adjust to thin or thick accordingly. for kids, it would be a fun, festive touch to color the frosting and add sprinkles too.

frost pop tarts, and enjoy! and store any extras in the fridge. they are delicious cold!

>> recipe adapted (and for different filling ideas) from these versions here, here, and here.  

Amex Offers // Smart + Final

As mentioned before, we have taken credit card miles/rewards/cash back to a level similar of extreme couponing  — without the coupon binder and the 6 extra bottles of free ketchup in the pantry. We had already planned a trip to San Francisco for early May, and it just so happened to coincide with a great deal that was only available in California. Most people wouldn't consider going on a scavenger hunt, stopping at several Smart & Final stores (part of a discount grocery store chain), and swiping credit cards feverishly as "lucked out" but let me explain…

What's an Amex Offer?

Any American Express (Amex) issued credit card can be used to access Amex Offers. Some offers are available to all cards, some require tweeting at Amex, and others are targeted to certain cards. The gist of it is Amex offers a deal at a specific merchant for a set amount of time that a statement credit will be rewarded if you spend x amount of dollars with that merchant.

View of Amex Offers after logging into Amex Account.

A blogger I follow (and receive email alerts when something good comes along) is Frequent Miler. Here is his guide to Amex Offers to learn more about it if you would like.

Some of my favorite offers thus far have been:

• Spend $150 with AT&T — get $150 back (we split the credit with someone who actually has ATT).
• Spend $75 at Home Depot — get $15 back (good place to buy BP gas gift cards).
• Spend $20 at Sam'sClub.com — get $20 back (good gift card selection there too).
• Spend $5 at iTunes — get $5 back. 

One of the greats — $150 off after $150 spent. Just one of my cards had this offer available at the time.

Smart & Final

On April 15, Amex added an offer that normally wouldn't catch my eye — spend $50 at Smart & Final stores and get $25 back (up to 3 times per card). However, I soon after learned that this was a chain of discount stores in California which has a bountiful selection of gift cards (which is the point where an Amex offer can get lucrative).

A beautiful offer I could save to all my cards!

I asked Amanda if she wouldn't mind taking a couple of hours in San Francisco to see if we could scale this offer. We ended up rounding up 12 Amex cards (consisting of personal credit cards, business credit cards, authorized user cards, and prepaid Amex account Serve cards). With a limit of 3 statement credits per card, that meant we could use this offer 36 times!

After enjoying breakfast at the American Express Centurion Lounge at the SFO airport, we took an Uber ride from the airport to our first store (by the way, highly suggest using Uber Pool in San Francisco as it is cheap and easy to use).  

Our goal was to purchase Visa or MasterCard gift cards since we can liquidate those at Walmart and Target to pay off our credit cards used to purchase the gift cards (this is similar to how we pay our mortgage and other bills via credit card). If those gift cards were gone, our next option was to buy gas gift cards since I consider those near cash liquidity since I always have to pay for that anyways.

Our first Smart & Final stop was a bit disappointing. They didn't have any $50 or $100 gift cards, so we used 4 swipes each to buy 2 x $25 cards per transaction (plus a $3.95 purchase fee per card so each card cost $28.95 or $57.90 per transaction). Since each card had that $3.95 purchase fee, each swipe netted a profit of $17.10 ($57.90 - $25 statement credit = $32.90 for $50 worth in liquid gift cards). So after store number 1, we were 8 swipes in, and our profit was at $136.80. On to the next store....

The gift card racks were pretty empty at this particular store, perhaps because of its close proximity to the airport?
We each had 4 swipes here. 

A 15 minute bus ride from Smart & Final store #1 brought us to Smart & Final store #2. My jaw nearly hit the floor as I rushed to the gift card rack to see what was available. They had quite the selection and were flush with $100 MasterCard gift cards!! 

This meant our profit per swipe had the potential of increasing to $22 per transaction if the cashiers were willing to play ball with us. Whereas previously $100 in gift card value meant 2 transactions and 4 x $3.95 in purchase fees, we would now ask if they would be willing to split the one (1) $100 gift card that comes with $5.95 purchase fee between 2 credit card swipes. This way our purchase fees were reduced, as we would charge $50 to one card and $55.95 to another for every $100 MasterCard purchased.

As we approached the register and asked to split the transactions, it was evident others had been doing the same at this location, and the cashiers knew what to do. In fact, Amanda didn't even need to ask! The cashier asked her first if she wanted the charge split!

We each did 10 credit card swipes and took a break to organize receipts, let the lines go down behind us, and called American Express to clear up some fraud alerts on a few of the accounts (3 transactions per card at one store all at the same amount nearly 2,000 miles from home doesn't surprisingly lock up a credit card). After that, we powered through the last 8 of our transactions and successfully completed all 36 swipes by only visiting two Bay area Smart & Final stores! And luckily too, as we cleaned out the last of the $100s this store had.

From there our Smart & Final adventure ended. We grabbed another UberPool ride and made our way to downtown San Francisco to enjoy the rest of our time in the city. Nothing like a little work and a little play on a trip.

Using UberPool from the jackpot Smart & Final store to our hotel.

Our work in two and a half hours, by the numbers:

The last step was to liquidate the gift cards. Our Prepaid Target Redcard does the trick for this. 

How about you?

Does anyone else have American Express accounts? Do you maximize some of these offers to save on purchases you would normally make (or not usually make in this profitable case)?