Things that make me happy – great food, great company and Batman

Happy Monday!

I had a most wonderful weekend. On Friday, James and I went out for Thai food for my bro’s girlfriend’s birthday. It was fun to get out for a bit and wonderful to see how happy my brother is with his new friend. They make a really nice couple!

Carrot and red pepper soup – extra rice, extra carrot, extra yum

On Saturday, I made another batch of the Carrot and Red Pepper soup from The New Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone recipe book. I’ve made it so many times now that I don’t even really need the recipe! It’s SO easy and really delicious.

Saturday night, Jim and I had a really delicious supper followed by wine and RELAXATION! We watched this awesome Batman movie on Netflix and then caught the NHL All Star Competition. It was super fun! I know I’m not a movie critic but this movie was so good, I just have to mention it!

 

 

The Batman flick, Batman: The Dark Night Returns Part I, is the story of Batman coming out of retirement to vanquish the Mutants, a new and most evil breed of bad guy (and Batman has a mustache at the beginning – awesome). We both noted that it was especially good because it was dark and not really goofy. I actually enjoyed it more than the last live action movie (The Dark Night Rises). Seriously, check it out – it won’t disappoint!

Yesterday, James and I got up early and we did our first workout together. It was awesome! He’s actually a really good instructor, helping me to lift and stretch the right way to avoid injury. AND I didn’t make a complete fool of myself. Sure, I was doing 8 push-ups to his 30-40, but hey – I’m just starting!

After breakfast, we took Bear to visit his best friend, Scout. It was a beautiful day for a drive and so refreshing to get some time outside. I mean, how lucky are we to live in such a beautiful country, with wonderful people and so much freedom to explore and experience new things?

Look how happy I am to be experiencing Innis & Gunn beer on Friday!

Talking about experiencing new things, I mentioned a while ago that I was going to try out these freezer-ready veggie burritos from Oh My Veggies and I wanted to share the results with you. I’ve discovered that I’m not really a fan of zucchini (unless it’s blended in a soup) so I think I might leave that ingredient out next time. I didn’t really have time or energy to make the homemade jalapeño paste so I just bought basil pesto and added jalapeño to the veggie mix. The result was mouth-watering! I doubled the recipe so we had enough for supper (Jim had four and I had two), we each had one for lunch the next day and I was able to freeze five – definitely a recipe I will make in the future. Anyone want to test one out?

DEEElicious!

All in all, the weekend was great – I even won the weekly title in my hockey pool (The Battlestar Hockey League). A storm is heading our way tomorrow  and I have my fingers crossed for a snow day for a few reasons:

• Extra time with Bear (the cutest) playing in the SNOW
• I can watch Part II of Batman: The Dark Night Returns
• I can do my second workout session with James (because I’m not that familiar or motivated to do it on my own yet)
• I can spend a guilt-free day in my PJs (it does not get better than that!)

Either way, I’ll be happy because my job is good and I work with great people. I mean, one of my colleagues fed me a slice of French toast for breakfast this a.m. – how amazing is that?

Although my arms might disagree with this today, adding workouts to my weekly routine will be great because when you feel good, it’s a whole lot easier to do good things! Here’s to keeping up with this and discovering more happiness gems like veggie burritos, carrot soups and Batman movies.

*******Change is good, Donkey*******