Better With Sprinkles

The Colourful Side to Healthy Living.

MIMM: Blog Friends and Leapin’ Lemurs.

52 Comments

Happy Easter Monday/April Fools day!

1. Is Easter Monday actually a holiday? I know elementary/high schools get the day off and banks are closed, but pretty much everyone else is back at work/school, right?

2. April Fools’ Day scares me a little. I’m terrible at pulling pranks, so I just try to hide and hope that no one tries anything.

But long weekends are pretty marvelous, no? I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with Mondays, but I figure it’s better to look at the positive side.

Yup, I’m jumping on the lovely Katie’s MIMM bandwagon.  I’ll save Friday for later, but I will show you some fun Saturday/Sunday things!

You know what’s marvelous? Easter chocolate.

DSCF4758

This is why my chocolate stash will never die. As soon as I’m running low, people give me more Smile with tongue out Between Eric and I, there’s four chocolate bunnies, a chocolate rose, and a box of cereal.

DSCF4760

My mom told me that when she saw this at the store, she had to pick up a box for me because she loved the name so much. I’ve fallen out of cereal love lately (those eggy oats have my heart right now), but this is one way to return me to my cereal loving roots. Loooove this stuff.

DSCF4761

She also managed to find me a chocolate bunny with sprinkles in him. Seems pretty appropriate.

DSCF4764

Chocolate bunnies in a cage. That is some good presentation, at least.

It’s pretty marvelous to have a mom-cooked Saturday breakfast!

DSCF4729

Eggs, bacon and rye toast – one piece with butter, one with honey. I love rye bread, but I never think to buy it!

A yummy Easter dinner is marvelous:

Saturday Easter

Saturday dinner with Eric’s family: an appetizer of little veggie roll sushi things (how’s that for a description?), a full turkey dinner, and Black Forest Cake for dessert. I’m pretty sure the last time I remember eating black forest cake was about 6 years ago, but that stuff is good. Chocolate, cherries and a ton of whipped cream. Amazing.

And something that is EXTREMELY marvelous:

DSCF4753

Blogger meet ups! Open-mouthed smile

Devon was in town visiting a friend for the weekend, so of course, we made plans to meet up. I’ve been talking to Devon for a while and she’s such an awesome girl, so I was thrilled we could meet up.

When we were trying to figure out where to go for lunch, I suggested Indian – it’s been a while since I’d had it, and she’s pretty much an expert on the stuff Smile with tongue out We went to The Raja in downtown London for their Sunday lunch buffet.

I think buffets have to be my favourite approach for Indian food…there’s so many different options that I like having the opportunity to try a bunch of different dishes.

DSCF4744

so we’ve got:

  • some sort of salad/salsa stuff (I’m doing really well on the food descriptions today, aren’t I?)
  • tandoori chicken (always one of my favourites)
  • channa masala (chickpeas)
  • sag aloo (spinach and potatoes)
  • an onion bhajee
  • some sort of okra dish (the first time I’ve ever eaten okra, actually. Might be picking it up again, I liked it!)
  • mystery chicken (it wasn’t labeled. It was good though)
  • basmati rice

When it (finally) came around, the naan bread.

DSCF4747

I always judge an Indian restaurant based on their naan bread. My ideal naan bread is buttered but not too greasy, and stable enough that you can use it as a proper scoop. The Raja passed Smile with tongue out

Dessert round:

DSCF4750

Fresh fruit and a gulab jamun (which are basically little fried, syrupy dough balls of delicousness)

So basically, lunch was awesome, but the company was even better! Devon and I just talked for hours about everything from blogging to travel. We have a ton in common, right down to the matching nose rings Smile with tongue out We were probably getting a bit of a stink-eye from the staff, we lingered for so long!

Fortunately for me, she’s only about an hour away so I will be making the trip up to see her again soon.

Being the awesome person that she is, she also gifted me some PureFit bars.

DSCF4754

She recommended them on her blog a while back, but I haven’t been able to find them anywhere in my area. They look awesome – anything that’s supposed to taste like cookie dough is good in my book.

Thanks for the bars, and for an awesome lunch Devon!

I just need to take a moment to gush about how fortunate I feel that blogging has lead me to some amazing individuals that I would not have had the chance to meet (or ‘meet’) otherwise. There are some wonderful people in this community, and I’m so happy that I get to talk to you guys regularly and consider you my friends!

Oh goodness, the marvelous-ness. Have a great Monday!

<— Are there any cuisines you love but find too intimidating to cook? I love Indian food, but I’m afraid to actually attempt it from scratch. Same story with sushi!

<— Tell me something marvelous about your weekend!

52 thoughts on “MIMM: Blog Friends and Leapin’ Lemurs.

  1. I think I’ve only had Indian food once.. I can’t even remember, but I’d be all over the naan ! ;D blogger meet-ups are seriously the best. Happy Monday, love!

  2. Oh my goodness you and Devon got to meet!!! That’s so awesome! Now both of you just need to come down to the states to hang out with us down here 🙂 that cake looks amazing and I love that you decided to eat it. Chocolate bunnies- the best. I’m glad it was such a great weekend for you!!

  3. I sure am impressed by your Indian food knowledge :)! Your weekend sounds lovely and you guys put up quite a spread, am especially eyeing those spring rolls! As delicious as black forest cake is, have you ever tried white forest? If not, it’s basically white chocolate and peaches instead of cherries….too die forrr 🙂

  4. Sounds like a great weekend!! Love the “veggie sushi roll things” 😛

  5. Ahhh soo jealous of that meet up (but also really happy for you two 😉 )! Looks like you had an awesome weekend, girl! I love sushi but would be terrified to make it haha…and i still need to go to an indian buffet…i keep telling joe i want to go and he keeps saying ok and then we don’t make it…sometime in the next two months we will!!

  6. Lots of marvelous! Love the rockstar bunny, haha! Too cute!!!

    Glad you had a fabulous weekend! Saturday dinner looked delish and so does the indian! I love indian food and naan! ❤

  7. At first I thought it was a real bunny in the cage haha.

  8. Probably tapas. My bf and I love it but to actually make that many dishes for dinner I just don’t think we would ever do ourselves.

    We actually get the Monday holiday here in Australia so that was pretty marvelous having a 4 day weekend 🙂

  9. Yee! Totally agree that it was an awesome day yesterday, so glad I got to meet you! April Fools scares me a little too. I’m sitting in the Starbucks in the Masonville mall right now and I’m seriously worried that my ride back to Guelph is about to call me and be like “April Fools! You can walk home!” Reeeaalllly hope that doesn’t happen 😉

  10. Fallen… out of cereal love? 😥 I’ll pretend you didn’t say that because I’m not all too sure that my heart can handle it. At least you’re still a chocolate lover, though. And black forest cake! That sucker is seriously the epitome of my growing up years. My mom would make one from scratch for pretty much every birthday/special occasion and it aways brings back such good memories. That being said, there was no BFC for Easter this year… we had to settle for cheesecake 😉 And I couldn’t agree with you more about the blessing that is good blog friends… especially ones made within the last week or so ❤ ❤

    • haha I’m confident that Leapin’ Lemurs can revive that love.
      I remember eating it a lot when I was a kid…actually I remember for my 16th birthday in high school, walking over to the grocery store at lunch with a bunch of friends and buying one to eat under the stairs at school. We were a cool bunch.

      And yes, you are definitely a large part of that statement! ❤

  11. Omg I love Lemurs! What a cool cereal! I enjoyed reading about your weekend. You have a great energy!! I had a good weekend of exercise, good friends and good food. Have a great day!

  12. That cereal sounds fantastic!! I love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate :).

    Indian food is one of my favorites!! Channa masala is SO good, and you seriously cannot beat the tastiness of naan. I am jealous of that meal!

  13. I’m hoping no one plays any prank on me, I’m not a fan since I’m so gullible.
    I know here, lots of people don’t work today. None of my friends are and both my Parents have the day off work as well…hmm. I’ve heard others don’t get it off which I find weird, since Easter was always a 4 day weekend for us.
    I’m feeling the non cereal love too, sometimes I just dislike cereal haha. It’s hard to make me full, but I may attempt again.
    Looks like it was a great weekend for you!
    I wish I lived near you guys so we could meet up too! Jealous. I swear no bloggers live by me.
    Happy Monday love!

  14. I had to hop-on the positivity bandwagon myself this morning. I told myself Monday was nothing to have an anxiety attack over! Yahoo for all of your weekend eats, I indulged quite a bit & it was so delish & worth it. I too have never made Indian food, maybe need to put that next on my “list”. Happy Monday Sam!

  15. That’s so awesome that you and Devon got to meet up! I’ll have to crash one of your meet ups sometime. 😉 And ditto to what you said about blog friends – I feel so lucky to have met so many great friends that I never would have met if it weren’t for blogging. And I’m so glad you live so close! If only everyone else lived close to us too. 😛

    I really love Italian food, but I’m too intimated to make homemade pasta or homemade pizza dough unless I have my dad’s help. I really need to get over that fear though because homemade pasta is SO much better than the boxed kind.

    • We were talking about how disappointed we were that you were in Burlington for the weekend! We will definitely plan something for the three of us sometime. Pretty sure Guelph is the halfway point between Brantford and Toronto :-p

  16. I have loved Indian food the few times I have had it, I have been wanting to make it at home but in still kind of intimidated by it. All your Easter chocolate looks amazing!

  17. Sounds like such a great weekend and I looove the sprinkled Eatser chocolate! I totall feel,ou on ‘meeting’ great personalities here in the blogger world! I am chatting with ladies I found on here and couldn’t be more happy about it. I spent the weekend in Berlin which was fantastic!!

  18. Long weekends are definitely marvelous…but boooo I didn’t have one! haha and I love leapin lemurs! So good…and that’s awesome that you and Devon got to meet up! Looks like you guys had a great time!

  19. My sisters LOVE Indian. I just think it’s okay….isn’t that sad?!

    But it looks like a super fun meet up! Have a lovely monday 🙂

  20. That sounds like an awesome weekend Sam, very cute choc bunnies!

  21. Devonnnnnnnn! <- That was me when I got to the pic of you guys! Haha! Yay, two of my favoritest bloggers together! Love it! I think I need to replace my stud nose ring with a hoop and pop up there for a visit! 😉

    That is the cutest cereal box ever! And well, the cereal sounds pretty cool too! And seriously, you TOTALLY made up for the food descriptions with the gulab jamun…um, I want a little fried, syrupy dough ball of delicousness please!!!!

    I've only had Indian food once…and I got the mildest one…and it gave me indigestion! Ha! I keep saying I'm going to try making it at home since I can control the amount of spice in the dishes, but I'll admit I am a little intimidated by all the flavors/ingredients! Have you ever heard of Aparna's blog Not a Leaf? She has some of the BEST looking Indian recipes! (http://notaleaf.com/category/food/Indian/)…I'm especially eyeing that Paneer Tikka Masala! Looks amazing!

    And funny you should mention sushi because I've ALWAYS been too scared to try it until recently…but really it's not as hard as you think! I mean, mine might not look all that pretty, but after experimenting last week, I'm definitely ready to make more!

    My weekend was of the low-key variety, but the most marvelous thing was getting to see some of my extended family for Easter dinner yesterday! I haven't seen a lot of them since Christmas!

  22. Ahhh so many things I feel the need to comment on in this post! That is certainly a good thing 🙂 First, what a great chocolate stash you have going on now. The bunny with the sprinkles seems pretty darn ideal to me and it goes along nicely with the title of your blog hehe. That cereal sounds legit too.. there is a Puffins cereal like that but I never buy it because it’s literally 5 bucks for a box. It’s not that good for that price! I have got it on sale before though and my favorite way is to eat it dry, nice and crunchy. So yeah, you’re mom is awesome for getting you such easter goodies and the breakfast too, yes to rye bread! Pumpernickel is a bread I like as well, but forget about it like you with the rye.
    Yay for blogger meet ups, they are just great! I agree about how blogging connects you with people you would never have normally met. I have met a few bloggers over the years and it’s been a true delight each time. On that note, can I PLEASE meet you in person one day? Because yeah, it pretty much just needs to happen 🙂

  23. Nature’s Path makes THE BEST cereal! I love the peanut butter panda puffs.

  24. do need to learn more Indian cuisine foods, as we do like their flavors. need to get over that fear.
    marvelous about our weekend was being able to just relax with family 🙂

  25. I’ve fallen in love with the sprinkle bunny! I’m pretty sure they exist in this country, but I sure wish they did, because holy fun yum. The stash of Easter treats your mom brought made me smile–especially the Leapin’ Lemurs cereal! I’ve seen it at Whole Foods, but it’s never made its way into my cart. Curiosity has the best of me now, though. 🙂

    Your mom-made breakfast looks delicious (hello, bacon!), as does Easter dinner. Black Forest cake is one of my favorites! A good friend of mine is German, and a few years ago she made me a homemade cake–complete with hand-shaven Lindt chocolate–for my birthday. I think it was the best cake I’ve ever tasted.

    I’m so glad you and Devon were able to meet up! Love her! Indian food intimidates me, too, which is probably why I’ve never tried to cook it at home. The same goes for sushi, Thai, and Ethiopian (which is really popular in DC).

    Hope you enjoyed your last long weekend day today! ❤ xoxo

  26. Pingback: WIAW: Crazy for Sangria…and Cute Babies. | Better With Sprinkles

  27. Pingback: MIMM: Date Night & An Honourary Fur Baby. | Better With Sprinkles

Leave a reply to betterwithsprinklesblog Cancel reply