MIMM: Blog Friends and Leapin’ Lemurs.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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 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:

Blogger meet ups!

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 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.

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.

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

Dessert round:

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 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.

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!

I Love Vacation Time.

Good morning! Those of you who went back to work yesterday and Thursday – how was it? Who’s still on vacation?

I’ve got another week to go after the weekend, but I’m definitely keeping busy. The boy and I had an awesome day together yesterday, and today I’m driving back to London for my cousin’s baby shower. She’s due in February (the 13th, so of course I’m hoping she’s having a Valentine’s Day baby) and I couldn’t be more excited for her.

Rewinding to yesterday:

Eric and I hadn’t been to see a movie since September, and since he’s off until the 7th as well (yay working in the education system!) we decided to take advantage of a gift card and go see one. We’re both Tarantino fans, so we settled on Django: Unchained.

Umm, please go see this movie.

Definitely one of the best new movies I’ve seen in a long time! Again, I’m a Tarantino fan so I’m probably a bit biased, but it was great. It was long (almost 3 hours) but I almost didn’t notice, I was so entertained. The acting was incredible – I think Christoph Schulz may be becoming one of my favourite actors. Between this and Inglourious Basterds, his pure talent really comes across. And of course, you can never go wrong with Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson in a movie, can you? Seriously fantastic.

I know there’s some controversy surrounding the film and the use of the “n-word”, but really, it’s unavoidable considering the time period and the context of the film. It did make me uncomfortable, but avoiding it would have made the movie incredibly unrealistic. So if you can get around that, definitely go see this movie!

Lunch

It was a long movie, so even though I had a snack during (a cheese string and a Clif Z Bar) I was more than ready for (a 4:00 pm) lunch when I got home.

A purple sweet potato, blueberry goat cheese, and two eggs (supposed to be two sunny side up but I broke one of the yolks…oops) on a bed of spinach. A weirder combination, but it worked for me.

Dinner

We ended up getting a last minute invitation from our neighbours to join them at Taal for dinner. Of course, I cannot say no to an Indian buffet.

Plate 1: salad with some sort of yogurt dressing, some sort of fish (I had absolutely no idea what it was when I choose it off the buffet…yes, I am adventurous), chili chicken, channa masala, and beef korma.

A small plate for round two: tandoori chicken, palek paneer and a piece of pakora. Because of my late lunch, this left me absolutely stuffed and I skipped dessert (seriously, when do I say that? My dessert stomach must have failed me)

After the boy and I got home, we cuddled on the couch and digested while watching a movie. Seriously, perfect day of vacation right there: Dates and relaxing.

Have a great Saturday!

<— Days off: would you rather relax or get stuff done?

<— Last movie you’ve seen in theatres? Plan on seeing Django?

WIAW #13–The Week of Holiday Meals.

So, this is a good week for me, food wise.

I had a class lunch on Monday, I have another one today, and a Christmas party on Friday night, Clearly, I am eating well this week.

So this makes for an awesome WIAW!

Thanks for hosting Jenn! Believe me, there’s going to be a lot of fabulous eats going on this week.

So today’s WIAW is from Monday – my class is small (only six people) so one of my prof’s treated us to an Indian food buffet. I’m a huge Indian food fan, but I hadn’t it in about…5-6 months maybe? So I was excited that this was the plan.

Breakfast

Recycled picture because I forgot to take one in my sleep-induced haze, but you get the idea! Oats with 1 egg + splash of egg whites and peanut butter. I’m starting to love the peanut butter and egg combination…it sounds so weird in my head but tastes so good.

Yup – I’m still going with the ACV cocktail daily! It does seem to make a bit of a difference with my stomach (and it certainly doesn’t hurt) so I’m going to stick with it for now. I’ve gotten used to it enough that now it just tastes like I’m drinking watered-down apple juice with breakfast. Considering that I used to drink apple juice every morning as a kid, I’m not complaining!

And of course, nothing but love for my Advent Calendar.

Lunch

In the morning I had my final TA class of the semester. Minus a bit more marking to do, I’m done! I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it (Brescia (where I did my undergrad) is a small school, so I didn’t have a lot of experience with TAs. The ones I had at main campus, I never really made use of) but I enjoyed it a lot! I’m looking forward to start back up with a new group of students next semester.

Then it was off to Taal Fine Indian for lunch! I hadn’t been here before, but I had heard good things about it. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked in – it’s very much of an “off the beaten path” sort of location. But, the food left me pleasantly surprised!

Round one: A popadom, Mattar Pancer (peas and homemade cheese in a tomato and onion gravy), Chicken Vandaloo, Goat Curry, and Chili Chicken.

I’ve never tried goat before, and while it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t something I’d really go out of my way to eat again. Kinda tough/stringy. The chili chicken was fabulous though! It was more sweet than spicy…kinda like a Thai sweet chili sauce.

When the naan came out, I of course had to grab a piece. Naan is amazing!

Round 2:

Round 2: salad (hey, I got veggies in there somewhere), more chili chicken, and an onion bhaji. Seriously, I could have eaten that chili chicken all day.

I can’t go for a buffet and not have dessert:

The fruit is pretty self explanatory (I didn’t end up eating it, it was pretty flavourless) but I had absolutely no idea what the other things were. Fortunately because of Mr. Google, I think I’ve figured it out.

The one of the left: Gajar Ka Halwa – grated carrot, milk and water cooked with sugar, usually topped with almonds and pistachio. This was interesting – flavourwise, it reminded me of carrot cake. Not my favourite, but not bad.

The balls on the right: Gulab Jamun – a dough made from milk and flour, deep fried at a low temperature and put in a cardamom and rose water flavoured sugar syrup. Some versions use honey instead – I think this version did. Either way, thoroughly enjoyed.

It was a great lunch, and incredibly nice of my professor to treat us. I’ve already told Eric that we will definitely be going back to check out the dinner buffet one night!

I headed home to plug away at a paper for a couple hours before heading over to the gym. A handful of carrots for something to crunch on before I left:

Lesson that I learned Monday: if you’re going to eat Indian food for lunch, you should probably go to the gym beforehand. You know how if you eat garlic or something you can smell it in your sweat?

Same deal with curry. Sorry, fellow gym goers.

Snack

Lunch held me over pretty well, but I wanted something small to get me through the next 2 hours or so until dinner.

I couldn’t decide whether I wanted hummus or cream cheese on my rice cake, so I just split it. Best of both.

And cheesestring. Love!

I made friends with my foam roller and How I Met Your Mother – I’ve had the last couple episodes stored up for a while, and I’m slowly catching up.

So excited to see Joe Manganiello on this episode! I have a minor obsession with the guy.

Really, can you blame me?

Dinner

After eating a buffet lunch, I went with a simple dinner.

Chicken breast, baked sweet potato with butter and cinnamon, and green beans. Simply delicious.

With a Zevia on the side:

I went to Goodness Me! (the health food store in Brantford) last weekend and picked up a few things for me:

They had a sale on Zevia: 6 for $4.49. Expensive little things, but they’re so good! This was my first time trying the Black Cherry, and it definitely got my approval. I also grabbed two new Christmas-themed Stash teas – MerryMint and Christmas Eve. I’ve tried them both and they’re both tasty! The Christmas Eve has a sort of orange-y flavour to it…it’s interesting!

I’ve noticed flavoured Stevia extracts popping up everywhere, so I picked up a few of those as well – French Vanilla and Dark Chocolate. The french vanilla with either of the above two teas makes for an awesome combo.

Snack

The before bed snack:

Whipped cottage cheese and chocolate casein with a few drops of dark chocolate stevia, with Justin’s Vanilla Almond Butter (I’m desperately trying to conserve it but I’m definitely getting low!) and Panda Puffs.  Makes me happy!

And to wrap up this post:

Jenny’s Blogger Christmas Challenge, Day 5.

Honestly, I’ve been thinking about this all day and I can’t come out with anything. My family has always taken more of a “lots of small gift” approaches when it comes to Christmas. It always meant that we woke up with loads of Christmas presents under the tree! There’s a few nice gifts that stand out to me, but I can’t pick the absolute best. I love and appreciate them all! (Am I dancing around this question? Absolutely).

Happy Wednesday!

<— Do you like Indian food? Have you ever tried making it? I can buy a jar of sauce, but I’ve never tried making it from scratch. I should try it sometime!

<— Minor celebrity obsessions? Norman Reedus is up there too (Walking Dead fan!)