Happiness-Inducing Weekend.

Good morning! I hope your weekend was fabulous. If you were up late watching the Oscars last night…how was it? I can add missing award shows to my list of things I miss about cable (first and foremost: The Food Network. It has been way too long since I watched a random episode of Chopped).

Between school stress and a little bit of winter blues, I haven’t been feeling quite so cheery lately. So, this weekend my focus was making sure to incorporate a bunch of little things to make myself happy. Friday was pretty average – homework, gym, a meeting with my Thesis Supervisor,  and a chicken stirfry dinner. So, we’ll just get right to Saturday.

Saturday

After I did my grocery shopping for the week, I took some time to do a little bit of shopping for myself. My fruitless search for a new pair of jeans continues – apparently, I’m pretty picky. I’m planning on heading home to London for a weekend in a couple of weeks, so I’ll wait until then. I did manage to find myself a new workout top (which I shall get to in a few minutes) though!

And I did show myself some pampering on Saturday:

Mmm, manicure.

The nail salon a few blocks away does a decent manicure for $15 – I need to take advantage more often! Of course, the solitary princess nail was a must. I kind of live for the hand massages you get with manicures – I would seriously pay money just for that.

For lunch, I had to dig into some of my new grocery purchases, snack plate style:

baby carrots, crackers, hummus (x2 on the crackers and hummus), an egg + egg whites, and blueberries. Eaten while perusing this:

Any other Canadian girls (or boys) get excited when these fliers come out? From what I recall, they have a holiday edition, a blue menu (health-ified) and a summer one. PC actually has some great stuff, so I always like to see what they come out with. I did find out that they’ve started selling 0% plain Greek yogurt in the massive tubs…and I want to try those caramel yogurt smoothie bars.

Dinner

The best friend was supposed to come up for the night, but unfortunately, an issue with her car prevented that. I hate it when stuff like that happens! Eric and I still managed to have a good night though. I had absolutely no intention of cooking dinner, so Eric suggested Subway. Which happens to be right next to Yogurty’s…

Happiness.

I got my usual bread, cheese and toppings (whole wheat, swiss, lettuce, tomato, green peppers, cucumbers, black olives, pickles, banana peppers, honey mustard) but I got a ham and turkey instead of chicken. I know – that’s some craziness right there.

But clearly the froyo was the important part of the meal.

Tiramisu and chocolate truffle froyo with yogurt-covered raisins, mini M&M’s, ‘sparkling strawberry candy (I have no idea where the sparkling aspect came from, but they were tasty), sprinkles (obviously) and iced animal crackers (I NEED A BOX OF THESE. Ahem).

I didn’t want it melting on me while I ate dinner, so I threw it in the freezer for about an hour and a half. It was pretty much the best idea ever – usually when I get self-serve froyo, it’s half melted by the time I get to the bottom. This allowed the yogurt to firm up a bit, but not too long in the freezer that the toppings froze too. Such a small thing, but definitely happiness-inducing 

Another happiness-inducing moment? A few months ago, Eric told me that he had never seen The Lion King. UNACCEPTABLE.

So…that’s how we spent Saturday night. Cannot go wrong with a good Disney movie, amiright? And side note – why have I never realized that Matthew Broderick was adult Simba?!

Sunday

Sunday was a fairly typical Sunday – I got some homework done, updated my resume (right, I need to work this summer), and swiffered/vacuumed. I did get in a quick gym session wearing my new top though:

The pictures are not doing it justice (that, and the poor gym-bathroom lighting) – the thing is BRIGHT. Like, this bright:

Neon also induces happiness. And I love the back!

Dinner

Dinner just screamed of homey-ness and comfort food.

Roast beef and mashed potatoes with gravy (and gravy can go on the list of things that don’t photograph attractively…yikes) with steamed broccoli on the side. Mmm, comfort.

So while I didn’t do anything too ridiculous or out of the ordinary, I was still happy with my weekend. I’m starting to be more comfortable with the fact that I am a homebody – I don’t need to be going out and doing crazy things every weekend. If they become my time to treat myself, relax a bit, and get stuff done around the house, than that’s awesome. That being said, as soon as the weather has improved I have told the bestie that I will be in need of a bar-hopping night

Today is (somewhat) back to the grind for me – I don’t have class, but I have a list of work to get through and my TA class has their midterm today. Have a great one!

<— What were some happiness-inducing things about your weekend?

<— How do you usually spend your weekends – in or out and about?

I Promise I’m Not 65.

Lunch

When there are taco leftovers from dinner, there is a taco salad for lunch the next day.

Mixed greens, leftover chicken cooked in taco seasoning, frozen corn, salsa, a dollop of real sour cream and a sprinkling of crushed Food Should Taste Good Multigrain chips.

I had a small bowl of (dying) cherries on the side to bring a sweet component into my meal.

It was a beautiful day out today – warm and sunny but no humidity whatsoever. So Eric and I decided it was a good day for a dog walk.

In the neighbourhood where we currently live, we have a perfect 1 1/4 mile loop – perfect for walking Leon. He gets a good walk on, but it’s not so long that his short little legs get too tired.

(Kinda blurry, but so damn cute I couldn’t resist)

One thing I would love to get when Eric and I can afford one – a dog. I’m a huge dog person; more specifically, pugs. There are no words to describe how cute pugs are. It’s the whole “looks-like-they-ran-into-a-wall-and-flattened-their-faces” thing. Adorable. 🙂

Priorities

This afternoon, I focused a lot on the move. 

The practical part? I worked on what we have versus what we still need to buy/find/beg relatives for – that list is surprisingly long. Who knew you needed so much stuff for a kitchen?

Fortunately, we have most of the large furniture figured out – a bed, dressers, tv, ect. It’s just a lot of little stuff now.

And then I spent an hour or two researching restaurants in Brantford. Because clearly, my dinner options when I don’t feel like cooking and where we can go for dates is at the forefront of my mind. 🙂

I managed to pick out 20 (yes, 20) local restaurants that look good and that I want to try. That should last us a little while, don’t you think? 😉

Dinner

Friday night = pizza.

More specifically, a Hawaiian pizza I picked up at the market last weekend. My favourite kind of pizza is Hawaiian, no questions asked. Although, BBQ chicken can give it a run for its money.

And I love the crust – so thin it’s almost cracker-like. The best way for pizza to be, in my opinion.

I had 1/3 of the pizza with a big salad on the side.

Mixed greens, cucumber, bell pepper, feta and balsamic vinaigrette.

So simple but so tasty – and so many salads in the last few days! Yay nutrients!

We have plans to go out tomorrow night for a friend’s birthday, so tonight is definitely a relaxing night in. (I’m such an old lady, I can’t handle more than one exciting night in a row).

My plan for the next little while? Searching online for coupons on apartment stuff.

Yea, I might just be old.

Night!

<– Favourite kind of pizza?

<– Do you coupon at all? In Canada, we can’t “stack” coupons like you can in the States. If we could, I’d be all over it, Extreme Couponing style.