It is so nice to have today off work. While it’s been a great weekend, it’s also been packed with activities, so I’m thankful to have today to catch up on house stuff and get in a long run. I finished watching another documentary on Netflix, Happy, and really enjoyed it.
It takes a look at many people in other cultures and compares their level of happiness while analyzing what makes them happy. Some of the major factors of happiness are physical activity, a sense of community, having more fun, and having a sense of purpose or positive impact of other lives. It looked at people living in poor slums that were happy because their jobs had purpose, they lived in a close community, and had simple lives. It’s a very interesting and positive documentary that was more engaging and entertaining than most sitcoms.
I’ve also been enjoying quiet mornings surfing the internet and sipping coffee with a relaxed lap dog.
So much better than rushing off to work at 7 AM.
Other than smoothies and salads, my eats have not been very raw the last few days. Hubby and I tried a new Vietnamese restaurant for lunch on a chilly day where I started with tofu spring rolls dipped in peanut sauce.
Then a veggie pho bowl that was almost too big to finish!
It was packed with mushrooms, baby corn, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, and green onions – tons of veggies for the price and much prettier than the greyish/brown meat pho bowls at other tables.
For a simple dinner at home, I coated steamed spaghetti squash in a fresh marinara sauce whipped up in the Vitamix and topped with Trader Joe’s Vegan Mozzarella shreds.
And I had a fast tempeh stir fry for another simple dinner at home using a mixture of grated ginger, tahini, tamari, and garlic for the stir fry sauce.
We also had a fabulous family gathering for my sister’s birthday with plenty vegan-friendly appetizers, including the Spiced Fudge Balls I threw together.
It was a family pizza part where my sister and her husband made large batches of pizza dough for everyone to create their own custom mini pizzas. And it was the first time I got to try Trader Joe’s Vegan Mozzarella shreds on an actual pizza.
I liberally sprinkled on the shreds over marinara sauce, then layered on peppers, olives, pineapple, artichoke hearts, and onions – how’s that for a crazy combo?
The vegan shreds look transparent after baking, but still had a nice gooey and stringy texture similar to traditional cheese and added a nice mozzarella flavor – so it gets a thumbs up from me for using on a vegan pizza.
Yesterday I attended a free 4-hour class on self-defense with a friend that was very interesting and scary. The instructor was a cop with a lot of experience in disturbing cases and the first half he discussed those and basic self-defense techniques. For the second part, we broke into groups and practiced moves to get out of certain situations. It was an awesome and informative class, but a little disturbing and scary at the same time. Still, it’s something every young women and parent of young children should attend for sure!
That sounds like a really interesting documentary. And I’ve always wanted to take a self-defense class!
It was a great class taught by a cop with years of experience and a lot of tips for parking lot safety, loading kids then groceries into the car, etc.
gosh all of that food looks incredible! and i too jsut bought that cheese to use this weekend. i agree lounging around trumps rushing to work at 7am :)
The vegan shreds are surprisingly good and I was impressed at how well they did on pizza. Agreed on the day off, but back to the grind today.
Thanks for the heads-up on that documentary, it sounds really interesting and I’d never heard of it.
Just curious, how universal is the MLK 3-day weekend where you are? Here it seems to be just government and non-profits who observe it, all private businesses still have to work.
It’s about the same here too, I work for a non-profit, but it seemed like not many got the day off.