Finally the Weekend

The long weekend in finally here, woohoo! I am celebrating after this week, it was insane at work with project stress and co-worker drama. The last two days have been a blur here with Valentine’s Day fun and work, but here we go! I finally set up a YouTube profile with a whopping one video so far. And it’s not a great one shot from my phone with bad lighting, sorry. But this is the toy dance Miko does when he wants us to throw his toy.

And he’s always full of energy when I get home from work ready for an hour or two of toy throwing.

I started Valentine’s Day with a huge chocolate banana smoothie for breakfast.

It’s packed with frozen banana, raw cacao powder, Garden or Life’s Vanilla Raw Protein, spinach, and a couple of carrots.

For lunch I mixed two small servings of salad leftovers and topped with nutritional yeast, yum.

And when I got back to work, these gorgeous roses were waiting for me thanks to hubby. And I was thankful because they smelled a lot better than nearby co-workers and brightened my cube nicely.

For dinner, I made surprise reservations at hubby’s favorite restaurant, The Chef’s Table. It’s a fun little place where the head chef prepares fast meals in the center of a bar with dining tables stuffed around the bar and you can either sit at the bar and watch the action, or sit at a table. Because the place is so small, reservations have to be made about a month in advance for holidays, thank goodness for OpenTable: Sacramento Restaurants. But the small menu rarely has a lot of vegan friendly options, there was even a bacon brownie on the menu this time – ugh! Luckily they never have a problem creating something custom for me that’s usually a sampler plate of vegan side dishes and/or a custom pasta dish. This time it was a tasty chilled spaghetti squash salad with a savory couscous side for a beautiful plate.

Since we went out for Valentine’s Day, I had every intention of staying home last night and making something cheap for dinner. But after another insane day at work, I just was not feeling inspired at all! So sweet hubby took me to a local sushi place, Kaizen, for a simple dinner that started with Sapporo beer.

And spicy edamame for an appetizer.

Then The Rabbit sushi roll that is probably one of the best vegan sushi rolls I have ever had.

It’s packed with greens, avocado, asparagus, and fried soy, served with a sweet soy dipping sauce. I usually avoid vegan sushi rolls because they’re so plain compared to the non-vegan versions – plain cucumber or avocado rolls with just rice. They’re not bad and way healthier, but not exciting. This roll is exciting with texture and flavor!

Now I’m ready for the weekend with an aggressive list of things to do – grocery shopping, another Goodwill drop off, a long run or two, and lots of cleaning and laundry to catch up on! Maybe a hike and some recipe inventing too. :-)