movies

Dinner Was A Deal, But What An Expensive Nap

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Yesterday afternoon the Hubz declared that last night would be date night, and who am I to pass up on date night.  We decided to do dinner and a movie since we have been talking about going to the movies for weeks now and there was finally something that we both wanted to see.

How could I pass up a date with this hunk?

Since we are trying to be more frugal with our dining out we decided to use one of our Living Social deals to Asiana Noodle Shop, a favorite spot of ours where I usually get a giant bowl of noodle and vegetable soup that I could fit my whole head in.  Last night neither of us were in the mood for noodles so we flipped to the back of their extensive menu and decided to both get sushi.

Neil got the

Vegan Chirashi  
Shitake Mushroom, Sweet potato, Seaweed, Oshinko, Kampyo, Tofu, Yamagobo, Asparagus ,Wakame, Spinach, Avocado, Cucumber and Tofu skin

It was so delicious and came with a bowl of miso soup that he kindly shared with me.

I ordered the Union Maki which was so delicious and MASSIVE but don’t worry I had no trouble eating the whole thing, I even ate the salad on the side.  I was hoping that Asiana had a description of the roll on their online menu but they don’t seem to but basically it was filled with asparagus, fried tofu, cucumber and sesame peanut sauce rolled and topped with tofu skin and avocado- DELICIOUS!

After dinner we walked around, popped in Stone Soup for a vegan macaroon and then we were off to the movies to see Margin Call.


So this is when I proceeded to have the most expensive nap of my life.  The movie cost $9.25 (remember the good ol’days when movies were like $5?) well I made it about half way through and I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. The movie wasn’t bad or boring so much as just really slow and not that exciting.  I decided it just wasn’t a theater movie for me.  I would have done so much better watching it at home while multitasking.  The Hubz on the other hand really enjoyed the movie, he agreed that at times it was really slow moving but he really enjoyed all the character development.

Have you ever fallen asleep at the movies? 

Pumpkin Beers for Bourne

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Over the past few months Neil and I have been working on watching the Bourne Trilogy with our good friend Laura who is obsessed with  has all three of the movies. Since Neil and I had never seen any of the moveis we  decided to do a series of movie nights with drinks and dinner.

Saturday night we finally were able to get together to watch the final movie, The Bourne Ultimatum. We were going to just do popcorn and pumpkin beers but Neil and I ate a late lunch and then both ran so we were hungry for something more substantial than just popcorn. We decided to pick up a vegan pizza from Leonardo’sto have with our popcorn and beer. The pizza was super tasty but unfortunately my stomach didn’t agree, as good as it tasted I ended up with a stomachache by the end of the night due to all the soy cheese.

THE VEGAN SALVATION- Olive Oil Garlic Sauce, Vegan Soy Cheese, Fresh Chopped Spinach, Freshly Sliced Red Onions, White Mushrooms, Plum Tomatoes, Black Olives

Along with our movie, pizza and popcorn we also tasted a variety of Pumpkin beers. Below are the ones we tasted starting with my favorite to my least. Sorry Blue Moon you were awful.

Tasting Beer- Giving it a good sniff first

Now that we’ve finished the Bourne Trilogy we need to think of new movies to watch …hmmm any ideas?

What is your favorite pumpkin beer?

Dinner and A Movie: The Bourne Identity

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Last night started what I hope to be a tradition of dinner and a movie with our friend Laura.  We have been talking for months (years?) about watching the Bourne Trilogy because Laura is obsessed and neither Neil or I have seen them.  We finally made a dinner and a movie date and watched the first one last night.  Laura cooked spaghetti and provided the wine, I brought the salad and the Hubz brought the chocolate. We had a wonderful night of chatting, eating and movie watching. Now we have to set the date to watch the 2nd movie!

Laura Cooking Up a Storm

Salad with creamy pesto dressing

My Plate - YUM

 

Laura's Cat...this is as close to Neil as she would get- the he tried to touch her...not recommended

Giggles & Goggles

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Good Morning!! The Hubz and I had a busy night and I didn’t get to blog after we finished our shopping trip. So lets rewind to yesterdays lunch which was leftover spicy swiss chard & lentils over quinoa which I ate about half of and an apple which I forgot to take a picture of however I’m sure you all know what an apple looks like and if you don’t google “gala apple”.

After work I headed out to pick up a mothers day gift which I am not going to reveal here because my mom reads the blog- Hey Mom! I also picked up a few plants for our balcony garden and an Honest Tea.

After shopping I picked up the Hubz from work and we headed home for the early bird special (dinner at 4:30pm) before we spent the night running around doing errands and shopping. For dinner I whipped up soba noodles with sundried tomatoes, fennel, mushrooms & garlic with a tahini sauce.

Once we fueled up we did a marathon shopping trip; first stop Fleet Feet to shop for new running shoes for the Hubz.

It was pretty interesting to watch how the guy measured your foot to figure out the right pair of shoes. He brought our two pairs of shoes for the Hubz to try and then he watched him run in them to evaluate how they worked for him. It just happened that the first pair he recommended where the ones that worked the best too; pretty talented shoe fitter. It made me realize that I should probably get fitted for my own pair of shoes since mine just feel a little off and the fact that I have had them for over a year.

We went from shoe shopping to bathing suit and goggle shopping. Since the Hubz and I are going to get a membership at the YMCA we decided that we needed goggles for the pool and were in need of swimming suits rather than sitting by the pool, I may go in to get wet bathing suits. We had a great time trying on all of the different goggles at Dick’s and both found a pair that we liked. However we did not find new swim suits, they were all awful. I did end up finding one at Kohl’s and on sale- WIN!

After goggles came …compost? Yes we headed to pick up compost and potting soil for our garden plot and balcony gardens. After that we ran a few more errands and then came home for a late second dinner of sushi and beer (yes we let ourselves have the night off from the cleanse- more on this in up coming posts).

and we watched a movie (the Hubz picked).

It was really good however we still need to finish the movie because the old man the Hubz was falling asleep.

Now we are heading out to the Y and then the market and then breakfast and then our community garden work day. AHHH! Busy day!

What’s the most recent movie you have seen? How was it?

Weekend Wrap Up: Art Shows, Cooking and Movies

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The Hubz and I started off our weekend with a bagel and coffee from City Market and then headed to my G-Ma’s to visit, have lunch and then we headed to her art show.  Over the past 10 or so years my G-Ma has taken up painting and each year there is a seniors art show where she features her art work- check it out:

G-Ma's Art

G-Ma and Aunt Carol with G-Ma's Art

'rents and G-Ma art the art show

After spending the afternoon at G-Ma’s art show we headed to my parents house to visit with them before they head to warm, sunny Florida for 6 weeks *colour me jealous*. When we arrived we were greeted by this site:

The roof on the old barn at my parents house caved in last week due to the heavy, wet snow causing the entire barn to crumble.  It is a huge loss for them and sad to see.

We spent the remainder on the night relaxing, looking over old photos:

My G-Ma and Grandpa (Dad's parents)

I love looking back at old photos and checking out the fashion back then- don’t they look so classy? Whatever happened to nice dresses and suits?

For dinner I decided to try out some of the seitan that Upton’s Naturals sent me in one of the recipes from Appetite for Reduction for the Cookbook Club. I made the Caulipots and the Portabello Pepper Steak Stew – my first recipes from Appetite for Reduction and both I really liked and so did the ‘rents and Hubz.

The Portabello Pepper Steak Stew does not call for kale but my mom had some that needed to be used up so I added it to the stew and it was a great addition.  The stew was nice and peppery and the sauce was so tasty.  I have to say salt was the only thing that the recipe needed a little more of but that may have been do to the vegetable broth that I was using.  The Caulipots were good but I think I would try one of the variations that the cookbook includes because I really felt that there was a lack for flavor- again may have been partially due to the broth.  Overall though I liked both recipes an it is a good start to this months Cookbook Club.

Sunday we headed home early so that the Hubz and I could get some work done at home (on our computers).  We spent most of the day except when we headed out for groceries sitting on the couch enjoying leftover stew and caulipots as well as a few Oscar Best Picture nominated movies in preparation for our Oscar party next Sunday.  We watched:

Out of the four we watched Winter’s Bone was by far my favorite- the movie is not weighed down by A List celebrities and the acting and story is really amazing. I would recommend that everyone see this – it is really a powerful movie.  We still have to watch The King’s Speech, The Fighter, True Grit and Toy Story 3, however we are only planning to watch the first 3 and if we have time we will watch Toy Story 3 before Sunday.  So far my top three nominated films are Black Swan, Inception and Winter’s Bone. Which one is your favorite? Are you planning anything for the Oscars?