Taste of the Weekend

My weekend re-caps always seem to come just a little bit late. By now, last weekend is a distant memory, right?

I’m already counting down until the next one!

So here’s a generic question: how’s the weather where you are? We are supposed to get dumped on (meaning snow) and of course, everyone is all in a tizzy. When it comes to weather predictions, my motto is always: I’ll believe it when I see it. I’m not sure if it’s like this where you live, but here in Maryland, it seems like the weatherman calls for snow every single week. 9 times out of 10, it doesn’t happen. I’m not saying that it won’t this time, but let’s all just chill out a bit until it really does. I personally wouldn’t mind a snow day. The only thing that I get bummed out about is if it causes my group exercises classes to be canceled. I hate to miss those.

Time to rewind…

Last weekend was great! It started on Friday night with dinner at Great Sage with Greg and our friends Mic and Brie.

If you can’t tell, I like Great Sage. A LOT. I could eat there every single day, and probably would (or at least every week) if it was closer.

I excited about eating delicious food with good friends on Friday night, of course, but I think I was probably just as happy about the fact that I got to break in my new boots!

I don’t get to wear “real” clothes very often, which I’m totally okay with (wearing exercise clothes all day is pretty comfortable!). Anything that zips or buttons is what I call “dressing up.”

**

Saturday morning began with a cold hike.

Saturday is generally my rest day, since I don’t teach any classes and like to sleep in on that morning. But, it was nice to get some “active” rest that morning. We did find ourselves moving pretty fast though- just to stay warm!

Greg and I spent the rest of the day running errands and doing stuff around the house. We made a delicious dinner at home, which happened to be very orange and green!

(wild salmon & shrimp, broccoli, salad greens, sweet potato, tomato)

I enjoyed a delicious Pina Colada using these two ingredients:

I had to play with the ratio a bit (put too much almond milk in at first)- but I’d say it’s great with equal parts of both. We also rented the last Twilight movie. I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular, but I had to see how the series ended! It was cheesy, as predicted, but still enjoyable.

**

On Sunday morning, Greg shocked me by attending my Spinning class!

Greg took a Bodypump and Spinning class from me last month, but that’s the first time that’s happened in years! It was nice to have him there (and it was fun to kick his butt!).

Shortly after we got home from the gym, I prepared a delicious meal in the crockpot (to enjoy later that night).

More on that in a bit.

Greg and I had made plans to grab lunch with our friends Chris and Beth and see a movie after. I had been to Cafe Rio one time before, and wasn’t crazy about what I got. Since there’s a ton of options, I wanted to give it another chance. And I’m glad I did- this meal was delicious!

Greg got grilled steak tacos and I got a salad with grilled chicken, and we shared some chips and guacamole. They offer strawberry lemonade that is sweetened with stevia, which I tried. I was not a big fan of that.

After a delicious lunch, we went to see Jack the Giant Slayer. My first IMAX movie experience!

Yikes. IMAX tickets are expensive! Luckily I had a gift card. The movie was great- and definitely a good choice to see in 3D. It was weird to see the actor who plays Jack (Nicholas Hoult) all grown up though! As a kid, he starred in one of my very favorite movies of all time, About A Boy. I felt weird thinking that he’s grown up to be kind of … hot!

How I remember him:

I feel dirty now.

When we got back home from the movie, it was so nice to be greeted by the delicious smell of dinner cooking away in the crockpot. I had brought back an old recipe that I had created last fall and (for no good reason!) hadn’t made since!

I replaced the freekeh with green lentils, but everything else was the same. I used this inexpensive (but tasty!) wine that is always great to cook with:

I also added some kale into the soup right before eating it.

Oh man… this was so delicious, Greg and I were ooh-ing and ahh-ing over it the whole time we were eating it. I think I said this in the original post, but the butternut squash just melts right into the broth and it’s just.. heaven.

I have a bowl of it leftover that I’m saving for lunch today.

One more thing!

The winner of the Downtown Frederick Gift card is:

Alright, Courtney!

Send me an email at lauren@oatmealafterspinning.com, please!

Have a great Tuesday!

Tell me: have you seen any good movies lately? They don’t have to be new; I’m always on the lookout for something good!