Weekend Fun

I decided to have a girls' game night so that my Mom could meet some of my friends

while she's in town for the winter (winter is over and my parents are going back to Minnesota soon - sad!)  I happened to find special gifts for each woman who was going to attend and I wrapped them up in recycled wrinkly grayish paper that had been used for things I recently purchased from eBay.  Then I added blue bows in different shades.  Perfect!

Pretty, but not too fancy, so it's still casual (like me).

I tried a new recipe - and I won't be making it again, although about half the pan got eaten, so it wasn't a waste.  Joel Fuhrman's sweet potato brownies.

The recipe was in one of his books I recently read (my favorite is "Eat To Live," though "The End Of Dieting" and "Super Immunity" are also fabulous!)

The brownies were tasty, but they tasted more like a sweet potato cake than like brownies.

I don't make brownies often, and when I do, I don't expect them to be a health food.

I can make delicious vegan gluten-free brownies for holidays or special occasions without trying to make them super foods.

I made some pasta and some veggies (my favorite mix is sweet potato chunks, zucchini chunks, red pepper, mushrooms, onions, and spinach all "fried" using veggie broth instead of oil) and put out marinara sauce so people could make pasta bowls if they wanted.

We had crackers (thanks to Sara)

and the pasta with veggies and sauce

and chocolate almond-butter fruit dip

with bananas and strawberries (thanks to Cindy)

and it was delicious!

The fruit dip was really good and I'll be making that again. 

On Saturday, we went to a movie (this amazing movie!!!)

and lunch with my parents.

Stephen didn't want us to go!

I made little snack bags because we were going to be in the movie over lunch time

and go to a late lunch/early dinner.

I make a mix of dried fruits (raisins and cranberries) with walnuts and chocolate chips

and put in a granola bar.

Can you believe the theater had spelled CAMERA wrong in HUGE LETTERS across the front of their building?!

I can't say enough about the movie!

It was inspiring and touching and uplifting.

It's already on my Amazon list.

The costumes are fantastic.

The acting is absolutely flawless.

Then we went to Joe's Farm Grill! 

Neither Greg nor I had been there before, so it was a fun thing to share with my parents.

The restaurant is in a neighborhood called Agritopia, which is pretty amazing.

It consists of single-family homes, apartments, and an assisted living facility all in the same area, surrounding working farm fields.

The market sells stuff from the farm.

Including dates!

Our food was very good.

I got the farm salad and sweet potato fries.

YUM!!!

 There's an amazing huge tree outside that needs supports.

Eeek!  Danger of scorpion stings!

It also has wires in the branches to keep things stable and safe.

The farm is right across the path and we saw lots of stuff growing.

When we got home, we were really tired because neither of us had slept very well the night before, so we were hoping to maybe take a nap but THIS CAT (Claude) knocked over Greg's nightstand, which had a glass top . . . 

so we had some cleaning to do.

Before we did, though, we appreciated the glass JUMPING and making cool little snappy noises as it broke apart yet more.

We watched it for about 15 minutes because it was fascinating!

Happy Friday!