This Week’s Small Pleasures #35

Today is the Super Bowl! And that’s a pretty big small pleasure in itself 🙂 We’re going to be having homemade sweet potato and black bean chili and lots of hard cider. This week I had 7 good small pleasures which is probably more than I’ll have next week since I’ll be at home all day Monday-Friday without a car, but who knows! Most of these small pleasures happen unexpectedly.

1. Morning peanut butter chocolate banana smoothie. I was craving something decadent for breakfast on Tuesday morning and came up with the perfect filling yet sweet and healthy smoothie.

Ingredients: 1 frozen banana, 1 tbsps peanut butter, 1 tbsps cacao powder, 1 tsp maca powder, 1/2 tbsps chia seeds, 1 tsp flaxseed meal, 1/4 cup rolled oats, and a little over 1 cup of almond milk, then topped with toasted unsweetened coconut. :p If there is not actual sugar in it, I think it totally counts as breakfast. I let the oats, chia and flax soak in the milk for at least 5 min, these three ingredients add protein and fiber which make the smoothie satiate hunger for a long time.

2. Homemade tahini dark hot chocolate. On Wednesday night my cravings consisted of dried chili mango and Bailey’s Irish cream on the rocks (not together.) Since I had neither of those I made myself a hot chocolate experiment with great success and I shall be sharing the recipe.

3. Feeling physically strong. I started Crossfit classes about 3 months ago and I haven’t been attending too often but I average about 3 times a week, and during the month of December I barely went but even though I have missed a ton of classes, this week I felt noticeably stronger and I also looked at myself in the mirror and felt like I looked stronger (I totally did that move where I put my arms up, closed my hands into a fist and flexed.) My endurance is also way better, my heart feels stronger. It feels really good. I truly believe that exercise is the best thing a human can do for its physical and mental health. The human body is meant for moving, not for sitting in a chair all day.

4. Receiving a handwritten postcard from Tokyo from two of my best friends that were travelling there!

5. Bailey’s Irish Cream. Remember my Tuesday craving? A couple days later I totally bought a mini single serve bottle of Bailey’s and enjoyed it at home over one ice cube and enjoyed it thoroughly.

6. Happy hour fish and chips by the Columbia River and a beautiful sunset. This was a spontaneous moment. We were running errands and I found a place online I’ve never heard of before, 25 minutes from where we were; a restaurant right on the marina by the Columbia river. It was very pleasant. It was a fancy restaurant but during happy hour we could get away with affording it 😉 Since they were out of my choice of beer, I was forced to order a $5 mimosa and it was lovely. I also learned that mimosas go surprisingly well with fish and chips.

7. Hosting afternoon tea for six. It was all gluten free and vegan to cater to all guests’ food restrictions. I made almond chocolate cookies, banana coconut cookies, cucumber tea sandwiches, floral peach tea, and blueberry tea. I also weirdly slept in that day and was running late in my errands, so I made everything and set up in just 1 hour!

See what others were happy about:
Weekly Small Pleasures #3 | Just Keep Swimming
My Weekly Small Pleasures #4 | Ethical Living
Weekly small pleasures #1 | The Healthy Secret Identity
Papaya Smoothie | Body Transformations
Weekly delights #4 | Follow me to…
A week of happiness #17 | travelling true north

Share your happiness!

I find that the small things that make us happy every day are easily forgotten.

This blog event is simply about remembering and sharing those small things that made you happy during the week; things that made you smile, made you laugh, made you do a happy dance, made your heart smile…

You can share in any format you like. For people to find your post, tag your post “Weekly Small Pleasures” and link to my most recent post for a pingback! You can also just share in the comments.

Read the full details, and see previous posts.