Hello, friends! I hope everyone had an awesome weekend. Ours was jam packed, but so much fun!
On Thursday, J and I met up with
Jasmine and her boyfriend to see
Hunger Games! Yes, that's right peeps, we got the glory of
Hunger Games a day before it opened in the USA {and with the time change, it's like the equivalent of two days.} It also turns out that bloggers are pretty cool in real life :) Being my first blate {blogger date}, I wasn't sure what to expect. However, Jasmine and Justin were so much fun and we'll definitely be seeing them again before we leave Oz.
Update: Since I started writing this post, I have, in fact, seen Jasmine again. Yay for blates!

I loved
The Hunger Games. What can I say? A five hour movie that included every detail from the book would've been amazing, but I was pretty darn happy with it. I loved, loved, LOVED The Capitol--it was exactly how I'd envisioned it. And Caesar Flickerman?
Brills!
Friday night, our good friend Scott had a musical debut with his band, Faithful Horizon. So we went to watch them rock out. We had a great time and enjoyed the music.
Saturday morning was
supposed to be an introductory scuba dive. However, it was cancelled by the dodgy company. So we went for a surf instead {no pictures, sadly.} Later that afternoon, we met up with a group of friends for a footy match {Australian Football League.}
The match was pretty boring, because The Giants are a brand-new team {this was their first game
ever} and they got slaughtered 100-37. Nevertheless, it was great seeing our friends and I'm really going to miss them when we leave!
In the past week, I also discovered a small, little, plain blog with writing that knocked my socks off. Anna went to Africa to volunteer, and met her son, Lucas. {
Read about it here.} It turned out to be the last time she ever saw him. {
Read more here.} Since discovering Anna's blog, there have been several posts with the most powerful writing. I'm impressed and inspired.
And lastly, my good blog friend Devon, from
The Mermaid Chronicles, is hosting a Meat-free Mondays Recipe link-up. As y'all know, I'm not much of a cook...but I
do appreciate discovering more vegetarian recipes!
Japanese Curried Veggies
Ingredients:
3 Potatoes
5 Carrots
1-2 Onions
1 can corn (baby corn preferred)
1 can mushrooms, whole
1 can bean sprouts
1 box Japanese curry
2 cups vegetable stock
note: this is totally different than Indian curry. Japanese or Asian curry can be purchased at grocery stores in California & Australia (confirmed) and, I suspect, pretty much everywhere else!
Step 1: Boil all veggies
Step 2: Drain veggies, add canned ingredients, curry, and vegetable stock
Step 3: Stir and simmer for approximately 10 minutes
I love making Japanese curry for a few reasons. My primary reason is convenience. I try to always keep 1 or 2 boxes of the curry in my cupboard. With that, I can make it with any veggies I happen to have. I've made it with water instead of veggie stock before, and it's just as good. So basically, I'm lazy and I like it when I don't have to make a special trip to the grocery store. Secondly, this recipe is really healthy! You get great flavor with zero oils.
The flavor is very rich, without being too spicy {although you can buy mild, medium, or hot.} In SoCal, there are Curry Houses that serve this style of curry, which is how we discovered it.
Enjoy!