WEEKLY MENU 06.11.23
We’re beaming during the Weekly Menu 06.11.23 because National Smile Power Day is here~
National Power Smile Day happens on Thursday during the Weekly Menu 06.11.23, but practicing starts now. There are only three prescribed activities suggested, so we should be able to make this work:
National Today
- Smile The day is meant to smile. So, make it a point to pass on a smile to whoever you run into on the streets or at work or home. That will give the other person a morale boost, and urge them to pass it forward to someone else ahead.
- Use the smiley face emoji On this day, ensure that you use a smiley face emoji in every text that you send out. That will automatically help you send out a happy text rather than an angry or an unpleasant text. It helps you reduce stress and also boosts the confidence of the person you’re sending the text to.
- Perform random acts of kindness On this day, you can go ahead and do as many random acts of kindness as possible. That will invariably bring a smile to your face and also bring cheer to the people you’re doing the act of kindness for. It will help somewhat in making the world a better place to live.
Okay. I’ve got the smiley face emoji down.
And the crying laughing face emoji. The rolling on the floor emoji. And the hug emoji. I’ll admit it – I love a good emoji. (As an aside, my all time favorite emoji is the little ghost. So. Damn. Cute.)
And texting is the absolute perfect place to use emojis, so life is good. The smiley face was around for a fairly long time before texting was though – the yellow smiley face was created in 1963 by the late, great Harvey Ball. In an ever so slightly self-serving way, Harvey went on to create “World Smile Day” in 2000.
Texting started in 1984, but wasn’t widely used until 1999, when people started texting across various carrier networks. By 2000, texting became popular. Source
Originating on Japanese mobile phones in 1997, emoji became increasingly popular worldwide in the 2010s after being added to several mobile operating systems.[5][6][7] They are now considered to be a large part of popular culture in the West and around the world.[8][9]
Wikipedia
But emoji only really took off in the U.S. when Apple added an official emoji keyboard to iOS in 2011, and Android followed in their footsteps several years later. Today, they are so iconic that the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) acquired Kurita’s original Emoji set.
Collecteurs
Can we talk for a second about how cute the smiley face items are in general? (Affiliate links follow. See Disclaimer Page for Details.) I feel like I NEED the following in my life:
Lord there’s a lot of smileys!
The third item on the National Smile Power Day list doesn’t seem like much of a stretch. Random Acts of Kindness are something that I can get into – and they almost always make me feel better than they probably make the recipient. Win-win! My favorite thing is to buy for the person behind me in the drive thru lane. By the time they know they don’t have to pay, I’m already on my way. If you haven’t tried it yet, I highly recommend!
Smile! Might be a smidge tougher…
I’m getting better at the smiling thing, but I still don’t walk around with a grin on my face. When I was young and foolish, back in high school, college and beyond, I often had people (read guys) tell me to smile, specifically in social situations. Which, I have to tell you, is only slightly less annoying than having someone tell you to calm down.
Years later my condition got a name.
Resting B*tch Face.
What a relief to know what it was – and that I wasn’t alone! If I thought about it, I’d smile. Sometimes now I’ll even smile for no apparent reason. (Which is a little creepy.)
RBF has an upside: “The Look” is a piece of cake. As a Mom of three fairly rambunctious boys, that came in real handy. So I have that going for me. Which is nice.
I’ll work on the smile for Thursday. I can’t promise I’ll have an enormous grin going at all times, but I’ll try to honor the day. Give it your best too, ‘mkay?
Weekly Menu 06.11.23
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Sunday dinner is Pork Milanese, followed by a beautiful Italian Cream Cake Trifle. Yep. This was supposed to be dinner last Sunday night too. This is the third time the Pork Milanese is on the menu in as many weeks. The first week we got a better offer, and last week I had a nasty bout with a kidney stone. (The stone won.) So in the spirit of fairness, it’s coming back, baby. Third time is the charm, I’m sure.
Easy dinner on Monday – ravioli lasagna is a crazy simple dish that tastes even better than a fussy lasagna. Okay – probably not a professionally or Italian cook made lasagna, but much better than the ones I have made in the past. And way easier. No pre-cooking pasta here. Sauté some ground beef and layer it with ravioli, cheese and pasta sauce. You can absolutely use pepperoni in a pinch, and I bet that would be an awesome, no precooking idea.
Grilling chicken is an easy way to get taco Tuesday underway – and these ones have a Mexican Street Corn topper, so they’ll be creamy and crunchy in the best way.
On Thursday we’re going for the one pan meal – with Unstuffed Pepper Skillet Dinner. I love it when the entire meal comes together in one pan.
WEEKLY MENU 06.11.23
