Oatmeal with a sample size of Justin’s maple almond butter. Hands down, best nut butter ever!

The week turned not so healthy with lots of fun.

Euclid Hall’s delicious homemade pickles: spicy, hops, traditional bread and butter, and one I couldn’t figure out.

BolderBoulder 10K race!!

Film on the rocks @ Red Rocks amphitheater.

We also went go kart racing which was incredible. If it weren’t so hot in the racing suits, I would have pictures! Guf.

Invesco Field for a soccer game, Mexico vs New Zealand! awesome time!!!

This is Kevin’s little sister sampling Boulder Beer’s brews.

We also went off roading and I tried my hand at shooting clays. No animals, just sport.

And that’s my caramel apple I got in Estes Park when we couldn’t find an off roading path!! Delicious.

Now I’m back to normal eating and normal evening activities. Well, after a dinner and movie date with some girls tonight!

For the quesadilla:

• 1 orange bell pepper
• 1/4 yellow onion
• 2 whole grain tortillas
• black beans
• cheddar cheese3
• green salsa
• olive oil to cook peppers and onions
• cumin, cayenne, chili powder, garlic powder- all for the peppers and onions

(There was plenty of pepper and onion left over…and the rest of the beans.)

1. Saute the peppers and onion slices in some olive oil. Add the spices to taste and cook for an another minute until desired tenderness.

2. In another pan, heat 1 tortilla. I squished the black beans on the tortilla to make a chunky “refried” black bean base.

3. Top with cheeeeeesssseee.

4. Top with the tortilla # 2 and flip when the 1st tortilla gets crispy. Don’t worry, the cheese will melt once flipped.

5. Served with green salsa, a lot of green salsa…and the pepper/onion mix.

As fun as it will be, it’s time to get more work done.

Vegetable Curry

• 1/4 large yellow onion
• 1 orange bell pepper (I have been loving these recently!)
• 3 whole carrots chopped
• 1 sweet potato
• 1/2 head cauliflower
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2 T table cream (coconut milk would have been nice)
• 1.5 T garam masala
• 1 T yellow curry
• 1/2 t cayenne
• salt and black pepper

The onions were sauteed in a bit of olive oil and the other vegetables were slowly added to the saute as they were chopped. I did microwave chunks of the sweet potato because I knew they would take a long time to cook. I added the spices and thought a can of tomatoes would be nice. Everything was finished with the table cream and served over jasmine rice. Any aromatic rice would have been fine. Oh yes, it was simmered for about 20 minutes just until the vegetables were soft.

The star spices:

Washed down with lemon water, served out of one of my absolute favorite microbrews- AVERY!

It’s been rainy here which is odd for Colorado. There was a break in the rain for a few hours so I took Bailey for a walk. Isn’t she cute?

Yesterday, as a last minute decision, we decided to join Adam and Kim for a quick 5k run. The Flat Out 5k, a qualifier race for the BolderBoulder. The boys were trying to beat 20 minutes and my goal was to just finish under 30! I put in the ear phones and jogged comfortably while the rest if them took off!

At the end they served us beer and French fries! What a great way to start the day!

2 weeks till BolderBoulder!

Sometimes life gets so hectic that there’s only time to eat half of your meals! Wednesday was like that for me. I ended up grabbing both breakfast and lunch out from the same local cafe next to my office. I had half a breakfast burrito that was stuffed with roasted potatoes, eggs, and chilis. Lunch was a veggie sandwich that is in the picture above. Half the Sammy was consumed Wed. and the other half on Thursday.

Thursday I had more time to enjoy lunch. The first half was actually eaten while I was running around the office trying to get things done! With the extra time I finally got to dig into the greens which had a wonderful fresh and bright basil vinaigrette on it.

Cherries were eaten throughout the afternoon…

Calzone for dinner!!! Mine was stuffed with a ton of spinach, onions, and fresh mozzarella! I ate the whole thing so no leftovers here for a second meal!

One of the most delicious dinners! The crust was pizza dough that was not the beat for me but I like to think the pound of baby spinach inside helps up the nutrient content.

Happy Friday!

The spinach was bought at the farmers market at only $3 for a whole pound!

The tomato was also from the market. One tomato cost me more than all the spinach! Worth it for quality produce and a flavorful tomato. The basil was planted yesterday in pots in Kevin’s back yard. Dressed in a balsamic dressing. Plain balsamic vinegar would have been just as good.

Finally the potato salad was made with red boiling potatoes, parsley, celery, red onion, and mayo. I love the hearts of celery so I used a lot of the center stalks with the leaves.

Celery leftover from the Sunday cocktail!!

Time to move the potted herbs inside. It’s going to get chilly at night for the rest of the week.

The total trip is only about 3.25 miles but it took us nearly 2 hours round trip. It was honestly like walking up 18 inch stairs for over an hour. My legs were KILLING because I did tons of lunges on Saturday after my run and I literally just finished my soccer game. The views were totally worth it though.

This was our path. At this stopping point, someone pointed out a sign that made me think I was in Jurassic Park!

The view part way up…facing east towards the plains….

The goal destination was in sight!

Victory!
Eye level with the flatirons

Kevin and I from the top…

It was super windy and getting very cold! On the way down just a minute after this picture was taken it started to flurry! We have seen snow come down in EVERY month here in Colorado. Crazy. We hurried down not only because it was cold, but we had plans to hit the Back Country Pizzeria.

Raspberry and Asparagus Salad

• mixed greens
• red onion
• goat cheese
• croutons
• asparagus
• raspberry vinaigrette
• some weird herb thing somewhere….

LARGE pizza (half meaty and half veggie)

My side, the veggie side, was loaded with tomatoes, olives, green peppers, onions, red peppers, and there was supposed to be spinach! The last time we had this pizza was in Nederland (their sister restaurant is here) for Frozen Dead Guy Days. The slice there was literally loaded with toppings. This was still OK but lacking in the spinach department.

Nonetheless, it was deliciously fantastic!

Last Back Country Pizza experience can be seen here.

Linguini with Marinara and a Green & Purple Salad

(Yea yea, it’s white pasta. It’s ok once in awhile right?)

In the bowl:

• mixed greens (butter lettuce, purple leaf, green leaf)
• avocado
• green olives
• purple onion
• parmesan
• pepperoncini peppers
• oil and vinegar

The red onions were cut large and I was worried about them, but it was the sweetest red onion I’ve ever had and the buttery taste of the avocado really helped that too.

Back to grant reading!

Taco salad was up first:

• romaine
• tomato
• yellow bell pepper
• avocado
• corn
• a small bit of grated cheese
• corn
• salsa verde

Quinoa ‘Tabouleh’ style:

• quinoa
• cucumber
• yellow bell pepper
• scallions
• parsley
• chick peas
• fresh lemon juice
• olive oil

To cook quinoa, use 1 part quinoa to 1.5 parts water. Cook the quinoa just like rice until it’s nice and fluffy. Quinoa is one of the super grains that has all of the essential amino acids (meaning it’s a complete protein!). It’s nutty and has a small crunch to it. As it cooks it opens up just like a pop corn kernel. So good! It’s a very nice change from cous cous and other grains. I need to try the other more colorful varieties ASAP!!

Home sweet home! I made a last minute trip back home for the Easter weekend. So glad that I did. The weather was beautiful when we landed and I immediately went on a long walk with one of my best friends. Spring has started to come out and most of the trees were in full bloom! We missed the cherry blossoms by one week, but we still made it in time to see these beautiful flowers.

Easter morning I made my parents french toast! The weekend before, they visited some family friends down in Charlottesville, Virginia and brought home FRESH eggs from their own chickens!

These were whisked together with lots of milk, cinnamon, vanilla, and freshly ground nutmeg.

We soaked the texas toast (thick sliced bread) in the egg mixture and then threw it on the griddle. A few minutes on each side and they are done.

Maybe not the healthiest, but it was delicious! We had these with breakfast sausage and cantaloupe. You can really tell the difference between nice fresh eggs and the store bought eggs. I wonder what the nutritional difference between the eggs are.