Day 293–Social Media Blackout

I made the choice on Thursday night to try a fast from social media for the weekend.  No Twitter, no Facebook, and because I couldn’t figure out where blogging fell on the spectrum, no WordPress.  Closing TweetDeck was pretty easy, forgetting to blog was second nature, but I was shocked at how much Facebook has just become a reflex for me.  Not in a bad addictive way, but its just part of my routine.  I check my email, check ESPN, and check Facebook.  It’s been tough to get out of that habit, but well worth it.  Hopefully I’ll be able to keep it up and slowly pull away from using Facebook all the time.  Also, apologies to anyone trying to get ahold of me the last 3 days through Facebook. Whoops.

Breakfast–Apple Cinnamon Cheerios. The day started with such promise for the Broncos and Cowboys, so I decided to have a special breakfast.  Turned out that was the highlight of the day as far as sports was concerned…the pregame show.  Blech.

Lunch–Tokyo Joe’s.  We had to run some errands to replace Abby’s Halloween costume for work tomorrow, and while we were out and about I had the Tokyo Joe’s craving.  However, I decided to change things up on my order: BAD CALL.  I went with the steak instead of chicken…more expensive, less flavor.  Not a good trade off.

Dinner–Subway.  As annoying as the Five Dollar Footlong commercials are, its still a decent deal and we hadn’t taken advantage of it the entire month.  Footlong turkey on wheat with bacon, green pepper, cucumber, jalapeno, lettuce, and black pepper.  Good sandwich.

Dessert–We used our last gelato Groupon and I had Dulce de Leche (terrible), Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (eh), and Peanut Butter Chocolate (delicious!).  It was a good way to end the day.

Next weekend we head to Colorado Springs for a relaxing weekend at a B&B and then we start the countdown for our awesome Thanksgiving celebration!

Day 290–Roaring Fires and Snowy Hills

Lots of exciting goings-on here in Denver.  Yesterday we had 7 inches of snow in the city–I think up to a couple of feet in the mountains–and I had my first opportunity to substitute at Valor Christian School.  It’s always a good day when you wake up to a literal winter wonderland AND you make some money.  The colder weather has persisted through today so I decided to treat Abby to a little surprise when she got home with a fire in our fireplace!  Not going to lie…sitting in our apartment, listening to music, looking out the window at snow covered trees, and feeling the heat from a fire makes for an excellent Thursday.  It also makes me really excited about Thanksgiving and skiing in Keystone, but that’s gotta wait a month or so.

Last night we had the pleasure of introducing Abby’s fellow squinterns (name that show!) to Beau Jo’s pizza.  They were very impressed, and slightly peeved they hadn’t been there before. You snooze you lose.

As it stands right now in the Rangers game (3-3) I’m going to age 50 years and develop an ulcer before its over.  As long as its not another kidney stone, I think I’ll survive.

Breakfast–Chocolate Cheerios!  One more bowl…gotta save it for a special occasion.

Lunch–Ramen.  Yes, I had it on hand, but with the colder weather a nice spicy soup sounded delicious. And it was.  Oriental ramen with Sriracha, soy sauce, sliced mushrooms and a cran-raspberry sparkling water (thank you Jordan Swim) made for a great meal.

Snack–Apple with Nutella.  I had to pick up some things for dinner from the store, and Nutella was on sale…it happens. Twice.

Dinner–Roasted stuffed poblanos.  Some of the leftover meat from our empanadas the other day, brown rice, and cumin-scented black beans stuffed inside roasted poblanos.  It was INCREDIBLE.  Making a big batch of meat/onion/jalapeno the other day was a brilliant choice, even if I kind of did it on accident.  Go me!

Dessert–Apple with Nutella.  Told you it happened twice.

Go Rangers, and may all the cardiologists and GI docs in Dallas have a blessed business day tomorrow.

Day 288–Empanadas

Well, it took us 70 days (how Biblical of us) but we’ve finally hit the moment we’ve anticipated/dreaded: winter’s coming.  Within the next 24 hours there’s supposed to be 8 inches of snow in Denver, as much as a foot in the mountains and surrounding areas.  In other words, this is about to get real.  Luckily, I planned for a couple of meals over the weekend so I didn’t have to get out in the muck to try to make dinner.  Go me!

Breakfast–Honey Nut Cheerios.  It’s funny…I just go through cycles where one thing sounds really good all the time.  Wafflewiches, Strawberry Fields, oatmeal, Cheerios…then one day I wake up and it just doesn’t have any appeal any more.  I guess that’s normal?

Lunch–Peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich with an apple and some ice cream.  Again, something about cold weather makes ice cream more appealing to me. Don’t know why.  Lots of questions in tonight’s blog…

Dinner–Homemade empanadas! I must say, mine were way better than Mi Casa’s in Breckenridge.  I browned up some ground beef, added a diced onion and jalapeno, and packed it into simple pie crust.  They were AMAZING.  I made a dipping sauce of Asian sweet chili sauce mixed with a little lime juice for acid, put cilantro-lime rice on the side, and I was happy as can be.  I wish I had made more (only made twelve and they were two bites apiece, so there was heavy reliance on the side dishes) but I only have one sheet pan and it would have required using another package of pie crust and blah blah blah I was lazy so it didn’t happen.  Now I know.

After dinner we got caught up on Castle and Supernatural, and tomorrow there’s a relatively important baseball game.  I’m afraid its going to make me a very agitated person…might not watch too much of it if it’s close.  Shout out to my sister’s new cat Mr. Biggs…stop playing with scissors you dumb cat.

Day 286–Breckenridge

This week on our worldly travels of Colorado (Coloradoly travels?) we went to Breckenridge.  Breck holds a special place in our hearts because its the only ski resort Abby had been to before we got married, and I had an amazing trip with a boatload of my friends over Christmas break our freshman year of college.  However…all of those things happened at least 8 years ago, so it took a while for us to get our bearings.  Two things that hadn’t changed: delicious Mexican food (I know! Weird right?) and beautiful scenery.  It’s been fun as we go farther into Autumn to see how things have changed, from the leaves turning colors to a dusting of snow, temperatures dropping ever-so-slightly, days getting ever-so-shorter…its a magical place.  I would be happy here for a good long while.

Once again, for pictures, check out Abby’s blog at sweatshirtsinaugust.wordpress.com.

Breakfast–Honey Nut Cheerios before the car ride. Also the healthiest thing I ate today. By a LOT.

Lunch–One of my fondest memories from growing up is coming to Keystone with my family, both for skiing and in the summer.  We would ski/walk around, enjoy the scenery, go shopping for a bit…and head to Breckenridge for one night of incredible Mexican food.  Mexican food (or I suppose Tex-Mex) outside of Texas and the Southwest can be a bit dicey.  Sometimes its good (Rick Bayless, Bobby Flay) and sometimes its incredibly sketchy (the state of Virginia). Mi Casa in Breck definitely falls on the good side.  The salsas (yep, plural. Tomatillo, fresco, and spicy) were amazing, and for an appetizer we tried pork empanadas.  Never had an empanada before…these were a bit doughy and the mango salsa lacked acid like a boss, but they weren’t bad.  I also had a spicy mango pork burrito (spicy pork, rice, lettuce, pico de gallo) that had the same sauce on it, but I was smart enough to ask for a lime wedge to liven it up a bit.  Made a huge difference…we were completely stuffed. Amazing meal.

Snack–There’s a crepes cart in Breckenridge now. Who knew?!  So we had a turtle sundae crepe (chocolate, caramel, pecans, and vanilla ice cream on the side) and I splurged a bit with a IBC Cream Soda.  Abby had a pumpkin spice latte, so it wasn’t too bad.

Dinner–On Friday night I made stew using my mom’s fantastic recipe. Yesterday we ate some of it, and tonight we finished it off.  I love recipes and meals that get better and better the longer they meld and mix…and this is one of them.  One bowl of stew with top sirloin chunks, carrots, potatoes and diced onions.  Thanks mom.

Dessert–A cup or so of Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia.  I love Cherry Garcia, and we walked a LOT the last couple of days…so I indulged. It happens.

Sorry again for the absence of blogging.  The Rangers and other various sports atrocities (Manchester United…blech) have stolen my ability to think correctly.  Here’s to a great World Series, a Cowboys win, and a wonderful end to October.

Day 281–The Lazy Blogger

Sorry I’ve been slacking off so much recently.  I don’t think about blogging until the end of the day, like today, and because I’m an hour behind everyone else by the time I post here its like 10:30 or 11 at night and no one reads it and then it gets lost in the shuffle of tweets and Facebook timelines and blah blah blah…I’m doing it tonight because I feel bad.  Tomorrow (and hopefully beyond) I’ll be better about getting it done early. Besides, you’re supposed to eat earlier in the day and maybe that’ll help motivate me, too.

Breakfast–Pumpkin chocolate chip bread.  It’s almost gone…sad days.

Lunch–Big lunch, because I went on a longish walk afterwards.  Peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich (using the heels of the bread loaf…I’m being economical) along with a Honeycrisp apple and some Oreos.  The Oreos were admittedly not a smart purchase, but Abby loves them. As do I.

Exercise–3.2 mile walk.  Fall in Colorado is AMAZING.  I kept wandering off the trail to take pictures of all the colors on the trees…beautiful.  And Matt Chandler is ridiculous…his sermons make those walks seem too short.  I might have to go for two tomorrow.

Dinner–Chicken and apple sausage, new potatoes, and onions all roasted together.  I had a small side salad with mine.  It was really REALLY good!  I parboiled the potatoes and onions in a stock/cayenne/ancho/garlic cooking liquid, then roasted them all to caramelized goodness.

Dessert–Ice cream. It was on sale at King Soopers (Colorado’s version of Krogers) and something about cold weather–we’re on a freeze advisory! Yay!–makes me want ice cream. Go figure.

So it wasn’t the healthiest day, but warm comfort food was necessary for the weather.  Tomorrow shall be better…I’m on my own all day. And oh yeah…

GO RANGERS! WORLD SERIES 2011!!!!

Day 278–Red Rocks

In the ongoing travels we take every weekend, this time we decided to keep it a little closer to home.  About twenty minutes from our apartment is Morrison, Colorado and, more importantly, Red Rocks Amphitheater.  It’s a massive park (something I didn’t know) with lots of trails and some incredible scenery (for pictures, check out Abby’s blog) but the real reason I wanted to go this weekend is that it’s the site of one of my favorite Dave Matthews’ live albums.  We plan on going back and hiking around when it gets a bit cooler–it was around 85 today–but it was a beautiful way to start the day.

After Red Rocks, we went to Idaho Springs to eat at Beau Jo’s.  Yes, there is a Beau Jo’s closer to our apartment, but this is the first one I ever had the pleasure of dining at, its the first one Abby ever ate at, AND its the one we went to on our honeymoon.  Unfortunately, the ice cream shop we also enjoyed on our honeymoon had gone under, so we saved ourselves some calories and just came home.  We checked out one of the antique shops in downtown and got Abby a hand-painted thimble, then came home to watch the Horns (eh) and the Rangers (so far, so GREAT).  Solid day, even though the eating is a little bit funny…and I keep getting food updates from my parents, who are in Maui, and it makes me hungry and jealous.  Love hearing about the trip though–Maui is a special place.

In other exciting news since my last post, we went to the David Crowder concert last night and it was INCREDIBLE.  Gungor absolutely rocked my face off and Crowder looked like he was having a blast, which always makes the concerts more fun.  Long show though…I’m getting old.  Also, my sister Jenna got a new cat, which hasn’t been named yet, but if you know her tell her to name him Nigel.  It’s gonna happen.

Breakfast–Pumpkin-chocolate chip bread.  Delicious. Its actually so good I can’t believe it came from a box, although I added eggs, oil, water, chocolate chips, and pumpkin to it so really its just a dry mix.  That’s not that shocking.

Lunch–Pacific Plantation pizza at Beau Jo’s and a plate of salad.  The pizza had smoked ham, red onion, green pepper, pineapple (don’t hate), pepperoni, Rocky Mountain honey and smoked mozzarella.  The salad was greens, mushrooms, some bacon crumbles, sunflower seeds, cucumber, and green pepper (no dressing) with a couple of crackers.  Wonderful.

Dinner–No dinner…not hungry, which is shocking after how little I ate for lunch (sarcasm! yay!).  I might eat an apple with some Nutella later.

So there you go…glad we could catch up like this.  And remember–vote Nigel.

Day 274–Day Off

Today I got a wonderful surprise…Abby got the afternoon off!  Granted, we spent that free time running errands and Abby took a nap, but its still better when she’s here.

We’re also watching the Rangers game, and I have a terrible feeling about this one…Michael Y0ung (regardless of what happens from this moment forward) has been horrendous and the rest of our lineup isn’t picking up the slack this time. I know things can change quickly–like Nellie Cruz going nuts–but it just feels…off. Hope I’m wrong. *Edit–As I’m typing this, Detroit hits another homer. Mmhmm.

Breakfast–Multigrain Cheerios. On to the next box of healthy goodness.

Lunch–Omelette with some leftovers.  Asparagus, zucchini, potato, taco meat, and two eggs.  Deliciousness.

Dinner–Roasted pork tenderloin, roasted green beans with garlic and orange zest, and couscous made with orange juice and chicken broth.  A fantastic meal, and it helped clear out some more leftovers! Economical + tasty = happy food times.

Dessert–Probably some chocolate of some sort…I’m on a huge chocolate kick.

Short post…not much to talk about.  I did finish the Mistborn series, and it was really good.  Fantastic story, but the writing left something to be desired; stunted vocabulary and a case of the Melvilles where Sanderson described everything in unnecessary detail over and over again, then crammed the plot into the last 5 pages. I really enjoyed the books though, and the fact that a new one comes out in a month makes me very pleased.  Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson…do it, if you’re into that stuff.

Day 273–Panini Press Chocolate Cake

Yep. You heard me.  Now you have to wait until the end to figure out what I’m talking about.

In other news, how ’bout that Nellie Cruz? Boomstick for the win!  Tense game, hard to watch without stressing myself out, but exciting ending…and I can confirm that Abby actually called it two pitches before it happened. I married a psychic.

On to the food, because let’s face it–that’s why everyone reads this thing anyways.

Breakfast–Honey Nut Cheerios. Polished off the box…held a brief memorial. Then I threw it away.

Lunch–Peanut butter and strawberry (curveball…although Nellie crushed that one too) jelly sandwich with spice rubbed bbq chips.  That, coupled with the awesomeness of the Daily Show, made lunch incredible.

Dinner–Taco salad, partially because it sounded great and partially because I had some salad and a pound of ground beef in the fridge.  Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put that together into a meal.  Add some sauteed onions and crushed jalapeno chips from Food Should Taste Good and you’ve got a solid meal on your hands!

Dessert–So I found this recipe on TasteSpotting.com that was a chocolate cake made on a panini press.  How, you say?  Using the secret weapon of a ramekin.  It’s a great cake recipe shrunken down for smaller portions (complete with chocolate “buttercream” icing) made using the two heated plates on a panini press or Foreman grill.  It worked PERFECTLY, although the original recipe was yellow cake (I added cocoa) and then some chocolate chips for a little creaminess inside.  The cake and icing were both delicious, took about 35 minutes to make total, and now we don’t have the temptation for another piece because its all gone. Boom(stick).

I have to admit, the sushi from last night left me stuffed, even until this morning, so it took a bit to get my appetite going.  It led to a strange internal debate: do I eat and keep my metabolism activated even if I’m not hungry, or should I skip the meal and only eat when hungry?  What’s your take, dear readers?

Day 272–Boulder

Or Bouldah, if you’re from Boston.

This morning we got up, got ready, and got our tails to Boulder, Colorado–home of Colorado University and one of the better people watching sites in the world.  Seriously, Boulder=bizarre.  It is a beautiful place however, and we enjoyed one of the local sights by making the drive up to Boulder Falls.  It’s a brief (like, 30 yards) hike off the highway, but it was a really cool place with a gorgeous waterfall in the middle of the canyon.  Here’s some photographic evidence:

Breakfast–Honey Nut Cheerios before the journey.

Lunch–Boulder Organic Pizzeria.  Just like I can’t really remember life before cell phones (except fairly vivid memories of getting in trouble for not calling my parents from friends’ houses when I arrived) or the internet, I’m not entirely sure how I functioned in society before Groupon and Living Social.  When we decided to go to Boulder, I pulled up Living Social, found a deal for a pizza place, and BOOM–discounted delicious food.  We had the Rome Plow pizza: proscuitto, Italian ham, finocchiona, and roasted peppers.  It was marvelous, except all of the pork products coupled with some shaved parmigiano reggiano left a very VERY salty aftertaste.  Thankfully, they had some Boylan’s Natural Soda on tap, so I was able to wash it all down with a very VERY sweet Black Cherry soda. Oh, and ice cream.  It was fantastic, and the entire bill came out to $1.58 (pre-tip of course…I didn’t shortchange her) which is quite a steal.

Dinner–All you can eat sushi!  We also had plans for dinner with Rachel and her boyfriend Marc (it was a full day!) so we had to plan our meals accordingly so we didn’t A) spend too much money or B) eat the same thing for two meals.  I couldn’t even begin to tell you what all I ate, except that there was some rice and pickled ginger and fish. And it was amazing. And NOT $1.58.

So there you go…another solid weekend in the books.  Next weekend will include David Crowder, Red Rocks, and the return of Cowboys football.  I have to admit, between the Rangers winning, the Giants, Eagles, and Texans losing, and the debut of Tim Tebow this season, it was a good sports weekend.  I’m glad the Longhorns and Cowboys didn’t play so they couldn’t screw it up. (What’s that? UT played? NOT FROM WHAT I SAW.)

Oh…and it snowed in parts of Denver, dropped below freezing, and dusted the mountains with beautiful powder. I love winter.

Day 270–Ravioli

Today was one of those gradient days, where everything starts out very badly and then gradually gets better and better.  I woke up this morning after having one of those dreams that ran like a horror movie…not one of the good ones, like the Shining or Exorcist, but the crappy ones like The Grudge Part 6 or whatever we’re on now.  So I woke up very disoriented and confused, and on top of all that it was only 15 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off, so even if I wanted to try to fall back asleep and take my chances with the Window of Doom (don’t ask) I didn’t have the chance.

After that, I got a pleasant surprise because Abby forgot the cupcakes we (she…I stirred. And frosted.) made last night for her work at home, so we got lunch together. THEN I found new episodes (new to me at least) of the Daily Show on our On Demand, and THEN (notice the bold for greater and increasing emphasis) I got the brilliant idea to make homemade ravioli for dinner. And it was delicious.  End it all off with Supernatural and the fact its the weekend, and not a bad Friday. On to the food.

Breakfast–Strawberry Eggo wafflewich with peanut butter. It was gooooood, and I was really tired of cereal.

Lunch–Chick Fila, for the first time since we moved. Hello, old friend.  I had a Spicy Chicken Sandwich and Fries with a lemonade.  Probably should have gotten fruit instead of fries, but at that point in the day I was planning on having seared ahi tuna on salad greens for dinner.  Clearly, things changed.

Snack–Kit Kat bar.  The Halloween commercials are kicking my willpower’s tail.

Dinner–Homemade(ish) sweet potato ravioli.  Roasted sweet potato, salt, pepper, brown sugar, cayenne pepper, olive oil, fried sage, and diced bacon mixed and put into wonton wrappers (that’s the secret friends…boom) alongside with some caramelized onions and asparagus.  It was AMAZING.  Next time, I’m adding some granny smith apple and a splash of vinegar…I failed on the acid part of things. Oh well. You learn.

Dessert–Leftover cupcakes. Probably.  I might be able to resist, but lets be honest…for the gradient to continue improving, there needs to be some cupcake action.

Tomorrow, winter smacks us in the face like the mountain people that we claim to be, and then Sunday we have Boulder to look forward to. Woo!