photo/dinner/cookie fail

All of my photos were very “meh” today.  I was kind of in a hurry all day and ate out twice [rarity].  With that said, today’s post “food” post is brief!  I had a ton going on today and will until I’m in Cleveland [wed.] so bear with these not-so-fabulous posts!  I will make up for it while I’m home with the fam :)

For breakfast I decided to mix 1/2 oat bran and 1/2 oatmeal.  It was thicker and super creamy and nice change of pace.  I added:

• rounded 1/3c. total mixed bran + oats
• ~1c. unswt. vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 banana
• chia sprinkles
• almond butter glob
• melted cocao bliss glob
• shaved coconut

They were good, but not the best.  Wasn’t feeling the coconut flavor today for some reason…

With a little bit of coffee…Breakfast gets me nice and warm in this cold weather!

After breakfast, Chris and I headed back to Denver, to check out a few of the places we were looking at renting.  Chris went on Saturday to check them out, but since I was babysitting I didn’t get the chance to see them.  We saw a duplex that was nice enough but somewhat pricey for what it was and we were SO glad we noticed the insanely loud dogs barking next door.  Obviously we have 2 dogs also, and they bark too, so we were thinking “will they just constantly bark back and forth??”  There was also a lack of storage and a tight fit for our couch in the living room too.  We decided against this place, especially because of the possible noise issue between the shared wall.

On the way to Denver, I had some pumpkin yogurt! mmm – I am craving a pumpkin green monster!!

We went to the 2nd place, which was much more desirable because it is a stand alone home and 2.5 blocks from Wash Park, a huge park in Denver.  It’s kind of like Denver’s Central Park.  It has a 2.6m running/biking loop, tons of grass, sports fields, 2 ponds, etc.  This place was a bit out of our price range so I asked if he was able to come down at all, and he did!  He came down to the price of the other 2 places we were looking at and this one blew the other ones away, no question.  There are 3 living spaces [living room, dining, reading/fireplace room], a nice size foyer, kitchen with enough storage and counters.  We actually have more storage than we need here, a first!  There is also an underground attached garage!  I took a few QUICK photos and will definitely share more once we are all moved in.  We are waaaay excited!!!  The negatives of this place are really maybe that it’s a bit run down, but really ALL of the places we saw were like that.  The upstairs bathroom tub is a bit small but all in all it was by far the best we saw.  We are only doing a 6mo lease for right now in case we both get jobs in Boulder [unlikely] because the commute would not be fun.  Hopefully we can stay in this place as long as we like it once we’re in!

SO SO glad that search is over!!

You can see the mountains from these windows :)  We’ll use this as a reading room and hopefully find some cheap comfy chairs on craigslist.  We’re also going to put our bar in here.  There is SO much natural light in this house!!

Looking from the previous room into the dining room, and then into the living room.

Living room.  I love all the glass french doors…fancy ;)

Hard to get a good photo of the kitch, but where Chris is the counter makes an L shape and then the little counter next to the store.  In Charlotte I had half of this counter space.  The appliances are kind of old but look to be in really good shape.  Past the kitchen is a mud-room FULL of light and there are steps from there that go to the backyard and then down to the basement and garage.

Can I tell you how excited I am about this room??  Those “U” shaped benches will hold all of my HUGE kitchen appliances and be a great spot for photographing with all the light!  I can have all the appliances out of their boxes and just carry them 3’ into the kitchen when needed… SU-weeeet!

The tub is pretty narrow, oh well.

Mountain view from master BR.

Looks kinda gross, but it’s just covered with mulch, leaves and weeds.  This will be perfect for: doggie play area, cornhole, garden planter boxes, our grill, etc. Yaaay

That is all for now…More when we’re all moved in.  Can’t wait!!  We’ll be moving right after Christmas.

We went to a restaurant [forget the name] on S. Pearl St. to grab lunch.  What an ADORable street!!  It reminded me of our little neighborhood in Charlotte [NoDa] but this was way nicer. 

I had a veggie pita, which was probably the best I’ve ever had, and the most amazing sweet potato chips.  I love how thin and crunchy they were.  Perfect lunch!  I ate half of the samich and ALL of the chips :) [I think my point n’ shoot is losing its spunk]

The bro-in-law, all decked out, haha.  Hilarious!

I met up with one of my best friends from Ohio State for dinner tonight, with her boyfriend.  She’s trying to get a job here in CO and I can’t wait!  We met up a East Moon Asian Bistro + Sushi, which I have eaten at once before.  It was just “okay” tonight but probably bad ordering on my part.  They either have the super plain/basic sushi rolls for about $5 or the more fancier rolls for about $11-15.  I didn’t want just 1 fancy roll because I wouldn’t be full.  Instead I got a bowl of won ton soup [$2], rice paper spring rolls [$5], and a shrimp/cuc/avoc roll [$5]. 

I only have a photo of the soup.  It was suuuuuuuper dark in the restaurant and the other photos weren’t worth showing!  Love the bowl.

I always spend more than I want to when going out for sushi, and I felt pretty gross after this meal.  I could have done without the spring rolls.  They weren’t fried, but were made with rice paper, had 2 shrimp on the inside and was filled with rice noodles.  The shrimp tasted a bit funky.  I got really full eating them but not in a good way.  Kind of like if you just at 2 cups of plain white rice.  I also wasn’t even really paying attention to the food because I was trying to catch up with Sarah.  Do you guys ever do that??  You just eat while talking and catching up and don’t even realize if you like what you’re eating??  BLaaah. 

Then, when I got home, I had the brilliant terrible idea to bake cookies.  I say bake and not make because I didn’t make them.  They are from Immaculate Baking Co. and are all natural pull-apart and bake cookies.  This type of product is not really my style, but they were on sale at WF and I figured they would be a quick tasty treat.  I got the caramel/pnut butter/chocolate variety.  The caramel was a huge mess and turned into glue on the pan.  I might be buying Natalie a new pan after tonight!

Since the cookies were so hard to scrape off they all look deformed, which I’m okay with I wasn’t impressed with the texture + flavor.  I would say 6/10?  Caramel in cookies is a genius idea though.  Maybe I can execute my own and be more successful.  What is it about warm cookies though!?  I just kept nibbling on crumbs as I was scraping away.  I was questioning “why” while I was doing it..but kept on snacking, and then my stomach said, “noooo mooore.”

They didn’t cook very well either.  Even if they would have scraped off the pan okay, they were completely flat and dead looking.  I probably wouldn’t buy these again….They do have many other varieties that are probably better because they don’t have the messy caramel.  Oh well, I learned.  I can’t wait to make molasses cookies with my dad when I’m home.  He makes them every year [since I can remember] and I always used to help and now whenever I’m coming home for the holidays I tell him to wait for me to make them!  They are an old Sherman family recipe :)

Tomorrow is a super hectic day!! 

Sleeeeep time…

~Ashley