fuh-reeeezing

It was COLD today.  Growing up in Cleveland, OH I am used to chilly/windy/snowy winters.  However, after living in Charlotte, NC for 3 years, it is hard to get used to cold winters again!  I saw my car temp. at –1* tonight…eek!

2 Random Things!

1] You can now vote for your favorite POM blogger recipe from the contest they are holding.  I submitted the POM pOp Granola Bars, which come up on the first page.  Go and vote for your favorite recipe!!  Most of them sound reallllly yummy!!!

2] Tomorrow around lunchtime I am going to visit the Rush Naturally Enlightened store in Boulder.  I was contacted by the VP of this pretty new company, to come check out the store and sample away.  I am realllly excited because I love what their company is about and how focused they are on the quality of their product.  Full report on the next post!!

Remember how Kenna ate my cute brown hat yesterday? [grrrr!] Well we put it on Dakota and the photo was pretty funny…  Dakota is a super loving, cuddly dog, but is also really weird.  If you put anything on her…ie: hat/shirt/gym shorts/blanket/etc. she freezes.  I know what you’re asking…why do we put goofy things on her??  If you have a dog you know the answer…it’s basically out of boredom?  Poor Dakota always looks so sad though [even when we’re not putting things on her].  She doesn’t even try to remove the things we put on her.

“I don’t know why Kenna ate the hat and now I don’t know why it’s on my head”

Exhibit B, from September.  We put a robe on all 3 dogs to test which one would escape the quickest.  Dakota failed!  But look at how cute she is!! hehe

 

*no animals were hurt or mistreated while conducting this experiment ;) 

Back to foooood: There is nothing better than a warm bowl of oats + a cup of coffee to warm you up in the morning!!  If you forget what this looks like visit yesterday’s post ;)

Ooops, I forgot I actually had hot cocoa this AM, not coffee!! Aaaand it exploded in the microwave a bit, hehe

Check out the steam…mmmm – I make my hot cocoa with milk + organic dagoba cocoa powder

Explosion!!! And yet, still delicious!

 

Chris and I planned to go snowboarding today, so I was getting lunch ready right after breakfast. 

The clementine was consumed on the drive up and we each had 2 bites of the mini samich [almond butter + strawberry jelly] after boarding.  I bought mini buns from GHBC and they were delicious!  Love the mini size.  Snowboarding was short lived because it was bone chilling coooolllldddd outside.  I actually got a brain freeze coming down the mountain!  That has never happened before.  We went on 2 runs and said “enough!” 

We ended up having a really fun day driving around the ski towns, stopping in Breckenridge village for a wine tasting and then going to eat at the Dam Brewery…and their food was DAM good!

[point n shooot time]

Wine tasting – 3 wines for $5 – It warmed me right up and left me buzzin’

They make their own wine, and the 3 I had were just “meh.”  The last that I tried was a Chocolate Port, which she said was a dessert wine.  It was suuuper sweet and over 17% alcohol.  I could not have had more than 1 glass because of the sweetness.  The little sample was enough.  They also had chocolates filled with the chocolate port and a layer of crunchy sugar around the liquid on the inside.  It was soo good and awesome texture/flavor contrast!

I had the Rojo Grande – 6/10

Blackberry Pinot Noir – 1/10 – literally tasted like cough syrup

Chocolate Port – 5/10 – too sweet

Sleeeepy eyes!

Super fun :)

Dam Brewery time!!!  I had a bowl of buffalo chili and a side Mediterranean salad.   Chris had the chili in a bread bowl and I thought it was funny that it came with a steak knife to cut the bread!

The chili was so so good.  The buffalo was left in nice large chunks and not ground to smithereens.  It was spicy!!! My side salad was amazing + super fresh.  The dressing was a champagne vin. that rocked and the lettuce was all organic. 

I can definitely tell when a place uses quality lettuce.  It doesn’t have a weird dryness that you can tell has been sprayed with preservatives.  I could eat this salad everyday.  The feta on it was awesome and the cucumber was in long straw-like pieces.  Not sure what kind of tool was used to cut them, but I approve! 

The crackers were oh, so, good…full of crunch and texture!

I made some delicious mexican-style sloppy joe’s tonight that were delicious.  I just had a little taste though because I met Laura at a sweet gym in Boulder [Movement] for a late-night sweat session.  We bouldered for about 1 hr and hit up an elliptical-type machine that I really liked.  Before I left I chugged a green monster.  It was much better than yesterday’s fail!

• 3c. spinach
• 1 container strawberries n’ cream Wallaby yogurt
• 1 apple
• 1/3c. almond milk
• ice

I kept it simple because I was in a hurry but needed some energy!  It was actually really apple-ey and pretty tasty.  Check out how GREEN this one was! 

When I came home I ate the veggies that I packed for lunch and toasted an english muffin with 1 egg and a sprinkle of asiago cheese.  Delish! Perfect post-workout light dinner!

I had another mug of hot cocoa tonight!  This one I used unsweetened almond milk + cocoa…mmmm good!  It warmed me right up!

Before I forget…last night’s dinner!  When I saw this recipe on 101 cookbooks I knew it sounded like a winner!!!

Delicious + suuuuuuper easy Curry recipe!  What I changed:

• left out the tempeh
• doubled the sauce recipe and used 2.5lbs potatoes
• stirred in 1, 5oz container of spinach to the sauce until wilted, before adding the potatoes in
• once I added the potatoes I poked a fork in most of them and sstirred so they would absorb some of the sauce
• cut up and added some Paneer cheese [usually in Indian vegetarian dishes]

This sauce was so.so.so.good!!!  I can’t get over how easy this was to make.  It would also be good with chickpeas instead of potatoes, and next time I would add in 2 containers of spinach.  It always disappears when cooked down! 

The cheese doesn’t have much of a flavor but just a nice milky taste/consistency.

I already want more!  Oh yeah, I also bought some 365 brand whole wheat naan at Whole Foods.  I dabbed it with a little butter and added the go to: garlic/parsley/salt seasoning and broiled away.  Holy moley it was crunchy and awesome for dipping in the sauce :)

Aaaand I’m hungry again, but it’s 12:45am so I think I’ll just brush my teeth and go to bed…

Gooooodnight bloggers!

~Ashley