Rocky Mountain High

...but not literally guys (ahem, unlike *some* family members).

My husband and I spent a long weekend in Denver to visit some good friends from college and attend my cousin's wedding. Even better- my in-laws agreed to watch all four kids.

Airport bathroom selfie- nice to not have any dipes or wipes in the tote. 

We stayed the first two nights at my friends' Amanda and Eric's house. SO much better than a hotel- look at that sweet guest basket!

On Friday we drove down to Colorado Springs to walk around Garden of the Gods. So pretty!

Pike's Peak is in the background. 

We briefly walked around Old Colorado City, just a few miles from the park. 

On Friday night my cousin, his fiancee, and his family threw a welcome reception at Breckenridge Brewery, which had awesome food. I'm not a huge beer girl but my husband was impressed. Of course I'm going to be the one to take a picture of the dessert table. 

Saturday morning we all went out to Urban Egg for breakfast. Colorado's culture is...earthy...so I ordered a green veggie juice. Then it was time for a drive up to Boulder!

Boulder is seriously charming and eclectic and Colorado-y.

It's wedding time!

I mean, who *wouldn't* say "I do" with this as the backdrop? The venue was The Manor House and it was so beautiful. I've never been to a wedding where cozy blankets were provided to sit fireside.

Ah, my husband, who continually lights up my world.

By all these pictures you'd think there was NO ACTUAL WEDDING OR GUESTS, ha, but I promise there was! I just snuck around during dinner to take some photos. Congratulations to JD and Lo and wow, phenomenal wedding!

Oh yeah, it went from 65 degrees and sunny to snow. Being a Minnesotan, I can't judge.

We had a great getaway and it was so nice to have time to catch up with friends and family. That being said, nothing compares to coming home and having your four year old want to hold hands on the ride home. 

Recipe Review

A few weeks ago I was gifted "True Roots" cookbook.

You KNOW you're curious what K. Cav's cooking for her crew. I'll be honest- not only did I used to watch Laguna Beach...and then The Hills- I was not a fan. She was so bratty and spoiled! I was SO much more mature at 20 years old.

Hrrrrrm...

...or not.

Now I follow her on Instagram and find her mom hustle admirable.

I picked Blueberry Cashew Bars as my first recipe to try. Now that I'm packing lunches for my four year old, I like to have a sweet type of snack for him. Plus both the boys are ravenous hangry beasts come around 4:30 afternoon.

The ingredients are straightforward, however I subbed chia seeds for hemp seeds, and used vanilla paste rather than dried vanilla. She does not say what size pan to use, so that's annoying. I used an 8x8 square pan and could've gone with a 11x7 instead.

The bars themselves come together fairly easily but you will need a food processor. Mine is pretty small so it took me two rounds of processing for each step (note to husband- larger Cuisinart for Christmas please!). I was skeptical about the texture- the bottom layer is very sticky, as it's pretty much cashew butter. Freezing it completely and then thawing for ~20 minutes helped me cut them into bars to package up.

I'll admit that as I was ordering the ingredients I was getting a little huffy at the cost- cashews and cashew butter and dried fruit are not cheap! But I did do the math and these end up around $1.30 per bar, so realistically that's not terrible. Plus, they do taste really good.

Her cookbook does not give nutrition information so I did the legwork here. I cut my 8x8 pan into 20 bars. Per bar: 220 calories, 19 grams carbs, 15 grams fat, 6 grams protein. These are very calorically dense, so be mindful of that because it'd be easy cut, then eat, a large bar.

Overall it's a recipe I will make again, but I'll experiment cutting back the cashews and cashew butter and adding some oats as a lower calorie but still high nutrient binder.

'Til then..let's go back. Back to the beginning. Back to when the Earth, the sun, the stars all aligned...

The C-word

Last weekend I attended the wedding of an old friend. Er, old as in she's plenty youthful, but we've been friends for a long time. NEITHER OF US HAVE WRINKLES, ok?

Mid-30s are hard.

Anyway, at the wedding I was seated next to a guy that I actually went to college with but didn't really know at the time. It was nice to connect and chat about our post college ventures. I love talking nutrition with people! At one point in our conversation, he asked a question that I get a lot:

So, are carbs really that bad for you?

Dude, I'm glad you asked! The answer is YES, and NO. Come again?

Carbs, aka carbohydrates, are an incredibly broad category. I hate to use the terms "good" and "bad" when talking foods so with patients I tend to use high-nutrient and low-nutrient. A low nutrient carbohydrate example would be a cookie. Even if it's a 100-calorie cookie, it's going to be primarily sugar and refined flour (ya grind up wheat, remove all the fiber and nutrients, then bleach it). No fiber, no vitamins, no minerals. Compare that with a high nutrient carbohydrate, such as an apple. Same 100-ish calories, but you get fiber, vitamin C, pectin, water, and yes, some naturally occurring carbohydrates in the form of fructose (fruit sugar). Eat too many cookies OR too many apples and your body will store those extra calories in the form of fat.

That being said, in my ten years in weight management, I've never encountered the person who overeats apples.

Carbohydrates are broken down into glucose. Your brain's primary source, and preferred source of fuel is glucose. Keto diet have you not feeling very sharp? It's the lack of carbs!

Current recommendations are for half of your calories consist of high nutrient carbohydrates. This certainly doesn't mean that I recommend everyone start counting calories and do extensive math on a daily basis (or if you're a MyFitnessPal-er, tracking your macros).

It is painfully cliche to say, but moderate everything. A huge plate full of white pasta? Not a great choice. A mindful size plate of whole grain pasta topped with lean chicken and a handful of spinach? Better!

Here's an idea- would it be helpful if I composed a list of what I consider to be high nutrient vs low nutrient foods? Let me know!

The Annual Schlep

I'll admit to being a total stereotypical girl who loves errrrrything fall. The decor, the sweaters, the scented candles, the pumpkin! YOU KNOW IT!

Go ahead and spit out that wee bit of barf that just came up...

...'cause here comes more cliche!

This past Saturday we took the four kids to the farm/orchard/pumpkin patch. I love this place (Knapton's, for Minnesotans) because it's so small-time. No hordes of people, no overcrowded rustic-y barn full of jams, no straw bale maze. That's right kids- you're here to WORK for your apples.

But first, an out-of-the-norm-breakfast of homemade cider donuts.

A whole fridge shelf full of Haralsons for us. Honeycrisps are for wimps. Crunchy tangy Haralsons are my fave (and they make the BEST applesauce).

Come Sunday afternoon, in addition to watching the Vikings fail to show up at the game, I dug out my garden tomatoes for a marinara partaaaaaay. You can see I'm not one to plant just one variety of tiny tomatoes- I have cherry, grape, gold, and chocolate all mixed in there.

Have you ever canned your own marinara? Canning sounds super scary because of the whole if-done-improperly-you-could-die thing, but why let that scare you?

Spit out that second round of teeny mouth barf. 

To ease your mind about the whole thing, here are some helpful recipes/websites/tutorials:

USDA Guide to home canning

Safely canning homemade marinara

Basil Garlic Tomato Sauce

Confession- I don't blanch my tomatoes. I just cook them with basil, roasted garlic, parsley, red wine, salt, pepper, and a wee bit of sugar. I then use my immersion blender to puree, and simmer until it's thick enough. I don't mind seeds in my sauce!

My four bags of frozen 'matos yielded 6 quarts of sauce. So...who wants some Haralsons with a side of marinara?

On strike #2

You guys, trying to make GG crackers might be the blogger death of me.

Okay maybe I'm a little dramatic. I've had two fails so far, so maybe I need to play by baseball rules and go for third before I officially quit.

After a week of 80 and 90 degree temperatures, yesterday's cool rain was so nice.

Exactly how nice, you ask? NICE ENOUGH FOR A FALL SCENTED CANDLE, BABY!

I'm so basic- you already kno-ow!

Yesterday while my awful crackers were baking, I busted out the construction paper so my oldest and I could make some Halloween decorations.

"Hey Mom, will you make an exit sign for the trick or treaters?"

"NOOOOOO! Not like THAAAAAT! Like a road one!"

Yep.

Those spooky spiderwebs on the bottom of the door? Authentic! I'm not paying for fake spiderwebbing.

I'm throwing a repost at you today since those crackers didn't turn out. I'M NOT BITTER, I swear. Tonight's dinner is one of our cool weather staples- chili. Chillllllaaaaaaayyyyyy! We eat it probably every 10 days. It's been years since I posted it but every time I bring it to an event or work potluck, it gets great feedback. So, get your fall candle/Frankenstein/witch pumpkin/Exit sign on and check it out.

Slow Cooker Chili
-1 lb extra lean ground beef
-1 large yellow onion, diced
-1 can pumpkin puree
-2 cans mild chili beans
-2 cans petite diced tomatoes with chiles (like Ro-Tel)
-1 teaspoon salt
-1 teaspoon pepper
-1 teaspoon dried parsley
-1/2 teaspoon onion powder
-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
-Dash of hot sauce (if you want it mild, omit- if you want medium heat, go for a tablespoon)
-2 cans hot water

In a large saute pan over medium high heat, cook ground beef + diced onions until beef is no longer pink. Pour into slow cooker and add all the rest of the ingredients. Stir to combine. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

The pumpkin- yes, weird ingredient, huh? But trust me- it adds a creamy smooth texture and a huge amount of vitamin A without making it taste like pumpkin. No one has ever been able to guess it's in there.

Okay, my oven is calling...hope I won't be calling strike 3 next time you hear from me!

Big Yellow Taxi

Every day while the three youngest take their afternoon naps, I get one-on-one time with my 4 year old. Usually this consists of me pushing him on the swing until my wrists hurt, but today went in a different direction.

"Hey Mom, can we play taxi outside?"

Yes, yes we can.

He was so thrilled with his taxi that he asked for more signs.

"I'm like a TAXI DINOSAUR!"

He requested even more taxi signs but I (white) lied and said we were out of yellow paper.

I suppose if I were any kind of Gen-Yer parent I would've insisted we play Uber instead.

In other DIY fun, I did something today that I can't believe I'd never done before. Part of this whole being-on-a-budget/spending-wisely thing is I've cut out my Mrs. Meyers addiction. LOVE their dish soaps, but I can't justify spending $4 a bottle given how quickly we go through it. Buuuuuuut a thought occurred to me- could I make my own?

Scented Dish Soap
-1 bottle Seventh Generation unscented dish soap (I used 25 oz)
~15 drops essential oil of your choice (I used grapefruit)

I poured the dish soap in a large bowl, which was stupid. I should've just poured it into my four cup Pyrex but apparently I don't do math anymore (4 cups = 32 oz = plenty big for a 25 oz bottle, haha). Pour it back into the original bottle and there ya go!

Some essential oils are expensive, but most are around $5-6. A one ounce bottle yields ~500 drops (at least according to Google...again...the math...). The Seventh Generation at my grocery store was $2.60. It truly is cheaper to be making my own. Some other oils I'd like to try sometime would be orange oil + clove oil, pine oil, lemon oil + lime oil, and rosemary oil.

A thrifty but fun day here all-around!