Sandwich 202

Afternoon!

My renewed interest in food blogging has come about because I suddenly became aware of how much time I have been spending in the kitchen.  No complaining here, I love it.  But what I have also realized is that you don't have to go overboard to have a breakfast | lunch | dinner that is tasty, and that you can be proud of.

Corn Tortilla Sandwiches

For instance, I run home everyday to make lunch and let the pups out.  That leaves me about 20min to make something quick and eat it!  To top it off, we don't have a microwave, so I have had to say so-long to the Lean Cuisines and other frozen 3-minute "meals".  Strangely, I am really proud of not having a microwave, and kind of want to see how long we can go without breaking down and buying one.  It makes me feel like some sort of progressive, "getting back to my roots" Boulderite hippie.  But, in reality, we are just waiting to make one huge trip to Bed Bath & Beyond, for a microwave and many other things, because we struck gold and got a 20% off everything coupon, not just one item.  I know you are all jealous, and you can't have my coupon.

But being microwave-less has allowed me to become pretty crafty in the small amount of time I have.  My go-to is usually a turkey sandwich of some kind, but one day I ran out of bread.  After sulking about the fact that I might have to eat turkey and lettuce on a plate with yellow mustard drizzled over it, I found a sad looking package of corn tortillas and figured I would give those a try.  I'm glad I did, I ended up really liking it.  The tortillas are so light compared to bread and that left me feeling good after lunch.  Plus at 80 calories for two tortillas, I made them both and felt like I had 2 sandwiches for lunch :)

What's in it?

I'm not here to tell you how to make your sandwiches, so put whatever you want in it.  But I will tell you that in order for this to work, you need to heat up the tortillas somehow.  I don't mean to brag, but we don't have a microwave, so I heated them up in a pan for a couple of minutes.  I put yellow mustard, garlic-pepper turkey, mixed baby greens, sprouts, and avocado in mine - but any number of ingredients would work well.  Delish!

Getting up to speed...

It has been almost a year to the day since my last post, and I can't say I'm proud of that.  A lot has happened since last February, but that is no excuse for my absence!  I hope you will pick up with me where I left off...

We'll start with the updates.  In the last year, we have been very busy:

We travelled a lot.

I was in California twice, once for my step-brother's wedding, and once en route to Cabo San Lucas, which was amazing!  One of my oldest and best friends kicked major butt at her job and made the President's Club for her company (yeah!).  One of the perks of being her best friend was that she asked me to come along, and I was honored.

Heaven....I mean, Cabo.

Later that summer, Denny and I went to Michigan to visit his family.  It was my first time meeting them and they were great.  We also had some amazing Chinese food, unlike anything I had ever tasted before.

Sand Dunes at Lake Michigan

We played a lot.

The warm months were filled with lots of hiking, lots of camping, lots of riding bikes, lots of concerts, and lots of fun.  Summer is my favorite time of year and I enjoy it to the fullest when it comes around.  Now that don't live in Southern California, I can't waste a warm Colorado minute.

Summer hiking.

Beer Olympics

We kicked ass. 

Denny and I ran the Ragnar Relay in September.  Ragnar hosts relays all over the country and the one we participated in was a 200(ish) mile, 2 day RUNNING relay from Breckenridge to Vail to Aspen.  So, picture running in beautiful locations, at altitudes of up to 10,000ft, during all hours of the night and day (and then trying your hardest to party at the end but you are so exhausted that your party efforts can be described as anything but).  In all honesty, our team did very well for a bunch of first-timers (except for veteran Amy who coordinated EVERYTHING).  It was an unforgettable experience.  On another note, ask us if we'll do it again and you will get a very hesitant "Ummmmmm....??"  Make no mistake, we do not go walking around pretending that it was easy as pie!

The finish line!!!

We added to the family. 

After Ragnar, Denny locked eyes on a German Shephard pup and couldn't say no :)  He was thinking of getting a Golden Retriever around Christmas time, but fate intervened.  This boy is growing fast and is so very smart.  Although I have to admit that at the time I was not prepared to welcome a puppy, it has been fun seeing Winston grow up, and I have to admit I am attached.

Winston at 3 months.  He doesn't look like that anymore...

We moved.

  New dog, new house, why not?  We moved into a very cool neighborhood in Denver surrounded by some to-die-for restaurants (look forward to posts about those!).  We have already tried most of them, but our favorite indulgence is Little Man ice cream which is literally (and dangerously) right around the corner from our front door.  Salted.Orea.Ice.Cream.  That's all I have to say (besides "gym").  Needless to say, we need visitors, stat!

Little Man Ice Cream!

Nowadays, if you were to ask me what I'm up to I would probably say I'm STILL learning to snowboard (after 9 years which makes me sad), but mainly cooking and looking up recipes.  There is something about looking at food blogs, finding new recipes and spending time in the kitchen that is not only enjoyable, but almost therapeutic for me.  So, I want to latch onto that.  Look forward to more from Tasty.