My Dash to Denver

I wanted to share my weekend trip with all of you.

My fiance and I took a quick trip to Denver for the weekend to spend some much-needed time with family (I’m originally from there, which you may not have known!). I’ll show you a few of the eats that defined my trip!

I pack food to ease my anxieties. I packed Designer Whey protein powder (French Vanilla) and 2 GO packets (Tropical Orange), homemade Peanut Butter Banana Granola Bars, Quest bars (Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough – click the ad on the right sidebar to order! They’re amazing!), a Crunch bar (I like to add a new bar to spice things up), oats, L-Glutamine powder, and then I packed Stevia packets and a small jar with almond butter in it (a few Tbs…not enough to get in trouble over)!

When we got to my parents’ house in St. Louis (yes, we drove to St. Louis first to drop off the dogs and fly from there!), I cut and packed a bag full of celery and peppers and I prepared some overnight oats, which I have always taken for an airport breakfast.

Well, if you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that the TSA agent had something to prove, because he THREW AWAY MY BREAKFAST! I was shocked. And I had woken up at 4:00am to be at the airport, so I was in tears. And he told me that he “thought that they may be a jelly-like consistency” which isn’t ok. After I assured him that I’ve brought my overnight oats as breakfast before, and my fiance valiantly stepped in to defend my word, he seemed unsure… and threw them away! I was shocked. And thrown off completely. I like to have the assurance of the food I prepare…and they were perfectly prepared, nutritiously balanced and topped with a dollop of almond butter for traveling energy. Gone. I’m sure that somebody who travels with protein powder, almond butter, vitamins, and an excessively healthy, balanced breakfast looks quite threatening…

I had to replace them with breakfast in the airport. I resorted to Starbucks oatmeal. Normally that would be ok, but the employees didn’t fill the container with hot water (it was tepid) so it never absorbed. I added my protein powder, stevia, cinnamon from the coffee bar, and almond butter, wiped my tears away, drank my oat soup, and boarded the plane.

 

No airplane peanuts this time! There was a passenger with a peanut allergy apparently  so they only passed out pretzels. Because I don’t eat gluten and am watching the carbs, the snack wasn’t for me. But that’s ok.

 

When we got to my aunt and uncle’s house, it was still only 8:30, so we made second breakfast to wipe away the memories of first breakfast. I had egg white with veggies and a whole egg. Perfect.

My aunt is extremely health-conscious, so her fridge and pantry looked just like mine from home! It was a relief and I was able to find and make anything I would normally eat at home. It made the trip a lot less worrisome and I relaxed the entire time I was there! I didn’t even need to sneak downstairs for a protein shake because I felt truly satisfied with all of the food that was available to me all weekend!

I had a variety of teas and coffees available to me too! Yum!

Friday evening, Steve had the best idea and took me to a Whole Foods that was down the street so I could look at all of the things they have! He knows me so well. I was so excited because their Whole Foods was so much bigger than ours at home, and because there are SO many Colorado products available, I was able to find my favorite brands in flavors that I can’t get back home!

Just one square of this dark chocolate and I’m perfectly content. It is truly amazing!

I’ve never been able to find the Cocoa Goodness LOVE Grown Foods flavor or the special edition Gingerbread Love Crunch flavor in my stores! I grabbed up lots of Colorado products to pack in my bag.

And it wouldn’t be Colorado without snow! It dumped 10” on us on Saturday. So crazy. And it had been so nice the week before we visited…of course.

Saturday afternoon I was relaxed and made this wonderful salad for lunch! It was packed with lots of veggies and protein and was just perfect.

I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of it, but my Aunt and I baked bread together. She’s an amazing bread baker. We made a feta-dill-sundried tomato bread that made the house smell heavenly!

We talked all morning long. We talked about everything from finances and life plans to food and our relationship with our healthy habits. It was so enlightening and really reassuring. Just what I needed. We also talked wedding plans, of course!

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at my grandparents’ house. We had a wonderful healthy dinner.

My grandma made the chicken and I made the sides! She also baked some amazingly crispy potatoes (not pictured).

Our quick trip was over far too soon. We woke up at the crack of dawn and were off to the airport to fly back to St. Louis. I found a coffee at the airport and brought my oats in a container, not prepared this time (learned my lesson – I brought the oats, already seasoned with cinnamon, Stevia, and maple extract). A very friendly coffee-shop employee gave me hot water for my oats for free. I added cinnamon, Designer Whey French Vanilla powder, and almond butter. I enjoyed my Caribou Coffee too.

Once we were there we had to get our puppies and head back to Memphis.

Once we got home and unpacked, I was able to open my mail from the weekend. Awaiting me was a lovely gift from my friend Lindsay. I was so excited that I practically was in tears. My trip was very emotionally draining (leaving family is always so hard for me) and having this waiting for me at home was just what I needed (I had never tried the Chocolate Nuttzo before and am elated that I own a jar now!).

I hope you enjoyed the pictures from my trip!