This summer has been a crazy couple of months. We started off by moving into a new house at the end of April (I know, technically thats spring) and after spending most of May unpacking were looking forward to calm couple of months. Clearly that didn’t exactly pan out that way.
Being a law enforcement family we’re always on our toes so when Drew’s department needed some shift coverage over the summer he ended up working a ton throughout June. By the end of the month we’d barely seen each other so we both took a few days off to get out of town and just reconnect. With the mountains at our backdoor there are dozens of amazing places to for a weekend getaway.
We decided to head up i70 to one of Drew’s favorite towns and check into the newly opened Vail Doubletree for a long weekend. Located in West Vail, the Doubletree opened last spring providing the ideal getaway location just outside the hustle of the main Vail Village. I’m a huge Doubletree fan and if I’m totally honest with myself, the cookies were what originally got me hooked. Being able to pick a hotel that I know exactly what I can expect is a huge bonus for me.
The main lobby is a modern take on Colorado’s western heritage with a beautiful wood wall providing a backdrop to reception and a stunning gas fireplace as the centerpiece of the room. Shuffleboard and comfortable lounge chairs make the lobby ideal for catching up while driving a beer from Pivot62.
The rooms are just as relaxing, perfect for enjoying mountain air from your balcony (if your room is on the third floor). We stayed in a king room but also took a peek at one of the loft suites at the end of the hall. Available in either a 1 king or 2 king loft the two story suite accommodations would be ideal for a group or family ski trip.
Back on the first level a state of the art fitness center provides everything you need to stay in shape while traveling and a full laundry on-site for washing clothing muddy from hiking or drying ski gear before hitting the slopes the next day.
My favorite part of the hotel was definitely the pool. With live music in the afternoon and a saline pool and hot tub I knew exactly where I was going to be spending the rest of my weekend, cocktail in hand.
Our first night in town we headed into Vail Village for dinner and enjoyed wandering through the shops. Vail is incredibly walker friendly and the Doubletree provides a complimentary shuttle right into town so that there’s no need to worry about parking or finding a taxi back. With the chalet decor and architecture throughout town Vail is unique from other cities in Colorado and gives the feeling that you’ve been transported around the world to Switzerland instead of just driving up the highway from Denver.
We woke early on Sunday to head down to the attached Westside Cafe for breakfast before joining the crew at Charter Sports for a guided ride down Vail Pass. Charter Sports is located right in the lobby of the Doubletree so we didn’t have to go anywhere to get started on our day.
The last time I really road a bicycle was in college so I was a bit worried about how difficult this might actually be. After being fitted for the proper bike, we road the Charter Shuttle up to the Vail Pass Summit. By starting at the top of the pass, you don’t have all the heavy work as if biked the entire trail. Our guide Tom helped get us situated with some instructions and within minutes we were off.
Most of the trail is downhill but a few tricky parts really got my legs burning. There is no rush to get through the trail so throughout the ride we enjoyed water breaks and learned from Tom about the history of the area, places to watch for rock climbers during the winter and swung through the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens and Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater. Once in town we dismounted to walk through the farmers market and people watch along the way. Tom shared the right place to get back on the road and we were off up the trail towards the hotel.
The entire ride took approximately 3 hours and was the perfect amount of exercise for our weekend getaway. If you plan to bike Vail Pass I highly recommend going with a guide. There are so many things to stop and see along the way that would be hard to do without a local expert leading the trail.
After lunch back in town and a walk through the Vail Arts festival we went back to the hotel to enjoy massages at Simply Massage. Simply Massage is more massage therapist than spa, but don’t let that hold you back from this amazing experience. Both Drew and I agreed that these were some of the best massage’s we’ve ever had. My masseuse was incredibly knowledgeable and talked through some of the aches and pains I get from sitting in front of a computer for hours on end. She even shared some stretches I could do to help stay out of pain after my session was over. A sixty minute massage at Simply Massage was just $75, a price that can not be beat in the mountains.
There are several other mountain locations to choose from by I love that Simply Massage is so conveniently located right off the lobby. It was the perfect treat for recovering from the days ride. During the winter months there would be no better way to wrap up a day on the slopes.
Our plan was to head back home tomorrow, so after an afternoon nap we hit the town for dinner at the Mountain Standard. This gastropub has a small menu but each item is packed with a punch. Located just off the riverwalk the open patio allows you to enjoy the outdoors while dining inside. We wrapped up the evening by heading over to a music venue to enjoy drinks and live music before calling it a night.
It was past the last shuttle of the evening so we asked some locals the best way to get back to the Doubletree and they recommended snagging a ride on the free bus. We jumped on at the transit center and let the driver know where we wanted to depart so he could give us a heads up to our start. Vail’s bus system is entirely free and runs until 1:30am so there’s really no need to pay extra for a taxi unless you are staying off the beaten trail.
After one final night in the luxuriously comfortable Doubletree beds we were headed back to reality. The Vail Doubletree was the perfect mountain weekend getaway for us and I can’t wait to head back up during ski season!
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Disclaimer: I received a complimentary stay at the Doubletree Vail to inspire this post. All opinions are my own.
As someone who loves food, Whole30 is a real challenge for me. I’m a bit late to the party but after hearing from friends how the felt after completing Whole30, I figured there was no harm in seeing if I could make it work.
For those who don’t know, Whole30 is more of a lifestyle choice than a diet, but it does focus first and foremost on your food. The goal is to eliminate trigger foods that may be having a negative impact on your overall health and instead consume only clean foods. At the end of 30 days, you reintroduce each item and see if there’s a culprit making you fill yucky. Specifically that means no grains (including quinoa & rice), no dairy, no sugar, and no legumes (peanut butter, soy, beans, etc). Ultimately it means killing the crutch of being able to go out and grab something to eat when you don’t have anything planned for a meal.
I had initially decided to start on Thursday so I could shop on Wednesday and kick it all off with fresh groceries. That would have been a good idea.
Drew surprised me with an amazing date night for our anniversary on Tuesday, so despite not having done any prep I jumped right into Whole30 a day early. Ultimately that was a bit of a rough decision resulting in mostly feeling like I was starving all day since shockingly eating nothing but fruit and salad all day was not effective.
The key to staying full on Whole30 is eating large portions and making sure to consume healthy fats like avocados. I learned this after asking a girlfriend why I was starving – not trail and error.
My first shopping trip was enlightening and ultimately a lot more expensive than my usual grocery bill. By starting on the outside of the store it’s easy to stock up on fresh produce and meats. I picked up bell peppers, anaheim peppers, riced cauliflower, cilantro, salad mix, avocados, strawberries and blueberries.
In the meat department Whole30 ultimately recommends grass-fed organic meat but they know that’s not realistic for a lot of budgets so any solid steak, pork or chicken is a good meat. I grabbed a grass fed beef roast and had to go to Target for regular chicken breast because Sprouts was completely out.
After that, it was a bit tricky. I have a recipe post to work on that calls for sausage so I needed to find a sausage option that doesn’t have any of the non-compliant items like sugar or soy. You also aren’t allowed to have any of the chemically preservatives in most deli meats. After consulting with the meat counter who didn’t actually know any answers I just read packages until I found an appropriate solution – Applegate Chicken and Apple Sausage.
I also wanted to get some bacon and unfortunately in addition to a ton of preservatives most bacon also includes sugar. There were a few ‘no sugar options’ at Sprouts so I went with the one that was on sale, Niman Ranch, and picked up a couple packages.
Since I was officially starving, I didn’t think I was going to survive past cooking dinner so I picked up a Plain Sprouts Rotisserie Chicken. Most Rotisserie chickens ARE NOT Whole30 approved but thank goodness this is one of the few options that is. Typically Rotisserie chicken has butter injected directly into it as well as a ton of questionable seasonings [I’m looking at you Costco and your deliciousness].
Next up I needed to pick up a few other Whole30 friendly things to make cooking easier. While dairy is not allowed, gee or clarified butter is, so I picked up a $10 jar [pretend there is a shocked emoji here]. Most salad dressings also include sugar and a wide variety of not Whole30 nonsense so I scoured the shelves for an option that was acceptable. Ultimately I went with Primal Kitchen’s Italian Dressing. I needed mayo for one of the recipes I saved and mayo is yet another tricky condiment. You can definitely make mayo at home but since I needed a timesaver I just picked up Primal Kitchen’s instead. Unbeknown to me, Primal Kitchen actually has a Whole30 kit of everything you need. I might give that a shot when my Mayo is running low.
One of my recipes called for coconut yogurt to make a greek yogurt type sauce. After investigating all of the options at both Sprouts and Target it looks like the only way to get a Whole30 compliant yogurt is by making it yourself. We’ll see if that happens, in the meanwhile I’m just going to skip that part of the recipe.
The last thing I snagged was a few Larabars for when I am hungry and slammed for time. Larabars are one of few ‘protein’ bar companies that have Whole30 acceptable products. Just like everything else, you really need to pay attention to the labels because not everything is ok.
First shopping trip – approximately $125
I assume I won’t spend this much every time I go to the store since I added extra staples to the list but for my typical grocery spend, this was a lot higher. I also won’t be eating out so I’m confident that the food budget will balance itself out somewhere during the month.
With all that, I made it through day 1. I figure if I was able to achieve that much the rest should get easier from here out.
With some prep under my belt Day 2 was infinitely easier. I started off with hard boiled eggs for breakfast. A large salad with chicken for lunch and when I got home I used the Instant Pot to make shredded chicken for stuffed poblano peppers. Yes, cheese would have improved it, but overall it was fantastic the way it was.
Day 3 was when I realized there was no way I was eating enough food. After taking the advice of a friend I added half an avocado to my breakfast of hard boiled eggs and used the other half on my leftover stuffed peppers. For dinner I had the remaining excess filling from the pepper recipe with a big salad and a whole avocado. I felt 100 times better by the end of day 3 and wasn’t hungry.
That night I went back to the grocery store to get sweet potatoes, eggs and more avocados – total cost $15.
Today is day 4 and I had a baby shower to attend. Knowing that I probably wouldn’t be able to eat much at the shower I ate an extra big breakfast of sweet potato hash, bacon, eggs and an avocado. During the shower there was some fresh fruit to snack on, but I wasn’t hungry or tempted by any of the sweets or treats at the party. This evenings meal is another instant pot dish of barbacoa served on top of cilantro rice.
In these first few days, the hardest part has been having to turn down invites to go out to dinner (bc ultimately I wouldn’t want to eat just raw fish at sushi) and training myself to eat enough to not get hungry later. I’m happy that La Croix is completely Whole30 compliant so I still get a bit of a treat when I want it and otherwise am feeling good about moving forward.
I wasn’t initially going to talk about doing Whole30, but I think posting my progress will help keep me on track. Leave me a note in the comments about how you felt after doing Whole30 and if you have any recipe recommendations I should try out!
I also started a board on pinterest for recipes and will make notes about what I try as I go.
Thanks to Captain America, whenever I hear the word fondue, I want to respond with ‘Do you two… fondue?’
Which the appropriate answer is yes to all the fondue. What isn’t there to love about bread, cheese, meat and chocolate?
Since moving in April it feels like the summer has flown by and getting time together for date nights have been a bit challenging. When we do have a night off together planning a date night is a great way for us to reconnect.
Last weekend, we took spent a romantic date night up at the Louisville Melting Pot to enjoy a fantastic meal. Whenever we can celebrate time together as a couple it’s special so there’s no reason to wait until a holiday for a romantic night out – especially since we typically can’t celebrate holiday’s on the day of due to work.
Before our visit I’d been to a couple of Melting Pot locations, but had not personally visited the Louisville location. Louisville is suburb of Boulder and is about 30 mins outside of Denver. The Melting Pot is located right in the middle of downtown Louisville giving ample opportunity to take a quick walk through the main area of town and explore how cute the city is before dinner. You can stroll through most of the main part of town in about 10 minutes and call it your daily ‘exercise’.
Outside of how fantastic the food is, one of my favorite things about the Melting Pot is how each location uses the history of the town and building to make a completely unique experience that you can explore each time you visit. Louisville began as a mining town, and it’s rumored that tunnels remain under the city to this day.
According to town lore the tunnels under the Melting Pot were used by bootleggers during the prohibition to move alcohol between speakeasies. The building itself was built in the 80’s so while these tunnel entrances look historic, they are actually an homage to the history of the area.
I love a good history story, but I know you are really here to learn about the food!
The Melting Pot is famous for the amazing four course meals including three different kinds of fondue. You can definitely go to the Melting Pot for just dessert or cheese but for the full experience you can’t beat the entire meal.
You don’t have to have the exact same meal, but you do need to pick a cheese, cooking style, and dessert you’ll both enjoy. We each started off with a different salad (Wisconsin Wedge & the California) and a charcuterie board.
The charcuterie board is not a part of the 4 course meal but our amazing server recommended we give it a try with our cheese course and she was RIGHT. Adding just a bit of mustard to a piece of prosciutto before dipping it into cheese fondue is just about the most amazing appetizer you could get your hands on.
I am a gorgonzola (aka Blue Cheese) addict so when I saw they had a Bacon Gorgonzola cheese option I knew we had to try it. Made with fontina cheese, gorgonzola, white wine, garlic [ask for extra!] and bacon it was fantastic with all of the dipping options. My favorite was on the green apples. The sharpness of the cheese and savory bacon bites are the perfect contrast against the sweetness of the apples.
For the main course we both did The Classic which includes two kinds of sirloin, pork, shrimp and chicken breast. On my meal, I asked to swap out the pork for Elk Sausage and it was an AMAZING decision. In addition to the meats that came with our main entree, you can always add on a lobster tail so since it was a special night out we went for the full experience!
Your meat all comes raw and you cook it in the fondue pot in your chosen cooking method. We went with one of the most popular styles, the Coq Au Vin. Cooked with wine and spices, it really adds a rich flavor to every piece of meat you cook.
Fondue is a social experience. Each piece goes into the pot to cook and you can catch up while dinner cooks making it a much more personal experience than just having a ready made dish brought to the table. With busy schedules and the allure of phones, its easy to go out to dinner and barely say a word to each other. Fondue instead takes away those distractions and helps give time to reconnect instead. For a romantic date night, I couldn’t ask for a more special way to spend the evening.
For dessert we decided to try something a bit different from our usual go-to of chocolate and peanut butter and opted for the Banana’s Foster. You start with white chocolate and add bananas, dulce de leche and cinnamon before flambéing it all. Just look at that sparkler show with the cinnamon!
Dessert comes with marshmallows, fruit, brownies, blondies and pound cake to dip. My favorite was by far the brownies. I’d like them soak in pot long enough to warm up the chocolate bits in the brownies making it the perfect marriage of dark and white chocolate.
By the end of the meal we had to call uncle and couldn’t quite finish up all of the dessert treats!
With Drew’s schedule it can be hard for us to get away together, so taking a night out like this is perfect!
Looking for more Denver Date Night ideas? Check out my review of Marcella’s Ristorante.
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Disclaimer: The Melting Pot hosted us at the restaurant for the evening. I was not compensated in any way for this review and all thoughts an opinions are my own.
There are some nights when you just know that dinner is going to be a struggle. Late meetings, long days and everything in between means heading home and fixing dinner is the last thing you want to deal with. Luckily here in Denver there is a new solution that can keep you out of the fast food line when your busy day starts to bog you down, SupperBell.
About a year ago I started seeing the SupperBell truck making it’s rounds in Denver and I was curious what exactly they did. SupperBell is an on-demand dinner delivery solution, made fresh everyday.
The chef behind the SupperBell team is Chef Frank Bonanno, one of the masterminds of Denver best restaurants including Mizuna, The Green Russell and Bones. Imagine if you could have dinner at your favorite restaurant without ever needing to leave home. That’s what SupperBell is.
Each week, SupperBell puts out a new menu, available to order on their website. Dishes include a wide variety of options ranging from paleo to kids specific meals. The day you want to order dinner, just place the order by 3 pm and the SupperBell team will start cooking.
As soon as your meal is ready you’ll receive an alert inviting you to watch as it journey’s from their kitchen to your door. You pick the time to ensure that your dish arrives exactly when you want it to.
You don’t have to be home to accept the order, but I would recommend having a cooler on your porch if you aren’t.
After that, all you need to do is heat up the oven and give your fully cooked meal 10-20 minutes to come back up to temperture. It’s just that easy!
SupperBell meals range from $10 – $20 per person.
DISCLOSURE: I received a sample of the SupperBell experience to facilitate this post. All opinions are my own.
Looking for more quick dinner inspiration? Check out my weeknight recipes!
Welcome to My Bliss
