Colorado Road Tripping

I'm on vacation!

I'm taking a 2 day test (Step 3) with 2 of my days, but more importantly I'm out of town, with friends and we're here for a wedding!

I worked Saturday but yesterday we made the drive from Albuquerque to Denver.

It took us 6 hrs and 20 mins with just 1 stop for gas. 

And this stop. We didn't see a speed limit change for construction. :/

Headed out of town.

Southern Colorado.

There!

And now after a nice night of catching up we're cruising downtown Denver. 

Thanks for reading, see you soon.

Empty Fridge Stew

I've been working for 2 weeks straight and I am pretty tired.

Fortunately, I'm about to be on vacation and also fortunately this stew is super easy.

Because we're leaving town, we've tried not to buy anything the last few days and just use up what we already had. It was pretty sparse.

The fruit stash looked pretty sad.

And the fridge not much better. But we have all the garlic.

So in an effort to use up the fresh stuff without buying more, I made the very ugliest awesomest Empty Fridge Stew last night.

Ingredients

Veggies in the fridge (mine were an onion, a head of cauliflower and part of a broccoli crown)

Water or veg broth or a mix

Seasonings

Cooked rice or dry pasta or quinoa or some other grain

16 oz lentils (or however many you have)

You can tell this was a precise recipe. 

1. Sautée your tougher veggies (onion, potato if you have it, celery etc.) in oil or earth balance

2. Toss in some minced garlic if you have it and seasoning. Be a little heavy handed if you're just using water, or you can go a little lighter if you're using a lot of vegetable broth. I used ginger (from a jar, of course I didn't have fresh) cumin, coriander, salt, red pepper flakes, parsley, onion powder, and garlic powder. This would also be great with a bunch of curry powder but John isn't into that flavor so I left it out.

3. Sautée another minute.

4. Add approx 6 cups water or veg broth or some mix thereof.

5. Throw in lentils. Cover and simmer.

From this point the cook time is about 30-45 mins, so if you're using a dry grain or pasta time it to be just cooked at the end. For example, if you're using macaroni noodles that take 10ish mins to be cooked, toss them in about 20 mins down the line and at the 30 min mark everything should be cooked.

Happy scrounging!

Thanks for reading, see you soon.

La Luz Labor Day

A week ago, since I'm on elective, I had a much-coveted day off for Labor Day. I can't remember the last time I was off for labor day, but a group of my friends were going on a hike, so I jumped right in.

The La Luz trail is one of the tougher hikes you can do right here in Albuquerque.

If you go from the bottom of the tram that goes to the top of the mountains, it's about 9 miles one way, with a 3775 foot elevation change (from about 7000 to over 10000 feet elevation).

We hiked one way and then took the tram down.

I left my phone on my rock during a break and we had to go back down and then back up about 1.5 miles in one of the steepest parts. I swear I'm a responsible person. Trust me.

I was a little worried we'd taken a wrong turn - and then this sign appeared. Like they knew.

Snack break!

Look - everybody reflected in Tiffany's sunglasses!

Almost there!

Excited face after I found my phone.

The top!

Albuquerque from the tram deck.

I really was feeling the elevation at the end - I'm not in the best cardiovascular shape right now, but I was so proud of all of us and it was really fun to hike with some friends and get to know some new people. We missed the group picture because we were on our way down the trail to find my phone, but trust me I'm not making up friends. Maybe.

It's been a week now though and look:

I totally got burnt and now it's peeling.

And this not that long after my post about safe sun. Embarrassing.

Anyway, happy September, whether you worked labor day or not I hope you're getting out and having some fun.

Thanks for reading, see you soon.