{"id":16971,"date":"2014-10-08T10:27:55","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T16:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/?p=16971"},"modified":"2014-10-08T10:27:55","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T16:27:55","slug":"weekend-getaway-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/2014\/10\/weekend-getaway-takeaways\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Getaway Takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"w00tstout<\/a>Scott and I headed down to Denver last\u00a0weekend for The Great American Beer Festival (If you’re interested in beer, you can read my article here<\/a>). \u00a0I\u00a0was covering the event for the beer blog that I write for so we decided to make a weekend out of it. \u00a0There was lots of events going on around town as well, like extra special beer tappings and we spent the weekend exploring and sipping on fantastic beers.<\/p>\n

We kept our eats clean while in Denver which is easy to do because Denver has plenty of restaurants that use high quality ingredients. \u00a0One of our favorites is Freshcraft<\/a> which offers up amazing food and great beer. \u00a0I had cassoulet, and oh man and it was so rich and delicious.<\/p>\n

Many lessons were learned from this past trip down and our next trip will be tackled much differently.<\/p>\n

Changing up our\u00a0approach to dining out<\/strong><\/p>\n

Currently when we go to Denver and Boulder we gravitate towards pizza and burgers because we don’t care for the\u00a0options here in Fort Collins. It’s hard to find a good grassfed burger! \u00a0Yet this past trip, going for those types of dishes left us feeling bloated and crappy. \u00a0Bah! \u00a0So our focus is going to switch to quality veggie and meat dishes (which thankfully Freshcraft has!).<\/p>\n

Going for a rental instead of hotel reservations<\/strong><\/p>\n

LoDo is our preferred place to stay when in Denver but it’s expensive as hell. \u00a0The hotel rooms\u00a0we’ve stayed in have been nice but there’s no fridge and no wifi. \u00a0No fridge means we can’t bring back leftovers (along with no way to reheat them) and no wifi means we can’t work while away.<\/p>\n

Rentals tend to be cheaper and come with a full kitchen and wifi. \u00a0We’d be able to cook breakfast at the rental saving us some cash and frustration (breakfast places in Denver serve horrible coffee for some reason and don’t provide enough creamer). \u00a0Along with the ability to bring back leftovers and reheat them. \u00a0Plus wifi that doesn’t cost extra. \u00a0The tricky part will be trying to find a rental that also offers a parking space.<\/p>\n

So the next time we go (which won’t be for a while) we’re changing up our approach!<\/p>\n

I was definitely ready to be back home and back with the pups, who were totally pissed off that we left them. \u00a0They gave us the cold shoulder for hours when we got back. \u00a0I was ready to get back in the kitchen and have control over what went into my food and I wanted a good night’s sleep. Down pillows at hotels are for the birds. \u00a0Bah!<\/p>\n

\"Egg<\/a><\/p>\n

For breakfast yesterday we had fried egg sandwiches on 365 Whole Wheat bread with romaine, pepper jack, and crispy prosciutto. \u00a0 On Monday we had huge bowls of oatmeal and even though I added fruit and grassfed butter to it, that didn’t last all of two hours before I wanted to gnaw my arm off. \u00a0No more oats for breakfast for a while.<\/p>\n

In the middle of the day, I had a small snack of yogurt and granola (just oats, no nuts or seeds).<\/p>\n

Dinner was glorious!<\/p>\n

\"Chicken<\/a><\/p>\n

I made a coconut curry soup with leftover chicken and some sweet potatoes. \u00a0I stupidly bought a rotisserie chicken from Costco when we were there on Tuesday. \u00a0I thought it would be clean but after checking the ingredients realized that it is in fact full of junk. \u00a0Hopefully your Costco has better quality chicken!<\/p>\n

I used the leftovers in soup and this was super easy to make.<\/p>\n

Andrea’s Quick and Easy Coconut Curry Soup with Chicken and Sweet Potatoes<\/p>\n