What I Ate With My BLENDS!

Ok, so I hope you guys are ready for this…

Because I just spent over TWO HOURS editing and collaging my pics of all the deliciousness that was my weekend at Blend Retreat and I have to tell you…
I’m STARVING!

Be sure to stop by Peas & Crayons to see all the yummy link ups this week…but I’ll just say right now, nobody is going to top this!
 

 It all started with the Core Power sponsored dinner on Friday night:

The tables were set in the Chautauqua dining hall. And you better believe there was some major drooling over the beautiful cupcakes calling our names lined up on a table in the entryway as we all made our way to our seats.

The flavors: Cinnamon Coffee, Raspberry Lavender, Peanut Butter Pretzel, S’mores, and The “Junkyard” (a variation of carrot cake) all made by a small Colorado bakery.

And the BEST part about them?

100% of the proceeds went to the local homeless shelter!

For dinner we were all served a light salad to get things started and then we were presented with our entrees.

I had the grilled chicken over quinoa with steamed broccoli and seriously…that quinoa/sauce was full buttery, juicy, and all kinds of amazing flavor!

I chose the raspberry lavender, cinnamon coffee, and s’mores for my cupcake selection, but I got lucky enough to taste them all by the end.

Verdict: Give me some more s’mores cupcakes!

But that’s just the tip of the mouthwatering iceberg (because we are going to pretend that icebergs are actually giant snow cones right now…don’t question me, just go with it!)

Just when we all thought dinner couldn’t be topped, we were all FLOORED by Xagave’s presentation of breakfast the next morning:

The “bread station” with real fruit jams made with Xagave!

The “yogurt station” stocked with plain Cho and TONS of toppings!

The “granola and muffin station” featuring THE BEST lemon blueberry granola (Nature’s Indulgence) I have ever tasted along with Blueberry Cranberry and Carrot Cake muffins…again BOTH made with Xagave agave nectar!

Hooray for lower sugar treats!

And finally, the “oatmeal station” lined with pretty much anything a foodie could think of to top a warm bowl of oats!

Given all the options, to say I had a bit of trouble decided what to get is a bit of an understatement, but in the end I finally had my little hodgepodge breakfast…with coffee of course!

Unsurprisingly, later in the day after we finished up a 2 hour hike up The Royal Arch (more on that later), most of us couldn’t WAIT to get to downtown Boulder for some lunch and sightseeing.

My group decided to try Mountain Sun…and I think I can speak for all of us when I say we were ANYTHING but disappointed!

Pub AND Brewery! 😉

I just KNEW I was going to love this place once I found out that not only do they have like 2963 different kinds of beer on tap…but they will let you try any of them…

FOR FREE!

In only a matter of minutes, with the help of my Bearded Bartender Dude, I knew which one was the beer for me…but of course, I still tried about 5 more after I decided and purchase my glass! 😉

In my best Viking grumble: Mmmm!

And I made NO mistake in my decision to order the Cinco de Mayo Burger…

They had me at “grilled zucchini and squash”…

But holy mother of beef burgers, just look at that melted goat cheese!
 

I’m drooling now just thinking about it!

After we finished up with lunch, most of our group decided to complete the Boulder Beer Experience with a trip to Avery Brewing Co.

I found Bearded Bartender Dude #2 and purchased a few of the dollar “tasters”…aka the cutest little beer glasses I’ve ever seen!

Then we took an impromptu tour around the facility while snapping pictures and sipping from our cute little glasses (pinkies up, please!)

The best part though was just hanging outside the place for hours afterwards enjoying the company of my blends…oh and we made some doggends (dog friends) too!

Pink collar: Daisy
Green collar: Dobie
How cute is that?! A Doberman named Dobie! 🙂

Oh yeah, and that would be an amazing basket of sweet potato tots with guaca-hummus (Heather is a mastermind when it comes to substitutions and combos at restaurants!)

Well, I’m sure by this time you’re thinking that we definitely had enough booze to end the evening, but au contraire…

What is Cinco de Mayo without some Mexican food and tequila shots?!

Laura (my foodie soul mate) and I shared the Vegetarian Fajitas: grilled portabello, peppers, onions, and squash with rice and black beans, corn tortillas, and mandatory condiments.

And well, the first tequila shots of the night were FREE…now who could turn that down?

Ahh, peer pressure! 😉

Believe it or not, I did not have as much to drink as it seems…not even the slightest hungover the next day…which was good since there was one last meal to enjoy before the close of our trip!

Our official sponsors, Chobani provided a breakfast full of grains, fruits, and protein to help fuel us after a kick a$$ boot camp (yep, more on that later too!)

What-cho want for breakfast? 😉

Again, I hodgepodged it up…

Oh the stress of deciding between cream cheese and peanut butter!!!

And played with the Keurig for the last time…I swear if it was cost effective (aka, better suited for coffee addicts like myself who require 2 LARGE cups of coffee daily), I would TOTALLY get one of these!

Whew! Did you make it? Are you still with me?

But more importantly…is your keyboard about to short circuit?? Quick, grab a napkin!!

Did you celebrate Cinco de Mayo? 

What is the best thing you ate over the weekend?

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51 Responses to What I Ate With My BLENDS!

  1. Those breakfasts spreads look incredible! I want one of those muffins! And the cupcakes….wowsers! 🙂

  2. Loved everything about xagave breakfast. And the hummus at Moutain Sun + those tater tots were to die for!

    • kissmybroccoli says:

      Oh my gosh, I know! As I was compiling all the pics, I realized again just how amazing everything was! Amy really did an incredible job with it! I seriously have to make that jam!

  3. Jen says:

    I think at some point everyone went to Mountain Sun. 🙂

  4. oh goodness it all looks so delicious! I’m so jealous of all of you who got to attend Blend this year. Next time!

  5. Ok this has just confirmed it for me – I HAVE to go next year if it happens! All that food looks seriously amazing – I think I would have been overwhelmed by all the choices though haha.

    The best thing I ate this weekend were mu shu pancakes from Moosewood Restaurant – I’ve been dying to visit there for years, so it was amazing to finally get to go!

    • kissmybroccoli says:

      Mu shu pancakes? Tell me more!

      And YES!!! You HAVE to go! I kept thinking about you all weekend and how I wish you were there to help represent Canadian bloggers with Susan! 🙂

  6. gah I’m so jealous you got to go to blend! I am seriously drooling over everything!

  7. ahhhhh best recap ever! All the photos are great. 🙂

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  9. GREAT Sponsor post! Tweeting this now with all the company twitter handles.

  10. Crazy amazing food you guys had!

  11. Eric says:

    mmmmm that burger looks amazing minus the goat cheese..i’m not a fan of the goat cheese!

    That looks like an awesome trip!

    • kissmybroccoli says:

      Not a fan of goat cheese?! Maybe you just haven’t had it the right way…until you try it warm and melted, don’t close the door just yet, mmmkay? 😉 Ugh, you need to plan a trip to Tennessee so I can fix you some dishes…I’ll make you a goat cheese lover yet!

  12. Ashley says:

    Ummm, this was FANtastic. An ALL food post about the weekend?? You took SO many food photos. Loving this! So glad you guys got to go to Mountain Sun. Definitely a favorite! That burger is insane.

  13. This is the best food recap ever!! You took so many amazing pictures!! I forgot my camera going to the xagave breakfast Saturday and I’m super bummed!
    I’m linking this post to my food post today because it’s so awesome. <3

    • kissmybroccoli says:

      Aww, thanks Amanda! I would’ve been a bit bummed if I’d left my camera too…Xagave definitely set the bar high for any future Blend breakfasts (wow, that is such a weird word to say…breakfast-es-ssssss! Lol!)

  14. A) You win the food porn pic of the weekend for that burger shot.
    B) Was Saturday the most awesome day ever, or what?!
    C) I’ll share fajitas with you any time.
    D) I thought the same thing about the drinking… it looks like we chugged it down, but I felt totally fine!
    E) I heart you.

    • kissmybroccoli says:

      Awwww!

      1. I heart you AND the fact that you made your comment into list form…I’m such a sucker for bullet points!
      2. Saturday was…EPIC! There is no other word to describe it!
      3. All us East coasters need a blogger meet up like ASAP…I miss you too much already!

  15. Oh my! I’ve loved reading all of the Blend posts! Those eats look a-mazing! I’m definitely drooling all over my keyboard. 😉

    I’m fairly new to blogging, but hope someday to make it to big-time blogger status like all of you!

    • kissmybroccoli says:

      Aww, I don’t really think of myself as big-time, but thanks! It was so cool how much of a mix of bloggers/readers there was…and we all meshed so well it was like we’d known each other for years even though most of us had just met for the first time!

  16. SO totally jealous of all those fantastic looking eats! And woahhh, Peanut Butter Pretzel cupcakes? I need to get my hands on some of those 😉 Looks like you had a great time!

    • kissmybroccoli says:

      Oh they were FABULOUS! There was even a little dollop of creamy peanut butter INSIDE the cupcake! I was like, “WHOA!” Lol

  17. I’ve seen a bunch of Blend posts already and I can’t say enough how jealous I am. It looked like so much fun!

  18. Looks like a delicious trip! I did not celebrate Cinco De Mayo, but I did have a great time with friends! Watermelon was the highlight of my weekend and I ate far too much of it.

    • kissmybroccoli says:

      Time with the people you love is all that really matters! I can’t wait to get my hands on some good watermelon this year! I always get a bit carried away (like I do with all melons…I KNOW you can appreciate sitting down to half a cantaloupe with a spoon!), but it’s SO worth it!

  19. Did you really say “what-cho want”?

  20. So many pictures, so much food! Yumm I celebrated Cinco de Mayo with tacos and margaritas 😉

  21. This is an awesome post of food – LOVE IT!! I always say that eating a plant-based diet has made me SOOOOOO much more creative with food than I was before. =) An unexpected perk!

  22. Oh my god, ALL of the jeaousies! First and foremost for all that CHO…
    I totally get being confused at what to eat…I’d be putting EVERYTHING on my plate!
    Everything looks ab.so.lute.ly amazing but what else do you expect when you get with a bunch of foodies? 😉

  23. I am LOVING all the BLEND photos!! Those photo collages are cool! How do you do those?

    • kissmybroccoli says:

      Thank you! I used to use Picnik, but since they closed their site, I’ve been playing around with Picasa. It’s by far the easiest to use of all the FREE photo collage websites…the only bummer is that you can’t manipulate the pictures the same way as you could in Picnik, but so far I think I like it!

  24. Lizzi says:

    Those breakfast buffets are the STUFF OF MY DREAMS.

  25. Lauren says:

    I still can’t believe we were both at Mountain Sun on the same day! I bet we just missed each other. The Rio is a huge 21st birthday spot. More so for the super strong Everclear marts and not so much for the food…

    Glad you enjoyed CO 🙂

    • kissmybroccoli says:

      I know, I saw your post and was like, “Whoa! How did we miss each other?!” Wish we had been able to meet up at some point. Maybe next year?…I still need to try The Med! 🙂

  26. Lou says:

    Awesome post, Heather – looks like an unbelievable weekend filled with glorious food, friends and fun 🙂 I want to come next year!! Are Aussie’s allowed!?!

  27. Felicia says:

    I have a Keurig and I’m a coffee addict. They sell a mini reusable cup (usually at bed bath & beyond or a grocery store) made for it so you can buy a bag of your normal coffee and just brew it in the keurig- saves me tons of $$ each month.

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  29. I want to eat all of that food over again this weekend. And of course, drink that beer.
    Man, I WISH I had gotten the Cinco de Mayo burger!

    • kissmybroccoli says:

      Me too! Next year, we should just go and order one of everything on the menu and divide it up for everybody! 😉

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