My Favorite Places To Eat In (and around!) Calgary

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Happy Friday, everyone! Is it just me or do ‘short’ weeks seem infinitely longer? Ah well, I’m wearing stretchy pants at work and plan on scarfing homemade pizza for dinner so today can just do me a favor and whizz on by (well, at least up until 5pm!)

I decided I wanted to share some of my favorite places to eat in and around Calgary. Many of you aren’t remotely near Calgary (i.e.: ‘Murica) but I’mma do it anyways 🙂

Craft- They have the most selection of beer on tap and their food is local. And good. Sitting at the bar is nice as most barstaff are friendly. However, the atmosphere (say, on a Friday night) mostly consists of middle-aged groups and socializing is near impossible. Socializing meaning: single people trying to pick up other single people. Me- I don’t have that problem (Insert: husband).

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National- (One location is directly next door to Craft–and has a downstairs bowling alley!- and the other is on 17th Ave.) They also have a nice selection of beer, with a pretty unique TV display of what’s currently available (think: airport arrival/departure screens). The food is also pretty good and the layout consists of several long, solid picnic-like tables. This makes for good socializing.

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Brewster’s– Their food is consistantly good. There is never a mishap with an order or with service. Since they brew their own beer on site, we have noticed that the taste can vary from visit to visit, but then we know it’s authentic! We love that they have a location super close to our house, too.

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Kinjo– really good sushi. The place is always buzzing and the servers are quick and cheery. It’s also a great bang-for-your-buck type place. I especially like that you can see the food being prepared. And the nice man always gives me chocolate before we leave.

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Grizzly Paw– FAVORITE place to go in Canmore. Their food is amazing, the patio is an EXCELLENT spot to view the nearby mountains/people/dog watch, and their beer is one of my favorites ever. I only wished I lived in Canmore (Cough, cough, JO I’M JEALOUS OF YOU) so I could frequent the place more often. PS: They took their fried pickles off their menu, but we asked a server and he said you can still order them. BEST FRIED PICKLES EVER. Especially with their beer.

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Wild Flour- A great little bakery/cafe in Banff. Their food is fresh and healthy and the vibe is pretty chill. It’s always crowded in there with all sorts of people. Bathrooms aren’t labeled ‘men’ and ‘women,’ but rather ‘Humans” (or was it Homo Sapiens? Either way, I always get a good chuckle). I’ve only ever ordered sandwiches and wraps, but I’m determined to get a brownie next time.

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Saltlik- NOTE: There are 2 Saltlik’s- one in Calgary and one in Banff. No offense Calgary location, but you ain’t got NOTHING on the Banff spot. The cocktail menu is pretty delicious (I’ve had everything on it) and their food is PHENOM. I always order the filet mignon with a side of asparagus (or broccoli) and scalloped potatoes. Best place to splurge ever.

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Calgary Farmer’s Market- I love me some local goodies. And this place isn’t your typical tent/parking lot market. It’s an actual building that runs year round, Thurs-Sun. They have all sorts of products: meats, produce, dairy, GF, exotic, baked goods, florists, etc. etc. etc. I think my favorite part- besides all the free samples- is the ‘food court’. They have so many vendors that offer a variety of yummy things that you can sit and enjoy. Unless you go on Sunday afternoon, you’ll most likely be entertained with shrieking children and frazzled parents.

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The Rock- Good pizza. It’s a chain restaurant from the states, but they still make a mean pizza that doesn’t feel ‘chain-y.’ From our experience, the staff is so-so and we’ve recently resorted to taking home our order.

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Anejo- some amazeballs margaritas. Cool vibe. Great food. Down side: $14 for guacamole made with only two avocados. Another downside: margaritas are small. Upside: they play movies via projector up on the brick wall, and there’s a cool upstairs space. And lots of tequila. Definitely get the tacos. In all varieties.

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Una- PIZZA NOM NOM NOM. I have heard from several people that this place was amahhhhhhhzing and they were right. The food is fantastic and the service is great. The restaurant is tiny and narrow, so it can make for some awkward seating (we were put up at the counter by the prep stations, just in front of the bathrooms). Nothing a bottle of wine can’t fix! Another bonus: since they don’t take resos, they take your phone number and suggest hitting the bar next door (National!) to wait for a table. Not a bad way to spend your waiting time.

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I know I’m probably missing a few, but these are the front runners (in my opinion).

Well Hello There

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Well hello there.

Thanks to those of you who submitted questions for me to answer! I will be putting together that post with answers later on in the week. Keep them coming so I can have more things to divulge!

ANYWAYS. Hi, there! Remember me?! Need a refresher?? Here’s one:
My name is Jen
I live in Antarctica
Just kidding, Canada.
My dogs shed like crazy
I seriously dislike public transit
I workout like crazy
I like wine and beer. I don’t discriminate. Unless it’s a super hoppy IPA, then I have issues.
That about sums it up.

So what the hell have I been up to these past few weeks, you ask?!! (You most likely know if you follow me on Instagram. Conversely, you most likely don’t care.) Here are some highlights:

1. I had my FIRST visitor to Canada! My high school friend, Amy, flew up from NY for a long weekend. Places of possible interest that we hit: 80th & Ivy for dinner, Canmore for shopping/snow games, Lake Louise to see…umm, Lake Louise, Banff {Wild Flour for lunch, Liquor Depot for booze, Saltlik for dinner, Sasquatch for dancing, Caribou Lodge & Spa to sleep, The Keg for brunch. We also made it a point to spend all remaining money on fudge from The Fudgery, as well as visiting The Fairmont, and the Banff Gondola– altitude of 7,667 ft!}, Brewster’s for dinner, Calgary Farmer’s Market to buy anything/everything to have an at-home charcuterie board.

2. Went to Pig & Duke for an insane pulled pork lunch/Lost Coast Tangerine Ale.

3. Started my own personal 30 day hot yoga challenge. I’m not planning on doing yoga for 30 days straight, but I bought a monthly unlimited pass and decided to go 4-5x/week. Pro: It clears my mind and stretches out my hamstrings. Con: They jacked the price to $150. I’m talking to you, Hot Yoga on Crowfoot, don’t make this girl go broke(r)!!!

4. Tyler and I have been meeting with a kitchen consultant at Home Depot to renovate our kitchen. It’s current status: closet-tiny. What we hope the results will be: open and airy and not obvious that it was originally built in 1981.

5. Since it was a long weekend and I got bored, I decided to hop on that demolition train and knocked down one of the two walls we plan on removing to accommodate our new kitchen layout. (I’ve since done way more damage than depicted)

6. I have been obsessed with the Olympics. Ever notice that every Olympic games, the media really focuses on one sport over others? This year, it’s totally Ice Dancing. Cool, but um give me the sports where the guys are wearing unitards. SPANDEX unitards. Also, I have the luxury of watching the American broadcast (Bob Costas, I love you forever) and the Canadian broadcast (where they don’t tell the hockey announcers that they’re still on air and you can hear them humming and clearing their throats. I’m waiting for a fart, though)

(yeah, that may be a dirty inference. Push it…push it real good)
7. Not to bring up any ill-feelings for Bronco fans, but I went out for Superbowl with a friend and we started the evening by wearing our orange/blue beads and had to switch to green/blue beads by half time. Mostly because Seahawk fans were buying us drinks, so we had to comply.

8. I still have a $50 gift card for Lululemon from Christmas and I think I FINALLY found what I want to buy. PS: Popped Amy’s Lululemon cherry when she was here. Methinks she might become just as addicted as I!
9. Just when football season ends and I think I get my husband back on Sundays, he goes and sells back all his old video games and pre-orders 4 new ones. To each their own, I suppose. He coincides his game-playing with bread-making. Besides, I’m gone for about 2 hours each night to attend Hot Yoga classes.

10. I worked out at home and barefoot the other day and the combination of super dry skin + an excessive amount of reverse lunges and plank jacks = tearing the skin off the bottom of my big toe. I’ll spare the picture, just know that it’s gross, it’s painful, and it’s not conducive to all my downward dogging.

11. I haven’t tried a single new recipe lately. Bad Jen. I need to hop back on the baking wagon. I DID, however, try a new sandwich concoction that proved to be WAY TOO DAMN good. It consisted of some locally baked sourdough, sheep’s cheese (vendor at farmer’s market with very heavy accent sold it to us saying this is ‘cheep’ cheese. Not cheap as in less money, but as in “baa-baaa”), Saskatoon berry jam, bacon, and baby kale. Mmm, mouth is watering.

12. I finally put blonde back into my hair. And no one has noticed. It took 3 months for someone in my office to notice that I previously chopped off 6 inches, so I’m guessing it’ll be another month or so before I get comments on the color.

13. Referring back to our adventure at Sasquatch in Banff: drinking age in Alberta: 18. Therefore, most everyone in there was about….18. I told just about everyone that approached us that I could have birthed them. It could ALMOST be true. Also, I saw Sasquatch. He scared me at the coat check.
14. I had Pho for the first time. I called my mom and told her I had Pho and she replied “Mmmm that sounds delicious” and then I asked her if she knew what I was talking about and she said ‘no.’ Sersiouly, does anyone else’s parents act like this? Take another example, holding the phone to their ear while FaceTiming. Ugh.

15. I have done 2305972309572 different workouts lately and plan on sharing some of them in a post later this week.

That’s all I have to share for now. Do you feel sufficiently updated? I do.

In the comments:

Where’s the last place you traveled?

Have any good restaurant experiences lately?

Apricot Date Chai Muffins

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

YOU GUYS. THESE MUFFINS.

So, yeahhhhh I decided to wing it in the kitchen last night and whip up a batch of muffins that were somewhat healthy so I could bring them to work for a snack. With it being close to the end of the week, there was practically nothing left in the pantry, so I made do with what I could find. The result? Something actually good!

Heck yes.

Lemme introduce my little batch of Apricot Date Chai Muffins.

Thank you, thank you very much.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 c unbleached flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c sugar
1 c almond milk + 1 tbsp white vinegar (or you can use buttermilk)
1 egg white
3 Tbsp coconut oil (melted)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c. dried apricots
1 c. medjool dates
1 tsp chai spice

Here’s what you do:

Preheat oven to 350. Spray or line muffin tin.
Combine flours, baking powder, salt, sugar and chai spice in a large bowl, set aside.
Combine the milk/vinegar, egg, coconut oil, and vanilla. Pour into the dry mixture.
Throw the fruit into a processor (or dice) to desired size. [See photo above- just a few pulses in the processor!] Fold in dried fruit.
Divide batter into muffin cups, bake for 20 min +/- (hard to give a definite time, as I am baking at a higher altitude!)
EAT ALL THE MUFFINS.
MAKE MORE MUFFINS.

Nom nom, little muffin, nom nom.

(Would still totally work without the chai spice, but DANG it gives it that extra little flavor kick that makes a party in your mouth!)

Two Things

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hey there. Just a couple things to share today. There should be a lot more on the blog later this week as I have a couple of different hikes planned…which I’m totally excited about.

First up, COOKIES. I’m a huge fan of them and whenever I want something sweet around the house, a big batch of chocolate chip cookies is usually my go-to. Partially because I can eat the dough and cookies don’t take that long to bake. Well, lately, I have been using this recipe. Except I have never included the corn starch since I never had any in the house and none of my previous recipes included it in the list of ingredients, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to skip. And trust me, it didn’t. Tyler and I managed to force feed ourselves about 2 dozen different batches without the corn starch and we’re still alive and kicking.

But yesterday I went to the store and mindfully purchased a canister of corn starch to see just how different the batch would turn out. And yup….they’re chewy motherfluffers. Like SOOOO good.

Please go make them.

Second: My daily workouts have consisted of Hot Yoga and either an outdoor run or intervals on the treadmill. It’s been working wonders for my body and I totally love it. It has been over a week since I did any strength training- which is totally weird for me- but I will probably incorporate it back into the old routine sooner or later. I find that my muscles are getting a pretty good workout in yoga. Especially with all those chaturangas!

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Anyhoo..I did a pretty decent set of HIIT intervals yesterday that I thought I’d share with you. It was pretty easy and went by FAST. (I didn’t want to totally overdo it before yoga, but I also wanted to break a sweat and make sure I was torching some serious calories, which HIIT totally does.)

The left columns are the time and the right columns are the treadmill speed. You can obviously change the speeds to tailor your specific needs, but you get the idea how the intervals get progressively faster, then slower, then faster again. I loved it, and I felt nice and limber heading into yoga later in the evening.

If anyone gives this a go, let me know!

What’s your go-to dessert?

Favorite way to pass time on the treadmill?

Photo Montage Galore

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

I’m still alive. Yup. Just haven’t had enough things to actually chat about on here lately. So…yeah.

Things of lately (obviously if you follow me on Instagram, you got the idea already. And if you don’t follow me on Instagram, then please do!)

Workouts have been pretty consistent. I have been mixing it up between outdoor runs, home circuit workouts, TRX, spinning, tabatas, and as of tonight….HOT YOGA! I purchased another one-month unlimited pass today and attended the Bikram Vinyasa Flow class. Love Love LOVE it because not only did I get a killer workout, but it allowed me to completely shut my mind off for 75 minutes. So lovely.

The creepy pic that’s second down on the right (in the above montage) was a workout I did early in the morning last Friday before we hit the road to Edmonton. It’s super tiny print, so here’s the quick, but effective workout I managed:

4 tabatas (Tabata= 20 seconds WORK, 10 seconds REST, repeated 8 times for a totaly for 4 minues). I alternated between 2 moves for each tabata.

1: Jump squats/Jumping jacks with pulse squat

2: Pushups/Tricep dips

3: Fire Hydrants (alternating between L and R sides. link to video demo here.)

4: Russian twist/Lying weight press

So yeah, we went to Edmonton (about a 3 hour drive north of Calgary) for one night. It was a long weekend here, and everyone seemed to be getting out of town, so that’s what we decided on. Nothing glamourous. Just a chance to get away. We hit up the West Edmonton mall (ummmm they have an ice rink and an amusement park and a water park and SEA LIONS. Yeah, and lots of stores too) and found a nice spot for dinner, MKT. I decided to indulge and ate some foods I would NEVER order. Of course, my stomach totally paid for it, but I really enjoyed the evening with Tyler.

The puppies have been getting some outdoor time, too!

We hit our usual spot today. But I decided to take the four-legged friends up a bit of a hill just to see the view. (Just kidding, it was just to see how disastrous it would be to climb a hill with stairs with two dummies on leashes). It’s a bummer the photo didn’t come out as sweet as the view, but I tried..Maybe try clicking on it to enlarge it so you can see my stupid little write-up.

And to round off my ‘catching up’ post (although I’m sure there’s tons I forgot, so I’ll probably mention them whenever) I made a batch of muffins this morning. I had a ton of fruit laying around the house, and I knew I needed to use some up before it all went bad (already have tons in the freezer, too!) I used a recipe that I’ve used before, but adapted to what I had readily available in the kitchen.

Skinny Banana Blueberry Muffins (adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction)

2 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 c agave nectar
1/2 c brown sugar
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 T white vinegar + the rest almond milk to equal one cup
1 egg beaten
1 1/4 c fresh blueberries

* Check out the original recipe, linked above. I used agave instead of honey, 1 full cup almond milk (w/1 T white vinegar) rather than 1/4 c yogurt + 3/4 c milk) and whole wheat flour instead of white whole wheat flour. Just improvising with what I had!

Preheat oven to 325, spray muffin tin with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
In another bowl, mix agave nectar and brown sugar until fully combined- no lumps! Add the banana, milk mixture, and egg. Slowly combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Once fully incorporated, fold in the blueberries.
Pour batter into muffin tin. Bake for 22-25 minutes, or until tops of muffins are slightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the muffins come out clean.

What food/meal have you been loving lately?

Favorite place to get away…even if it’s just for a night?

DO YOU LIKE MUFFINS??!! (you don’t have to answer that)

Share me please!

Share me please!

Share me please!

Share me please!

Share me please!