Pizza Pizza

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

I’ve decided that I can’t stand recaps. (probably temporary)

The whole idea of ‘first I did this, then I did this, then I saw this, then I ate this” is somewhat nauseating. I admit to falling into that habit now and again (moreso when I wasn’t working) and realize it’s actually probably more interesting to the writer that they ate pizza on a Saturday night than it is to readers…who probably did the same thing.

So here’s my recap of Saturday night….we went out for pizza. (see what I did there? Bash on something then do the EXACT thing that bothers me. Hypocracy at it’s finest. Feel free to judge, but only say nice things in the comments if you even bother to comment!)

After running mundane errands, I ran over to the gym to bust out this workout. (wanted to share that workout in case you’re looking for something new that will challenge you!)

On to dinner….for a LONG ASS TIME now, I’ve wanted to go to Una Pizza + Wine on 17th Ave. I follow them on twitter and they almost ALWAYS have a wait for tables—> they don’t take reservations. After our fabulous dinner out last week, we agreed that now was the time to finally indulge in what is rumored to be some of the best pizza in Calgary.

We got there around 6:30 and was told a table for 2 would be ready in about 30 minutes. Since the place is practically a hole in a wall, they take your phone #, encourage you to get a drink at a nearby bar, and call you when your table is available. SWEET DEAL, YO. We walked across the street to National and enjoyed some fun, new-to-us brews before the call quickly came telling us to head back to Una.

True to it’s name, the restaurant has a rather large wine selection, so we opted for an entire bottle (c’mon guys, you KNOW me) and it ended up being a great selection! A really smooth wine that paired perfectly with our pizzas.

We both ordered The Beltline pizzas, except I added pineapple on mine- per the recommendation of a friend. You’d maybe expect the flavor to be a little outrageous, considering the combination of ingredients, but it was totally and completely perfect. We were spoiled because what we originally thought to be a less desireable table turned out to be the best spot to watch them prep and cook every order. (I even broke out my stopwatch to see how long it took to cook the pizzas. 7 minutes if you were wondering).

The pineapple on my pizza was cut SUPER thin and the sweetness of that combined with just the hint of maple syrup that was drizzled over top really balanced out the saltiness of the bacon and sausage. There- is that descriptive enough for you? My mouth is watering and now I want another pizza.

We left Una with full bellies and conversation filled with how much we loved the entire dining experience. Now if only we can manage to move to an apt a block or so away, we’d be getting takeout from that place ALL THE TIME.

Also, they had the best bathroom sign ever.

PS: Don’t forget to enter my giveaway here. Deadline for entry has been extended to Jan 7th.

Weekend Recap

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Ah, the Sunday blues. The worst feeling. Except for probably childbirth, but I haven’t done that yet.

Cute pictures of my dog help a little bit.

She has entirely too many toys. Tyler brought her home a big bright pink one that’s name Silly, but I haven’t snapped a pic of it yet. (He brought me Moroccan Oil! What a gem of a guy #lovehim. And yes, I just used a hashtag)

Oh hey, and look what I Tyler installed (I helped)

Light! Glorious, bright, light! You have no idea how excited we were to get this puppy up. The hallway is just too dang dark, and we are still pretty painted-out from the living room/dining room/bathroom, that we haven’t tackled a brighter color for this space.

Sidenote: I did NOT know Rock of Ages was adapted from a musical. I was not prepared to watch over 2 hours of singing. oof

Sidenote#2: Never have a valued the performance of a humidifier more than now. Hello, boogerless sleeps!

Here’s a funny story: We took Layla to our favorite park yesterday. It’s completely fenced in, there are other dogs she can play with, and it’s close to the river so she can take a swim (and by that, I mean lay in the water).

Anyways, we get to the park and there is a tent set up. It was a little thing promoted by the city(?) to educate people on how to properly clean up after their pets. Ummm, what? I’m pretty sure it goes like this:

Have bag.
Dog poops.
Put hand in bag and pick up poop.
Flip the bag inside out, tie a knot, and throw bag away.

Guess people don’t know about that little trick.

I also guess that wasn’t really a funny story, but I thought it needed to be told.

On an unrelated note, I had a really great workout after the walk. I completed 40 minutes of crazy intense spinning and then since I was pressed for time, I did a quick set of bulgarian split squats, elevated squats, hamstring extensions, single-legged dead lifts, and clean and jerks. This may sound weird, but when I have a set of muscles that feel tight, I actually like working some strength on them because it feels like stretching. Silly, yes, but it works for me. Now my hammies feel fantastical.

(Insert brief pause here, while I go downstairs to change the laundry)

Oh hey, date night!

I clean up pretty decent. I’ll admit, I don’t get myself ‘done up’ too much these days, but DAMN it feels good ~~to be a gangsta.~~

He looks pretty slick himself.

Tyler got a Groupon for Koiji Restolounge. Poor guy has had a mean craving for sushi, but hasn’t had it in forever since I’m not a seafood person. And then, I caved and told him I’d give it a go. The restaurant was small, but it was super nice, and the waitstaff was really friendly. Helped take the edge off, for sure.

Not gonna lie, I was nervous.

We ordered an avocado roll, 2 California rolls (avocado and snow crab), a spicy tuna roll, Alberta (beef, arugula and cucumber), and Tuscany (cream cheese, sun-dried tomato and something else).

a.) I suck at using chopsticks.

b.) Around the 6th piece, I had a nasty gag reflex and needed to gulp my wine and take a breather.

c.) I love wasabi.

I’m not in love with sushi now, but I can definitely tolerate it. This made Tyler a very happy man. (Is it weird to still taste seaweed the next day? Because I do)

Fast forward through the night, and here we are. Sunday football, pumpkin pancakes, homework (gag reflex at its finest), and watching a man jump from space.

That man is crazy!

What did you do this weekend? What’s your favorite sushi?

MNF date

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Still playing catch up.

Monday, we ran a bunch of errands then decided to put on our big kid pants (aka: stretchy pants) and go have wings and beer and watch football at Buffalo Wild Wings.

I am not one for fried foods (I never eat wings or fries or any of that crap) but I was having a craving- not for regular wings. I hate eating meat that still has the bones in the it. It just creeps me out. This place had boneless wings……and……

SHOCK TOP! Tyler is on vacation and I am always on vacation, so I figured back-to-back ‘bad’ meals was ok. So we indulged. I mean, really indulged.

We got there a few hours before the game even started, so we decided to just order stuff whenever we got hungry. I gotta say, the service was fantastic, there were tons of TVs and they even cranked the heat when they saw I still had my friggin parka on. Nice people.

Note: I don’t look like a girl in this picture.

Note #2: I hadn’t washed my hair in a couple days and it was n-aaaaaa-aaaaasty y’all.

Note #3: I really have to start wearing makeup again. Ugh.

Anways, back to the food. Me, the non-fried-food-eating-girl had wings and fried pickles. Ok, I had like 3 of the pickles, but those wings were screamin’ my name.

Tyler was a happy man. We both loved it there, but wished it was closer to home in case we need to walk back or something.

Ok, ok, I have GOT to stop talking about food! It makes my face feel fat just thinking about it all. MUST.GET.BACK.ON.THE.FITNESS.TRACK.

Yeah, I have been working out throughout all these terribly fatty meals (runs, walks, random tabatas with the gliders, etc) but I don’t feel like I’m really ‘in’ it. Youknowhatimean?

I was pretty much dead to the world yesterday until I had to get in gear and head downtown to teach my new TRX class. Oh wait, here’s a funny story- it’s a new-to-me class; these people are already five weeks in. When I found that out, I was like ‘crap, now they already know how hard it can be. What if I don’t push them hard enough? What if they see me refer to my powerpoint slides on certain moves? Oh crap oh crap oh crap I’m nervous. And I’m wearing my bright pink lulus today, I look stooopid.’

There were 11 people in the class, and I decided to change it up a bit and have them grab some other equipment to use along with the bands.

And you know what?

I think I killed them.

——–>insert deliriously happy face here <———-

I would have them do upper body supersets on the bands, then transition to free weights for supersets using the same muscle groups.

Then a core move, on and off the bands.

Then crazy insane cardio (like 30 sec burpees, 30 sec squat jumps X THREE)

Then supersets for the lower body both on and off the bands, more core, more cardio. You get the idea.

I think my favorite part was ending the class with a tabata of single leg squat jumps on the bands. BWAHAHAHA

(Source)

Now I am off to teach HEAT!

The Wurst Date

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Saturday was date day. Hooray!

And in pictures:

Lots of pics. It started with a furry dog in my face. Followed by some mean pancakes. And my first ever trip to the driving range. With my very own set of clubs. And check out my golfing outfit. Very official.

Then we got to Wurst. Aka: an awesome German restaurant. We sat at the bar, got some fancy shmancy drinks, appys and dins. One of the apps were mussels. Did you know that I hate seafood? Well, I might be starting to like it. Tyler fed me 6 of those things and I liked them. He said it was probably because they were aphrodisiacs. Hehe. Then our main courses. I had bratwurst with red cabbage and some other delish stuff and Tyler had veal chop. Poor baby cow! Tasty baby cow.

And sangria.

And then, being the adults we are, we headed home to play Kinect. Seriously one of the most hilar things to do. Except don’t eat a belly full of German food prior to game time. Tummy ache like whoa.

But skinnygirl helps.

To recap: sleep in, hit some balls, head to Wurst for amazing food/bevvies, then go home and jump around in your jammies.

Our date at Brewster’s

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Tyler and I had rounded out our errand-filled Saturday with dinner and drinks at Brewster’s which was right around the corner from home. We wanted to make it a nice, long experience with different foods and beers! We started with beers (only made sense).

Tyler had the River City Raspberry Wheat Ale and I had the Strawberry Blonde Ale. I liked mine

We enjoyed these with the Lobster ad Artichoke Dip

‘But Jen, you done eat seafood!’ you say. Ah, this is true. BUT, alcohol altered my decision and artichoke has my heart..

Next, we split a sample tray. We were able to choose 5 beers and we got a 5 oz. sample of each.

We started with the Flying Frog Lager.

Since I recently have fallen for lagers, I thought this would be great, but Tyler and I agreed it fell short of expectations. (plus, we were coming off our high from the delicious first round).

Next, the Farmer’s Tan White Ale

This was similar to a Blue Moon, but a little lighter in flavor. We both thought it was good.

Third up: the Original lager.

Nope. We didn’t like. Too bitter. Too hoppy. Too not hitting the spot.

Next, Blackfoot Blueberry Wheat Ale. Similar to the raspberry, it had medium body with a sweet finish. We liked.

Last stop: the Hefeweizen.

We both liked this beer. It was light and had a pleasant finish. Once we finished the tray, Tyler decided to have another Hefeweizen, while I opted for the raspberry ale. Perfect to go with the burgers we ordered.

Tyler’s:

Mine:

That’s no ordinary burger, my friends. That’s a BISON burger. I’ve never had bison before, and since I was feeling all ballsy, I went for it. And the verdict? Loved. Will definitely be ordering that again. Mmm.