Blazing New Trails...sort of

This weekend I saddled up the mtb and ventured out on Apex, one of the local trails right outside of Golden. While it was new to me, this trail has been around for over a hundred years and used to be a toll "road" to the mining towns up in the mountains. Pretty crazy to think that wagons and such used to go over that trail...it was hike-a-bike for me up the first couple miles with all the rocks on the trail. I wonder how many broken spokes those wagons had on this trail...





Every once in a while I like to wander down the aisles of the natural foods stores and find something new and interesting to try. This week I came home with two interesting concoctions.

First was this soybean pasta. It actually comes in green and black, but I picked up the green. Why? I have no idea...maybe it reminded me of the Grinch? I boiled some up this evening, tossed with some olive oil & fresh veggies, and we're good to go. It was surprisingly good - a little nutty flavor, and a little more protein than regular pasta, minus the gluten. So it's good for those gluten intolerant people & vegetarians. I'll definitely be serving this one up again.




And then there was this interesting little container staring at me from the coffee/hot chocolate aisle - Teechino Maya Mocha. It claims to be some sort of caffeine-free coffee substitute. "Brew and taste just liek coffee...but delivers nutritious health benefits and a natural energy boost." Well it definitely tastes like coffe, and contains potassium & inulin (no idea what that is, but it sounds important). Since I have never liked coffee, and this tastes just like coffee, I'm not the best judge of the taste. But if you like coffee...it's worth a shot. As for me, I'll stick to tea, thank you. Bring on those flavinoids.