Stella’s Trattoria and Date Night

Happy Friday night everyone.   Hope you are all having a great start to the weekend (can I just mention that I just typed wedding instead of weekend…hello wedding brain!)

Zach and I had a date night tonight — our favorite.

Tonight was Stella’s  in the Highlands neighborhood of Denver.

Stella’s has a great outdoor patio for nice weather dining as well as a seating area inside for dining.

It was a beautiful evening in Denver so the patio was packed when we got there while the inside was completely empty (anybody spy Zach?).

We’ve been to Stella’s many times and are never disappointed.

They are a very true-to-form Italian restaurant with great back home true Italian dishes.

We started the evening with some vino while we perused the menu

The bruschetta appetizer special was too good to pass up.  It had goat cheese, fresh tomatoes, onions, and vinegar + oil on fresh bread.  It was AMAZING.

For my entree I went with the pesto gnocchi with chicken instead of shrimp, and honestly, it was TO DIE FOR.  It was honestly perfect.  The flavors worked incredibly well together and I could NOT stop eating it.

Zach and I both agreed it was the best thing we’ve had in awhile.  But then again, anything with that much fresh parmesan cheese is going to make me happy.  Under that chicken was a ton of tomatoes, olives and fresh gnocchi.  AMAZING.

Zach ordered the beat risotto with scallops which was also VERY good…but honestly nothing could top my dish.

The meal was AMAZING as always.

We love Stella’s and honestly, it would take a lot for us to have a bad evening when we go there.

We pulled in right before the rush of a crowd (about 630, we’re old), so our food took a little while, we didn’t mind though.  We had drinks, our appetizer, and great company.

Honestly, Stella’s always delivers a great night and I highly recommend them to ANYONE who likes Italian dishes.  On. Point.

New Post From Zach

So I have an amazing fiance who is supportive of everything I do, including this blog.

He constantly is taking pictures or giving me things to write about for the blog, and I figured he deserves a little piece of recognition every once in awhile.

Would you guys be OK if I gave Zach a little moment to shine on the blog as a side piece?  I thought it might be fun.

Look at this cutie!

So for Zach’s post of the day, he wanted to talk about his absolutely ridiculous bike ride this afternoon.

Zach’s elevation chart

Zach went on a 43 mile bike ride this afternoon, like it was nothing.  He actually rode out to where we are getting married in the front range of the Colorado Rockies in Golden, from Denver, and then of course rode back.

He wanted to share with you all his elevation chart.  He is quite proud, and I must say, it is pretty impressive.  The boy has legs of Lance Armstrong, I’m telling you.  We’ve measured.  They are literally only an inch smaller THAN MY WAIST!  Ridiculous.

So anyway… that’s all Zach and I have for tonight.  We stopped by a Red Box on our way home and are planning to take it easy for the rest of our night.

To be honest, I have no idea what Zach got for us because I was too busy worrying about movie candy.

Thank you Walgreens.  I honestly have no idea how good these are…but if they are a fail I always have a few cookies left!

Long run planned for the  morning . . . you know I’ll be back with a sweaty recap tomorrow morning!

Ahh — can’t forget the challenge! Day 3!  

Today I squeezed in

• 135 second plank + 10 hip dips
• 30 (real) push ups
• 50 bridges
• 50 reverse crunches
• 3 minute pigeon L & R
• 100 jumping jacks
• 25 calf raises

I’m loving this challenge.  I had to take it easy today with my long run tomorrow, but still managed to squeeze in quite a bit!  Hope you all are enjoying it as well.

Happy Friday night all 🙂