The Official 2017 No Repeat Restaurants Challenge!

My friend Efrain and I are doing a challenge to not repeat restaurants/coffee shops in 2017. Unless absolutely necessary (because of no other options) I will not be eating at fast food restaurants. If I am going to spend my hard earned money on eating out, it will be because I/we are trying something new or because it is seriously amazing food. Coffee shops can be repeated for studying/reading/socializing purposes! But they have to be unique and fun and have great coffee.  Because I am definitely not spending my money and taste buds on crappy coffee.

Okay... so there may be repeats, but only if the food is so epically amazing that we have to share it with other people and/or it brings JOY!

So, here it is. Here is the list. I will cross them out as I try them and add as I stumble across new places!

ALBUQUERQUE

• Antiquity
• Artichoke Cafe
• B2B Bistronomy
• Back Street Grill
• Boiler Monkey Bistro
• Cafe Laurel
• Church Street Cafe
• Cocina Azul
• Crackin' Crab
• Down N Dirty Seafood Boil
• El Paisa
• El Pinto
• Farm and Table
• Flames Bistro
• Fork and Fig:  1/3/17 Seriously great food. All sandwiches can be made with gluten free bread, burgers, however cannot because they have bread crumbs in them. But the food is wonderful, and the service was fantastic! Super friendly, really committed to getting the order right and great suggestions! Very small restaurant with an outside patio. Really enjoyed this one! It was not my first time eating there, but it was my first time this year and I introduced Efrain to it! 
• Grove Cafe: 1/8/17  Birthday breakfast with Efrain and we even saw other friends there. I love Grove Cafe! I've been there many times in the past, but it was Effy's first time. I had poached eggs with GF toast and ham with kale salad. The super fancy coffee...er, mocha was delicious. Efrain raved about his Vanilla steamer and liked his strawberry french toast.  The atmosphere is always really light and comfortable. I'm a big fan of the Grove Cafe. 
• Grassburger- 1/12/17 - Went with my Aunt Biddye for my birthday. I LOVE Grassburger. The burgers are delicious (and just the right amount of greasy) they have gluten free buns which is always a huge plus! The shoestring fries are great. And while I don't drink sodas they have sodas made with cane sugar instead of chemical garbage which, if you drink sodas, is better. 
• Guava Tree Cafe
• Holy Cow
• Karma Cafe
• La Crepe Michele
• Le Peep 1/13/17 - The food was great. I had corned beef hash with eggs and fruit. The coffee, however was borderline gross. I tried 2 different kinds of coffee and both were substandard...even with cream. #disappointment
• Luna Mansion (Los Lunas) 
• MAS Tapas y Vino
• Mariscos Altamar
• N'Awlin's Mardi Gras
• Pelican's 
• Powdrell's BBQ
• Prism Coffee Bar
• Quesadilla Cafe 1/8/17 So, this was my second trip to Quesadilla Cafe. It was even better than the first trip. Hands down the best street tacos I've had outside actually being in Mexico.  I LOVE this place and promised to take my mom, brother, and sister-in-love. So, I'll be breaking the no repeat rule here...for a good cause...sharing tacos!
• Ragin' Shrimp
• Range Cafe
• Relish
• Roots Farm Cafe (Tijeras)
• Rub N Wood BBQ (Rio Rancho)
• Savory Fare
• Savoy
• Scalo's
• Scarpas
• Slate Street Cafe
• St. Clair Winery and Bistro
• Tia Betty Blue's
• Trombino's
• Tucanos Brazilian Grill 1/7/17 This is my yearly birthday tradition with my friend Antonia! Meat served on skewers at your table? Grilled pineapple with a brown sugar glaze? sign me up! I love it. The salad bar is also excellent! 
• Vernon's Speakeasy (Los Ranchos)
• Velvet Coffee House
• Zacatecas

SANTA FE

• Cafe Pasqual's
• El Farol
• Galisteo Bistro
• Geronimo
• Jambo Cafe
• Paper Dosa
• The Compound Restaurant
• The Pantry Restaurant
• Tune-Up Cafe
• Whole Hog Cafe 

OTHER LOCATIONS in NM

• ACEQ Restaurant (Arroyo Seco, NM)
• Rancho de Chimayo (Chimayo, NM)

BONUS!! FOOD WHILE TRAVELING! 

• Gibby's Big Backyard (Denver, CO) 1/1/17  Night out with my BFF Little Spoon's family. The service was fantastic and my burger was really good! (no bun) and I had sweet potato fries. 
• Sam's No. 3 (Denver, CO) 1/2/17  Brunch with Little Spoon and her new boyfriend, Nick, and small-white child (Anthony, her brother). Food was good and huge portions. I had a reuben omelet with corned beef, cheese, and sauerkraut.  Yum. 

Legend: 

• Blue - Went with Efrain. My restaurant challenge buddy! 
• Purple - Went with someone other than Efrain

Resolutions...or something like that.

I am not a fan of the word resolution for New Year's commitments to changing things. It is so flimsy and reminds me of all the years I made resolutions and broke them. So, this year I am making decisions? commitments? I don't really know what word to use, but it is something bigger and stronger than a resolution.

Here is the list of things I am committed to this year.

• POSITIVITY! I will be writing down one thing everyday that was awesome or good or positive. I am going to keep them in a jar and next NYE I will pull them out and remind myself what a great year it's been.
• Don't put off for tomorrow, what can be done today! I am going back to school to become a teacher. I start January 17 and I am committed to not procrastinating my homework. I got a job as a Kindergarten teacher that should also start on January 17. I will have a lot of things to do and procrastinating my homework and projects will only cause me to get stressed and behind on things. This is too important to me to screw it up over not getting things done on time. 
• LESS STRESS! I have started using The Gabriel Method which uses visualization to help reduce stress and lose weight. I started it because of the weight loss goals, but this method actually makes you address all the areas in life that are causing stress and emotional/physical trauma. It's working really well so far to reduce my stress and remind me that being positive makes a HUGE impact on how we feel during the day.  If all I think about or talk about are negative things... I will see the negative I will hear the negative I will feel the negative.  If I can change my focus to positivity... then I see, hear, and feel the positive! If this results in weight loss...AWESOME. If not, I've changed my life for the better anyway and to be honest, I feel like it's going to help with the weight loss.  My weight is a symptom of bigger, deeper things. I feel good about this path. Plus, the nighttime visualization recording makes me sleep really really well! So score!
• Self Care: This is a big one! I have committed to treating myself at least as well as I treat the people I love. That means keeping my apartment in a condition that wouldn't embarrass me if someone showed up unannounced. If I wouldn't subject others to my messy apartment...why would I be okay letting myself live that way? It means eating healthy most of the time, but also allows for a splurge from time to time, not depriving myself...rather striking a healthy balance. It means exercising for stress relief and health. It means letting go of unhealthy relationships and not settling. It means doing whatever it takes to take care of myself, so I can be the best version of myself...because only when I'm my best self can I really be there for others and not deplete myself entirely.  This year I learn to take care of myself and feel okay putting myself first, maybe not all the time, but a lot of the time. I am thinking of it like when you fly...you have to put on your own mask, before you can take care of the person next to you. Filling my cup so when I give to others it doesn't dry up the bucket. It's a work in progress. 
• Adventure! Part of letting go of the stress, anxiety, and doing my visualizations has helped me find my confidence and my adventure spirit. I'm still not going bungee jumping any time soon, but it has allowed me to shed some of the insecurity and fear I have always felt when trying new things.  That fear of failure or embarrassment. I played charades at New Year's. I know that doesn't sound like much, but until now I pretty much would have done ANYTHING to avoid doing something that puts me in the spotlight. In the past things like that would have made me cry or just hide. This is a huge breakthrough for me! So, I am doing new things this year! My friend Efrain and I have discussed the idea of not eating at the same restaurant twice in a year. For me I have added the caveat that if it's something that is AMAZING I will take others or I will go because it brings me joy! I am going to keep a running list of new places and how we felt about them on the blog! 
• The Official 2017 No Repeat Restaurants Challenge! My friend Efrain and I are doing this together (and sometimes separately) we are making a list of unique, fun, sometimes hidden restaurants and coffee shops (and any that we stumble across) that we want to try.  We will report back when we try something new and I will document on the blog the restaurants we try! (I can't speak for Effy, but I will allow repeats if I'm taking new people there or if it just plain brings me JOY!). 
• Write more! That's where the blog comes in! I want to write more... I want to document and be able to look back and see where I started and how much I've grown. So, my plan is to document and write and create. 

I'm sure there are some I've forgotten, but that's a good start for now!!  Onward to embracing 2017!! Woohoo! 

Getting started on the blogging...

Okay...so I had a really tough time figuring out what to call this.  I love books and I figure since I'm aiming for more adventure in my life...be it travel, food, hobbies, or with relationships... I would take some inspiration from Alice and her travels through Wonderland.  And no, not the drug references, but the title.

My goal with this blog is to write more (hence the blog) and to take care of myself and try new things and document what I anticipate being an awesome year.

So, here goes. I'm writing a blog.