What I Ate Wednesday – Fuel My Appetite

 

Lately I have been attempting to write down each run in order to keep better track of my miles. I know I have been running more and want to make sure I am compensating in the fuel department.

Think of your body like a car- the more miles you drive, the more gas you need…The more miles you run, the more fuel you need.

The funny thing is, I don’t need a pen and paper to notify me of the need to eat more, my appetite automatically takes over.

Before discussing recent meals, you should know that I was left with no choice last night but to keep eating apples with peanut butter and chocolate chips until I felt completely satisfied.

I can’t fully explain it since I wasn’t truly hungry as in my-stomach-is-empty-feed-me-now, rather, I had a strong need to eat my favorite combination in multiple form.

I was in no position to argue with the feeling so I went with it and felt so much better afterwards.

Breakfast:

Before my run yesterday, I switched from the two-ingredient pancake pizza back to oatmeal:

Sometimes I heat up the oatmeal (and egg whites added for protein) with the blueberries mixed in and sometimes, like yesterday,  I wait and add the blueberries afterwards.

Of course I mix it all up prior to eating.

You should know the little boy is still going strong on the eggs, Ezekiel raisin toast and fruit combo at breakfast:

I try to give him a mix of whatever fruit I have on hand.  Remember, if you don’t buy it, they can’t eat it.

Special Snack Note:

Steamed asparagus is good company in your bag of carrots.

So I still hate lunch time. I really do. I am always hungry and ready to eat but my cravings, mood and appetite never seem to match up.

Sometimes I still want breakfast. Sometimes I am hungry enough to eat a five-course dinner and sometimes, I can’t figure out a happy medium between the two.

If you are wondering what’s in this bowl, it would be some form of a compromise. A delicious compromise actually. Ever heard of savory oatmeal?

Don’t knock it until you try it. Oats are just another grain like brown rice, amaranth, barley, or even quinoa (which I know is technically a seed but let’s refer to it as a grain for now).

I wanted oatmeal. But I wanted a savory flavor.

Roasted cauliflower, tomato, portobello mushrooms and kale mixed with cooked steel-cut oatmeal topped off with avocado. I do believe I added a lentil/quinoa mix to the bowl as well.

I don’t eat savory oats enough. Every time I randomly make a bowl, I question why I don’t do it more often.

Another thing I don’t make often enough is eggplant.

I go through phases with eggplant and decided to bring it back this week for dinner.

I always see in the prepared foods case at Whole Foods something called “Eggplant steaks” which is a just a fancy term for eggplant parmesan where they slice the eggplant long and thick rather than in little round disks.

I used my quinoa flake breading recipe and loved every bite.

My son used to love eggplant parm when he was little yet now he won’t eat it which is just fine since I can make our favorite Gardein “meat” sauce at the same time.

There is still time to enter the Gardein Coupon giveaway!

I can’t recall the last time I have missed dessert.

The other night I followed this recipe for the original chocolate chip cookie dough bites. You know, the grain-free cookies where you blend chick peas, peanut butter and chocolate chips together.

Watch out – you will want to eat all of them at once.

You will see that the recipe calls for honey – I didn’t have a lot of honey left (actually, I just had no patience attempting to squeeze it out of the bottle) so I used Mighty Maple peanut butter which I think added enough sweetness making the honey not even necessary.

Recipes I want to try:

I pin so many wonderful recipes from my favorite food bloggers each day. I can’t always get to each recipe immediately but I love my pinterest boards since they keep track of all of them for me.

On my list at the moment are these brussels sprouts, this vegan fudge cake  and these black bean fudge drop cookies.

Be sure to check out of the rest of the What I Ate Wednesday fun!

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Do you keep track of your weekly mileage?

Do you notice right away an increase in appetite when you log more miles?

Ever have savory oatmeal?

 

 

Venting On The Treadmill

 

The best part about working from Panera Bread for a few hours is the free refills on coffee.

I didn’t even need the coffee yesterday though because I was totally riding the runner’s high I achieved from six seriously fabulous and speedy treadmill miles.

I decided that if I just keep sharing with you my newfound love for the treadmill, you will become a convert for the winter with me.

Yesterday’s reason to love the treadmill (or really, to love running in general):

Running allows me to vent without being interrupted.

And I don’t mean venting in the form of talking; I mean venting in the form of releasing your suppressed anger and emotions in the form of speed.

Remember when I said the other day that one of my favorite songs to listen to right now is Titanium?

When the song came on my playlist yesterday while I was running, something released inside of me that I wasn’t quite sure was there.

You shout it out, But I can’t hear a word you say

I’m talking loud not saying much

I’m criticized but all your bullets ricochet

You shoot me down, but I get up….

Even if you think you aren’t angry, annoyed or bothered by something, think again.

I’m bulletproof, nothing to lose Fire away, fire away

Ricochet, you take your aim Fire away, fire away

You shoot me down but I won’t fall I am titanium…

Isn’t it funny how the lyrics of a song can ignite some serious feelings?

And what better way is there to release and acknowledge those feelings than through running?

When I tell you that a fire lit up inside me, I mean my speed hit paces I rarely see outside of a race.

And when I thought I was cooling down, l glanced at my current speed to see what I thought was a recovery pace yet the treadmill read out a pace of under 7:30/mile which in speed button terms was still somewhere over 8.0 if I recall correctly.

I forgot I was even on the treadmill if you want to know the truth. I don’t even think I realized how many times I pushed the speed button up.

You should know that I listened to Titanium on repeat for three miles. Three miles that were accomplished in under 23 minutes yet seemed to pass in a flash.

I was proud of this workout. Proud for running so fast on the treadmill, proud for working up to my ability, proud for what my “ability” has become.

Acknowledging some feelings and turn them into a torching of serious calories was pretty awesome as well.

Cut me down But it’s you who’ll have further to fall… Raise your voice, sticks and stones may break my bones….

Stick and stones my friends, sticks and stones. Such a phrase from our childhood but one we need to remember throughout our adult life as well, yes?

Yesterday’s run charged me up for the entire day, including my appetite for lunch. Whenever I run super hard or super long, I crave carbs in the form of oatmeal and fruit all day long. And of course peanut butter, do I really need to state the obvious?

This time, the usual craving combination included sweet potatoes.

Since we know I never ignore a craving, lunch happily appeared like this:

Who said you can’t mix sweet potato in with your warm bowl of steel-cut oatmeal?

There is no better feeling than eating exactly what you are craving. Especially when eaten with a pink spoon from 16 Handles.

If you are looking for more adventurous ways to eat your oats, click here for a great article with a bunch of recipes for savory oatmeal.

So I really can’t believe today is Friday – what a weird week. Snow in the forecast for tomorrow once again and I hate to even say, I also heard Sunday night into Monday.

How come when I was a kid we NEVER had the luck of snow on a Sunday night?

I am going to try to get some grocery shopping done today (as if I wasn’t just at a Trader Joe’s within the last 48 hours or anything) to pick up some necessities including ingredients for a few recipes.

After posting the way I have been making S’mores for years as well as receiving a few emails this week regarding some of my other simple cooking techniques, I decided that I should offer up some more recipes that I don’t really consider recipes.

Does that make sense? So many of the meals and snacks that I cook don’t feel like recipes to me since I make them all of the time without really thinking but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a process involved that can be shared in recipe form.

The second best thing to a chocolate chip cookie recipe is a life quote about cookies:

One of my closest friends, who lives down in Florida, thought of me when she saw this picture and it arrived on my doorstep last night.

Words to live by.

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Is there a specific song that ignites a real fire in you while running?

Oats – sweet or savory or both? I have done the savory a few times and they were terrific but my taste buds always want sweet.

Do you have go-to “recipes” that don’t feel like recipes?