I think my body has gone into overdrive on wanting to get back to my regular eating habits after last week. I have encountered numerous cravings the past couple of days. Luckily, all of my cravings have come in the form of healthier choices in lieu of the incessant pizza and ice cream cravings of last week. How nice to have a place to share them with you for another What I Ate Wednesday post!

Yesterday morning I grabbed a pack of Love Grown granola to snack on before hitting the gym for a cardio session.

When I got to the gym, I hopped on the elliptical without any particular plan in mind. Then, after just a couple of minutes I decided to bang out an interval routine that came to mind right then. I don’t really know where it came from, but it worked me good.

Basically, I alternated between a higher speed and intensity interval and a recovery period. My recovery period remained one minute after every speed interval, but the speed interval increased by one minute each round until hitting 5 minutes. I went through the interval session twice, before cooling down for the final 5 minutes of this 50 minute routine. Loved it! I know you will too if you give it a shot!

After that, I came home with a strong craving. For oatmeal with strawberries, raisins, and peanut butter.

I crave this breakfast practically every day. I’m cool with it. I know it satisfies me and I would hate to vary it up “just because” and end up wishing I had my tried and true oatmeal with iced coffee instead. Sometimes I crave different things for breakfast – like PBJ French Toast – but it never fails that I return to this favorite.

My cravings went down a slightly different road than normal lately once lunch time rolled around. I knew I wanted two things – an egg sandwich and a smoothie.

Interesting combo, but it’s literally all I could think about for lunch. My egg sandwich featured one egg, a garlic herb laughing cow wedge, spinach, and tomato.

My smoothie included a frozen banana, a scoop of peanut butter, vanilla almond milk, some vanilla protein powder, and xanthan gum to get that milkshake quality I so adore.

Once snack time rolled around I, yet again, knew only one thing would make me happy. I must have had breakfast on the mind because I found myself craving the exact bowl of cereal Courtney had shared earlier in the week.

Funnily enough, her post was about how that bowl didn’t satisfy her cravings. I guess it felt shunted by her and hopped through the screen and planted itself as a craving in my belly. Thanks Court for sparking a cereal bowl craving that I could easily satisfy – Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal, Fiber One 80 Honey Squares, and a banana. 😉

My snack held me over for a bit of studying NASM materials before my sister showed up for dinner. We had taco night on the menu, but when dinner rolled around I wanted something a little different. I couldn’t completely overhaul the menu since others wanted their tacos, so instead, I took some inspiration from my blogger lunch and created a Mexican breakfast quesadilla.

I scrambled one egg and one egg white with a mix of black beans and corn. Then I mixed it all with salsa and lettuce to layer on a whole wheat tortilla. Topped with cheese and another tortilla to cook in the funky little quesadilla press I got as a gift forever ago.

It even has fun little designs on it. 🙂

It turned out great! Me gusto muchisimo! <—The former Spanish teacher in me is pained at the lack of accent marks in that sentence.

I wrapped up the night with some Phase 10 game playing action with the sis and her boyfriend. And an ice cream cookie sandwich.

‘Twas National Ice Cream Sandwich Day after all. And who am I to not celebrate such a momentous occasion??  😉

• What random food holiday would you create? I think every day is Strawberry Raisin PB Oatmeal Day here.
• What is the last random craving you had? I didn’t mention it above, but I had the strangest craving for gum yesterday. I don’t usually chew gum, either!

Happy weekend! Yet again, I got my weekend started on the right foot (ha! I just typed ‘food’ at first…we see what my mind is on). After switching my rest day to Fridays to accommodate half marathon training better, I felt rejuvenated and refreshed for this morning’s long run. Er, wait. Scratch that.

I did feel rejuvenated and refreshed…but I had no long run awaiting me. This week is a recovery week for me on the ole plan, so no long run on the schedule. Every run this week has called for a three or four mile easy run, including today. Knowing that my fresh feeling legs would want to run fast, I resigned myself to the treadmill – to make sure I stayed at a “recovery run pace”. Running on the treadmill is so much harder for me to do at quicker paces, so it worked well. Plus, the lower impact and flat running can’t hurt in a recovery week either.

The torture device didn’t drive me too bonkers today. I got my music going, set myself at 6.2 mph, tossed a towel over the screen, and just went.

And…done! Before, I always focused on taking one rest day a week, but never regular entire weeks to lighten the load. For half marathon training, though, I certainly see the benefits of recovery weeks. Already so glad I opted for the longer training plan that includes them!

Despite having a shorter run, I still came home ravenous. Running does that to me. I don’t mind. I like food. Currently, I really like peanut butter and jelly food. Always, I really like breakfast food. Saturdays, I really like fancy breakfast food – pancakes, waffles, french toast. You know what’s going to happen next don’t you?

Peanut Butter & Jelly French Toast

I fired up our Cuisinart panini press / griddler (love this thing!) and got cracking. I beat together one egg, a splash of vanilla almond milk, and cinnamon for my dipping. Using two slices of whole wheat bread, I made your standard french toast. Dip, cook, flip, cook, plate. Nothing fancy…but, oh sweet yum. Especially when giving me a PBJ fix.

I heated up about two tablespoons of peanut butter until it was slightly melty to spread over my french toast like a thick syrup. Then, I made my jelly syrup. We had an almost empty jar of Just Fruit strawberry jelly. I added a few diced fresh strawberries to the jar and popped that sucker in the microwave for 20 seconds. Out came a fruity, hearty syrup to douse my already peanut butter slathered french toast.

Breakfast is served!

• Do you regular take lighter training weeks to help your body recover/rest?
• Have you liked Love Grown Foods on their Facebook page and followed them on Twitter yet? Remember for each new like/follow they are donating a full bag of granola to hungry children. Spread the love!