Afternoon, friends! We had a slight delay in getting into the regular fun of What I Ate Wednesday today. And with good reason, too. I’m loving all the comments, perspectives, and general thoughts in my last post on blogging money and page views talk. Have you weighed in, yet? I would love to hear your feedback! It is something I value and I believe this is a discussion worth sharing. So, hop on over and drop a line there before diving into some delicious What I Ate Wednesday action. Gotta love Jen and her link round-ups for inspiring great meal ideas!

Since I felt compelled to talk about blog money and page views this morning, we have to do a little backing up to yesterday afternoon and evening. After my sweat fest of a workout with my favorite at home cardio workout,Peter suggested taking a short walk around the neighborhood as a family. It’s one of our favorite ways to pass time together.

We even had to bundle up a bit! The temperatures dropped, so I had to bust out my Champion jacket from the Shape Your Life ambassador program (look for a review tonight!).

After our walk, I came home with dinner determination. It was time to tackle another previously hated food. Last week, I gave asparagus another failed shot…and this week, I wanted to give quinoa another try and had this handy sample from the Healthy Living Summit.

One of the lunches at Healthy Living Summit featured a quinoa dish that I drooled over. It was incredible! Before that, I had tried quinoa once with a recipe of my own…and hated it. I realized that my problem was having a bland ole quinoa. I always wanted to love quinoa (hello??? easy, quick, and nutritional powerhouse!!) and figured I would make an effort again, making sure to use a recipe with a little more pizazz.

Enter Mama Pea’s vegetarian jambalaya from her book. Enter a newfound love of quinoa and an even greater appreciation of Sarah and her genius ways with food.

I now want to rack up a million and one quinoa recipes and eat it every week for the rest of my life. Do you see another food kick starting around here?

Delicious food doesn’t stop there! This morning after a drizzly five mile run, I came home hankering for a warm bowl of oatmeal. Go figure, right? I did want something a little more decadent and special though, so I crafted a chocolate strawberry oats bowl.

Oats with cocoa powder, chopped strawberries, raisins, peanut butter, and an Adora chocolate calcium disc chopped and sprinkled on top.

Bowl-licking good!

It filled me up and powered me right through until lunch – which featured more quinoa jambalaya, an apple, and slices of sharp cheddar. I am loving on the cheddar lately. Hmmm… wonder if I could find a way to combine my two new obsessions. A quinoa sharp cheddar “macaroni & cheese”, perhaps? Or maybe I should play it safe and stick with tried and true recipes. I don’t want to find myself hating on the little grain balls again, after all!

• Do you have a quinoa recipe you can share? Link it up!
• How often do you lick your dishes clean? Daily! Oats are just too good!

Don’t you love a Sunday afternoon/evening where you know you don’t have the typical Monday business ahead of you? Long live the three day weekend! And I hope you are having a good one so far!

While I certainly don’t have any plans to write home about going on tomorrow, I did have quite the good day yesterday.Remember that feat of accomplishment I shared with you yesterday morning?

Well, I wasn’t about to let that milestone pass me by without a formal celebration. Psshaw! I wanted to party and do it up right! And if you know me at all by now, then you know that means some good eating, don’t ya?  

You better believe it.

I had one thing on my mind to commemorate my first venture into double digit mileage territory: The Flying Biscuit. AKA some of the best breakfast grub around.

I fell in love with their well-known grits, biscuits, chicken sausages, and more a little over a year ago. Most of the locations aren’t convenient (kind of like paying to eat breakfast out), but certain times call for going out of the way and doing the unusual. Especially when it includes 50% off savings thanks to Scoutmob. For the record – you need to see if you can use Scoutmob deals in your area if you don’t know about them already. You don’t have to pre-purchase the deal like other group discount sites. Use what you want, when you want. Thanks so much to Lee for cluing me in!

After going back and forth over the menu, I finally settled on a decision that would get me a little bit of everything that I pine after at The Flying Biscuit.

The Egg-stravaganza!!! And an extravaganza it was! Check it out….

The infamous fluffy, creamy, want-to-know-how-they-make-them-so-dang-good grits.

A giant, soft, warm, homemade buttermilk biscuit – with fresh apple butter!!!

Spicy, full-of-flavor, chicken sausage and turkey bacon alongside two perfectly scrambled eggs.

Two slices thick-sliced, whole wheat french toast topped with a fresh raspberry compote and a honey cream glaze (heaven in my mouth).

I wanted to try a bit of everything and planned to share my dish with Makenzie. Turns out, ten miles will make a monster of my hunger.

Total and complete domination! I ended up fighting lovingly giving Makenzie bites of my food. Oh, come on. Let’s be for real, here. I gave the kid the bare minimum and then told Peter to cough up his food. He wasn’t the one who ran ten miles. Girl’s gotta eat!

And you know what I did after that? Went straight home and crashed with a three hour nap. It was pure heaven and the absolute best way to celebrate reaching ten miles. It couldn’t possibly have been better. Well, besides that little thing we call DQ that made a special appearance later that night to ease watching the UGA loss.

Told ya. A very good day indeed. Who needs big holiday plans after a day like that?!

• What have you been up to this weekend?
• Does a challenging workout make you more ravenous than normal?