In case you haven’t guessed, this post will talk about gas. Farts. Toots. Stench bombs. Whatever you want to call them. If you have more class than I do and want to skip over, that’s just fine. If you have your own musical qualities in which to relate or share, let’s bond. It will be a grand ole time!

Did you realize that the month of July had five Saturdays. I did. Not because I’m some freak of nature who can mentally figure out dates in her head. Although, that’s true too. I mainly paid attention to the five Saturdays in the month of July because it meant I had to spread our monthly grocery budget across five weeks instead of the usual four. Say what, kemosabe?!

After our grocery bill rang up last week and I realized we still managed to come in under budget, I patted myself on the back as I left the store. Then I learned that my budget meal shopping could end my marriage. Let’s just say when looking for cheap meals many of my favorites involve beans. We had lots and lots of beans this past week.

White Bean Salad

Breakfast for Dinner Quesadilla with Black Beans

Veggie Pot Pie with Black Eyed Peas (inspired by Meghann’s recipe)

Even the night I planned to resort to clear out items we have stocked in our freezer, I ended up with beans…

Morning Star Farms Spicy Black Bean Burger…with hummus (extra beans!)

Peter wouldn’t touch me with a ten-foot pole for fear of me intoxicating his nostrils after all of those meals. I won the budget game, but certainly didn’t win the digestive game. Oh, yes. I’m going there. Beans truly are a musical fruit with me. And I have such difficulty keeping tabs on it! I get incredibly bad stomach cramps if I try to hold in the “bombs of stench” as Peter so kindly has called them.

I amaze myself sometimes, so I really do feel bad when things just slip. Okay, I don’t feel so bad when things slip around Peter. He knew what he got himself into when he chose to marry me. But around others….EEEK! I usually just succumb to suffering gas pains for fear of people avoiding me forever. Yet, I cannot lie. It happens sometimes.

Like this past week. In spin class. During a climb. Those poor souls behind me. It must have been like a missile! Then, at the grocery store. Only myself and one other person in the aisle. And I know she knows I did it, yet I still walked away nonchalantly. Then avoided contact the remainder of my shopping. Oh, how embarrassing! Hey…I know I’m not alone. Right? Right?!?! 

• What staple foods do you use when shopping super cheap?
• Do you ever have to “let one rip” in public? What do you do? 

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!