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!

Ahhhh, the joys of blog updates and CSS coding. If you visited earlier and happened to get my lined background showing behind my text (making things very hard to read), please forgive the coding updates. Things should all be in working order now, without any random headaches or a need for “may cause seizures” warnings. Thank you for your patience!

Let’s do lunch, shall we?

One of the best parts of having a toddler to feed is having toddler inspired food. Snack plates for lunch yesterday and grilled cheese for lunch today!

Although not just any grilled cheese. I don’t really do the two plain slices of bread and floppy square piece of “cheese” thing. I need more substance (and nutritional value) to my sandwiches than that. And so does this wee one.

I made us amped up grilled cheese sandwiches using fresh bread from the grocer bakery (aka ingredients I can understand – whole wheat flour #1), slices of sharp cheddar (not fake squares of congealed “cheese”), thick tomato slices, and a hefty spread of hummus.

Not your typical grilled cheese, because it’s even better! Simple and satisfying. Just like childhood.  

My recent food choices aren’t the only things reminiscent of childhood. On the way to our family gathering for Labor Day this weekend, we had to drive through a small town, country area that had house after house after house on land with pastures full of cows, horses, and the occasional chickens. It quickly sent me back to childhood.

When growing up, I used to regularly go horseback riding when visiting my grandparents in the North Georgia Mountains and would always dream of growing up and having my own stable with horses. I would live in a large estate and get to ride my horses every day.

I remember whenever we would drive up to my grandparent’s house we would pass by similar places and I would easily spend the hour car ride daydreaming of the day I could live in such a place. Clearly this was before I understood that pesky little thing called money. But it was always so fun to daydream! And I found myself doing the same looking at all the land with horses on the way to my sister-in-law’s house on Sunday.

It’s funny how our dreams change, huh? Now I don’t aimlessly daydream about such things. Instead I dream big on trusting that God has a plan for me and going after my passions. I dream about being a good mother to my children and having a strong family unit in our many years to come. Still mighty good dreams to have, but it sure was fun going back to that childhood innocence of dreaming looking at all the horses. Although now I know I wouldn’t want to own horses. I have enough trouble as it is trying to get my dog to love me!

Sigh. One of these days I will get you to love me, Roxy. I will!

• What was one of your daydreams from childhood?
• What food from your childhood do you still love?