Fifteen months of fame

Miles was eating his breakfast this morning - cheese and a waffle with PB Crave - and he was all, like, "You didn't announce the giveaway winner."

And I was all, like, "Thank God you didn't say 'papa' for the 154th time today."

But he was right. I've been riding the marathon high and resting up long enough. It's time to name the winner of the PB Crave giveaway.

No. 42, Julinene, come on down. Shoot me an email, including phone number and address, to hlthystrides at gmail dot com.

Of course, we all know that Miles didn't really say that this morning though he does have a very impressive vocabulary that includes cracker, cheese, poop and ball. I counted his words this weekend, and his repertoire includes nearly 25.

Pretty brilliant if I do say so myself.

Among his other tricks, at 15 months old, dancing this odd little shuffle, throwing away his diapers and throwing the ball ... with his left hand. 

His specialty, though, is throwing tantrums. During a visit to Grammy's (my grandma in Cincinnati), she remarked that the terrible twos are going to be quite rough for me if his early toddlerhood is any indication. We flail, kick feet. There is banging of the head, and I am pretty sure I've gotten smacked in the face. There are mornings when I'm not quite sure I'll even be able to make it to 9 a.m. before taking him to day care. It's a test of will and patience, on both our parts, and, as Grammy says, we all know I'm not the winner.

Like a flip of a switch, though, Miles can turn into his energetic, happy self. He loves to read, grabbing a book from the toy basket and backing up into your lap so you can read. I might make it two pages before he's up to grab another book.

We still struggle a bit sleeping. While we have ditched the bottle completely, Miles will still wake up - on occasion - in the middle of the night for a pacifier. It's the only time he takes it save for when he crawls under the crib to retrieve one while I'm in the shower, and I really don't feel like fighting with him at 2 a.m.

Right now, we have all but four teeth. We're missing the I teeth. The infamous I teeth. The I teeth that I think are coming in and contributing to the snotty nose and snotty attitude.

Or so I can hope. And we know killing hope is a bad thing.

Three Things Thursday: Business propositions

The marathon is three days away. Three. Days. Away.

And I feel ... well, I feel like I'm 39 weeks pregnant. I feel like I'm pregnant, and I know that in the near future that shit is going to get real. It is going to hurt. It will worse before it gets better. And it will all be better once it's over. So let's get it over.

You know what I'm sayin'?

1. If you want to stalk me on race day, you can follow me on twitter, where I've set up race tracking to automatically post into my feed. My bib number is 5760, and I'm in corral D.

And I'll be wearing this:

The same outfit I wore for the Martian half-marathon where I had a strong race and gave it what I had. Maybe I'll even sport the braids.

2. Don't forget to enter my giveaway for PB Crave. You'll thank me. I swear.

3. I got my booty in gear with all this taper free time, and I created a recipe page. It's still a work in progress but it's a start. And when I was making it, I was reminded of a few dishes that need to make it in the rotation again. Like Buffalo Chicken Tacos. Can I get a hells yeah?

(Don't judge - it's the pregnancy ... I mean, taper madness talking.)

Crave-worthy: Product review {+giveaway}

Mark isn't proud to admit it but he's dependent on processed foods. He takes frozen dinners for lunch, cookies and Nutrigrain for the afternoon and lived on Zatarains and frozen pizza before we got married.

As for breakfast? He's happy to make a Jimmy Dean sandwich and content to pop in a few frozen waffles.

This morning, though, he found himself out of the breakfast sandwiches he bought when he went grocery shopping and there were no backup waffles to be consumed. I am sure he was probably dreaming up a trip to McDonald's for breakfast burritos and coffee but I decided to be nice.

nice 
adjective, nic·er, nic·est. 
1. pleasing; agreeable; delightful: a nice visit.
2. amiably pleasant; kind: They are always nice to strangers.
3. characterized by, showing, or requiring great accuracy, precision, skill, tact, care, or delicacy: nice workmanship; a nice shot; a nice handling of a crisis.
4. showing or indicating very small differences; minutely accurate, as instruments: a job that requires nice measurements.
5. Making Peanut Butter Banana Pancakes for your husband and son before having a cup of coffee.

I seriously love these pancakes - they are easy to make, don't require any eggs and are a great way to use up the funkalicious banana that's hanging on the edge.

Oh, and they taste great. They taste even greater when you swap out traditional peanut butter for a half-cup of PB Crave's Cocoa Bananas Peanut Butter. Because, again, I'm nice.

I recently got the chance to try the PB Crave varieties - Razzle Dazzle, Cookie Nookie, Choco Choco and, of course, Cocoa Bananas.

 

About PB Crave

PB Crave is an all-natural, premium peanut butter that is "amazingly" addictive. There are no artificial preservatives, hydrogenated oils, syrups or high fructose corn syrup. It is also gluten and cholesterol free. PB Crave is a subsidiary of Sweet Harvest Foods, a nearly-90 year-old company located in Minnesota. A new and separate plant was built to craft the dizzying blends of premium peanut butters using cutting edge technology and innovation to insure that top quality ingredients reach the package and the consumer in the form they were blended. When you open a jar, you’ll see the pure Belgium chips, yet when you spread the product on bread, it will spread deliciously smooth with little to zero chunks. This craft has been perfected and consumers have given the product rave reviews for taste, quality, and price, especially when you factor in, no jelly needed.

What we thought

I say we because, again, I'm nice and I shared. To say this peanut butter was a hit in our house would be the understatement of the century. The PB Crave seriously elevated the pancakes this morning, and I'm down to a half jar of Razzle Dazzle because it is sublime on a piece of Ezekiel 4:9. Flax Sprouted Whole Grain Bread with blackberry all-fruit spread. (Yes, jelly might not be required but don't take away my blackberry preserves.) Confession: I eat at least one of these combos a day, whether I'm hungry or not.

The Cookie Nookie didn't lend itself to sandwiches in my mind but I loved it in a simple oatmeal breakfast: 1/3 banana and 1/3 cup oats cooked with 2/3 cup water, 2/3 cup unsweetened almond milk, cinnamon and pinch of salt. Once it's to the desired consistency, add sweetener of choice and 1/2 teaspoon maple extract. Top with Cookie Nookie and, if you feel sassy, some chocolate chips (or sprinkles leftover from your son's first birthday party in July).

Some of my favorite things about PB Crave, though, aren't even about the flavor. My favorite things are what's in the jar and where I can get it. It isn't any more caloric than traditional peanut butters, and I can pronounce all of the ingredients. While so many of the fancy flavored nut butters are only available online or at stores such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, PB Crave is available in northeast Indiana. I spotted it at Fresh Market. (It is available, too, at Whole Foods and Earth Fare if you live somewhere cool.)

If my opinion isn't good enough,check out Celebrity Chef Andrew Zimmern's OpenSky Page and video review. 

Remember how I said I was nice? Well, PB Crave is, too. The company is giving one lucky reader a CoCo Banana Variety Pack. (Value $20.97)

To enter

Mandatory: Visit the PB Crave website and, in a comment, tell me which variety you would most like to try.

Additional entries (leave a comment for each of the following, up to 4): Like PB Crave on Facebook; follow PB Crave on Twitter; follow me on Twitter; tweet about this giveaway, being sure to mention @PBCrave and @healthy_strides.

Nitty gritty: Giveaway is open to U.S. residents living in the lower 48 states and ends Friday, Oct. 19, at midnight. The winner will be selected via random number generator and announced on Monday, Oct. 22. The winner will have 72 hours to email me shipping information or a new winner will be chosen. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Void where prohibited by law.

Food Friday: Eating, lately

I've done something magical: I've trained (nearly) for a marathon, and I haven't gained weight. In fact, I've even dropped a couple pounds.

OK, it's really not all that magical. Weight loss is about calories in and calories out. Simple as that. There's plenty of calories out during training but there's also the tendency to put a lot calories in. The trick is to make the calories good stuff as the gorgeous Kim (the other one) pointed out.

Van's Lite Waffles with Razzle Dazzle PB Crave and blackberry jam. Love Van's. Love PB Crave.

Taco Lentils with Garden of Eatin' Sweet Potato Corn Tortilla chips, red onion and just a sprinkle of cheese - it's like nachos gone healthy. The chips were sent to me for review, and I am loving them. I like them more as just a snack, a few in the afternoon to quell the salt fix, but there are nice with both my lentils and black bean chili.

Unreal candy. Have you guys seen this in the store? They have it at my CVS (yes, it's mine), and it's candy without the "junk" or so they say. There's no corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, artificial ingredients, GMOs or preservatives. So, obviously, it is healthy. Duh. OK, maybe not but it is better for you and the varieties I've tried (UN 54, UN 5, UN 8, UN 77) all tend to have fewer calories than their "junked" counterparts.

Pad Kai Mao. I had a rare evening by myself last night, and I decided to treat myself to dinner. I couldn't decide what I wanted, though, and I randomly found myself at Ma Hnin Asia Restaurant, a local place that serves Burmese and Thai food.

Fun fact: Fort Wayne has one of the largest, if not largest, populations of Burmese people outside of Myanmar.

I've always wanted to try Ma Hnin but the place is a bit suspect looking. Then again, all the best places are. I got a chicken-noodle dish that featured fresh, handmade noodles and lots of veggies. I got just a little bit spicy, which was more than enough (especially after I bit right into a pepper). It was delicious and I loved ... all the bites I could eat. It's all about portion control, my friends.

Ice cream. So I skip dairy ... most days. On long run days, though, once the miles are logged, I have a treat or two.

I'm apparently unable to enjoy time by myself because after I painted my nails and watched two episodes of "Grey's Anatomy," I called Mark to see if he and Miles wanted to meet me for ice cream before coming home. It was probably the last warm night of the year and the last time we'll visit for the season. Baby cone for Miles, black raspberry shake for Mark and chocolate sundae for me.

It's hard to believe that Miles couldn't hold the cone or sit on the bench like a big boy for our first trip this year.

What have you been eating lately?