Time for some spring cleaning.  But not the boring type.  

The boring type would be cleaning my closet or bathroom.  I'm talking the food involved type.  Spring cleaning my fridge!  So this month, the Recipe ReDux theme is "Spring Cleaning."  It wasn't difficult to realize that I had some ingredients that needed used up.  Honestly, some of my favorite meals are thrown up by looking at what is in my fridge and just going with it.  

So where have I been these past 5 weeks?  Busy.  Gosh I'm a terrible blogger.  Guys I'm so sorry.  So I'm in the food service rotation of my dietetic internship and if your at all familiar with food service, the hours aren't typical and there is food around me ALL DAY LONG.  Sounds like a good thing from a money standpoint (and a food lovers perspective) but it probably isn't... but I'll get to that later.  Because I haven't been preparing many of my own meals for the past month and a half, I haven't really been cooking or grocery shopping.  Hence, no recipes recently.

So, when I was tasked with spring cleaning my fridge, there wasn't much to go through.  However, I had recently bought a bunch of eggs on sale that were going to go bad, and had some veggies that were on their last leg, in addition to some chicken sausage in the freezer and then BAM!  This recipe was born.  Frittatas are no brainer recipes that you cant mess up.  Throw in whatever you need to eat into the mix and then bake.  Couldn't be easier.  The best part is that I've had a grab and go breakfast for days now.  Just pop a slice of the leftover frittata in the microwave and you're good to go.  For those of you unfamiliar with frittatas, think of it as basically a crustless egg pie.  SO DELICIOUS.

So if you've made it this far in the post, congratulations!  I wanted to take a minute to share with you some of my personal observations while temporarily joining the world of food service management.  Having the majority of my meals provided for has been nothing short of wonderful.  However, it has put me in an environment forcing me to make choices I haven't had to make in a long time.  As many of you know, I am a huge advocate for the concept that nutrition is dependent on us making educated choices; weighing the decisions of the food we eat.  I don't think of any one food as good or bad.  I think of eating as a series of choices.  I think that it's okay to eat that cookie, as long as you understand that it might be less filling than eating Greek yogurt with fruit.  Eating is all about understanding the choices we make in order to achieve balance.  My typical stocked fridge at home is mostly filled with healthy snacks, fruits, and veggies so making the smart decision is usually pretty easy for me.  However, being in an environment where all the healthy and less healthy options I could ever dream of are readily available has been nothing but challenging.  I have made the conscious choice to pick the options like curly fries and cookies instead of fruit and baked potatoes.  Having the less desirable choices around is tempting and choosing to not eat them is not easy.  I've even gained a few pounds these last few weeks, however, I don't fall back on my opinion.  Eating is not about the food options available, but the choices we make in order to achieve balance.  I've chosen to eat cookies every day.  That's my choice.  It's not the fault of the facility I'm working in that I've gained a few pounds.  They have not forced me to eat a cookie with lunch every day.  I've decide to.  I'm using this as a way to reflect on the experience.  While I understand why some people may not always agree with my nutritional perspective, I wanted to take a moment and reflect on these past few weeks and relate it back to my soapbox.  

I like this recipe a lot.  You can literally throw in any veggies or meats you like.  Get creative with your frittatas and tell me what add-ins you'll use!  

serves 6

Today I bring you one of the best breakfasts (or brunches...if you like to sleep in).

Pancakes are the best.  Second comes eggs but I can't wrap my head around calling eggs the best breakfast when I eat eggs for literally every meal of the day.  Like yesterday's lunch for example.  Anyhow, calling anything "loaded" automatically gets my attention.  Does it get yours?  When I hear that a recipe is loaded, I envision so many delicious foods incorporated within one delicious recipe.  Hopefully this does not disappoint.  I loaded my version up with bananas and blueberries (my all time favorite pancake combo).  I think that creamy bananas make all pancakes better, balanced out by sweet yet tart blueberries.  YUM YUM YUM.  Load your pancakes up with your favorite toppings!  These are fluffy yet durable pancakes and they can hold the toppings.  I really wish I got a photo of just how much fruit is inside those bad boys.  And don't forget about the oatmeal!  There's oatmeal in these guys!  And I've recently become obsessed with oatmeal so having that as a mandatory ingredient for these pancakes was necessary.

So... oatmeal.  Have you ever actually run out of oatmeal?  I didn't think it was possible.  But guys... it is.  I know that's a really random thing to share with you all.  The past week was kind of random.  I can't really put my finger on why.  Likely because I haven't had a "normal routine" for a while.  And granted my normal isn't "normal" but I think it threw me off my game a little.  We conducted interviews all week for future interns to my dietetic internship.  Not gonna lie, listening to 31 applicants was exhausting.  The catered Panera lunches helped, but definitely exhausting.  These interviews were not on a regular schedule either so I'm sure that goes with some of this weirdness I felt last week.

But actually... GUYS!  It felt like summer last week.  And by summer, I mean mid-west summer.  Like we jumped from being in the low 20's to being in the 60's!  People were walking around in shorts and flip flops here.  Which is crazy because it wasn't that warm!  Like wait until August and it's 90 F.  Those fools will feel silly.  I was able to run outside last week!  The snow melted and it was wonderful.  I actually was able to run in shorts and a t-shirt.  It makes marathon training more fun.  Today the high is 75 F here in Peoria (is that record setting?  it must be).  I just remember this time last year it was cold and icky out.  I know I'm an adult who just used the word icky.  Get over it.  But really, can't wait to run after work today... it would be a waste of such a gorgeous day if I didn't.

Speaking of running... these pancakes make the BEST post run meal.  They have all sorts of delicious things in them and I top mine with peanut butter.  So these are loaded with oatmeal, banana, and blueberries and topped with peanut butter pretty much making them the best ever.  Are you ready for delicious?  These kept me full for hours yesterday so be warned.  Next time I make them I'm adding dried cherries and walnuts and blueberries and chocolate chips.  YUM-O.  Tell me what you put in your pancakes!  I want to know.