Hotel Breakfast

I am in lovely New Mexico again for work.  I'm about to attempt to recreate the most beautiful run of my life this morning, but somehow, I don't think it will be the same, that really was a special day.  I just have to wait for it to be a little bit lighter out since I'm running alone in somewhere pretty unfamiliar and kind of rural (I could run toward the city, but it's much prettier the other direction). 

I find myself travelling to many of the same cities for work.  I'm most often in Philly (or the surrounding area), second most often is New Mexico.  Then it's probably Missoula, Denver and Indy in the running for the next most frequent destinations. 

And between my two most frequent destinations, I have completely opposite but equally appealing breakfast options.

I actually have two hotels I use in Philly -- one in Center City (federal court and Philadelphia County), one in the burbs for when I'm in non-Philadelphia county court.  And I have one hotel I use in New Mexico.

In Philly suburbs, there is no room service, which blows.  I love getting breakfast in my room so that I can eat and drink while I'm getting dressed, watching the news, packing up, etc.  In Philly Center City, I have a great breakfast that I order from room service -- double oatmeal with a side of berries.  Anyway, in the Philly suburbs, I usually eat in the lobby and I often have defense counsel meet me there for breakfast so we can go over the plan and so I don't get lost going where we need to go. 

Well, anyway, in the Philly suburbs, I learned in November that they can actually modify something on the breakfast menu to give me almost exactly what I eat for breakfast at home.

At home, I am in the "green smoothie" routine and I have been for a very long time.  I make mine with spinach (usually kale too, but not always), frozen fruit (I use a medley of strawberries, peaches, mango, pineapple and grapes), frozen beets (they make the color so pretty, and I looooove beets), carrot juice, and soy milk.  Then I add in protein powder if I worked out, chia seeds, and ground flaxseed.  And if I'm super-hungry for some reason, I also have veggie breakfast sausage, but that's only once every couple weeks. 

In the Philly suburbs, they have a strawberry smoothie on the menu, but they also have a spinach omelette.  So last month, I asked if they could put spinach in the strawberry smoothie.  They did!  I was so happy.  It wasn't exactly the same, but close.  They use yogurt, but I wasn't going to complain.  Spinach and strawberries in liquid form was close to perfect for me.  I've already decided that next time I'm there (probably not until January!), I'm going to have a ziplock bag with protein powder, chia seeds and flaxseed, and I'm going to ask them to add that in, and to use soy milk instead of yogurt.  Slow tweeks and eventually, it will be like I'm not even travelling (except my running buddies aren't there). 

But here in New Mexico, it's the complete opposite of my healthy home breakfast.  They have a breakfast buffet with biscuits and gravy.  Vegetarian gravy.  Not even close to the delicious veg gravy that Amy tipped me off to find at Gravy in Portland, but that basic white chunky unhealthy looking gravy that you find at breakfast buffets in the south. 

I don't know why I love it.  I didn't grow up with biscuits and gravy.  We had cream chipped beef on toast on special occasions (my mom's family way, way, way back is British, and I guess that recipe stayed in the family), which is similar I guess.  But for some reason in 2012 maybe (2013?) at this hotel in New Mexico, I asked if it was vegetarian and then tried it.  And ever since I've been hooked. 

After my beautiful run in New Mexico last time, I had two biscuits with gravy that I ate in my room, then I went downstairs to the buffet to meet defense counsel and I had two more!  Seriously, no self control when it comes to them.  Thank goodness they're not anywhere close to Dallas!  But remember, the day of 4 biscuits was a much longer run than it was supposed to be, so I have a partial excuse... 

Today, I'm assuming that I'm going to stick to my run schedule (no extra miles this week, marathon on Sunday!, which is why I can wait a bit longer for it to be light), so I'm going to have to hold myself to a three biscuit maximum.  But honestly, the odds aren't good, especially since I have ZERO future trips to New Mexico on the schedule...

Okay, off to run!  Then biscuits, then mediating my biggest active case...