Do you remember how after my first 5k race, I was craving me some good greasy spoon eggs and sausage? It didn’t quite turn out as I’d hoped. So for my second 5k, I decided to be more prepared. I did a search online for breakfast places “South of the River” so I could find some options in our neck of the woods.

Enter Windmill Cafe.

I’ve driven by this place several times, wondering if it was ever open. It’s a small concrete building which I didn’t think had any windows:

And even though it’s right off Highway 13, it always seemed desolate to me. It’s as if, despite its surroundings, it’s in the middle of nowhere.

Not too long ago, some friends of ours said they had stopped there on their way out of town. I had completely forgotten about it. But when the name popped up during my online search, I knew it was where we had to go!

And it was just as we had expected!

We sipped on crappy diner coffee while we waited for our platters of breakfast-y goodness. Despite the fact that I like my coffee strong, I didn’t have high expectations. I tried to doctor it up with a little creamer, but I ended up just taking a few sips. I tried. It just wasn’t worth it.

About three minutes into our sipping, our waitress came over to apologize that she forgot to hang our order up. Huh?

I just wanted you to know because everything is usually out in five or six minutes. The cooks are really fast and those people over there came in after you and I didn’t want you to wonder what happened when they get their food before you!

Of course, we probably would have never noticed. But how cool that she owned up to the fact and didn’t blame anyone else but herself. In fact, she gave the kitchen props!

Sure enough, the food was out five minutes later.

I went all out and ordered the Windmill Favorite: two eggs, sausage or bacon, hash browns, choice of pancakes or French toast and small juice.

But wait a minute! How was I to soak up the runny yolk from my eggs?! What was I thinking? I bartered and traded one of my three pieces of sausages with Rob for a piece of his rye toast. That’s why you see the rye toast above with only two sausage links.

I ate both eggs, two pieces of sausage, the toast and only the crunchy part of the hash browns. {…Because that’s the best part, right?}

But also included with the Windmill Favorite was:

I prefer to mop up my eggs with regular toast, not with this sweeter stuff; but the Windmill Favorite came with French Toast (or pancakes). I don’t like my French Toast too sweet, so I didn’t add any syrup or use the butter. It was fine as is, if only needing just a *little* more powdered sugar. And I only ate one piece. In fact, I sort of ate it at the end as dessert!

And to wash it all down:

I normally don’t drink nor order juice. {Hey, if I’m going to spend empty calories on fluids, it’s going to be on wine!} It’s too easy for me to pour juice down the hatch by the liter. However, it was part of the Windmill Favorite. I was please that it arrived in the the perfect, small 4-oz juice glass pictured above. Talk about the right size!

When all was said and done, though, I think the calorie count ended up around 830. OUCH! Sure, I had just burned about 430 calories running the 5k, but I also knew that we had dinner plans out with friends that night.

So a note to self for future reference: Carrie, if you must have a fried egg as part of your greasy spoon breakfast, you only need to eat one of them. Same goes with the sausage. Just have one link. Eat them slowly and savor. Good for you for only one piece of the French toast! (You normally don’t order that anyway,) And smart to only eat the part of the hash browns you liked. Just remember to practice the 50% solution. Bust most importantly: Stop thinking that just because you ran that you need to fuel yourself and can eat anything and as much as you want.

Rob ordered the Gourmet Hash Browns with Two Eggs and Toast:

Gourmet hash browns with a slice of square American cheese on top? We sooooo didn’t want to like it. But it was so hard not to!

Yes, if we *need* a greasy spoon breakfast in a pinch, we’d go here in a heartbeat. There’s nothing gourmet about it, but if want this kind of breakfast and are too lazy to make it yourself. Once you sit down, you’ll be eating in minutes {even if they forget to put your order in.}

Windmill Cafe in Savage is open weekdays 5:30a – 2p and weekends 6a – 2p.

Question for you:

How do you get out of the mentality that you can eat as much as you want after a hard run or workout?

Cheers~
Carrie