Stuffed French Toast

Lazy weekend mornings when the husband's golfing are for sleeping in with brown dogs. They're for watching bad television the husband would never watch with you and downloading photos you've been letting sit on your camera for far too long.


Mornings like these are for making yourself a good breakfast and topping it with your uncle's homemade maple syrup so when you sit very still in your recliner with you feet up, you can feel the tiny humans in your belly go crazy.

Minty Coffee-Infused Protein Shake

Camera phone = bad photos

My good friend, truth be told best friend from grad school, A, and I took our capstone lunch breaks on the lawn of our very expensive private college. There was a serious heat wave (at least for the Northeast) that summer, and we'd sit under the biggest tree we could find, even if it meant fighting off tent caterpillars the enter hour we were out there. (If you don't know about tent caterpillars, you aren't missing much; I will spare you the details.)

We ate light lunches we packed from home: turkey sandwiches, fruit, caffeine, simple stuff. Sometimes A would crack me up and bring just a 99-cent bag of chips and a coke. She'd often finish her "meal" by telling me: "Alright. I'm going to turn the bag up now."

That was her way of saying her flavored corn chips were so dang good she was going to tilt her had back and get every last crumb she could.

I miss those special moments, A.

Low-Carb Waffles

High-Protein, Low-Carb Waffles

You know that feeling you get in the back of your throat after you've just eaten so much bread so quickly that you're about to get the hiccups and know you're going to need some peanut butter? No? Are you telling me you've never eaten bread so fast you've gotten that hiccups or that you don't cure hiccups with peanut butter?

Oh, well. Let's not start that debate.

Let me just tell you that these waffles were a long time coming. I tried them with three egg whites, which resulted in a volcano of a waffle erupting all over our kitchen countertop. I tried adding water, which made the waffle iron sizzle and steam - and make very crispy, airy waffles.

Finally I stuck with two egg whites, skipped the water and ended up with waffles.

Thank God.

High-Protein Godiva Pumpkin Spice Iced Coffee Bliss

I love getting mail. Coming home to a box on the front porch, wondering whose name is on the return address label ... the anticipation of what's inside just about kills me. Even if I know I ordered something, and I know it's just a used book, I'm still super excited. So imagine how exciting I find it when I pull into the driveway and see that the mail lady has left me a brown box I wasn't expecting.

That's exactly what happened a couple of weeks ago.

The weather was turning a little cool. We'd turned off the AC and were enjoying mornings with the windows open. It was starting to feel like fall and, lover of summer that I am, I was slowly embracing the change. I still wanted to wear sandals to work every day, but visions of Thanksgiving were starting to dance in my head. Wool sweaters, pie and stuffing, oh, how I love thee. But I wasn't ready to say goodbye to skirts and fresh local watermelon just yet. 

And then I got a package in the mail.