This is my first official food post! 

Very exciting. 

Today was filled with good stuff.  It was a Friday and I was working from home – that is a recipe for some good eating!  It was a day for wraps.

Breakfast was an accidental egg wrap – a side effect of putting scrambled eggs in a pan on medium heat, and promptly forgetting about them while logging into my computer.  Luckily, I caught it just before they burned and added some bacon, feta cheese, and salsa to make the wrap.

Word of Caution: When you buy salsa at the Mexican grocery store it is going to be hot.  They don’t even bother stocking varying degrees of heat or indicating on the bottle that it is spicy.  But I love spicy food.

I needed to read a bunch of material for a new project at work, so instead of sitting on my butt I took it down to the gym in my building and read for an hour on the stationary bike. It is amazing how that makes the time fly!  Before I knew it, my stomach was growling for lunch.  The end of the week means using up the things in my fridge that I bought/made at the beginning of the week.

Today that resulted in a veggie wrap: homemade red pepper white bean dip, homemade pesto, the most delicious arugula EVER from the Piedmont Park Green Market, carrots, and red onion all wrapped in a spinach Flat Out.

Flat Out wraps are awesome – flavorful, 90 cals, 9g protein, and 9g of protein, and no sugar.  If you haven’t tried these, I highly recommend!

Served with a side of crunchy cucumber slices and a big glass of ice water. It was so beautiful outside I decided to enjoy my lunch on the deck:

One of my Sake teammates – Samwise Banshee – is getting married in a few weeks.  We (her teammates) are making the cake for her Bachelorette party tomorrow night.  In true Bachelorette fashion, the cake will be creatively shaped… 🙂

I am in charge of making a cannoli cream to spread between the layers.  So I took a jog to Publix for ricotta cheese.  It is so nice to be able to walk to the store on days like this!

I didn’t take a picture of the delicious cream, but will hopefully have a shot of the cake to post tomorrow.

Cannoli Cream

• 32oz of good ricotta (this is not the time for a fat-free or off brand)
• 1 C of powdered sugar (you can add more to taste – I did!)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2T orange liquor

Put it all in a bowl and beat it with a mixer until it is smooth and creamy.  Mine took about 3 minutes.  You can also reduce the sugar a bit and use the cream for a tasty fresh fruit topping!

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What I did get a picture of was the bacon chocolate chip cookies I made for a softball teammate who had emergency surgery Wednesday night.  Bacon makes everything better, right?

This is closely based on a recipe featured on NPR last winter, by Susan from Food Blogga.  I added coffee, reduced the butter (they were pretty greasy with all the bacon), didn’t add the salt (I used salted butter – it added enough), and reduced the flour a tad.

The coffee addition was good, but I was afraid of putting too much in.  Next time I will definitely add the whole teaspoon ’cause what goes better with bacon than coffee???

Bacon Coffee Chocolate Chip DeliciousnessMmmmm… serve with a glass of milk.  Then bag the rest up ASAP so you don’t eat them all before you can give them to your buddy!

I saw my friend at our softball game tonight.  The doctor benched her for 6 weeks, but she was so bored of laying around a good sport and came out to cheer on the team.  We won – 3-2.  It was a great game.  I even threw a girl out at 2nd from center field!  This is an accomplishment since a) I am used to playing 1st base and b) the accuracy of my throws is somewhat unreliable.

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Bacon Coffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 5 strips bacon
• Just under 1 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 stick (1/2 C) salted butter at room temperature
• 1/2 C white sugar
• 1/3 C light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 C chopped pecans
• 1T instant coffee granules

Cook bacon until browned and done (about 8 mins – it is better/more crispy when you cook it slowly). Crumple a paper town over a plate and lay bacon across to drain and cool. Chop finely.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a small-ish bowl, whisk flour and baking soda.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer (I used a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugars until smooth.

Add egg and vanilla extract, and beat until just blended.

Add the dry ingredients; beat until just incorporated and the flour is dissolved. Fold in the chocolate chips, pecans, and bacon.

Mix the instant coffee with ~ 1tsp of hot water (no need to microwave – hot water from the tap works).  Drizzle the coffee mix into the batter and ever so slightly fold.  You should still be able to see the streaks of black coffee.

Drop one large tablespoon cookie dough 2 to 3 inches apart (they spread a lot) on a baking sheet.

Bake for 12 minutes, or until firm and golden brown around the edges, and still slightly soft in the center.

Cool for 15 minutes.

Can be stored on the counter for 1-2 days, then refrigerated in an airtight container. 

Makes ~15 cookies.

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BIG day tomorrow – I just got a ticket to the Braves game!  It is Bobby Cox’s 2nd to last one was the Braves’ manager.  Hopefully, the Phillies will not beat us like they did tonight. 🙁