Biz’s Breakfast Cookie

Back when my sister and I did Weight Watchers in 1999-2000, the program was based on points, but you had to take into consideration the calories,fat AND fiber.  The higher the fiber content, meant the lower the point number which in turn let you eat more stuff.  My sister and I were totally all about getting the most food for the point value.  Enter in Erin Baker’s Breakfast Cookies.  I think we discovered these that summer of 1999, and we lived on them.  Back then they were only mail order and we would buy a few dozen at a time and store them in the fridge.  We each had one for breakfast every day because with all the fiber and according to the calorie/fat ratio, these giant cookies were only 1 WW point!

Well, fast forward a few months, and it was discovered that the nutritional information was wrong, and each cookie now was two servings, and ended up being around 350-400 calories for the whole thing!  Mind you, that’s not too bad calorie wise for breakfast, and they were super filling, and we both managed to lose 70 pounds in a year, so they couldn’t have been too bad for us.  Several years later we discovered them in Whole Foods, but at nearly $1.50 – $2.00 a cookie, that was a bit pricey.

For the last several weeks my twin sister has been bound and determined to come up with a homemade recipe for these breakfast cookies, but to no avail.  I finally told her I’d try coming up with something for her, using normal ingredients.  The basis of my recipe began because I had a whole bag of pitted dates.  Um, I brought dates home for Tony one time thinking they were the same as dates, and I was totally mistaken.  But I thought the dates chopped could add the texture I was looking for in our favorite breakfast cookie – the fruit and nut one.

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They are definitely not skimpy in size!   (that’s what she said!) I ended up baking off six before work.  I let them cool on a rack in the back seat of the car on my 30 minute commute to work.

I had my breakfast cookie and on the side an egg white, baby spinach and tomato microwave omelet with some Cabot cheese.  The perfect breakfast – savory and sweet!

I gave one to one of the attorneys and he came back to me in about ten minutes and said “can I have another one?!”  Yep, changing lives, one breakfast cookie at a time!  We postponed our bosses day treat day from yesterday until today, so I am baking off another batch this morning – I made 4 big ones like above, and then 7 small ones for breakfast cookie bites.  I also made a whiskey bread pudding using Jimmy John’s day old bread, even though the day old bread costs .99 cents a loaf vs. .50 cents a loaf.  Still worth it!  The bread pudding is a favorite of one of the named partners, so I am going to be a kiss ass today and bring it in.

On tap for my lunch workout was shoulders.  That’s probably the weakest muscle group in my whole body – I just have hardly any range of motion of my shoulders anymore.  I ended the workout with a 2.25 mile walk.

Lunch was more leftover chicken tostadas with the last of the leftover Greek chicken I had, with carrots and celery on the side.  Delish!

Tony’s appetite is slowly coming back, but he didn’t have a taste for what I had on the menu for football Thursday – chicken wings!  I puffy heart chicken wings.  I just tossed the wings in heavily seasoned flour, deep fried and then tossed in Frank’s hot sauce.

When I got home there was a package waiting for me and I was wondering who it was from.  As soon as I saw the return address label, I remembered it was from T.J.!   Her blog is now private, but I’ve “known” Tracey for years.  From her heart break from when she thought she and her husband would never be able to have a baby – I cried when she posted that video of thinking that her chance at motherhood was slim to none.  Well, fast forward until today – and her one year old daughter Josie is the most beautiful little girl.  She’s found out how to open the pantry to get snacks and her love of Elmo is endless.

Well, I follow T.J. on Facebook and Instagram now.  A couple weeks ago she posted a cookbook, and I jokingly commented, “why the fuck don’t I have that cookbook?!”  She then said she would mail it to me – what??!!

Can you even imaging all the amazing shit that’s going to come out of my kitchen now??!! THANK YOU SO MUCH Tracey!  She even wrote on one of the recipes to make a single serving of pizza dough, and wrote a card in the front that know I have an autographed copy of the book – ha!

And, I got all my steps in!

Happy Friday!  It’s been a slow work week, so hopefully today I’ll have some stuff to do to make it go by faster.  Now I am off to put all my goodies together to bring to work.  Make it a great day!