Itsy bitsy

Some mornings I get up just before 5 a.m. and go to the gym.

I come home around 6:15 a.m. and feel pretty great about myself. If there were anyone awake at that hour to boast to, I would. "Look at my sweaty face! I just burned 600 calories!"

I take my multivitamin, specially formulated for women, with a full glass of water, make my coffee, and eat a sensible oatmeal breakfast. Sometimes I'll turn on Healthy Appetite on the food channel and listen to Ellie Krieger talk warmly about all the antioxidants and vitamins found in the meal she's creating, with her cute short hair and healthy, color-enhanced-for-TV glow. Sometimes I actually get ideas for that evening's meal: a healthy stir-fry, a salad, grilled fruits and vegetables, perhaps. I've even made energy bars because of this woman.

Some other mornings, I hit "dismiss" on my alarm at 5 a.m. and don't bother to do anything about resetting it until I wake up in a panic 2 hours later. Sometimes it happens 4 days in a row. Sometimes all I want to eat all day is a really good chocolate chip cookie.

So, I came home from work the other evening, determined to find a cookie recipe that wouldn't make me feel like all my hard work (from 4 days ago) was undone. Thank goodness I found a recipe on Heidi Swanson's website for an itsy bitsy chocolate chip cookie made with healthier ingredients.  I love how tiny they are. I mean, what's 1/2 c. butter and 5 ounces of dark chocolate when it's divided into 80 cookies? Basically nothing, right?

Aaaaaand, some evenings I happen have a nice little container of honey and cinnamon frozen custard in my freezer and decide that a teaspoon of that between two lighter-than-air cookies couldn't be bad at all, either.

You can fit two of them nicely on a teacup saucer. They are so delicious.