Goodies

I belong to a group of really great women. We were all married in March of 2009, and originally met on a message board over on the Knot - a website dedicated to helping brides plan their wedding. Many of us hopped on the message board specifically for our wedding month pretty early in the game, so I've "known" some of these girls for going on 7 years now. That's a long time! Sometimes it's hard to explain that even though I've never met any of them in real life, they're still my friends. I ask them for advice, share personal details of my life with them, and refer to them as real life friends.

Some of the gals have met in person, but since we're all scattered across the country these meet ups are usually few and far between. However, we stay connected through Facebook and chat every day about everything from husbands to kids to food to current events - you name it.

The past few years we've done a Secret Santa exchange with the help of Elfster. You can add items to a wishlist there, and Elfster draws your recipient for you so everything is kept anonymous. It's pretty cool!

This year, my recipent was one of our ladies living in Texas. I knew she liked white chocolate, hot cocoa, and "neutral" scents - nothing overpowering. This is what I got for her:

White chocolate truffles, peppermint bark, Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee coffee from Target, Sea Salt Caramel hot cocoa, and a Vanilla Snow Flake candle from Bath & Body Works. I had a hard time not eating up all her presents!

My elfster must have known that I've been baking a lot, and she also got me something off my wish list:

The Runner's World Cookbook, and a whole pail full of Wilton cookie cutters! Emily and I are making Christmas cookies next week, so this is perfect. I seriously only had like 5 cookie cutters. 

We dove into the cookbook the very next night! I already had a breakfast frittata on the menu for dinner on Saturday night, but the cookbook had one that sounded really yummy as well. It was slightly different than our version, so I decided to give it a whirl. 

More Vegetables than Egg Frittata - it calls for 6 cups of veggies. That's a lot! We used red and orange bell peppers, red onion, and mushrooms. I also threw in some chicken sausage. 

Got veggies?

 It's flatter than the recipe we normally make, mostly because there's no flour in this one to make it rise. But it was still very good, topped with a little black bean salsa. Emily ate almost all of her portion without complaint (mushrooms and all!).

The best part is that 1/4 of this is only 159 calories (without the chicken sausage - still around 200 even with chicken sausage though)! I think in the future we will stick to breakfast with this one. Our other version is a bit heartier and more suitable for dinner.

I can't wait to try more recipes!

Do you participate in a Secret Santa? Do you have a favorite recipe book?