Some people wake up on a Sunday morning and leisurely grab their newspaper or turn on the TV to catch some cartoons or Meet the Press.  Not this girl.  I wake up on Sunday morning and find a huge hole in my kitchen wall that my weekend-warrior husband has created.  (Don't worry, he filled the hole in with a new sliding glass door.)

Notice Buster waaaay back in the yard not wanting to be anywhere near the chaos.  He would rather take advantage of the last days of summer by playing in his pool (which we have to keep on an incline due to the number of holes that have formed over the past couple of months).

But all of that aside, it was still Sunday morning and cold cereal just wouldn't cut it.  There are plain old waffles, but there are always waffles.  Or at least there have always been waffles ever since Mother's Day when Jake got me my waffle maker.  It's one of those presents that the giver benefits from just as much as the receiver.  So, I hunted around on the internet for waffle inspiration and I poked and prodded and eventually decided that the best course of action would be to put brown-sugar-covered bacon in the waffles.  Just throw it right in the batter. 

It's like adding blueberries without having to worry about all those pesky antioxidants getting in the way.  And they turned out great.  There was salt and there was sugar and there was one very happy pregnant woman.

Bacon Brown Sugar Waffles

5 slices of bacon 3 tablespoons brown sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for the batter 2 eggs 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 3/4 cups milk 1/2 cup oil  4 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt  3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cook the bacon in a frying pan until it is almost crispy.  Cover the bacon with 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and let it sit for a minute to melt and for the bacon to finish cooking. (Don't flip it!  That just makes a crazy sticky mess.  I learned the hard way.)  Remove the bacon and after letting it cool, cut it up into small pieces.

Beat the eggs until they are light and fluffy.  Then mix in the milk, oil, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and the other two tablespoons of brown sugar.  Fold in the bacon pieces.

Spray a pre-heated waffle iron with non-stick spray and pour the batter in.  Cook until crispy and golden, and eat warm with maple syrup.

Source: adapted loosely from the basic waffle recipe at AllRecipes