Crusty, moldy, mildewy

...all the above describe the state of this blog. Holy shamoley it's been awhile, BUT, for kinda sorta good reason.  I am pa-reg-nant! And I've been feeling completely barf-tastic since mid-August. Even if I would have had the energy to post, no one wants to hear how I ate a box of Rice-A-Roni for dinner eight nights in a row.

A leetle background though because I cannot not acknowledge the efforts of many that went into this pregnancy. Two years ago when we did our first round of IVF, we had a total of five embryos. Two were transferred at that time, one stuck, and that's how we got Mac. With three leftover embryos, since frozen, and no "oh it always seems to be the case that after IVF people naturally get pregnant" a la Charlotte-York-from-Sex-And-The-City-type surprise, we went back for round 2. Sort of. Round 2 was much less difficult drug-wise, as my body didn't need to produce eggs- just had to be ready to receive.

We elected to transfer a single embryo, and were are incredibly fortunate that it stuck as well. I'll admit to having been a bit of a downer in that 10 day wait. The statistics were still not really on our side- 47% success rate for frozen embryo transfers at our clinic. Much like the majority of our total infertility treatments, I felt I should keep my hopes low so as to minimize the disappointment of a failure. The power of a positive attitude? Nah, not me. But in any case we have since learned that it is another boy. This is one tough dude though- imagine spending the first two years of your conception frozen in a test tube.

It has been a rougher pregnancy for sure, with much more sickness. In hindsight I chalk that up to the estrogen supplements I had to be on (not necessary with a fresh embryo transfer, like our first round). I've also been having issues with my body not producing enough progesterone to support the pregnancy, so it's been 136 nightly butt injections. Don't get me wrong- I am not complaining. Like other moms who have had infertility or pregnancy complications, I will do whatever. it. takes. I no longer care if I'm that pain in the butt patient at my OB office. Whatever. No one is going to be proactive for my baby on my behalf.

I'll end with an interesting story that proves how heartbreakingly uncommon infertility and pregnancy complications are. Two weeks ago my husband and I took a 10-day trip to Asia. On our way home we had a daylong layover in Seoul. The airport sponsors free cultural tours into the city, so we signed up as a fun way to kill time. Of the 14 people on the tour, two were a young couple originally from Minnesota. They now live in Montana, but explained that they still rent out their home in MN and visit often.

After a tour of Gyeongbokgung (yes, I had to Google the spelling) palace, our tour took us to a restaurant. The couple asked if they could join us at our table. Our small talk continued and the husband mentioned that they were in the process of trying to have kids. I could read between the lines there and I piped up that we went through IVF to have our son. That really opened the conversation, and it turns out they will be doing a frozen embryo transfer this month at our very same clinic with our very same doctor.

Halfway around the world, and we find a connection with infertility. Not to get all Disney, but it really is a small world....after all.

Burns So Good

You can make anything into pizza. Taco pizza? Of course. Cheeseburger pizza? Oh yes. Greek pizza? It’s definitely a thing.

I went to college in Northfield, home of Basil’s pizza, which is super tasty, but never less than 547 degrees. I consistently gave my mouth 2.5 degree burns every time I ate their gyro pizza. Worth it of course.

I made my own version of Greek pizza last night- minus the extreme temperature and mouth suffrage. I made a super easy Tzatziki sauce too, if you so happen to be the type who likes extra business on your pizza.

Greek Pizza

-2 thin crust whole wheat pre-made crusts

-12 oz your favorite pizza sauce

-2 tablespoons fresh chopped oregano

-1 large purple onion, very thinly sliced

-1 lb ground lamb (our grocery store only has frozen, so check there if you can’t find fresh)

-2 cups baby spinach

-2 cups shredded mozzarella

-8-10 oz crumbled feta (I found ‘peppercorn feta’ at Aldi’s)

Easy Tzatziki

-Combine shredded cucumber with plain nonfat Greek yogurt + pinch of garlic powder. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Saute ground lamb until fully cooked. Break up any large chunks of ground meat. Soak up any liquid fat with paper towels. Set aside.

Spread sauce evenly between the two crusts. Layer onion, chopped oregano, ground lamb, spinach mozzarella, and feta (in that order) between the two crusts. Bake 12-15 minutes, or until desired doneness. Makes 8 servings.

  He ate an entire footlong cucumber down to the nub!

Not really.

Per 1/4^th pizza: 450 calories, 30 g carbs, 22 g fat (lamb is fairly fatty), 32 g protein

Hi weekend, bye weekend

So many pictures. Friday night we went to a 'Date in a box' event at our church. We dropped off the baby, picked up our picnic box + date idea card, and headed over to a park. Super cute idea. Of course we packed some special drinks.

What is this fruit?? It tasted like a pear but the slice was giant.

Finally started using my Madewell monogrammed transport tote.

Waking up (naturally) at 6:30 on a weekend is part lame, part super awesome. It meant that I could go out on the porch, light my breakfast candle, and read a mag all by myself in peace and quiiiiiiiiet. Lovely. 

Made some pancakes for the fam for breakfast. I need to work on my pancake skills. I never take time to measure out ingredients, and my batter ends up so thick that the pancakes are way too thick and cakey. Eh oh well. After morning errands with the li’l dude and naptime, we headed over to a friend’s BBQ party. My in-laws took the baby for the night and I spent two hours of blissful shopping (ok more like rectifying all the online binge shopping I did when Nordstrom’s sale started two weeks ago). If you have never eaten at the Nordstrom Café, you need to. Need to. Need to. I love it when department stores have restaurants. It’s so old timey and chic, and they have amazing food. I am not a salad person AT ALL but I got their grilled shrimp and corn arugula salad to go and I ate it so fast I was in physical pain. 

Like joy but pain. Fried polenta croutons? Cilantro lime dressing? Yesssssss. My husband agreed- best salad ever.

Stayed up way too late watching “Taken 3.” Does nobody seem to mind the incredible path of destruction Liam Neeson leaves behind? Like, thanks for proving your innocence, but did you need to completely destroy a liquor store, total 8 cars, and blow up an entire parking garage just to prove said innocence?

Woke up Sunday morning, made these muffins, then the in-laws came over for breakfast. We then took off for the lake to meet up with my extended family.

HE PICKED UP THE PADDLE. SO ADVANCED.

Busy weekend, lots of fun, back to reality : )

Mmm...eucalyptus and lavender

This recipe today is summertime cooking at its finest. Meaning it’s easy. And quick. And uses fresh garden ingredients.

Baby’s three favorite foods include pasta:

Blueberry pancakes:

And candle wax.

Uh,  let’s stick with pasta. Six ingredients, less than 20 minutes- you got this.

-1 box rotini (I used whole grain- any kind of pasta will work)

-1 pint (~2 cups) cherry tomatoes, halved

-1/2 cup torn fresh basil

-6 oz fresh mozzarella, cut into ½” chunks

-3 tablespoons balsamic reduction

-2 tablespoons olive oil

-Salt and pepper to taste

Boil pasta according to package directions. Rinse under cool water. Add remaining ingredients. Stir to evenly coat. This is a super versatile recipe and I’ve made many variations- add fresh spinach, grilled chicken, additional vegetables- whatever you’d like!

Makes six servings. Per serving: 391 calories, 55 g carbs, 11 g fat, 14.5 g protein.

When a close second will do

You would think that a 15 month old really wouldn’t have much on his agenda. Eat? Sleep? Poop? Ok yeah all those are essentials, but we have got one busy boy on our hands. Lately he’s all about his tools, particularly his wrench. Specifically his Phillips wrench. He gets busy fixing things like…

…the carpet...

…his Audi

…the dog.

I feel like I’ve been super busy too. So busy that I keep forgetting to stop by the store and pick up my fave peanut butter. Remember how just the other week I was all like “oh all it has is peanuts in the ingredients list and it’s magical and delicious and cures anything that could possibly be wrong with you!” No?

So I have dang peanuts at home, why not just make my own peanut butter?

AND- I also have some dang almonds- so why not combine the two to make a hybrid?

Homemade Nut Butter

-2 cups raw unsalted nuts (I used 1 cup peanuts and 1 cup almonds)

-1/3 cup oil (I used olive)

-Pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spread nuts out on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast in the oven for 5-7 minutes. Stir around and put ‘em back in for a few minutes. You want them to get a bit browned and fragrant. Let the nuts cool. Working in batches, combine nuts with oil in a food processor. I found that I had to do a half cup of nuts and a few teaspoons of oil at a time (my food processor is on the small side). When finished, stir in salt. Scrape butter in a sealable container and keep refrigerated. This will last up to 2 weeks in the fridge, and I found that the oil doesn’t separate, which is cool.

 Does it taste as good as my Smuckers? No. But it's still pretty tasty, and easy. Ya know- good for more time to be spent being busy. 

Oh my, oh my...

...happy fourth-of-July. In spite of me wanting to wring the necks of everyone on our block who thought it was cool be setting off fireworks at 10:30, it was a great weekend.

WHAT. 10:30 is super late for me now.

We spent part of Saturday and all day Sunday boating and beaching with friends and family. I might have gotten a 7^th degree sunburn on my entire back. Spray sunscreen is such a tease. It’s all like “oh just use me- I’m soooo easy! I’ll do a decent job protecting you” and then no, every time I get a horrible sunburn.

Raided my dad’s garden for some pea pods and lettuce and onions.

Busy weekend means that mama don’t feel like cooking much. Slow cooker chicken tacos to the rescue. This is a recipe that I’ve probably posted before, but it’s something I haven’t made in awhile, so why not repeat.

-1 package boneless skinless chicken breasts (~1-1.5 lbs)

-2 large (10+ oz) jars of your favorite salsa. I used basic medium spicy tomato salsa

-1/4 teaspoon chili powder

-1/4 teaspoon salt

-1/4 teaspoon pepper

-1/4 teaspoon minced garlic

Place chicken in the bottom of a slow cooker. Add seasonings on top of chicken. Pour salsa over chicken. Cook on low for 7-8 hours. Shred when ready to serve. This makes enough shredded chicken for about 8 good-size tacos.

I chose to serve fresh corn, chopped (garden) onion, chopped (garden) cilantro, and chopped (garden) lettuce, along with crumbled queso fresco cheese. Feel free to add whatever salsas or toppings you like.

You could easily use this meat for quesadillas, enchiladas, sandwiches- so many possibilities. This meat freezes & thaws really well too.

Patriotic Popsicles

Holy shamoley I can hardly believe it’s already time for the 4^th of July weekend. I woke up this morning to see this gal in our backyard. It was all sweet and serene, 'til she took a giant dump. Argh.

In honor of summer, and the 4th, let's have some flag popsicles, mmk?

All you need are three ingredients.

Flag Popsicles

-1/2 cup blueberries, rinsed and dried

~5 strawberries, rinsed and dried

-6 oz vanilla or coconut nonfat Greek yogurt

-1 sealable sandwich bag with a seriously teeny hole snipped at the bottom corner

-4 pack popsicle mold (though you could just make these in a Dixie cup and add a wooden popsicle stick, or even just a metal spoon)

Using a fork, mash the blueberries until pureed. It is ok if there are some chunks. Spoon ~1/2” worth into the bottoms of each popsicle mold. Freeze for an hour.

Pour yogurt into sandwich bag, while holding the snipped end closed. I found it easiest to “pipe” in the yogurt because spooning it in left me with yogurt all on the sides of the mold, and you want a nice smear-free mold. Pipe ~1/2” yogurt into the mold.

Mash strawberries until fairly pureed. It is still ok if there are some chunks. Spoon a thin (~1/4”) layer of mashed strawberry on top of yogurt. Freeze for an hour. Repeat as many times as needed until you’ve either run out of strawberry mash or yogurt or your molds are full.

To dislodge popsicles, run under hot tap water for a few seconds.

Per popsicle: approximately 60 calories, 4 grams protein.