Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) Number 2

In January, we attempted our first IUI. You can read about it here. It did not result in pregnancy, so Lee and I decided we would try again. Because my cycle was still longer than normal last month, we decided to do a monitored cycle this month. This means that instead of using a home Ovulation Predictor Kit (OPK for short), I would go to the Dr. for multiple ultrasounds and blood work to confirm with certainty when I am ovulating.

We started the month with Clomid on cycle days 3 through 7. I went in around the same cycle day that I ovulated last month, and had the ultrasound and blood drawn. The best thing about working with a fertility doctor, is that he understands that time is of the essence, and doesn't ever make us wait too long for our test results. The nurse called me back that same afternoon and said that my hormone levels looked good (great news!), but the Dr. was a little concerned with the lining of my uterus being too thin. Apparently this can be a side effect of Clomid, and is fairly common. To fix this, I would take an estrogen pill, and have another ultrasound and blood work done 2 days later.

Two days later we got good news, and my second ultrasound showed the lining of my uterus to be thick enough, so I only had to take the pill for those 2 days. My 2nd round of blood work also came back good, so this meant that night, Lee would give me the trigger shot.

The trigger shot is basically a hormone injection that induces ovulation.  This shot was ordered through a pharmacy that specializes in fertility drugs on the east coast, so we had it mailed to us, and kept it in our fridge for a few days until it was time to use it. This part of the process was new to us, and certainly interesting. The same day of my second ultrasound and blood work, at 11:00pm, Lee gave me the shot in my stomach. This was a first for both of us, so we were really nervous, but it turns out, my husband is a rock star at giving shots! It wasn't too bad at all, and he made it pretty quick and painless. After taking the injection, we gave it 36 hours to work it's magic, and then we had the IUI 2 days later. If you're curious about what the shot was like, watch this video.

We got really lucky this time and had an AWESOME nurse who did the IUI. She seemed to really know what she was doing. It was much less painful than the first one, and for that I am so thankful! Now we are waiting out the dreaded 2 weeks before my pregnancy test. I have read on several other blogs and websites that the trigger shot can often times give false positives on home pregnancy tests, because it raises the woman's level of the HCG hormone so much. Because of that, I am not going to take any home pregnancy tests this month. I am going to try my best to be patient and wait the full two weeks and just get my blood work results.

We are really praying that this month's IUI will result in a safe, healthy pregnancy. Once we have our results and have had the opportunity to tell our families and close friends, I will write another blog post letting you all know if we are preparing for a baby, or getting ready for IUI Number 3. Until then, we will be crossing our fingers and toes, hoping and praying for good news!

If you read my post, leave a comment. I love reading feedback from my blog posts!

S'mores Treats

In anticipation of seeing my niece and nephew this weekend, I made a treat that I know they will love: S'mores Treats. These are a S'mores version of Rice Krispie Treats. They are quick and easy to make, and so yummy! Here's how I made them:

Ingredients

6 tablespoons of butter

1 lb.bag marshmallows- I used big marshmallows because that's all my grocery store had at the time, but mini marshmallows will probably melt faster

16oz. box of Golden Grahams

1 cup milk chocolate chips

Cooking Spray

To start: Spray the sides of your pot to avoid marshmallows sticking in places where the butter won't reach. Melt your butter  on medium-low heat in a big pot on your stove. Once your butter is melted, throw in your marshmallows.

Stir your butter and marshmallows, and let the marshmallows melt.

Once your marshmallows are melted, dump in your whole box of cereal, and your chocolate chips. Turn off your stove, but leave your pot on the warm stove and stir in your cereal and chocolate until everything is mixed well. Your chocolate chips will melt a little bit, and that's ok.

Once your ingredients are all mixed, spray a 13x9 pan with cooking spray, and dump in your cereal/chocolate/marshmallow mixture. Spread out and let cool for about an hour before serving. 

I like to spray the back of a spatula and use it to press down the treats in the pan to make them an even thickness. 

These treats are quick and easy to make, and are a gooey, yummy snack!

If you read my post, leave a comment! I love reading feedback from my blog posts. 

Snickers Stuffed Cookies

Around Christmas time I saw these 1 pound candy bars at Target. On the package it said "Slice and Share!" This gave me the idea to slice the Snickers bar, and put cookie dough around it. I tried it out this past weekend, and the cookies turned out pretty good! Here's how I made them:

For the cookie part, I used the same dough recipe that I had for the M&M Cookie Cake, except I left out the M&M's. I started by mixing up the dough. I rolled the cookie dough into balls, about the size of a quarter, then I took a slice of snickers, and cut it in half. Next I put a slice of snickers onto the cookie dough ball and flattened it out, and put another cookie dough ball on top. press the dough around the snickers so that the chocolate is completely covered.

If you can't find the large 1 pound Snickers, just use regular Snickers or even fun size and slice them up. I used about 3/4 pounds of Snickers for this recipe.

Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes, or until golden brown. This recipe made about 24 large cookies. If you feel like slicing and covering the snickers is too tedious, just chop up your snickers and mix the pieces in just like you would chocolate chips!

Because my cookies were so large, I had to bake them in 3 batches of 8.

These cookies were moist, gooey, and amazing!

If you read my post, leave a comment. I love reading feedback from my blog posts!

M&M Cookie Cake

I have to start this post by giving credit where credit is due, and that's to my Mother-in-law. :) She gave me this cookie dough recipe. I tweaked it just a tad and made it my own. Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I figured it would be fun to try out my new heart-shaped pan that I bought. This one came from Aldi.

The recipe my mother-in-law gave me is for chocolate chip cookie bars. I subbed m&ms instead of chocolate chips, and instead of a 11x17 pan, I used this heart shaped pan. Here's how I made the cookie cake.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 Cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cups brown sugar

1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

8 oz. M&M's

Pre-heat oven to 325 degreees. Start by mixing the softened butter, vanilla, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together. I used my Kitchen Aid Mixer for this part. Mix the eggs in, one at a time.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add the flour to your butter/sugar mixture, a little bit at a time. Mix thoroughly. Stir in M&Ms.

Spray cookie sheet, and spread out dough in heart pan (or square pan if you choose). Bake for about 20 minutes, or until cookie is golden brown.

This recipe does work best for an 11 x17 cookie cake. Because my heart dish was smaller than that, I had some dough leftover. I sprayed my air bake cookie sheet and spread the leftover dough out into a circle on the cookie sheet. I baked at 325 degrees until golden brown, and then I used all different sizes of heart cookie cutters and make heart cookies. Both the cake and the heart cookies were delicious! I brought the cookie cake to work and it was a big hit.



If you read my post, leave a comment. I love reading feedback from my blog posts!

Breakfast Braid

For this post, I have to start by giving credit where the credit is due, and that is to my S-Mom, Sheryl! She taught me how to make this one, and boy do I love it! This is one of her fav breakfast dishes to make, especially when her and my dad have the whole family over for the weekend.  Its so yummy, and a pretty quick to whip up. At our house, we love breakfast for dinner, and this was a great way to used up some of our our left-over ham.

The last time Sheryl made this for our family, she doubled the recipe, she used ground breakfast sausage. I am using ham simply because I need to get rid of our leftovers, but its great with sausage, and I'm sure it would be good with bacon (turkey bacon even if you're being healthy), or even meat-less. This is a simple, quick recipe and is great for breakfast, brunch, or dinner!

Here's how I made it:

Shopping List 

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)

Cooked, chopped meat (I used about two thick slices of ham, but you could use sausage, ground turkey, bacon, tofu or omit the meat and use a few more eggs instead )

3/4 chopped vegetables of your choice. I used onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms, but I'm sure spinach, or any other veggies would be good too! I didn't actually measure my veggies, this is just an estimate. You could increase or decrease the amount depending on what you like.

5 eggs, whisked

1/2 block cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup shredded cheese

1 can crescent roll dough

Cooking Spray

cook your meat and veggies in the skillet before adding them to the egg. 

To start: pour enough olive oil to lightly coat your skillet. Let it heat up, and once it's warm, toss in your vegetables and meat. Cook until vegetables are soft. Once your veggies are soft, add in your scrambled eggs. When I scrambled mine, I added about a tablespoon of milk to help make them fluffy, but this is optional! Stir to combine the eggs and veggies.

Be sure to scramble those eggs!

While your eggs are cooking, spray a cookie sheet (I love to use my air-bake sheet), and preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lay your crescent rolls out with the long sides touching and the pointy sides facing out. Press together the long sides together. 

By this time, your eggs should be cooked. Stir in your 1/2 block of cream cheese and mix in with the eggs and veggies. 

Dump the eggs and cream cheese into the same skillet as the meat and veggies. 

This is what my egg, veggie, ham, and cream cheese mixture looked like. 

Once the cream cheese is mixed in, scoop the egg mixture onto to middle of your crescent roll line. Fold the pointy edges of crescent roll over the top. 

Here's what my braid looked like when I first put in my egg and meat mixture. 

Once you fold over your crescent roll corners, your braid should look something like this. 

Place in the oven and bake the crescent roll for about 10 minutes, or until the top of the roll is lightly golden brown.

Here is my golden brown baked crescent braid.

Once the crescent roll is golden brown, take it out of oven and cover the top with your shredded cheese. Place the braid back in the oven for 2-3 minutes, or until your cheese is melted. Remove from the oven and serve!

And of course no recipe is complete until you smother it in cheese!

If you read my post, leave a comment. I love reading feedback from my blog posts!