What's for dinner or lunch today? Have you tried any great recipes lately?
QOTW, courtesy of
@ATXMommas again: Tell us about a cooking blunder.
Married my wife 8/2007 ~ TTC #1 since 7/2011
9 IUIs = 9 BFNs
IVF October 2012: 22 eggs retrieved, 17 fertilized, 5 frozen
ET #1: 1 blast = BFP; Blighted ovum discovered at 7w5d; D&E
FET #1: 1 blast = BFP; Missed m/c discovered at 9w5d; D&E
Karyotyping: normal ~ RPL Testing: normal ~ Hysteroscopy: normal
FET #2: 1 blast transferred 10/25; BFP 10/31!
EDD 7/13/14 ~ Induced at 37w4d due to pre-eclampsia ~ Born on 6/28/14
*Everyone welcome*

Re: What's for Dinner Wednesday?
Alright, so as I mentioned in my 10 things yesterday, I made a menu for Mon-Thurs dinners for myself this week to try to hold myself accountable and make myself cook. So far I am 2 for 2 this week, so I am proud of myself!
Last night I made stuffed peppers (I stuff them with a mixture of brown rice, cooked chopped spinach, sauteed mushrooms, marinara sauce and parmesan cheese, and then top them with a little shredded mozzarella melted on top). They were yummy and we have some leftovers in the fridge!
Tonight I am planning to make a veggie stir fry with carrots, snap peas, broccoli, red potatoes and mushrooms - served over quinoa cooked in vegetable broth and seasoned with a little garlic powder.
If I achieve my goal of cooking Mon-Thurs according to my menu, then on Friday night the reward will be either eating out or picking something up to bring home for dinner. By Friday night I am pretty much dragging these days, so that is the plan. If this little plan is a success this week, I might try it again next week, but I will aim to make 4 different meals than I made this week. I have told my wife that once May hits I am probably only going to cook 1-2 nights a week, and I would like her to try to start cooking more to make up the difference. Hopefully that works out and we don't just end up eating sandwiches and cereal LOL
QOTW: I tried to make my wife a brownie bday cake with cream cheese frosting for her bday a couple of years ago. She isn't really a cake fan, but she loves brownies. Well, I didn't take into account the different baking time needed for brownies instead of cake batter (yea, I know, not my brightest moment)... I also used a REALLY big pan, and the brownie batter did not cook evenly. Well, it looked done, and I took it out of the oven, let it cool and frosted it. Later on we had some people over and when we went to serve it, the middle was literally like pudding consistency, but the rest of it was cooked. Funny story - the pudding-ish part was actually really tasty, it was just a royal mess. Oh well!
Me - 30, My wife - 31 , Together for 10 yrs - Married August 2012
5 medicated IUIs w/ RE (March - July 2013) = BFN
Fresh IVF Cycle in September 2013 resulted in 18 mature eggs, 16 fertilized, 12 made it to day 5. Transfer of 2 Grade A blastocysts on 9/15/13, and 10 embryos in the freezer! *****BFP on 9/25/13 - betas: @10dp5dt = 232; @12dp5dt = 465; @15dp5dt = 1,581 *********William George born June 4, 2014*********I'll probably make oven fried chicken and mashed potatoes tonight. Comfort food sounds good
Cooking blunder: I found what looked like delicious lemon-peppered butter packets by Land O Lakes and used a couple in a skillet dinner I was preparing with chicken. I didn't bother to taste the sauce since it smelled good so I kept cooking. I cut it up and took a bite - and it tasted like Pledge.
:-&
I realize that wasn't my fault, technically, but it was one of the worst tasting meals I'd ever made. I wish I'd bothered to taste the sauce before wasting my good chicken on it. Why did they have to make it so sweet?? Gross. I had to throw it out and order pizza.
QOTW: I put this story in before, but it is my worst cooking blunder ever. Last summer I was grilling fresh pork chops that C's mom gave us from a pig she had butchered. I got them seasoned and on the grill and walked into the house to finish cleaning up. I literally was gone for maybe a minute. Well, when I went back outside, the entire grill was in flames...very high, shooting out from all open areas kind of flames. I called her in a panic and then turned off the propane supply. I was hoping the pork chops might still have been good. They definitely were not! She says the bones crumbled but I don't think it was quite that bad.
Me: 30 DW (aka C): 29
Together since 2/15/11 ~ Legally married in NY on 9/29/12
***CP mentioned***
We've been working on baby #1 since July 2013 using Open ID donor sperm. 8 IUI attempts with 5 actual IUIs and one chemical pregnancy. We have one fresh IVF cycle under our belts as well as a FET. I have endometriosis and a uterine septum that was corrected via surgery in November 2013.
11/14/14 - Second HSG shows that tubes are still clear and ute is looking good.
12/6/14 - Started BCPs in prep for IVF #2
12/22/14 - Saline u/s and endometrial scratch (All was clear and OUCH!)
1/2/15 - Began stimming for IVF #2
****All Welcome!****
We are Mommas to four fur babies - 3 dogs and 1 cat.
Tonight I'm making Aloo Gobi (potatoes and cauliflower) and a lentil inspired Indian dish.
QOTD: A few weeks ago I attempted to make a meatloaf with ground cauliflower instead of bread (to cut down on carbs). Needless to say what I made turned out looking like meatloaf soup... EV saved the day by frying a couple of eggs to go on top, definitely made it look less unappealing. :-)
QOTW: My sister who is not a vegetarian planned to follow the Daniel Fast as part if a Bible study - it's essentially a vegan diet. She asked me to come visit her the first weekend of the fast since she wasn't familiar with cooking with many if the ingredients. One of the breakfast meal was quinoa with sautéed apples. The recipe called for something like 6 cups of quinoa, and I thought, "wow, that's a whole lot of quinoa. So, we get out the largest pot she had and I put 6 cups of dried quinoa in to cook. Of course, the recipe called for 6 cups of COOKED quinoa, so we had a massive amount if quinoa on our hands. To make matters words, as soon as I put the quinoa on to cook, I realized I used vegetable broth, not water, and had to strain and rinse all the quinoa and she only had one of those small strainers with a long handle. It was a comedy of errors. We got a good laugh and good bonding at least!
Cooking blunder: while we were TTC I decide gluten was the devil. I probably read some study or something that one person one time thought it could affect fertility... Anyways... I made A buy these gluten free noodles for a chicken noodle soup. It was the worst cooking distaster of our lives. The noodles desinigrated and got mushy and tasted like garbage to boot. Lesson learned!
Baby Hayden Frances born 12/20/14 at 11:11 a.m... Our perfect little miracle. Here's how we got here:
My lovely wife:
5 IUI's January 2013-June 2013- 3 Cycles with Clomid- BFN
Myself: Genderqueer guy who hopped in the driver's seat of the baby making train
IUI #6- 7/23- Monitored and Trigger on Day 12, with one 16mm follicle and one 18mm follicle- BFN
IUI #7- 8/21- Not monitored, 50mg Clomid- BFN
September and October: Missed Cycles due to vacation and a Half Marathon
IUI #8- Monitored and triggered on day 15, with one 23x18mm follicle- BFN on 11/19/2013
December: Moved onto to see an RE to make a good plan.
IUI #9- 1/1/2014 Natural Cycle, BFP on 1/15/2014, 6W Ultra-Sound Reveals nothing in Gestation Sack... Natural M/C at 7W, 2/3/2014
IUI #10 3/21/2014- Natural Cycle- BFP on 4/1/2014 (please don't be an April Fools. Beta #1 13dpiui- 48, Beta #2 16dpiui- 416, Beta #3 1018...
1st Ultrasound- 4/22/2014- 6w4d HB- 134!
Check out my Blog at: http://pregnantboithinksoutloud.blogspot.com/
Worst cooking blunder- anytime I turn my oven on. My attention span isn't long enough to keep track of what's in there, now after many well well well done items I set both the kitchen timer and phone timer.
I made the cupcakes for us to take with us tomorrow morning to our check up at the RE office for the sweet sweet sweet medication nurse and tech that did our ultrasound when dr was being a butt. She was able to get us 3 vials of follistim for free!!! So I promised I would bake for her. Pip included below.
Tonight will be porkchops done in a breading called oven fry. It's my favorite.
Baby Oliver born 11/27/13
TTC stats with donor sperm...
IUI #1 with trigger, 1/4/13 - BFN
IUI #2 with trigger, 2/1/13 BFN
IUI #3 with tigger, 2/28/12 BFP EDD 11/21/13
Aloo gobi:
-I used 1/4 red pepper & red pepper flakes instead of the Serrano
- I added turmeric
Lentils:
- I used 1/4 red pepper & red pepper flakes instead of the Serrano
- I added some Masala spice
- I didn't have cumin seeds or peanut oil, so I used powered cumin
- I used butter to heat the spices
- I used canned diced tomatoes that were "fire roasted".
The recipes are long so I just included links:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/cauliflower-and-potatoes-aloo-gobi-recipe.html#!
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/winner-aarti-sequeira1/mums-everyday-red-lentils-recipe.html#!
Any suggestions on a Thai inspired veggie/vegan dish?