Health Update, Cookie Update

A couple weeks ago, I had an ultrasound. I meant to write about it at the time, and then...I don't know. Life happened. Also, the findings weren't especially remarkable.

It was my D&C follow-up appointment. The nurse who interviewed me was very glad to hear that I'd had a normal period—"exceedingly normal" is the way I described it to her—and she absolutely fell in love with Westley.

She took my blood pressure (super-low), and then asked, "Do you have any questions for the doctor?"

I took a deep breath. After the D&C, the doctor said that once everything was scraped out, the shape of my uterus looked very normal. I felt sort of weird bringing this up, suddenly ashamed to be curious about the inside my own body.

"Um, the doctor said something about my uterus maybe not being bicornuate?"

"Yes, I saw that..." the nurse trailed off, looking at the chart on her lap. "I'll ask about it."

Soon I was lying on an exam table, staring up at a grainy, pulsing black and white image of the inside of my pelvis.

"You see this?" My doctor pointed to a tiny hollow space. "And then on the other side?"

I've gotten pretty good at interpreting ultrasounds, even if it does feel a little like reading tea leaves. I spotted the two chambers immediately. The doctor went on to explain that the top of my uterus is only barely indented, not forming the "Mickey Mouse ears" you usually see with a bicornuate uterus. He didn't see any sign of a uterine septum.

"I'd say it was a slight bicornuate," he concluded, and warned that I was at risk for miscarriage if implantation occurred "somewhere in the middle. And, of course, we have absolutely no control over where implantation takes place.

But I'm in no hurry to get in line for the pregnancy ride again.

I took Westley home from the appointment and we made cookies. I tend to agree with Hannah Hart that "nothing about cookies is fun." Especially gluten-free cookies. But these? Are pretty awesome. I think I've made three batches so far.

This is what I have learned about gluten-free cookie baking: if you are gluten-freeing an existing, regular-with-gluten recipe, you cannot trust the flour measurements! I know that sounds nuts. What I really mean is that you have to add dry ingredients according to how the dough looks, not what the recipe says.

(Sorry for the bold-italics. Did other gluten-free folks know this about cookies and just not tell me? You all laughed at that, didn't you?)

Vegan Marshmallow Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 18 cookies

1 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour plus some extra (1/2 cup, maybe?)

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp xanthan gum

1/3 cup canola oil

3/4 cup sugar

4 tsp ground flaxseeds

1/4 cup almond milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup chocolate chips

about 10 vegan marshmallows, quartered

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum. In separate large bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, almond milk, flaxseeds, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well.

Here's where the eyeballing comes in. You're going for a dough that is stiff enough to hold its shape when dropped out of a cookie scoop. Start folding in your extra flour a little at a time until you get something resembling chocolate-scented homemade play-dough. Fold in the chocolate chips and marshmallow bits.

Use a cookie scoop to drop generous tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets. Leave about an inch and a half between cookies.

Bake 11 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cookies cool for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Be prepared: the marshmallow will explode out of some of them. This is part of their appeal.

Boom.

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