Friday Muffins!

Happy Friday!  I have two yummy and healthy muffins I wanted to share with you today. I was watching Giada the other day and I saw her make these carrot and zucchini mini muffins (original recipe is here) that were really cute and fairly healthy.  I thought it would be fun if I could make them so Savanna could have them.  I wanted to make them as a muffin for breakfast instead of a treat so I eliminated the frosting.  To alter them for Savanna I used oat and whole wheat flour instead of the the almond and rice flour and made them with oat milk instead of the oil so they were a little healthier.  If your child cannot have eggs you could probably substitute applesauce for the egg but the texture may be a little off.  Savanna absolutely loved these!  I highly recommend. After these turned out well I decided to try a different version for Chris and I.  I had frozen cherries and almond flour so I thought a cherry almond muffin would be delicious!  They are gluten free, dairy free and soy free and even with all of that the texture and taste were wonderful.  When I make them again I will chop up the cherries first since the cherry took up about half the mini muffin.  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Carrot and Zucchini Muffins (dairy and soy free)

3/4 cup oat flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (you can do all oat or use rice flour instead here if you want to make gluten free)

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/3 cup oat milk 

1 TBS sugar or maple syrup (safe for babies unlike honey)

1 large egg, at room temperature

1/2 cup grated carrots (from1 medium peeled carrot)

1/2 cup grated zucchini (from 1 medium unpeeled zucchini)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 mini-muffin cups with (1 1/2-inch) paper liners. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.

3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the milk, sugar or syrup, and egg. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Mix in the grated carrot and grated zucchini.

 4. Fill the muffin cups with a small scoop or tablespoon to 3/4 full with the batter and bake until light golden, about 15 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Cherry Almond Muffins (Gluten Free, Dairy Free and Soy Free)

3/4 cup Almond flour

1/2 cup oat flour (I do not love the taste of rice flour which is why I used oat here)

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/3 cup almond milk 

1 TBS sugar or maple syrup 

1 large egg, at room temperature (or 1/4 cup applesauce - may be more dense)                                            

1/4 tsp almond extract                                                                                                                                  

24 pitted cherries (whole or chopped)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 mini-muffin cups with (1 1/2-inch) paper liners. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.

3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the milk, sugar or syrup, egg or applesauce and extract. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Mix in the cherries.

4. Fill the muffin cups with a small scoop or tablespoon to 3/4 full with the batter and bake until light golden, about 15-20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Zoe's Birthday Party!

Savanna's friend Zoe turn 1 a few weeks ago!  Unfortunately, my good friend Kristen's wedding was the same weekend so we had to miss the party.  Since we were unable to go to the party, I was excited that I could at least do the desserts.  Zoe's party was a farm animal theme and they even had a petting zoo there! Zoe's Mom and Dad went to HS with Chris.  They were a different year in school but last year we discovered that they live around the block from us which has been a lot of fun.  A girl from their HS has a beautiful photography company. She took all of the wonderful shots below.  You should check out the rest of the party here, along with with all of the other amazing work she does.  

Cow, Pig and Duck Fondant Cookies

Mini Animal Mixed Berry Pies

Zoe & 1 Cake Pops with mini cupcakes

I love this one of Zoe digging into her cake!

This is such a cute shot of all the other kids "helping" her :)

This is my favorite!

Little Miss Party Planner Events

I wanted to share some pretty amazing parties with you today.  Seri and Michelle over at Little Miss Party Planner, have been quite busy this spring and they have been keeping me busy as well :) I have highlighted their dessert tables here, but you should definitely head to their website to check all the details out!

I love all their parties, but the first may be current favorite, A Preppy Little First Birthday Party. They didn't do the typical large first birthday cake, instead they made a beautiful and personalized dessert table with a lot of little yummy treats.

Carrot Cake "Ice-Cream Cones"

Gold Painted Cake Pops

Don't you just love their gold spray painted Ball Jars!  I want these all over my home (when I have one :) )

I love these color me cookies from Eleni's , what a fun activity/favor for the kids at the party!

I will continue with First Birthday Parties and share this simple but beautiful first birthday party for a little Gabrielle.

Mazzy's Milk Bar was such a fun and unique theme for a 3rd birthday party and had so many amazing details!

How cute are the cow covers for the cake pops!

Cookie Pops!

Oreo Cookie Cupcakes

Next is a fun Poker themed party for an 8 year old boy.  Cupcakes with playing card toppers, playing card, heart and spade fondant cookies and a cake just for the birthday boy.

Along the same theme is a Las Vegas Party for a 50th Birthday Party.  I cannot take credit for this gorgeous cake! How amazing is it???  I did the Moustache Cake Pops, brownie oreo truffle mini cupcakes, playing card and chip cookies and cupcakes with the fun playing chip/photo toppers.

I am always in awe of their creative vase / centerpiece ideas.  

Lastly is a Baby Shower for their very own Michelle who is due in a few weeks.  I was honored to do the cake, some mini cupcakes and mini orange meringue sandwiches.

6 and 7 Month Update

Savanna has grown and accomplished so much over the last 2 months, I don't even know where to begin.  I looked back at my 5 month post and saw that I thought it was going to be awhile before she would sit. Sure enough out of no where one day (which is how most things come) around 5.5 months she decided she wanted to sit.  

She was very wobbly at first, we had a lot of falls but by 6.5 months she was very steady and at the same time learned how to get herself from belly back to sit.  She now sits all the time and a lot of mornings we find her sitting in her crib.  I am in love with her little frog sit.  

Around 6.5 months she started to one-arm army crawl and then about two weeks later she was crawling on all 4s a little but will switch to the one arm for long distances.  We are in a good stage right now where she can crawl to get most things she wants, but she is not necessarily all over the place.  She will not crawl from room to room so I can still shower, cook, clean etc.. and she will sit in play.  I know this will not last....

I also thought she would never eat or it would be a constant fight, well just like everyone told me, they will eat when they were ready. Sure enough out of no where one day she decided she wanted to eat and she EATS now! Sometimes I think she is a bottomless pit and will continue to eat if I do not stop (if she really likes something). We are slowly introducing foods, trying to wait 3 days in-between each food.  She cannot have soy or milk still, so I have to be careful with some foods and make sure to read ingredients on all boxes.  She loves when we give her pasta (with no cheese) which is a treat when we go out to eat.  She recently learned how to pick up her puffs when you put some on the tray of the highchair.  It took her a few weeks especially since they stick to her hands when they are wet.  The puffs are the only thing she can grab on her own because most of the other items that I give to her in pieces (banana and avocado) are wet and stick to the tray. 

Over the last two months you can tell she really knows her name and smiles every time you call it.  She now recognizes and will smile to familiar songs - itsy bitsy spider, wheels on the bus...... She loves peek-a-boo and playing in the mirror.  She also loves turning the lights on and off when we leave a room. Chris has been trying for a long time to get Savanna to recognize and acknowledge dogs and finally over the last month she does!  At my friends wedding at Martha Clara there was a barn and they had some farm animals there and Savanna seemed to really enjoy watching them.  Now she smiles every time she sees a dog. 

We are working on waving and clapping, but she can high 5 which is fun. She really loves her swimming class now and laughs almost the entire time.  It ends next week, but with the summer here hopefully we will have a lot of pool time.  I think that is all for now :)

Memorial Day Recap and Drum Cakes

Hi!  As per usual, I am trying to catch up! I just realized I never wrote a 6 month update for Savanna so I will do a 6 and 7 month one next week :)  I know I keep saying this, but where does the time go??  After Kristen's shower the following weekend we had a lovely Mother's Day Weekend and the weekend following that I had Kristen's Bachelorette in Fort Lauderdale and then it was Memorial Day and we got back on Tuesday and I had to do a 1st birthday dessert table and the dessert table for Kristen's wedding in 3 1/2 days so now I am finally sitting down :)  

I wanted to start with sharing two Drum cakes I did in April and May. The first was a cake for a Fresh Beat Band theme party so I included the instruments from the other characters as well.  The second was for a little boys 1st birthday, I thought it was a unique and cute theme for a first birthday.  

I also wanted to share some pictures and details from our Memorial Day Trip.  For the last 4 years, Chris has spent Memorial Day studying for the CFA so we have not been able to really enjoy it.  I was really excited for this year, so we decided to spend some time down in Bethany Beach, Delaware where Chris's parents have a beach condo.  We were hoping since it was further south it would be nicer, but it ended up not really being a beach weekend.  His parents condo is in Sea Colony which is almost like a resort so we were saved with the indoor pool!  Savanna absolutely LOVED the indoor pool.  We have been doing swimming lessons for about 2 months now and I knew she enjoyed the water, but I think between her being older and spending even more time in the pool she just had a blast.  Chris's mom also got her a little pool that we filled with some water that she enjoyed.  Despite the bad weather it ended up being a good few days.  Although I will say babies are such creatures of habit, Savanna was a little cranky by the end and was so excited when she got home :)