Gymnastics Cookies

Savanna and I were both super excited about the weather yesterday!  I know the 40's are still not warm, but it is crazy how warm it feels when you are used to the 20's.  Not only was it warmer, it was sunny so we could actually get out for a good walk :)  We have made the switch over to one nap which has been working good as long as we have a morning activity.  

I also wanted to share these gymnastics cookies I made for my niece, Monica's 5th birthday.  I wanted to work on them since I was not going to make her party AND my royal icing skills need some practice.  I was happy with the way they turned out, but I think I could still use some practice for more detailed designs.

Happy Weekend!

Fresh Apple Cookies - Soy and Dairy Free

Savanna absolutely HATES the car. We have been trying to work on explaining short trips to her, but I believe she thinks that every time we get in the car she will be strapped in there for at least an hour.  So for 5 minute trips around town we just hope that she doesn't cry or we give her a little snack. For anything further we allow her to watch the IPad, it makes the car ride more enjoyable for everyone :)  We have 3 episodes of Sesame Street downloaded that she watches on repeat.  One episode in particular is about the letter A and Apples, which she has watched so many times now.  Well her first real word (besides mama and dada) was Apple and she is obsessed with eating whole apples.  The episode also rubbed off on me (from listening to it so much).  Maria and Luis make fresh apple cookies from the apple tree.  I was intrigued because I have never had a cookie with fresh apples. I found a recipe in a box of my grandmother's clippings for apple cookies but it used dried apples.  I decided to try and use it as a base.  I adjusted a few other parts to make them so Savanna could enjoy them as well.  Additionally, the adjustments made them healthier so they could be a snack vs. a dessert cookie.  

Fresh Apple Oatmeal Cookies

 Ingredients:

1 ½ cups White Whole Wheat Flour

1 ½ cups rolled oats

¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1 tbs cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp all spice

¼ tsp salt

¾ tsp baking soda

¾ tsp baking powder

1/3 cup apple sauce

1/3 cup “butter” melted

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup diced apple  (about ¾ of an apple)

¾ cup raisins

 Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350.
2. Whisk together all dry ingredients (make sure to get all the brown sugar lumps).
3. Peel and dice your apple into ¼ inch pieces.
4. In a separate bowl whisk together eggs, butter, apple sauce and vanilla.
5. Add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients until fully incorporated.
6. Fold in apples and raisins. 
7. Scoop cookies (I used medium cookie scoop) 3 across and 4 down on a half sheet pan.
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes total, first half on the bottom and then rotate pan and do 2^nd half on top. 
9. Cool for 2 minutes and then transfer to rack to cool.

Yield: 30-35 cookies

I made half one day and cooked the rest 2 days later.  Save any extra cookies in the fridge (they will go bad on the counter because of the fresh fruit).

Soy and Dairy Free Mini Banana Muffins

Hope everyone stayed warm during this frigid week! We had to get creative with indoor activities.  I decided to take out my 0-3 month bin to see if we had anything neutral. Savanna really enjoyed "sorting" the clothes, putting them in and out of the bin :) She found her bunny ear hat from last year that actually still fit.

Before filling and putting the bin back in storage, I used it to make a "water table".  I filled it with water and put it in the the kitchen with some towels and her bath toys to play (if I do again I may use her infant bath tub because this was really deep and a lot to fill).  My only mistake was letting her play without clothes on, she was saturated by the end!

Savanna also helped me make mini banana muffins that are perfect as a snack or breakfast.  Her job was to smoosh and mix the banana.

Mini Banana Bread Muffins

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup light butter, melted (I used earth balance soy free)

1 2/3 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 large bananas or 4 small bananas)

6 oz yogurt (I used dairy free coconut cultured)

2 large egg whites

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Combine sugar and butter in a bowl; whisk until well-blended. 

3. Add banana, yogurt, and egg whites; whisk until all incorporated and set aside.

4. Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; stir well. 

5. Fold in dry ingredients to wet mixture, until all incorporated.

6. Spoon batter (I used a small scoop) into the lined (or sprayed) pan for mini muffins. 

7. Bake for 10 minutes, rotating halfway through.

8. Let cool 5 minutes in pan and then at least 10 minutes outside of pan.  If you take them out too quick they will stick to liners. 

Yield: 60

Happy New Year

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!  We most certainly did, it is so much fun and more exciting when you have a little one to plan for :) While Savanna did not get Santa this year after a couple of presents she understood she was supposed to tear right into anything that had wrapping paper on it.  

We hosted a small Christmas Eve this year which was really nice and fun.  I made this fabulous flourless Chocolate Torte from the Williams Sonoma American Christmas cookbook and I highly recommend it!

We were also excited to announce that Savanna will be a big sister to a baby brother in May!

We had a lot of fun hanging with our cousins from Chicago after Christmas. 

Cheering on the horses with Grandpa :)

Now back to reality.....

Thanksgiving Roundup!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend!  We were down in Atlanta where my Dad's sister lives.  It is usually nice and warm down there, but unfortunately this year it was just as cold as NY.  That didn't stop us from having fun with our cousins :)  

and stealing their food.....

My Aunt makes quite a feast, I always look forward to it. We have a few people in our family that are now Gluten Free so she made a special baked brie (my favorite!).  She topped the brie with a little honey, brown sugar, dried cherries, dried apricots and sliced almonds.  She then baked it until it was warm and gooey and the sugar melted in - yum! (The picture below is before it was baked)

Every year she gets a Turkey Ice-cream cake from Baskin Robbins, but her Baskin store closed down.  So I was put to work to try and recreate one. Since there are 5 older cousins, I decided to do the cones as feathers instead of legs so each of the kids could have one.  My cake was certainly not as polished as Baskin Robbins, but I was happy with how it turned out for my first try.

My 94 year old Grandpa was able to make the trip this year! We got a great picture with him and all of his Great Grandchildren! (Savanna wouldn't stay in by herself....) We bought the matching pajamas from PajamaGram.

The kids had fun on Friday making peanut butter and jelly and grilled cheese pie pops for lunch with the Baby Cakes Pie Pop Maker.  It was such a fun activity for them and they cook super fast which is great for their attention span.

Hope you had a wonderful holiday as well!

Baby Boy Gift Basket

Happy Monday and Happy Thanksgiving Week! I wanted to share a project with you today that I worked on last week.  One of my good friends just had a baby boy so I made a basket of treats for her. It is so hard to find time to do anything when you are a new mom so I made some healthy treats to keep her energy up! It was filled with Almond Granola with dates, raisins and walnuts, Almond Butter Whole Wheat cookies (based off this recipe) and some pumpkin butter that is great in yogurt and on toast.

I found a great basket at Home Goods to put everything in and found this adorable personalized train at Monograms off Madison.

To complete the basket, I added one of my favorite board books, Wherever You Are, and tied it up with cellophane and some blue baby feet ribbon that I had from a previous project.

This Saturday is Small Business Saturday, do not forget to support all of your local and online small businesses (especially during the entire holiday season).  I am going to try and share my favorite small businesses later this week!

Savanna's First 1st Birthday Party Part 2 and 12 month update!

I cannot believe Savanna is 1!!  Everyone tells you it goes fast and it really does.  The first 3 months feel long and then from month 6 on the time flew!  Savanna did have a ton of changes from month 11 to month 12, but of course there were still some developments.     

• Knows where her belly is
• When you ask if she wants you to take her coat off she will pull at the sleeves
• She pulls at her clothes to come off when we are running the bath
• She “brushes” her own hair
• If I have a necklace on she wants one on too
• She LOVES her books! Probably what she plays with the most.
• Plays with her dolls and pushes them around in her push toys 

Photo credit Raquel Bianca Creative (from her first birthday photos)

We had a small family party the weekend of Savanna's party and I wanted to share some photos with you from it!

Savanna is blessed to have 4 Great Grandparents!!

I thought this was a really unique and personalized gift and I wanted to share :)

For the desserts I made a small, simple soy free and dairy free smash cake for Savanna with one of Especially Paper's awesome banners.  I then made pumpkin cake pops, chocolate chip ganache cookies and an apple pie crumble.  

Halloween Recap

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween.  We most certainly enjoyed our first Halloween.  We had purchased a little dog costume since she loves dogs but it was too long and she hated wearing the hat portion (which actually made it look like a dog). After we wore it to our gym class party I decided to change to Cinderella.

My uncle had given her a Cinderella outfit last Christmas that was 6-12 months that we had never found an occasion to wear and it worked out much better than the dog!  

We have two friends that live on a great U-shaped block that was having a neighborhood party they invited us to. They had a little parade and party outside and Savanna enjoyed looking at all the other kids dressed up.  We didn't "get" trick-or-treating but I figured that.  

Savanna's First 1st Birthday Party!

As I previously mentioned we decided to split up friends and family for Savanna's 1st Birthday since we could not fit everyone inside.  We decided to have the friends party early so we could attempt to have it outside.  Luckily the weather cooperated for us and we had a nice day, it wasn't crazy sunny but it was a great temperature.  We had the party at an outdoor picnic area near one of the town parks.  It worked out great and we were very happy we did it there.  I ordered a full printable paper package from Little Birdie Prints on Etsy and was super happy with them. Kim was very responsive and easy to work with.  I used most of the package, the only things I did not use were the hats (Savanna hates anything on her head) and the thank yous (I already had personalized stationary for her and didn't think it was worth printing and buying envelopes).  I printed everything myself at home and it was super easy and I did not go through a crazy amount of ink.  I highly recommend if you want to add some fun custom detail to your party!

It was a late afternoon party so we decided to keep the food fairly simple.  We ordered sandwiches from a local deli and I made a pasta salad with broccoli and pine nuts and a mixed green salad with roasted butternut squash, walnuts, craisins and pumpkin seeds.  

Pumpkin Breads were the favors :)

Savanna had a blast playing in the ice and any water that had fallen....

For dessert, I of course had to go all out :)

I made chocolate chip ganache cookies, pumpkin cookies, chocolate cupcakes, pumpkin patch cake pops, and sour watermelons and pumpkins.  

Savanna had a personalized soy and dairy free pumpkin cake.  I took the fondant off before she dove in!

We cannot wait to celebrate again!

Savanna's 10-11 Month Update

I wanted to share a much delayed update with you today.  I mentioned earlier that we did not see as big of a difference between 9-10 months as we had seen between all the other months.  I am not sure why, we just didn't, but boy did she make up for it in month 11.  The biggest update was she finally started WALKING!!  Around 10 1/2 months she took a few steps and then 2 weeks after she was walking more than she was crawling and now she barely crawls at all!  We welcomed the walking, we were tired of her crawling through the mulch at the playground and on the cement and she was with the walker for so long we were ready.  It is soooo cute how they waddle and look like little drunken sailors when the first start :)

She also started to "play ball". If you tell her to go get the ball she will and then bring it back to you. She also does does a miniature throw.  She loves to climb the steps at the park and goes down a small slide while holding your hand.  We started a Mommy and Me Gym class and we also go to a music class at the library twice a week which she LOVES.  She just enjoys being around other kids.  She waves when she walks into class and always follows the big kids around the playground.  She only likes the swings when there are other kids on them. 

She has become more affectionate and will actually give you a little cuddle once in awhile, along with lots of hugs and kisses when you ask.  The cutest is when she reaches for your hand to hold while walking.  

In terms of communication she says mama and dada, but still not directive.  She did learn "more" in sign language and when you ask her where her head is she will put her hands there and of course we learned SO BIG!  We are working on nose next along with eat and drink in sign language.  She now knows "in" and "out", so she no longer just empties baskets :)  In general she seems to understand a lot more when you talk to her.  

Savanna now has 8 TEETH!!! I believe it is a lot for her age, but luckily they haven't been too terrible and I guess we are closer to being done! She used to eat anything you put in front of her, but she has definitely become more picky.  I cannot complain she is a pretty good eater in general, but there are things she will spit out if she does not like them.  She will eat sweet potatoes if I roast them, but not if they are mashed.  She eats broccoli some days....loves pasta, peas and turkey and most. She won't eat frozen carrots but will eat them plain if I boil them.  Her favorite fruits right now are blueberries and grapes.  We are still off all dairy, but luckily I found some great coconut milk yogurts.  We are starting to test the soy right now.  

Luckily, she gave up her stroller strike and is a lot better in the stroller now, but hates the car.  It is good that we are in a walkable town because we can go to all of her classes and dinner without having to go in the car, but once the winter comes we will be in trouble.  

I cannot believe she is going to be a year in less than 2 weeks!  It is true what they say - it goes fast!  

Leftover Baby Food Puree Ideas and Recipes

Once Savanna got a hold of finger foods, she said bye-bye to purees (if we are on the go she will eat some out of a pouch once in awhile).  I had made some of Savanna's food and bought some jars and pouches for when we were travelling.  Of course she gave up the purees as soon as I stocked up on jars.  I decided to make use them in baking and making other meals. Fruit purees are easy to make use of.  Here are some great ways to incorporate them:

• Stir into oatmeal
• Replace the butter or oil in pancakes or muffins (apple and pear are best for those)
• Make a smoothie

Some ideas for veggies: 

• Carrots and winter squash are great to add to mac and cheese
• Tomato and Carrot Purees are great for making pasta sauces 
• Winter Squash can be used for Giada's Butternut Squash Lasagna :) 
• Most veggies (maybe not broccoli or string beans) can be added to make a savory muffin
• Broccoli can be used for making soup (add some chopped pieces for texture) 

If you have any tomato carrot purees leftover, I made a yummy turkey meat sauce.  I didn't write down the exact recipe, but it was fairly simple. Saute a 1/4 of an onion, a few carrots and turkey chop meat (about 1/3 cup), add in 2 jars of puree and add little salt and pepper.  I tossed it with some small pasta and had dinner for Savanna for 3 nights! I altered my favorite pumpkin bread recipe to make it healthier and use some leftover apples and sweet potatoes (see recipe below). Savanna has almost always hated the purees with meat in them and I have no idea what to do with them so if you have any ideas, I would love to hear them!  Do you cook with your leftover purees?  If so please share your ideas as well!

Sweet Potato and Apple Muffins

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

1 egg white

1/4 cup oil

1/3 cup apple sauce 

3/4 cup sweet potato puree

1/3 c + 1 Tbs milk (we used coconut)

1/2 tsp vinegar

3/4 cup white whole wheat flour

1/4 + 2 TBS oat flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl whisk sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and apple sauce

2. Whisk in squash, milk and vinegar 

3. In another bowl sift flours, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves

4. Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients until well combined

5. Pour into loaf pan

6. Bake for 55 minutes or until tooth pick clean

7. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan 

Weekend Recap and Sunflower Cake

Happy Monday!  Hope you all had a great weekend!  We had a sports filled weekend in the burbs :) Chris is coaching a lacrosse team and they had try-outs on Saturday and Sunday.  Being here made it much easier on him and us because we could go watch and spend time with him.

On Saturday night we watched the first half of the HS Football game.  There was a huge crowd and it was a fun atmosphere, Savanna really enjoyed the excitement.  On Sunday afternoon we headed up to Chris's parents to celebrate his Grandmother's 85th birthday and Savanna's 10 month birthday!  I made a sunflower cake for the occasion!  Since I wrote Savanna's 9 month update a little late there hasn't been much change and updates to report from the last month so I am not going to do a full report this month.  We got a new toy for Savanna and of course she enjoys playing with a soft lacrosse ball and the box better :)

Hope everyone has a good Monday and welcome back to school for those that started today!

8 and 9 month update

This is long overdue! Once again it is amazing how far she has come since the 6 and 7 month update.  We are almost at Labor Day (I know crazy) and she was an entirely different baby at Memorial Day.  So far from 5.5 months to 8.5 months has been the biggest leap.  She was crawling at 7 months and by 8 months she was crawling super fast, pulling up on things and walking while pushing a walker.  Between 8 and 9 months she was walking a little faster with the walker, cruising on furniture and standing up for a few seconds without holding on. 

At 8 months, she started clapping and waving, but would only do it as a happy motion.  She did not understand how to "wave hello and goodbye". Between 8 and 9 months we mastered the hello and good-bye wave and loves to seek them (as well as smiles) out when we were in public places. We also started to play "hide and seek", we like to drop items and then look for them and we love to take things out (baskets, drawers...).  One of our favorite new things to do is giving "kisses".  Savanna also loves being at the park when there are a lot of dogs and kids to wave at and watch :) Sometime between 7 and 9 months we learned how to say Dada and then Mama but we only say them in babbles and they are not directive.  

She loves to bang on tables!

We were at the beach for her 9 month birthday, which was very exciting because we finally overcame our fear of the beach.  She loves the baby pool and playing in the dry sand (although as we were scrubbing the sand off her face we were wondering why we wanted her to like the sand).  We tolerated the wet sand and ocean by the 2nd day but every time we went we had to slowly get adjusted to it.

Savanna LOVES to eat now!  She thinks if she is sitting at a table she should be eating, even if she has already eaten.  We are going to start testing the milk and soy at 11 months and besides berries and nuts we eat most things.  Majority of the time she eats pretty much anything you put in front of her, but sometimes she is picky and has learned how to spit the food out.  She doesn't really love purees anymore and mostly eats finger foods but for on the go she still likes the pouches.  Since she still cannot have milk and soy, I could not introduce animal and graham crackers and unfortunately most of the Gerber "cookies" have soy in them.  I made homemade animal crackers but they came out a little too hard (going to try again soon). I found these great Cinnamon School Book cookies and Speculoos cookies at Trader Joes that she loves and are great substitutes if you are dairy and soy free!  She also likes puffs (can't do Gerber ones), mum mums and cherrios.  

I think that is all for now, it is really incredible to watch her grow, learn and experience life's firsts.....

July Cakes

We have been enjoying some quality family time and have not been doing as many cakes, but I have two fun ones that I wanted to share with you today. Both were for little girls' 3rd birthdays. 

The first was a simple princess cake.  With this cake I did mini cupcakes with edible images of Disney Princesses (I was unable to get a picture of it all together).  

The second party was at Victorian Gardens so I did a carousel themed cake.  The adorable paper carousel was made by Oooh La La Paperie. 

We are enjoying this perfect weather and having fun cruising in central park this week.  

My nieces are visiting so we spent some time with them at my parents pool during the heat wave. We are excited to meet them at the Jersey Shore for a week on Friday!  They taught Savanna how to kiss it is super cute.

Hope you are having a good week and enjoying this lovely summer weather :) 

California Road Trip!

We are so happy that we decided to take Savanna with us to California and make a full week of it.  Besides our honeymoon we have decided that it was the next best trip that we have ever taken.  For some reason I was not nervous about the 5.5 hour flight, I was really nervous about the time change.  I had nightmares of Savanna waking up at 3am and wanting to go to bed at 4pm and us never being able to do anything.  Overall the flights weren't too bad but out of the 2 they ended up being harder than the time changes.  She didn't sleep a wink on the way out and slept only half the flight on the way back and cried for the entire first half.  The only good thing about her not sleeping on the planes is that since she was tired it helped put her back on the times that we needed.  It only took a day for her to get on schedule in California, it actually almost felt too easy.  When we returned it took about a full week to get her back on schedule, but only 1 or 2 bad nights.  So now I want to tell you all about the fun details of our trip!  We flew into San Francisco on Saturday evening and drove straight to my friend Chrissie's house in Monterey where we stayed for the next two days.  While we were there we drove the 17 Mile Drive and had lunch at Pebble Beach where we got the great family shot below.    

My friend Chrissie has a son who is 1 1/2 so we all went to the aquarium one day which was a ton of fun!  It was so nice to just spend time with an old friend with both of our families!

On Tuesday morning we started our drive south along Route 1.  The Big Sur lived up to all the hype.  It had some of the most amazing views that we have ever seen! Although, it was a full 90 miles of cliff driving so slightly nerve racking and took even longer than we thought. The elephant seals just before San Simeon were incredible! As a break for Savanna and some lunch we stopped at Avila Valley Barn.  They had tons of animals for Savanna to look at, pony rides for older kids and lots of shady grass which was perfect!  They also had delicious sandwiches, salads and produce.

 

We then drove to Santa Barbara, where we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening.  Santa Barbara was gorgeous, especially the pier and great for our overnight stay.  With Savanna, the only thing that we could not add into our itinerary was a wine tour.  Santa Barbara has an Urban Wine Tour which was perfect for us.  There are a bunch of wineries right in the heart of the city (some own their own vineyards and some just buy and blend their grapes from other vineyards).  We were able to walk to them from our hotel.  

On Wednesday we started our journey to San Diego.  We stopped in Venice Beach for lunch and had a lovely visit with one of my friends from growing up.

The only awful part of the drive was from LA to San Diego the 2 hour drive took us a full 4!!!  It was HORRIBLE!  We made it just in time for a fast dinner before we had to get Savanna to bed.  The wedding festivities (the whole reason we started the trip) started on Thursday evening with a bbq and fireworks for July 4th in Mission beach.  During the day we went over to Coronado for the parade which was really cool to see and a great place to be on the 4th! Before we made our way to Carlsbad (where the wedding was) we went to the San Diego Zoo.  It was really crowded and we did a lot but only made it through about half because we had to get Savanna down for a nap and be on our way. 

The wedding was for one of Chris's good friends from lacrosee at Johns Hopkins.  There was a great group of Hopkins friends there and it was fun to see some of our friends that live on the west coast who we rarely get to see.  The wedding was at the La Costa Resort and Spa and was absolutely stunning!  A bonus was La Costa was a great place for kids and Savanna had a blast in the 3 different kiddie pools they had! 

Happy 4th of July Parfaits!

We headed out to California for the week for Chris's friends wedding over the 4th of July.  We decided to bring Savanna with us and make a full week family vacation.  We are starting up north and visiting one of my friends who I sadly have not seen in 3 years in Carmel/Monteray! We are then going to drive south to San Diego and finish with the wedding in Carlsbad. I was REALLY nervous for the time change, but we arrived on Saturday evening and so far so good.  Savanna did not sleep a wink on the plane which made for a very long plane ride, although the only time she cried was when we tried to put her to sleep.  Do not ask us what we did for 5.5 hours :)  In the end I think this ended up helping because she did not go to sleep until 930 Cali time so it just forced her to be on Cali time and the adjustment has been easier than I thought.  We are really enjoying our time here and cannot wait to tell you about our adventures!

For today I wanted to share a yummy and healthy 4th of July breakfast with you.  Before we left I made a simple yogurt parfait.  I layered plain greek yogurt with strawberries, blueberries and granola mixed with chia and hemp seeds and topped it with some chopped walnuts.  

I also wanted to share these fun and fairly simple desserts that I saw in Better Homes and Gardens.

If we were going to be home for the 4th I would of definitely make at least one of them.  

Hope you have a wonderful 4th of July!!! 

Cherry Berry Shortcake Stars

Sparkler Cupcakes

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.

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 :) 

Catching up and Two Ingredient Cookies

Sorry it has been busy over here!  We have been gone two out of the last three weekends and when we are go away now I always feel as if I am preparing to go and catching up for half the week.  Three weeks ago it was my Dad's 60th birthday so we all went to Vegas, my dad loves to play Blackjack and has never been.  It was an adults only trip so Savanna stayed with my in-laws.  I knew she was in excellent hands, but it was really hard to leave, I had serious mommy guilt.  As much as it was hard to leave, once we got there I was good and it was really nice for Chris and I to have some quality time :)

Two weeks ago we went down to Hopkins.  Chris is on a commitee and had a meeting and we went to the lacrosse game.  It is really nice bringing Savanna to Hopkins since it is where Chris and I met and both played. This was our 2nd trip down there this year.  It was cool to see how much she grew and how different she was in a month and half.  The first photo is from our first trip which was the first weekend of March and the second photo is from two weeks ago.

This past weekend we just stayed in the city which was really nice we since we have somewhere to be outside the city every weekend for the next month.  We have been really enjoying springtime in the city and going to the park a lot.  We first put Savanna on the swings two weeks ago and she was very unimpressed, but this past weekend she loved them!  We also came upon an impromptu mini concert last Friday afternoon which Savanna enjoyed.  

I have been fairly busy with orders as well, especially cake pops in the last week.  I have to organize my pictures, but I am hoping to get some of my favorite projects up later this week.  I have not been great about getting photos of everything :(  In the meantime I wanted to share these two ingredient cookies that I came across, just bananas and instant oats!  They are really easy, healthy and naturally, gluten, dairy and soy free.  I am not sure if they really qualify as a "cookie" but when I added a little dark chocolate they satisfied my a dessert craving (and Chris's :) ).  I made them two ways so far; one with dark chocolate and one with cinnamon, nutmeg and chopped walnuts which is more like a yummy breakfast cookie.  Next up I may try adding some peanut butter because I love peanut butter and banana.  

Two Ingredient Cookies and some add-ins.......

2 medium to large bananas (the first time I used defrosted frozen ones, the second time I used 1 old and 1 one just ripe banana and it didin't seem to make a difference

1 cup instant oats

Add-ins: 1/3 cup Chopped Dark Chocolate (for dairy free soy free use Enjoy Life Chips) or 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg and 1/3 cup chopped walnuts or whatever your heart desires

1. Mash your bananas.

2. Mix in oats until fully coated.

3. Combine your add-ins (make sure to not use too many add-ins because the cookies will not hold together well)

4. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes on a parchment lined cookie sheet.  

5. Enjoy! I made 12-15 medium cookies