Happy Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!  I hope you enjoyed the nice weather yesterday as much as we did.  It felt amazing.  The one park that was not covered in snow was over flowing with kids in the afternoon.

Savanna still loves her toy stroller and loves just pushing it around outside.  If you are looking for some healthy mid-week cookies, we made these last week and they were sooo good!  Savanna does not seem to love chocolate so I made half the batch without chips and added in some more spices. They are soy and dairy free so were perfect to have around as snacks for all!

I also wanted to share these "G" (for Garnets) cupcakes I did for an event in Rye.  The school colors and logo are red, white and black so I did Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing and a black G on top.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Graham Crackers - Soy and Dairy Free

I am 28 weeks today:)  I have officially entered my 3rd trimester! I have a scheduled c-section so I have 11 more weeks to go.  Part of me feels as if that is just around the corner, part of me feels like 11 MORE weeks..... Starting to get very excited and nervous around here.  Anyhow enough about me now on to yummy graham crackers.

A lot of the common toddler snacks have either dairy or soy in them; graham crackers, goldfish, animal crackers, and even many of the Gerber foods. Pretzels (almost all are made with canola oil) and Alphabet Cookies from Trader Joes have been our life-savers!  I recently found that Annie's Bunnies and Graham Crackers actually do not have soy or milk in them and Savanna loves them.  Before I found them I had wanted to see if I could make some graham crackers on my own and I finally had some time to do so.  I love home-made graham crackers, but they do taste a little different than commercial ones.  I had some trouble getting them to be light and crispy and not just hard.  They key in the end was adding some baking powder and refrigerating the dough after rolling. This allows the butter to rest and then create flaky air pockets while baking which resulted in a nice crispy cracker not a rock solid one :)

Soy and Dairy Free Graham Crackers

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup whole-wheat flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ tsp cream of tarter

½ teaspoon cinnamon

8oz soy and dairy free butter(Earth Balance)

½ cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup honey

1 tablespoon molasses

2 teaspoons non-dairy milk (I used vanilla rice)

 Instructions:

1. Whisk together the all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tarter and cinnamon in a medium size bowl and set aside.
2. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.
3. Add the honey, molasses and milk and continue to mix on medium speed until well combined.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly incorporated.
5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, 1-2 hours.
6. Unwrap the chilled dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it out to about ⅛ inch thickness.
7. Use a ruler and a knife to cut the dough into rectangles or squares, or use cookie cutters (I used mini animals).
8. Repeat rolling and cutting until all of the dough has been formed into crackers.
9. Place the cut dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets (if making squares pierce each cracker with a fork two to three times).  It is also optional to sprinkle the top with cinnamon and sugar which I like to do if I am making crackers.
10. Refrigerate for 30-40 minutes until firm.   
11. Bake at 350 degrees, rotating the baking sheets halfway through, approximately 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown.

 

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).

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.....

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.

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

Almond Milk Chocolate Pudding & Allergy Update

One morning Savanna finally took a bottle with formula.  I had a friend who recommended trying in the morning with the first feeding of the day because that is when babies are usually the most hungry.  After a couple of mornings of trying (over 2 weeks) it worked! Ironically after, I read a blurb in parenting magazine that said it sometimes takes babies 6-10 trys to like a new food and a lot of parents do not try that long.  I still wanted to nurse because I wanted Savanna to get all of the health benefits from it because she still was not even 3 months old.  It was really nice that she was able to take it because it gave me a little break and allowed me to build a supply so I did not have to worry as much when I had things to do.  We were doing well for about 2 weeks and then she started getting upset at the bottle and while nursing again.  She would only nurse for about 5 minutes and then get upset and it was a constant struggle.  So we decided to try all formula for a week and see how that went.  It went ok for the first few days but then she started to get upset again.  So we spoke to one of the nurses at the pediatricians office and she recommended we try the liquid Hypoallergenic Formula.  Yay finally two weeks later on that she is eating well and still happy!  It was been a long struggle and a lot of trial and error (which is what I learned most of parenting is :) ) but I am glad she is finally happy.  It was tough to give up nursing because there is so much pressure these days about how breast is best.  At the end of the day it wasn't for Savanna and all of the joy and bonding that comes from nursing was lost because it was not enjoyable for either of us anymore.  So there is always the next one (God willing) and for now I am just happy to have a happy baby.  I am still going to post some dairy free and soy free recipes since there are not a ton out there and I want to  hopefully help some other mothers who may have the same problem.  Plus the recipes are usually healthy and good to make even if you do not have an allergy :)

Almond Milk Chocolate Pudding

1/2 cup cocoa

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 cups low fat milk (almond or regular)

1. Measure cocoa, sugar and cornstarch into a small saucepan.  Whisk together until all large lumps are gone.

2. Over low heat slowly whisk in milk.

3. Raise heat to medium-high and bring to a boil (should take about 5 mins).  Periodically whisk as you bring to a boil and be careful to get the sides of the pan. 

4. After it comes to a boil lower heat and simmer for another 5 minutes.  Continue to whisk. 

5. Take off heat and put through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl (this is to get rid of any remaining lumps, if you do not have a mesh strainer or you are lazy and do not mind some lumps you can skip this step).

6. Place a piece of plastic wrap right on the pudding to prevent the film from forming.  Then chill for at least 2 hours.

Enjoy!

Sunbutter Cookies & Sleep Regression

We have a running joke around here that Savanna does not want Mommy to lose the rest of her baby weight. Before Savanna I used to get up and meet one of my best friends to run a couple of days a week.  I was very happy that I was able to do that until I was 26 weeks pregnant.  The belly actually didn't bother me that much it was just the extra weight started to bother my knees so I decided to just walk for the rest of my pregnancy.  Since I was in fairly good shape my entire pregnancy I thought I would get back into exercising fairly quickly and easily.  Boy was I wrong.  Postpartum was a lot more difficult than I thought, especially with a c-section and a few complications.  I wasn't even out walking until 8 weeks.  I never thought it would take me this long after to get back into running.  I finally started doing intervals on the treadmill at 12 weeks and then the last week or two I have been getting out when I have a helper.  When Savanna started sleeping through the night I wanted to get back my morning workout.  I love the early morning hours, it really starts your day and makes you feel great (if you are a morning person you know what I mean).  As soon as I made the decision to try and start getting up to workout, Savanna decided she didn't want to sleep through the night anymore.  Every time I set my alarm to get up and work out she decided to pull an all nighter.  Apparently there is a sleep regression right around 4 months.  We are hoping that is what it is and we just have to ride it out.  Every night is different now we had two solid nights so I set my alarm and last night she got up 3 times.  I decided though I just had to do it whether she got up or not so I finally went this morning and it felt amazing!  So I am hoping to do it a few days a week and hopefully Savanna will get back into solid sleeping eventually.  I am not sure what is worse never having solid sleep or having it and then having it taken away from you :) She is still young so I know I just have to have patience.  

Now on a totally different topic I wanted to share these Sunbutter Cookies with you.  I have been eating a lot of natural peanut butter and apples around here since it is a fast and fairly healthy snack / lunch some days. When I was at Trader Joes I decided to pick up their Sunbutter to try something different with my apples :)  I saw this peanut butter cookie recipe that was dairy free and soy free with out any adjustments so I decided to modify them and make sunbutter cookies.  They were delicious and a great treat, even Chris and one of his friends loved them!  I made half the batch with some chocolate chips which made them even yummier!  

Sunbutter Cookies - modified from 101 cookbooks peanut butter cookies.  I find that even though the sodium is about the same sunbutter is more salty than peanut butter.  I took out the salt and did not miss it at all, but you can adjust to your taste.  I also subsituted honey and brown sugar for the maple syrup since I did not think the maple flavor and sunbutter would go well together.  

2 Cups White Whole Wheat Flour (or regular all purpose flour)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup Sunbutter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup olive oil

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips - optional (dairy free and soy free if you need)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.  

2. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt.

3. In another bowl whisk together the sugar, olive oil, sunbutter and vanilla

4. Fold the flour mixture into the wet mixture and sit 5 minutes.

5. Fold one more time and fold in chocolate chips if using.  

6. Drop teapsoons (or use a medium cookie scoop) onto parchment lined cookie sheet and using a fork press down on each cookie

7. Bake for 10 minutes and let cool 5 minutes.

8. Enjoy - Makes - 2-3 dozen cookies

Dairy Free & Soy Free Brownies

We returned from Aruba to a big snow storm in the city and Chris's 30th Birthday!  Chris insisted that all he wanted was to spend the day with Savanna and me, so that is what we did.  

He loves the snow and was actually born in a blizzard so we were very excited for the storm.  We took Savanna to the park on Saturday to see all the snow and to show her the thousands of kids having fun in the snow (the baby bjorn was a lifesaver we would of never made it around the streets with the stroller).  

I had asked Chris if he wanted regular brownies or if he would mind if I experimented with some dairy free soy free brownies, and he was so kind to allow me to experiment for his birthday!  Last year I made him red wine chocolate cake so this year I decided to try port infused brownies (do you see a trend :) ).

I found a recipe for Vegan Brownies and adapted it slightly to make them completely dairy and soy free and added the port.  They were actually quite fabulous, but you did not taste the port like you tasted the red wine in the cake.  They are more of fudgy vs. cakey brownie, but that is the way we like them in our household.  It was a great family Saturday until out of the blue Savanna decided she wanted to get up every hour that night (we have been lucky with her sleeping through the night for a few weeks now).  I guess that is life with a newborn and we would not have it any other way : )

Dairy Free and Soy Free Brownies - (adapted from here)

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 4 ounces (about 1/2 cup) unsweetened applesauce
• 2 ounces port or melted chocolate
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup Enjoy Free Dairy Free and Soy Free Chips 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 8x8” pan with parchment and spray with cooking spray.
2. Stir together oil and sugar. Stir in vanilla, cocoa, and applesauce. Add port and salt, stir until smooth. Slowly stir in flour. Add chocolate chips.
3. Pour into prepared pan and bake 25-28 minutes. Cool before cutting.