The Ry Guy Report: 16 Months

Weight 21 lbs

Height 28.75 inches

Milestones

• Can turn pages of a book unassisted
• Is attached to a stuffed animal (Fluffy Frog!!)
• Likes to sing
• 'Kids Bops" (tries to dance to upbeat music)
• Gets upset when frustrated
• Climbs and explores
• Is choosy about his food
• Initiates and displays affection (loves to give mommy hugs and sloppy kisses)
• Signs "Book", "Car", "Bath", "Eat", "Blanket", "Sleep", and "Fly"

Likes

• Helping Mom around the house (tries to sweep and fold towels)
• Scribbling with a pen/paper
• Stacking/unstacking everything!
• To imitate (words, actions)
• Playing peekaboo
• Being the center of attention
• High fives!
• Mommy's phone

Dislikes

• Bad dreams
• Walking (crawling is WAY faster)

The Quotable Ry Guy "Go!" and "Up!"

Blueberry Lime Cake Recipe

This is the cake I made for Ry Guy's birthday. It seemed to be a big hit at the party, so I thought I'd share it with you as well. I understand that it's a little odd to be posting a fresh blueberry recipe in the middle of October, but better late than never, right? And now you have the benefit of thinking about making this cake all winter long. :)

The cake itself is pretty simple - it's just a basic yellow cake. I healthified it up a little bit by doing it from scratch.  If I wasn't going to make it for a party, I'd do half white whole wheat flour (or pastry flour) and half unbleached all purpose. But since I had several non-health-food peeps at the party, I just went with all unbleached all purpose.

The complicated part of the recipe is the frosting. But let me just tell you right now.... totally worth it! It's creamy, totally pipe-able, tastes great and firms up just right in the fridge. LOVE IT.

So, without further ado, here's the recipe.  Drool over it. Keep it in the back of your brain. Make it as soon as blueberries are in season in your area. You won't regret it - promise!

Blueberry Lime Cake

by Raye

Cook Time: 20-25 minutes

Keywords: bake dessert blueberry cake summer

Ingredients (12 servings)

• 2-1/4 c. flour
• 1-1/4 c. sugar (evaporated cane juice or granulated sugar)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 1-1/4 c. milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 batch Cream Cheese German Buttercream
• Zest of 1 lime
• 1/2 pint fresh blueberries
• 1/4 c. frozen limeade concentrate, thawed

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Add sugar and cream together for about 1 minute. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• In a small mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with the milk. Mix well.
• Divide batter equally between cake pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the sides pull away from the pan and the center springs back when lightly touched.
• Turn out onto a cooling rack and cool completely before continuing with the recipe.
• Prepare the frosting according to recipe directions.  Fold in lime zest. Chill frosting for about 30 minutes. Load frosting into a piping bag fitted with a decorating tip (if using).
• Brush cooled cake layers with lineage concentrate. Pipe (or spread) frosting onto bottom layer. Top with 1/3 of the blueberries, then the top layer of cake. Pipe (or spread) frosting on the top layer and pile on the remaining blueberries.
• Chill cake in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

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Happy Birthday, Little Man

So, I really meant to post this back in June after Ry Guy's birthday party, but life happened and I never did. So this is me catching you up.  Here's the original post:

Where has my life gone? Hard to believe that my little man is one! He has grown and changed so much this year. I still can't believe I'm a mom sometimes, let alone a mom of a busy one year old.

Crazy.

 We had a small-ish party to celebrate Ry Guy's big milestone. I wanted to keep it pretty simple, with just friends and family that Ry is comfortable with, since he tends to get fussy and clingy when he's overstimulated.

The Ry Guy Report: 14 Months

Ry helping Mom Pinterest.... He loves the computer already!

Weight  19.6 lbs

Height  28.5 inches

Milestones

• Took a few steps, but prefers crawling
• Signs "Dog", "More", "All Done", "Potty"(we use the same sign for both potty and diaper)
• Waves bye-bye
• Tries to imitate words
• Babbles with inflection
• Looks at the correct picture when image is named
• Assists when being dressed
• Climbs up stairs
• Climbs down stairs
• Demonstrates preferences, points at what he wants
• First sentence!

Fun in the sun!

Likes

• Climbing on top of boxes, stools, storage bins, etc.
• Playing with Daddy's computer and computer chair
• Feeding himself with a spoon
• Putting objects back into larger containers
• Sorting and stacking....anything.....
• His Baby Einstein radio (Thanks, Aunt Beka!)

Dislikes

• Not having his way
• Daddy leaving for work
• Sitting still
• Bed time

The Quotable Ry Guy:  "All Done", "Kitty", "Dog", "I want Mommy", and "Did it!"

Maple Nut Granola Recipe

My friend, Beka, recently posted about granola. That got me thinking I might want to make some myself. Yummmmmm....I love granola! In my opinion, homemade granola tops store-bought, pretty much always. Especially this granola!

I finalized this recipe about 2 years ago, but just realized I although I had added it to my Recipage, I never did a post about it. Ooops. The inspiration for this recipe came from Good Cheap Eats, but I gave it the ol' maison|raye tweak until it suited our tastebuds.

Things I love about this granola:

• Yummy (duh)
• Portable
• Crunchy
• Uses a natural, "real food" sweetener
• Don't have to stir it while baking! (This is HUGE for me)
• Can sub use any kind of nuts you like or have on hand
• Uses basic ingredients always in my pantry (I buy pretty much all the ingredients in bulk)
• Is allergy-friendly (dairy-free, peanut-free, egg-free, soy-free and gluten-free if you use certified gluten-free ingredients)
• It actually holds together in large-ish pieces, which are easy to grab

Side note, this is an awesome, portable snack to take camping or on vacation (or to keep in a container in your desk at work). And, it makes fab yogurt/fruit/granola parfaits.

I sometimes pour the little crumblies into a bowl, add a small handful of dried or fresh berries and top with milk (previously cow milk or Ashley's Cereal Sauce, but lately I use coconut or almond milk). I wish I had a picture of all that yum-ness in a bowl, but I ate it. Sorry.

You definitely need to try this granola. Hear that?  NEED!!!!

Maple Nut Granola

by Raye

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Keywords: bake stove top breakfast snack oatmeal nuts maple syrup

Ingredients (8 servings)

• 5 c. old fashioned rolled oats (do not use quick oats)
• 1 c. chopped nuts, such as pecans or almonds
• 1 c. shredded, unsweetened coconut
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 c. maple syrup
• 1/2 c. coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 300* F.
• In a small saucepan over low heat, combine syrup, vanilla, salt, coconut oil and cinnamon and stir until smooth.
• Stir together nuts, coconut and oats in a large mixing bowl. Pour warmed liquid ingredients over the oat mixture. Stir to coat evenly. (It will seem like there's not enough liquid to go around at first. Just keep stirring. It may take about a minute to get the dry ingredients totally coated.)
• Press into a 15x10 jelly roll pan (rimmed baking sheet). Bake for 40-45 minutes without stirring. Remove from oven and gently break up with a spatula.
• Cool completely before serving or storing. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
• Note, may omit nuts during the baking process and simply add pecans or a dried fruit/nut mix or nut/seed mix when serving to accommodate individual tastes within your family.

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The Ry Guy Report: 13 Months

 

 

Weight  19 lb

 

Height  28.5 inches

 

Milestones

• Balances on his own while standing still
• Walks with a little help
• Follows simple directions
• Pulls himself up easily
• Climbs (crawls) up stairs (scary for mom!)
• Crawls very quickly
• Signs "baby" and "all done"
• Sorts objects

 

Likes

• Splashing in the pool
• Blueberries
• Squash
• His "Walker Wagon"
• Toy trucks/cars/helicopter/submarine (he moves them all back and forth and says vroom) 
• Cats
• Baby Signing Time DVDs

 

Dislikes

• Either Mom or Dad leaving
• Falling down
• Mosquitos
• More than 2 cats at the same time

 

The Quotable Ry Guy  "Kitty" and "Vroom"

Allergy Friendly Raspberry Rhubarb Crisp Recipe

About a month ago, Ry Guy and I were diagnosed with multiple food allergies, including eggs, soy, dairy, gluten, and peanuts. Looks like the allergies are connected to our eczema, too.  I'm in mourning.

{insert sniffle here}

I confess, I was pretty depressed about it for a few weeks. Then, I decided to not let it control my life. I've found that there is hope and you can actually reverse some food allergies. In fact, I'm taking an online class right now on reversing food allergies and I'm learning so much already. I hope to see improvement in both Ry Guy's and my eczema soon...

Anyway, I wanted dessert this past week when I was up visiting my family, so Mom suggested I do something with the raspberries she had in the freezer or the rhubarb from the garden out back.

So, I did something with both of them. At the same time. Here's the result.

Don't you just want to snatch that right off the page and stuff it in your mouth?  If you like tart desserts, this is for you.