Apple cinnamon muffins

I seem to be on a pretty good baking spree lately, much to the delight of my husband (okay, and myself, ha). We had a lot of apples in the fridge and I was looking to make a “breakfast” item so these babies were the natural progression. And we loved them. Perfect for a quick breakfast treat, snack during the day or dessert after dinner!

Apple cinnamon muffins with simple sugar glaze Adapted from Add a Pinch
*makes about a dozen (I was able to get a few more than a dozen)
Ingredients:

• For muffins
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (+ 2 teaspoons for coating apples)
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 cups apples, peeled and diced
• 1/3 cup (half a stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1 cup organic cane sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup milk
• For glaze
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2-6 tablespoons milk or other liquid (depending on how quick you’d like it)

Instructions

• For muffins
• Preheat oven to 375º F. Coat muffin or cupcake pans to prevent sticking or line with cupcake liners.
• Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Set aside.
• Toss together diced apples and 2 teaspoons of flour to coat apples in a separate bowl. Set aside.
• Cream together butter and sugar until lightened in color, about 3 minutes. Add an egg, one at a time and then the vanilla.
• Gently fold in flour mixture, alternating with milk. Stir until just combined. Fold in diced apples.
• Scoop mixture into prepared pans, filling them about 3/4 cup full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 30 minutes.
• For glaze
• Stir together powdered sugar and liquid until glaze is formed. Add more powdered sugar or liquid to desired consistency.

*Note: batter will be pretty thick


Enjoy!

Why I ate my placenta: Placenta encapsulation

I really don't remember when I first heard of placenta encapsulation but not gonna lie, at first I thought it was super weird. My thought process was something like, "huh, people actually do this??" followed by "gross".  Fast forward to Emersyn's pregnancy and having read and heard more about it and its benefits, it made sense. One thing I had also always heard about was how bad postpartum depression and baby blues can be and since I tend to be emotional enough all on my own, it was one thing I was worried about.

So I figured if taking placenta pills could help at all, why not? 

Placenta encapsulation

Taken from my placenta encapsulation specialist's website, "the placenta’s hormonal make‐up is completely unique to the mother. No prescription, vitamin or herbal supplement can do what one placenta pill can. During pregnancy the placenta takes over hormone production for the body. By the end of the pregnancy the placenta is creating more than three times the amount of pre‐pregnancy hormone production. After the birth it takes some time, usually 6 to 8 weeks but sometimes up to a year, for the body to properly take over the productions of hormones again. By ingesting the placenta you are, in theory, replacing the hormones and nutrients lost during the birth and helping the body to be balanced while recovering from pregnancy and birth. Each woman’s placenta is unique to her hormonal make‐up.

Benefits

• Decrease in baby blues, postpartum depression and other postpartum illnesses
• Increase and enrich breast milk
• Increase in energy
• Decrease in postpartum bleeding
• Decrease iron deficiency
• Decrease insomnia or sleep disorders
• Aids in quick postpartum healing
• Increases mother baby bond"

**Taken from Postpartum Peace**

The Process

My midwife suggested a placenta encapsulation specialist that some of her other clients have used so we went with her, Ariel Vickery of Postpartum Peace. 

Upon letting the hospital know we were keeping the placenta, they kept it refrigerated for us until we went home. About 48 hours after birth, Ariel came to our house and began the two part process of dehydrating and then encapsulating my placenta. The next day she came back and finished up and I had the pills all ready to begin taking. (For more info, visit her site).

The Results

Going into this, I was skeptical if these pills would actually do anything but I knew I might as well try. I figured, if nothing else, maybe they'll have a placebo effect ha.

It quickly became evident that for me, the pills worked wonders! I'm not exaggerating a bit when I say that I'm now a believer ha. My whole emotional outlook on life changed when I started taking them and I really felt like myself again rather than all weepy. Sometimes still a very tired self, but myself, none the less. There were days where I had forgotten to take them and only realized when my husband noticed. It was very evident in my mood and attitude when I did vs didn't.

It's extra hard being a momma in those first first week/months with no sleep, changing hormones, etc ... especially if you have a baby that doesn't like to nap like I did ... and taking my placenta pills helped greatly to ease back into normal life and have the physical, mental and hormonal balance I needed. Add that up with all the other benefits such as enriched breast milk and quicker Postpardum healing, it's something I am so glad I did! We'll definitely continue it for future pregnancies.

What do you think about placenta encapsulation? 

PS Thanks to Ariel who made the whole process very easy! She was so helpful, professional and nice and comes highly recommended if you're in the Kansas City area!

Strawberry layer cake & mini red velvet whoopie pies

A bit overdue for a new blog post!
Winter is in full bloom here in the Midwest with cold weather and snow blanketed yards. Emersyn turned five months old on the 1st and we're getting more and more settled into our new place. Ive had many goodies that I've meant to share and have even taken photos but the actual sharing part is what I've had some troubles with ha.

So in light of Valentine's Day and the month of February, here's a few "red" goodies I've tried lately that we've gobbled right up. First, a strawberry layer cake via The Little Epicurean. Recipe can be found here. We really liked this cake.  It was light, fresh and delicious! A perfect Valentine’s Day treat.

And next up, red velvet whoopie pies! These are colored all naturally with beets and adapted from Baking a Moment. Erik’s work was having a cookie contest at work with the criteria being red cookies that were under 100 calories so I went with mini pies!  Each of these whoopie pies are approximately 50 calories each and about an inch round.  They’re also very addictive … yum!

Mini Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
**makes approximately 50 pies about an inch round
Ingredients:

• Cakes:
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 1 egg, separated
• 3/4 cup beet puree (I roasted two beets in the oven at 400 degrees for 60 minutes then peeled and pureed)
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons natural cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• Filling:
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Cakes:
2. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, and then mix in the egg yolk.
3. Add in the beet puree, milk, lemon juice, vinegar, vanilla, and combine.
4. Add the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, and baking soda and combine.
5. In a separate bowl, whip the egg white until fluffy and stiff. Fold the egg white into the cake batter.
6. Drop approx 100 scoops of batter (about the size of a quarter) onto lined baking sheets, and bake at 375 degrees, for 7 minutes. Cool completely, and fill with fluffy cream cheese filling.
7. Filling:
8. Whip all the filling ingredients together until fluffy.

Five Months

Five months old already!

I'm sure I keep saying this but, man, time flies by! It feels like about every week I write these updates, not every month.  You're growing so much and you continue to bring more and more joy with each new skill you develop and each "first" you have.  We love hearing more and more laughs and happy squeals each and every day!

Five Months

What you weigh: approx 15 lbs, 9.6 ounces

Eating: You're down to eating about every 3-4 hrs during the day and about once at night. Most of the time, you eat in about 15 minutes unless it's bedtime or you're sleepy. You still kind of cluster feed and bedtimes can still take several hours bc of your slow and drawn out eating.

Sleeping: You take naps now! Consistently! Twice a day! They're in the Boba carrier but mommy is just glad you take them. It makes for a happier day for the both of us. We had about a week this month where you woke up every hour or two hours at night but for the most part, you're still waking once or twice. 

Clothes: 6 months or 6-9 months with a few 9 months fitting here at the end of the month. You will certainly be able to wear all your 9 month clothes by the end of February.

Favorite Activities: Jumping! You absolutely love to jump when being held and stood up on the floor or a lap. You also kick those cute little feet a lot. Loving time in the jumper, Boba carrier, being sung to, clapping, laughs from mom and dad, tummy kisses, smiling, and squealing

Least Favorite Activities: Once again, being in the car seat for too long, ha. 

Big moments/firsts:

- You got dedicated to The Lord in church this month
- You've taken up high pitched girly screaming/squealing
- You started jumping like crazy this month

Other:
- Grandma Kris and Grandpa came and visited

- We got you a convertible car seat to try out in hopes you'll like it better than your bucket car seat

- You've still yet to roll back to tummy but you have come SO close. It's just more fun to jump, I know.

- Laughter is being heard more frequently as well as happy squeals 

- We've figured out how to conquer those red dry cheeks with California Baby calendula cream, woo hoo!

- You're constantly drooling so we usually keep a bib on you all day lest we have to change your shirt 20 times a day ha

January Photos

Door to Door Organics

One thing about living in St Joe versus Kansas City that is the hardest for us is ... food! Not only do we miss our favorite spots (Quay Coffee, Westside Local, Little Freshie, etc) but there's not an over abundance of fresh local and organic foods for groceries. We are thankful for the options Hyvee has but so often, I've found their organic produce to be lacking in quality and variety. Along with that, I love being able to purchase local products, especially meat and eggs, which our Hyvee doesn't offer.

Enter: Door to Door Organics

We've gotten Door to Door over the years sporadically but for whatever reason, had stopped getting it for a few years while living in KC. Once we came back to St Joe, however, I almost immediately signed up again because we could no longer just swing by Badseed on a friday night, etc. After tagging them in an Instagram post of Emersyn hanging out with these awesomely huge rainbow carrots I got in my box one week …

… I got an email asking me if I'd be interested in reviewing them. I don't really do many reviews on The Purple Carrot these days but this is one company I really do appreciate and love to share!

What Is It?

Door to Door Kansas City delivers fresh organic/natural local produce and food products right to your door in the KC and surrounding areas.

How It Works

Each order starts with a produce box that you chose and customize.

You can make 5 substitutions to your weekly (or biweekly) box and shop their whole selection of vegetables and fruit. Their produce is always USDA Certified Organic and sourced locally whenever possible.

After that, you can shop through their ever growing selection of pantry staples. They have a variety of farm-fresh milk, free-range eggs, gourmet cheese, humanely raised meats, sustainably fished seafood, and artisan breads - to name a few.

One of my favorite features is that you can put your order on hold anytime you want for as long as needed so there's no weekly or monthly commitment if, for some reason, you need to take a break from receiving it.

Examples

I snapped some photos of some of the past couple weeks boxes for some examples.

We get the majority of our groceries through them and they always seem to be growing and improving their selections. They also do a great job of keeping everything cold via their packaging even if it be frozen meat or milk.

 

Their prices are overall very reasonable and in line with most healthfood stores and I've always been impressed with the quality. Less than a handful of times have I had to contact them with any problems with an order and each time they were quick to happily fix it. I highly suggest giving them a try! I mean, who doesn't want to skip the store and come home to their groceries sitting at your doorstep? Yeah. Visit their website for more details and to check out what all they have to offer! And give them a try!

***Enter the word "purple" at checkout on your first order and receive a $10 discount!***

PS: Dear D2D, please add Oddly Correct coffee, Little Freshie pops, meat from Local Pig, aaaand Kalona SuperNatural milk to your selections. Thank you ;)

Tartine fruit galettes

Hello, 2014!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year! Emersyn is now 4 months old and she had a great first Christmas.

I haven't posted as much as I'd like to here but I have been trying to bake at least once a week and have gotten into a nice groove getting dinner made efficiently these days. We recently got this Tartine cookbook filled with awesome baked goods, pastries, etc.

 

Tartine is a widely popular neighborhood bakery and cafe in San Francisco. While we haven't been there, one only has to see pictures to realize how awesome their breads and pastries are. I'm on a mission to bake as many of these recipes as I can and first up ....

Fruit galettes

The cookbook is filled with beautiful photos and very detailed and easy to read instructions even for the more complicated items.

We filled our galettes with sautéed apples and pears and paired them with homemade vanilla ice cream. 

Uh, YUM! It's taken us about all our willpower not to eat every one of these mini galettes in less than 24 hours.

They literally may just be my favorite tasting dessert I've ever made. The dough came out absolutely delicious with just the right amount of crisp and flakiness. I used two different kinds of Caputo 00 flour as we have a few giant bags lying around for Erik’s pizza making and it really seemed to work out perfectly.

I can't wait to make them in the summer at the peak of berry season! Tartine comes highly recommended by The Purple Carrot household and I'm already excited to make the next thing ...

Four Months

Welcome to the year 2014 and the start of month five of your life, perfect little girl! You're growing so much and you're such a beautiful joy!

Four Months

What you weigh: apprx 14 lbs 12 ounces

Eating: You're starting to not want to eat quite as frequently and also are eating quite a bit quicker. Whenever you're really hungry and eat aggressively, you'll "talk" almost the entire time you nurse. It's kind if like a groan/hum and so funny and cute!

Sleeping: You're fairly consistent in this area. Of course we had some of "those" nights but overall you're a pretty good sleeper. Averaging getting up once in the night, sometimes twice and only occasionally more. While you still almost always wake up about 20 minutes after I first put you down, after nursing you back to sleep again you typically stay asleep. We still swaddle you at night and nurse to sleep.

Clothes: Solidly in 6 month clothes

Diapers: Still alternating between cloth and level 2 Seventh Generation disposables.

Favorite Activities: Smiling, "talking", listening to Sophie the Giraffe squeak, watching daddy dance and make funny faces, "standing up" kicking your feet, being in the Boba carrier, kisses on your cheeks, the sound of clapping

Least Favorite Activities: A long time in the car seat, being near the blender when it's on, people talking loudly to you when you're tired, when mommy leaves the house when you're getting tired

Big Moments: 

- your first Christmas!

- you've started putting your little bum in the air when on your tummy and kicking your legs. I can't keep you on your tummy on the Bumbo lounger now. One day this is how far you got out of it

- you've become so much more aware this month it seems and we're really starting to see even more of a cute little personality 

- you're "talking" all the time

- you've begun communicating with a very high pitched girly scream/squeal

Other:

- You've had some eczema on your cute little cheeks. I've been putting some goop on it and it really seems to help the redness so long as I keep up with it. You really like to accidentally rub it all off right after I put it on!

December Pictures