My New Favorite Muffins

Because of food allergies, we are dairy and egg free. The safest egg replacement options for us are banana and applesauce. So usually our muffins are banana or applesauce flavored. Well, I left my handy dandy Food Allergy Mama's Baking Book at my parents' house at Christmas time so I have started googling more recipes and branching out a little bit from our usual banana and chocolate chip muffins. 

That has led me to an amazing discovery. 

Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins

Because of my daughter's complex list of life-threatening food allergies, even "allergy-friendly" and "vegan" recipes usually need to be modified. And I just rarely follow anything 100%... So this recipe was an amazing starting point for me, but I did make a few changes:

*I don't use any wheat flour... Just all unbleached all-purpose flour.

*Instead of almond milk, I use rice milk.

*I don't love EVOO in baked goods, so I use canola oil.

*For the drizzle I like melted butter + confectioner's sugar, with maybe a little rice milk. I kind of wing this to make it taste good, and NOT like rice. 

YUM. I think I threw a little nutmeg in this batch. And doubled it.

I rarely make these the same way every time. Sometimes I just make the muffins with nothing on top. Sometimes I dip them in melted butter and then in a cinnamon sugar mix. Sometimes I make the drizzle. No matter what, they are *AMAZING.*

I could drink that. Do yourself a favor and go make these muffins!

(You can also sub the flour for a GF one-to-one flour. I've done it!)

Crocheting for Baby

Baby #5 is due next month. Being a summer month, I wasn't planning to have a blanket ready before she comes. Mostly because I wanted to knit her one, and the last baby blanket took me two years (with a long time off in there, and not working on it daily or even weekly ::cough:: or monthly).

A friend shared this "Call the Midwife Pattern" with me that she was planning to make for her summer baby. I LOVED it, and it worked up quicker than I could imagine. I can't wait to wrap my sweet new babe in it!

Pattern: http://littlemonkeyscrochet.com/call-the-midwife-inspired-baby-blanket-free-pattern/

I also made this adorable onesie for our babe, and I'm so in love with it, I want to make more!! Unfortunately, I still haven't put buttons on it yet... #thelittlethings I've got six weeks to get those buttons on!

Pattern: https://www.etsy.com/listing/522445720/crochet-pattern-baby-romper-sizes-0-3?ref=hp_rv-2

Sidenote: I have adored monpetitviolon's patterns for a very long time. Highly recommend!

I *did* cast on a blanket for this sweet babe, too. I have actually cast on 4 time, but I the 4th time's a charm. That's how the saying goes, right? One of those times was my own mistake, dropping stitches. I can pick up or fix some errors, but I think I dropped them into the row before even?? I don't know what I'm doing with knitting yet... BUT with my third try, I realized, "this pattern is just not working out the way it should." Turns out, it was written with mistakes in it, and my mom found corrections online when I told her what I was thinking. I've made some progress since this row, so I'll post updates soon. This was actually cast on #3. God uses so many things to teach me patience. Knitting is sure one of them!

This is knitted blanket #1 - a work of love for sure. I spent a lot of time with this thing. I learned a lot. The whole process so reminds me of motherhood. :) You can see there were mistakes I just couldn't undo... but overall it turned out very well, and I'm happy with it. I'm gifting it to a friend for her rainbow baby.

What MamaCrafts have you got going on?

Don't blink! 5 years will pass!

Last time I popped on here, I said I was back! And then I didn't post again...

Such is life. The best laid plans don't always turn out exactly how you ... planned.

Last time I popped on here, I introduced our third child. She was 15 months old, but she got an introduction!

Since then, we have added a 4th... She is almost 3 and a half. And next month, we are adding a 5th! Time really does fly, doesn't it??

Last time I popped on here, we had moved from Washington state to Virginia.

Since then, we have lived in Georgia, and we are now in Kentucky. We have been through a 9 month deployment, a badly broken arm for child #3, and a food allergy diagnosis for child #4. Honestly, I don't even know what else, because I blinked and here we are.

We have decided to homeschool our children, and have been doing so for the last 5-6 years (depending on when you say we started... that's how we roll - who cares about grade levels and such?). I still craft. I have sewn some clothes and some quilts, I've crocheted blankets and sweaters for my babies, and I've learned to knit! I actually just finished my knitted baby blanket. Maybe that's why I haven't blogged. I started the baby blanket in January 2017. Hmm... I love baking from scratch, too. And I'm a total book-a-holic. Probably that's where I've really been - absorbed in a few (hundred) good books. A few years ago I set a goal to read more books. And then I set a goal to read 24 in a year and managed to read 45. So then I set a goal to read 50 and read 75. I guess we will see how many I manage to read this year...

I thought it might be fun to share with you all some of my favorite things about life. Maybe have a little journal for myself to look back on someday. There are so many times homeschooling feels amazing, and so many times that I feel defeated. There are so many successful craft projects completed, and so many that I struggle with. There are tons of successful goodies baked, and let's be honest, not many of those turn out wrong, although I did accidentally use way too much baking soda in some focaccia a few months ago, and it was probably the worst thing I've ever put in my mouth. Our dog wouldn't even eat it.

I hope you'll join me here again. :)

(Our most recent professional family pic... It's only about 18 months old.)