Happy 6 months!

Rae and Ry

Today, Ryan and I have been married for 6 months. I wanted to share our story with you. I hope you enjoy reading our story!

How We Met
On January 10, 2011, Regan entered the library and met Ryan for the first time. Over time, Ryan would often stop and talk with Regan about interests and where life was leading her. Ryan was a little sad, because it sounded to him like this lovely young woman was going to be leaving the state in not too long and he'd never get the chance to really know her. Regan watched as Ryan interacted with the patrons. Ryan was patient and kind. Regan started to go to the library more often with hope that Ryan would be working.

 Taken by Beth Paulsen. Check out her blog, Playin' With The Paulsens, here to see more of her photographs!

In May 2011, one of the librarians told Ryan that he needed to "go get Regan's phone number and ask her out!" Ryan was unsure that this was possible and so he decided to "friend" Regan on Facebook. On August 24th, Ryan finally decided to ask Regan out. When Regan came into the library, Ryan asked Regan if she would like to go jet skiing with him. Regan agreed. The following Wednesday, Regan approached Ryan and greeted him. Ryan told Regan that jet skiing didn’t seem to be working out. Ryan asked Regan if she would like to hangout anyways. Ryan ask her for her phone number and received it.  Later that day, Ryan decided to step outside of his comfort zone by texting Regan. After some small talk, Regan didn’t know what to talk about so Regan asked Ryan if he preferred detailed or more shallow conversation. Ryan told Regan he liked detailed answers. Ryan found this to be an incredibly unusual question of an analytical nature. He HAD to date this woman and soon. Ryan asked if she wanted to go to lunch in 2 days. Regan said, "Yes."

Dating and Courtship

On their first date, the two talked for 4 hours and were surprisingly open and comfortable with one another. Their second date, just 3 days later, lasted 9 hours. Ryan admitted to Regan that he was interested in her. Regan laughed and told Ryan that she was interested in him too. Regan and Ryan spent much time talking on their dates. They went on walks, made meals together, went out to eat, and star gazed together. This continued until Ryan started talking about the idea of entering into a courtship together. Regan seemed to like this idea. Ryan set it up so that Regan would meet his parents, he would ask her father's permission and he bought a promise ring for Regan. Ryan’s parents loved Regan at once and Ryan’s mother even said that she knew that he would find a sweet girl, but she had no idea she would be this sweet and that he couldn’t have found anyone else like her. When Ryan told Regan that he had received her father's blessing, she thought that they were already in a courtship from that point on. On October 5th, 2011 (Regan's birthday), Ryan took Regan to CU in Waterloo. After dinner Ryan asked Regan if she would enter into a more serious relationship with him. Regan (and the waitress) thought he was proposing (since Regan already thought they were courting)! After clearing things up and having a good laugh, they had officially entered into a courtship with the intention of marrying some day.

Taken by Beth Paulsen. Check out her blog, Playin' With The Paulsens, here to see more of her photographs!

Proposal

On November 3rd, Ryan started looking online and researching rings. After looking through hundreds of designs, one stuck out and Ryan knew that it was the right ring. Ryan ordered it right away.  Ryan now needed the perfect way to propose and to make sure that it was a surprise. Ryan was trying to decide what day to propose on and joked to himself about making it the 17th because that is his favorite number. Ryan had the idea to look up when the next meteor shower, since the two had talked about wanting to watch one. A quick Google search revealed that the next meteor shower would be on the 17th of November!  Ryan obtained Regan's parents blessings and made sure that they were comfortable with him asking her and with the timing.

To throw Regan off the trail, since she knew that the day was coming soon, Ryan began on Wednesday buying her gifts and filming himself and her talking about their plans and thoughts. On Wednesday, Ryan bought Regan two board games. On Thursday, Regan went to Ryan’s home to eat lunch and play a game. Ryan gave Regan a dozen roses (He told her later that he had the ring behind the couch in case he couldn't wait for the next night to ask her).

Taken by Beth Paulsen. Check out her blog, Playin' With The Paulsens, here to see more of her photographs!

On Friday, Regan and Ryan had planned to see a meteor shower. Ryan picked Regan up at 11PM and there were three wrapped packages on the seat. Ryan told Regan that she could open them when they got to "The Land" (his parents have some land just outside of town). At "The Land" Ryan and Regan settled down to watch the meteor shower. The two watched the starsm talked together, enjoyed the peace and serenity, danced in the moonlight (until becoming too cold!) and opened gifts. The first gift was a food container (since she had been teasing Ryan for days about losing her’s). The second package contained the movies, It's a Wonderful Life and White Christmas since Regan had told him she watched every year with her family on Christmas. The third package was a pair of diamond earrings which Ryan thoughtfully informed Regan was not a ring as she unwrapped it. At this point, Regan was sure she would not be getting engaged this night. Ryan then asked Regan to give some suggestions on film about the ring, about what kind of cut the diamond should be and what kind of band it should have... Regan wasn't sure what she liked so she didn't really have answers (which was good since he already had the ring). Ryan then asked Regan to stand up which she didn't think was suspicious at all for some reason, maybe she was too cold to think straight :) or maybe since he had already done that a bunch of times already, such as when he asked her to dance). Ryan got down on one knee and said, "Regan, will you do me the honor of marrying me?" Regan said, "Yes.”

Regan talking with her dad before walking down the aisle. Photo by Jacki Koch

The Wedding

One night, Ryan and Regan were talking and Ryan said he wanted to have a hypothetical conversation. Regan indulged him. Ryan said that they could be married by the weekend and then proceeded to step Regan through each hurdle that needed to be jumped prior to marriage, such as obtaining a marriage lisence, a minister, as well as a location.  Regan asked Ryan if he was serious and Ryan said that he would do it if he had any inclining that Regan would consider it. Regan said, "Let's do it". Regan and Ryan contacted their parents to ask for approval. Regan and Ryan decided to get married in Illinois so that Regan's father could attend.        

                                 

Bride and Groom with most of their family Photo by Jacki Koch

The next evening, Regan and Ryan were headed to Illinois for their marriage license. Ryan's father was able to obtain a minister's license. Regan's uncle offered to pay for the wedding at a Biaggi's restaurant. Regan and Ryan called their guests. After obtaining the marriage license, Regan and Ryan drove back to Iowa so that Regan could work her shifts. Regan worked an overnight shift from Saturday to Sunday and at 7AM on Sunday, Regan and Ryan left for Illinois with Ryan's parents.

Regan and Ryan said, "I do" at 6pm that evening.

Ryan and Regan after the wedding, posing for pictures. Photo by Bre Rottinghaus

 Our engagement photos were taken by our friend, Beth Paulsen. Check out her blog, Playin' With The Paulsens, here to see more of her photographs! Our wedding photos were taken by guests at our wedding, Bre Rottinghaus and Jacki Koch.

Mini Pumpkin Pies

Ryan told me that he wanted a pumpkin pie for his birthday, so I set to work to make a gluten free pumpkin pie sweetened with stevia. My first attempt had way too much stevia in it but my second attempt was just like...pumpkin pie. :) Ryan and I decided to make mini pumpkin pies so that we could share them easier. We had friends over for dinner tonight and this is what we served them for dessert. They went back for seconds! Give this a try. :)

Makes one 9-in pie or 24 mini pies

Crust

150 g Almonds ground

100 g cashew

2 tbs honey

3 tbs butter

1. Place nuts in a blender and finely grind.

2. Melt butter

3. Stir ground nuts, butter, and honey until evenly distributed.

4. Press mixture into bottom of muffin tins (or one 9-in pie dish)

Bake crust 7 minutes.

Pie Filling

1/4 teaspoon Stevia*

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon Salt

1/4 teaspoon Pumpkin pie spice (powdered cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice)

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 Large Eggs                                               

1 can (15 oz) Pureed Pumpkin**

1 cup Whipping Cream

1. Mix stevia, cinnamon, salt, pumpkin pie mix in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin, vanilla, and stevia-spice mixture into beaten eggs. Gradually stir in cream.

2. Pour into pie shells.

3. Bake at 300° F; bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Mine did not set all of the way before the crust began to brown too much so I removed it and let it cool. The pie thickened for me while cooling.

* (Make sure you have real stevia or your pie will not be sweet enough. We buy our stevia from the bulk section of HyVee because the precontainered stevia that we had found has added fillers (vegetable inulin, dextrose...ect) so then more of your "stevia" will be needed to make the pie sweet enough.)

**(Make sure you buy pureed pumpkin and not pureed pumpkin pie mix-the pumpkin pie mixture has sugar already added.)

Vegetarian Thai Pizza

Ryan and I had extra ginger root around the house and we decided we needed to use some of it. I google recipes that had ginger in them and I found a blog titled, Oh My Veggies. I had never found this blog before in my search for recipes but I am so glad that I did today. This Vegetarian Thai Pizza is absolutely scrumpcious.

I did not have some of the ingredients that this recipe called for so I substituted. The substituations I made are below. I thought that too much sauce would be made if I followed the recipe exactly.

Instead of	I used
3 button mushrooms, thinly sliced	1 baby bella mushroom
1/2 c. peanut butter	1/4 c. peanut butter
1 tbsp. rice vinegar	1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced	1/4 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp. brown sugar	1 1/2 tsp raw honey
3/4 c. shredded mozzarella cheese	1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 red pepper, sliced into rings	1/2 anaheim pepper

I have an allergy to gluten so I used a premade gluten free crust from HyVee.  The brand of crust is Udi's. Ryan and I love that crust! Each package comes with 2 crusts.

Give this pizza a try! It is wonderful!

Click here for the recipe!

Anne P's 5 Minute No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Bars

Hello!

Ryan and I have been trying recipes that we have found on many other blogs. You wouldn't believe how many bloggers include a gluten free section in their blogs. One of our favorite blogs to find recipes on is fANNEtastic food. The blogger, Anne P., has shared some great gluten free recipes that I have enjoyed making.

Monday, I made Anne's 5 Minute No Bake Peanut Butter Granola Bars with a few changes since I did not have all of the called for ingredients. I used just 1/4 cup of honey and 1 table spoon butter in place of the brown rice syrup. The bars did not stick together for me which may have been caused by my substituation.  Other than the crumbliness of the bars, they were delicious. In fact, Ryan and I ate them in less than 48 hours...oops.

We decided to make more on Wednesday but we wanted to try something different to see if the granola would stick together better. Again I added 1/4 cup honey in place of the brown rice syrup but I also added 3 tbs butter and 1.5 oz unsweetened bakers chocolate. Also, instead of storing the bars in the refrigerator, I have placed them in the freezer. The bars are still crumbly but they are holding together better today than my attempt on Monday. I think they are great as a frozen treat. I think I will try Anne's recipe exactly as it is written next time. I hope you all give Anne's recipe a try because it was delicious! :) Enjoy!

Try Anne's recipe here!

Introduction

Hi! Regan here, but you can call me Rae.  I am starting this blog with my husband, Ryan.  I like to call him Ry.  We were married in January and have found ourselves encountering many adventures since then. We would like to take you along on some of them.

We are very interested in trying new things that can improve our health (and as Ry says, "that taste really yummy")!  We hope to teach you what we have been learning, and maybe provide you with a few smiles along the way.

For years I have put off so many things that I have wanted to do.  I always said I would start when life slowed down, when I graduated, when I get into a "normal" schedule.  No more waiting.  It is time for me to begin.  Health is something on that list.  There is so much information, some conflicting and some false.  Who knows what to believe these days and what is actually good for you.  Ryan and I have been trying to gain a healthy life style and we thought that we would share the fruit of our researching and our experimentations with our family, friends, and anyone else who may be interested.  We do not have all the answers so please feel free to discuss anything that we post on here if you disagree or have questions.  We would love to hear what you have to say. I hope you continue on this journey with Ryan and I as we work towards discovering true health.

Rae