no bakes!

ive always made no bakes with sugar and peanut butter and oats... now i make a modified version with almond butter and splenda and gluten free oats... being out of most of these ingredients i went with unsweetened carob chips, almonds, walnuts, coconut flakes (unsweetened), sunflower seeds and a little milk. tasty and high protein! (less guilt!)

sort of like lasagna.

i had some left of spaghetti sauce (trader joes on sale for $1, and contains no sugar, win!), a can of stewed tomatoes (no sugar!), a chunk of zucchini fresh from a friends garden that desperately needed a use, two small onions, and an assortment of cheeses (havarti, gouda, and muenster, yum!). layer layer layer, bake for 30-40 minutes? until the zucchini was done. at 350. tastes kinda like, pizza and lasagna. but with veggies. although ends up a bit like cheese tomato soup. but so tasty. im sure this is a billion calories. a billion calories of joy. unless youre lactose intolerant. im sure this would be great over brown rice noodles as well. or with spinach or arugula baked in.

coconut flour adventures

found coconut flour on clearance at tj maxx. discovered this handy dandy recipe. these cookies wont last long, possibly make a double batch. or dont leave them where you constantly walk by (for example, leaving them in the living room when youre constantly walking through the living room. very risky.)

i used truvia instead of sugar and unsweetened carob chips instead of chocolate chips. amazing!

warning: these cookies may be VERY addictive.

using this recipe as a guide, made some extremely addictive cookies, that are really quite filling and go very well with soy milk.

however i did some tweaking with the recipe to fit my diet. i used unsweetened carob chips instead of chocolate chips. unsweetened vanilla soy milk instead of whole milk. substituted coconut sugar for both the sugar and brown sugar.(which makes the cookies come out darker). used tapioca starch instead of corn starch. and i just used 2 whole eggs instead of just the extra yoke.

my oven also runs hot so i baked at 350. for 12 minutes instead of 14.

carob chip success!

mashmallows!

im going camping next weekend. for the first time in years. three things are ESSENTIAL when camping. bug spray, hot dogs and s'mores. bug spray, easy to find. check! hot dogs, i found some i can eat. check! s'mores... *shriek!* just imagine sitting around the campfire watching the others enjoy their toasty shmallows, dripping melted chocolate down their chins, chomp chomping away on graham crackers... sounds painful doesnt it?

luckily for me, i found a chocolate bar at the local health food store that i can have... about the size of a deck of cards, but half as thick for $6. now i love chocolate. and i was willing to make this happen for $6 because what is camping without s'mores? however, later that day i also discovered unsweetened carob chips for $1.50 a bag at the local discount market. winning! easy enough to melt down and shape just right. so that solves the chocolate problem. but then what of the shmallows?

also, a very auspicious day i ran across this gem. (mine actually came out just like the picture!). they taste like smallows, they feel like shmallows, and with the write tray could look like them too!

tonights dinner

i recently learned to cook beans. not canned beans, but the kind that come in the bags for 69 cents. really basic, cheap dinner. i bought a bag of pintos. soaked them over night, and then stuck them in the crockpot all day with about half a box of veggie broth (gluten free, yeast free, MUST read EVERY label.) and water enough to cover the beans. i also added garlic. what to do with the beans to make them a meal. maybe some meat? i bought some beef hebrew national franks (call me lazy, but its quick easy meat. and i do love hot dogs, one of the few hot dogs i can actually eat. yay me!) i was saving these to put in with some split peas. i should really buy ham for that though. so i think, omg! beans and franks. comfort little kid food, gotta love it. so looking online for beans and franks recipes... harder than one would think. most recipes call for cans of pork and beans or baked beans. how boring is that? or they call for ketchup and worstershire sauce. neither of which i can have (except for this ketchup i made from scratch. ive made this about three times, and its always amazing, and is actually totally easy! and could also become an accidental bbq sauce. win win). with that being said i end up taking bits and pieces of recipes and praying they turn out. so i ended up taking parts of this recipe from Rachel Ray. turns out i had no cumin so i used 1/2 teaspoon curry powder instead. i also added a drizzle of light molasses. black pepper to taste.

along with that, my first ever biscuits! (a bit saltier than i'd like, but still totally tasty. maybe cook a smidge less time as well. i also used unsweetened vanilla soy milk.. all i had in the fridge.) these would be perfect with gravy.

but overall super tasty and even though time consuming totally easy meal. which i will be eating for a decade. but success none the less!

other peoples great ideas.

heres a few great sources of recipe and diet information.

this blog has a wealth of information and recipes. so far i haven't tried any. mainly because the ingredients are hard to find where i live, or expensive, and a bit is just pure intimidation.

one blog that has been a huge influence for me is both gluten and sugar free. she recently wrote a book that i keep going back and forth on buying. i really should.

these are the sites i look at regularly, they also have wonderful lists of fellow blogs with a wealth of information as well.

often when i want to make something to suit my diet i just google it, and then comb through pages and pages to find something that works or that i can adjust to work for me.

My diet story!

hi,

im starting over this blog again. even with its many incarnations ive determined that the best has been saved for last. this time about something i have become super passionate about and have become increasingly aware of: my health and wellness. no, im not turning this into a fitness blog. even though i feel like fitness has been important to me over this past year, i really have little knowledge about it. about 18 months ago i started experiencing chronic infections. many weekly dr visits, repeated prescriptions of antibiotics (that led to other problems, and those medications led to infections that led back to the antibiotics... you get the picture.) and even some homeopathic treatments later, my doctor says to me, why dont you look at your diet, im sure you can find some health books about whats going on with you. so on my own, i scour the interwebs trying to solve the mystery. at this point im willing to try anything. i would say this was the one time that self diagnosing actually has been beneficial. in my search i am led to the candida diet. it should solve everything for me! yay! one tiny little catch though, if you ever look at whats involved, it seems impossible. many friends say to me, "then what can you eat?" which in all honesty is quite alot.

at first it was extremely difficult, learning what i could have and what i couldnt have. trying to get the recipe just right. a detox was recommended first.. eating a clay mixture... i just couldnt do it. the extreme only veggie diet for ten days to cleanse... i made it on veggies and chicken for 3 days before i couldnt take it anymore and had a melt down..it wasnt pretty... i learned about withdrawl from white sugar and flour. felt just overall blah for a few weeks. but then it was all okay.

so the next question was, what can i eat? what i ate at the beginning has changed a bit from what i eat today. at first, i was super strict about it. today i eat no gluten, refined sugar, corn, vinegar (except cider), nothing fermented... so no mushrooms, alcohol. nothing pickled, no peanuts, no yeast... so what can i eat? lots of things. meat, dairy, veggies, fruits, non gluten grains. agave, honey. lots of things.

the great thing about the interwebs is that you can find anything. so ive seen many many websites devoted to gluten free, sugar free, and a few both. also, a few candida diet sites as well. so basically ive decided that the best thing to do with this blog is to post the information ive learned on this journey. so far, ive used other peoples recipes and ideas. i have not tried branching out on my own and making my own recipes. in due time.

so heres a collection of the things i have learned, the recipes i have loved and tried repeatedly with varying degrees of success. things ive learned on my journey which has been a constant learning experience. over this journey i have lost 40 lbs, and im proud to say my last trip to the doctor for an infection was nearly a year ago. i feel overall healthier and feel soooo much better. i absolutely love learning about how to simplify my cooking but mainly my baking. i love to bake. i love my sweets. so this way i do get to have my cake and eat it too. enjoy!