buckwheat bread

For those of you on a candida gluten-free or sugar-free diet, this grain-free, sugar-free buckwheat bread is a lifesaver...much more bread-like bread than coconut bread and is sturdy enough for sandwiches. It's great toasted with the addition of avocado, scrambled eggs or some coconut oil. This bread can also easily be made either sweet or savory with the addition of stevia or garlic powder.

Buckwheat Bread Recipe:

1c buckwheat flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)

2 eggs of flax eggs (1T flax + 3T warm water = 1 flax egg)

1 tsp sea salt

1c of unsweetened coconut milk, other milk or water

3/4 tbsp baking soda

Mix all the ingredients together and spoon into a medium lined baking tin. Bake at 350º for 50 minutes. 

Enjoy! The only unfortunate thing about this sugar-free bread is that it very closely resembles a giant log of chocolate cake. :( Sorry about that.

Chocolate cake? Nope. It's Buckwheat Bread.

tahini cookies

If you or someone you know struggles with a full-body candida infection, you know how challenging eating can be. In order to starve the candida, which is fed by yeast and sugar, it's imperative that ALL sugar and carbs are totally cut out, at least temporarily until symptoms reduce. That means that, at least for a while, no chocolate, fruit, beets, carrots, dairy, nuts, potatoes, grains, squash, beans, corn...etc. We've been working on this with my husband and although it was overwhelming at first, now that we have most of the essentials for cooking and baking, I'm getting a little more confident. But obviously, when every single thing he's eating is green, the one thing he's craving more than anything is...COOKIES. Enter: stevia, an all-natural sweetener derived from a plant that is totally safe for a candida diet. 

Once we bought some stevia, I decided to get a little crazy and try to make cookies. Peanut butter cookies are one of Dave's favorites, but alas, he can't have peanut butter. I figured that tahini, which is made from ground sesame seeds and is candida-safe, would be close enough to pass in a fake cookie.

Tahini Cookies:

1/4 cup melted coconut oil
About 1 T. or 6 packets of stevia
2 eggs or flax eggs (1T. ground flax to 3T. warm water = 1 egg)
1/2 cup tahini (Here, you could use almond or peanut butter if you can have sugar)
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 buckwheat flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
About 1 cup of Almond or Coconut Milk (unsweetened)

Mix the first five ingredients - beat well. Mix the last four ingredients and add to the wet mixture. Blend together into a thick dough, adding coconut milk, as needed. Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet, press flat with a fork and bake at 350º for about 8 minutes. Makes about 15 cookies. 

Dave was impressed. I thought they tasted a bit like "sugar-free peanut butter cookies," but I'm sure it's better than nothing when you're going through a candida cleanse. If anything, tahini is packed with protein, as is buckwheat flour, so they're filling and super-healthy! Make them for yourself or to impress your diabetic friends! :)

creamy avocado coleslaw

It's no secret that I'm not a big fan of cooking. I think it takes far too much precious time and needs to be done far too often. Not to mention, I truly almost set my house on fire the other night by spilling grease on a hot burner.

In an effort to keep myself out of the kitchen and avoid death, I made a salad. It makes a ton too, so it's great for a potluck or eating throughout the week.

Creamy Avocado "Coleslaw"
5-6 cups shredded purple and green cabbage
2 ripe avocados
1 chopped red pepper
1 half chopped, red onion
3 tablespoons diced cilantro leaves
Lemon juice, sea salt and ground black pepper to taste

Use a food processor or blender to mix the avocados with some of the lemon juice until creamy. Stir it into all the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and serve! No fire extinguishers needed. :)

vintage laundry detergent?

The woman in this vintage ad looks absolutely crazed about Tide's "oceans of suds":

Deranged housewife wielding her "new washing miracle"

Should we be crazy about popular store-bought detergents too or is there a better way to clean clothes? I am on a weird mission to find out...

In the 1920's, Americans used plain soap flakes in their spiffy washing machines that were only invented 12 years prior. Soap alone didn't clean clothes efficiently or perform well in hard water and left a nasty ring around the washer. (Fill in any witty 1920's phrases of exasperation you may know.) Laundry detergent as we know it was created in 1943 by Proctor & Gamble and was surely a lifesaver, worthy of all sorts of hilarious ads showcasing adoring fans. So what's wrong with it now?

I've been hearing so much about homemade detergent lately, but have avoided buying into it for 3 solid reasons:

1.) Grating soap with a cheese grater sounds like a real pain in the butt

2.) Homemade laundry detergent has become somewhat of an annoying trend. Almost like a cult of elitist domestic snobby-pants.

3.) I don't really have any issues with my current detergent.

I started by researching the ingredients for a popular detergent:

Homemade detergent is great for sensitive skin, babies or just a more natural lifestyle.

Is all that junk REALLY necessary to clean clothes well? After stumbling over all those huge words, I realized I DO have issues with store-bought detergent nowadays. Although my all-natural detergent did not include many of these nasty ingredients, I was paying a pretty-penny for it. Even if you believe all those chemicals are safe, it still seems a bit unnecessary when homemade detergent has as little as 4 ingredients at less than half the cost. I still really didn't feel like grating soap, but then I stumbled across this humbling gem:

ADVICE TO A 1912 BRIDE

Years ago a Kentucky grandmother gave a bride the following recipe for washing clothes (phonetic spelling and all) :

1. Bild fire in back yard to heet kettle of rainwater.
2. Set tubs so smoke won’t blow in eyes if wind is pert.
3. Shave one hole cake lie soap in boilin water.
4. Sort things, make three piles. 1 pile white. 1 pile cullord. 1 pile work britches and rags.
5. To make starch stur flour in cold water to smooth then thin down with boilin water.
6. Rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, then boil. Rub cullord but don’t boil — just rench and starch.
7. Take white things out of kettle with broom stick handle then rench, blew and starch.
8. Spred tee towels on grass.
9. Hang old rags on fence.
10. Pour rench water in flower bed.
11. Scrub porch with hot soapy water.
12. Turn tubs upside down.
13. Go put on cleen dress, smooth hair with side combs, brew cup of tee — set and rest a spell and count your blessins.

Now that I feel incredibly lazy and ungrateful for my position in society, my multitude of modern conveniences and my grammatical education, I think I can grate some darn soap. As for homemade detergent-makers being an obnoxious cult..well...there are obviously a few good reasons why everyone is jumping on this bandwagon. I decided to make some stupid laundry detergent.

Here's the laziest recipe I found for powdered detergent:

2c. Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

2c. of Baking Soda

2c. of Borax

1 bar of natural soap with no additives (I used Fels-Naptha laundry soap)

Just grate the soap with a cheese grater and then stir all the ingredients thoroughly. You only need 1-2 Tablespoons per wash load, so this will last for 80 loads of laundry....80.

Optional Fabric Softener:

White Vinegar (don't worry, it makes them soft and your clothes will not smell like salad)

Things to note:
- When I sat down to grate my Fels-Naptha soap, I was prepared for the long haul. I wore a plaid shirt, spoke in a southern drawl and channeled my inner Little House on the Prairie, but I easily grated a whole bar in 5-10 minutes. The soap is also a beautiful yellow color and smells fresh and clean. I'm weirdly excited to grate my next bar, but unless I just do one for fun, it's going to be a while.
- You really do only need 1-2 Tablespoons of this mixture...it's tempting to use more, but you just end up wasting it and needing an extra rinse cycle.
- I could not find the Super Washing Soda locally (apparently, it's sold at Walmart, but I refuse to shop there). I was able to purchase it through Amazon.
- Store-bought laundry detergent costs about 26¢ per load. With the ingredients listed above, this ends up being around 4¢ per load!

I don't know why I fought it for so long (other than the obnoxious amount of attention and popularity it received.) I have noticed no discernible difference in the freshness or cleanliness of my clothes when compared to my old detergent; it seems to work well! If you used a heavily-scented detergent, you might notice a difference, but the Fels-Naptha still gave it a light scent. So here's to grating soap and saving 22¢ every time you run the washer! :)

kale salad for people who don't like salad

Easy Raw Kale Salad & Dressing

I swear, even if you're not a "salad" person, this kale salad still might rock your socks off. It's been rocking mine for the past few weeks. I actually need to chill out about it, but before I do, I'll share it:

Raw Kale Salad & Dressing:
Kale, chopped*
4 stalks celery, chopped very fine
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/4c sunflower seeds
1/2c shredded cabbage
Any other veggies you have around or want to add

 *I usually use about 3-5 large kale leaves per serving, but however much you want is good. Also, I like to include the stems. Most recipes call for kale to be de-stemmed, but the stalk is reminiscent of celery and adds a nice texture to the salad.

Dressing:
1T nut butter
1T agave nectar or honey
1/4c Apple Cider Vinegar (Read about some benefits of ACV here)

Whisk your dressing with a fork or shake it up in a small jar. (Feel free to alter proportions based on your taste preferences.) Toss with kale, celery, onion and seeds, then eat it. Whilst eating it, read this post about kale!

Impressive kale qualities : wholehearter

raw breakfast "cereal"

Fall is a time for comfort food, but we still need to fuel our bodies with raw (living/uncooked) fruits and vegetables. Especially in the morning, it's important to give your body and metabolism a jump-start with a healthy breakfast. This simple raw cereal is a great way to get tons of nutrients in one hearty bowl. Eat it for an afternoon pick-me-up or savor it in the morning. 

Raw Cereal

Modify this base to accommodate what you have around and what you're craving!
1 chopped pear
1 chopped apple (I used Honey Crisp)
1T shredded coconut
1T raisins or dried cranberries
1/4c chopped or sliced raw almonds
1T sunflower seeds
Dash of cinnamon


Mix this all on a bowl, splash with almond milk if desired and enjoy your breakfast! :)

olympic style breakfast

This breakfast smoothie might just make you feel like an Olympian. Or Popeye. I would drink it if I were either of those, but regardless, it will pump you up and fill you up, which is why I call it Olympic style. There are no actual recipe photos for this smoothie. You know why? Cause I ate it. This is a spin off of Oh She Glows Green Monster breakfast smoothie and it is my favorite fast and delicious summer breakfast. But I have 2 not-so-secret ingredients....

Bolthouse Farms Vanilla Chai Tea instead of milk and Dark Chocolate Dreams by Peanut Butter & Co. instead of almond butter make this breakfast smoothie amazing! I bet you can even trick kids into drinking it! Both of these ingredients also pack a ton of protein, making this simple smoothie surprisingly satisfying.

Throw this in your blender and drink it:
1 cup Bolthouse Farms Vanilla Chai Tea
1 peeled, frozen banana
2 handfuls organic spinach or 1 handful kale
1 tbsp ground flax
1 tbsp Dark Chocolate Dreams
3 ice cubes

If you've never had a green smoothie, don't be scared. This one tastes like a chocolate/peanut butter awesome chai banana. Trust me, spinach is very sneaky. If you're not sure about the Vanilla Chai or Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter, Bolthouse and Peanut Butter & Co. both have other interesting and decadent flavor combinations to try like Mocha Cappuchino or The Bees Knees, so check out your local grocery store. 

And one last thing, if you don't usually buy organic produce, do try to use organic spinach or kale. Both are on the Dirty Dozen List, meaning they get the most exposure and absorption of dangerous amounts of pesticides and chemicals.

The Dirty Dozen & the Clean 15 Shopper's Guide

Enjoy your breakfast and let me know what you think if you've never tried it! :)

gluten-free? you mean me?

My mom has always hated to cook and my dad has always hated to eat. Perfect pair, right? Sure, but that also means that I never really picked up many useful cooking tips and tricks. In the 3 years since I've been married, I've come a LONG way in my cooking adventures. For the first year, Dave protected me from the horror that I considered cooking to be and did most of the grocery shopping and dinners. Ignorance is bliss. Eventually though, it became obvious that I couldn't avoid cooking forever. I started to become frighteningly curious about cooking and I wanted to incorporate new foods and healthy recipes into our healthy lifestyle.

One of my first infamous experiments involved a soup that called for 3 cloves of garlic. It was then that I learned a very valuable lesson: the difference between a BULB and a CLOVE. Idiot, I know. Another incident for a family picnic involved me turning on a pot full of corn-on-the-cob (sans water) only to smell burnt popcorn 20 minutes later. I could go on all day assuring you that from crock-pots to hard-boiled eggs, I've truly failed it all.

Did you know that eggs will explode the entire way out of the pot if left unattended?

These exploratory trials progressed varying in degree of severity, anger and success, but over time, I did develop a recipe book and became comfortable with a handful of go-to dishes. I also worked on setting timers.

Just tryin to toast some freakin bread...

This year, when my husband decided to go gluten-free for health reasons, I obviously planned to join him for support. I started a Gluten-Free Pinterest board and assured him that everything would be fine, but internally, I flew into a panic. Gluten was in everything! It haunted me from every label. What would we eat? Why me!? And the worst shock of all...no more pizza delivery to bail us out!

Flash-forward to now, much to my surprise, the months that followed have not been as hard as I'd thought. In fact, going gluten-free has forced me to think about cooking more. Perhaps it's partially due to my obsessive nature, but 6 months in, I've tried tons of new recipes, become slightly more comfortable with deviating from the exact directions of said recipes and have ended up with many more successes than failures. I've found plenty of gluten-free substitutes, helpful gluten-free blogs (see the right of this blog) and even a few local places to buy discounted gluten-free things, like cereal and flour. Although it definitely takes more planning, thinking and reading labels, I've become a better and more informed cook because of it. 

Goal vs. Results - 2011 Halloween Party

Goal vs. Results - 2011 Halloween Party

Don't get me wrong, I still get freaked out if I'm cooking more than 2 things at one time and I can't say, "I love cooking" without sneering, but where would I be had we not made a gluten-free commitment? (I think these photos can answer that.)

The bottom line is: don't be afraid to experiment, especially when it comes to your health and diet. Unless you have a personal chef, you're never going to escape the chore that meal preparation can be. But the more prepared you are for the challenge, the less of a chore it will be! Dietary restrictions can be freeing! :)

all hail kale

Kale is all the rage lately. If you haven't tried it, don't tell your hip foodie friends...they'll be embarrassed for you. Lucky for me, my sister told me about kale chips a few months ago (tossing kale pieces in olive oil and garlic salt, baking at 400º until crispy). I love trying new things, so I was able to stay ahead of this fantastic food-fad. I was pleased with a bunch of different kale recipes and was very interested in learning about the many health benefits.

If you're apprehensive about trying something new or aren't sure if kale is really all that much better than your current greens...I've got news for you:

Impressive qualities of kale.

Sold on the facts, but still unsure what to do with kale? Try out this recipe for Potato Kale cakes from bonappetit.com. Great for introducing yourself or your family to kale, this gluten-free recipe is full of nutrition and flavor. It's also a very fast and basic recipe, so even the most pathetic cooks can handle it. (I can say this because I have much experience with being a pitiful cook) Anyway, it's one of my very favorite uses for kale and it really keeps me feeling full (which is a rare occasion for me).

Potato Kale cakes from bonappetit.com

So at least in our house, as far as food-trends go, I think kale might just be a keeper.

banana cantaloupe smoothie

I was famished this morning (as usual). I didn't have time to make a big breakfast, but I really wanted to be filled up. That translates to: "dump a bunch of stuff in the blender and drink it." I've been getting much better at smoothies if I do say so myself, and this one ended up exceptional!

Here's the "recipe:"

- 2 slices of frozen cantaloupe (I usually make some fruit salad or something, then freeze some left over fruit for stuff like this)

- 1/2 frozen banana

- 1 unfrozen banana

- 1 cup Stoneyfield Farms Whole Milk yogurt

- 1 cup raw oatmeal

- 1 handful fresh, raw spinach

- 1 cup milk (or more depending how you like the texture)

Blend until smooth and let me know what you think!

I also added some ground flax for omega 3s. You really can't taste it at all, and it's safe for gluten-free diets. This general recipe is usually good for whatever frozen fruit I have on hand and if it REALLY ends up bad, you can always add a bunch of honey or agave. :)