Category Archives: gluten free

Monday Grocery Haul and Prep Day

Posted on by
16

Hey everyone! Hope you are all well and had a great weekend! It seems like Monday posts have turned into grocery hauls and prep! Today is no different except that I’m throwing my meals in as well :) I accomplished so much today and I’m really glad I did because I know now that this Monday prep makes all the difference in meal planning for the week.

So let’s check out the grocery haul first!

First up is the (all organic) produce! Broccoli, THREE bunches of swiss chard (I’m not making the same mistake as last week, lol!), shiitake mushrooms, honeycrisp apples, tomatoes, cauliflower and carrots.

Macro sushi, GoodBelly (LOVING this stuff!), veggie chips, chocolate covered cacao nibs (I figured it was a good way to indulge my chocolate cravings), brown rice tortillas and unsweetened organic peanut butter. Did you know it’s IMPOSSIBLE to find any tortilla chips without corn and/or wheat? So annoying so I guess if necessary I’ll just have to make my own.

After Whole Foods one very important thing was left on my list since I couldn’t find any at WFs. It drives me crazy that they change what they carry all the time but it worked out in my favor. Trader Joe’s isn’t too far out of the way so I made a super quick trip there and got…

Dolmas!!! Of course! I grabbed two because I know myself haha. I also picked up a back of roasted plantain chips. These things are AMAZING. Oh and TJs dolmas are almost half price of WFs. Just sayin.

After Trader Joe’s I came home, ate breakfast then started prepping for the week. I’ll show you breakfast in a bit but here’s what I made:

I don’t make the same mistake twice so I made a HUGE batch of Sauteed Chard. Three bunches of chard huge. Came out just as delicious as the last time and it’ll last me the week!

Another big ass batch of Cheesy Cauliflower Mash! Can’t go wrong with this delicious stuff!

I also made a big batch of my first attempt at gluten free lo mein ;) I used the buckwheat ramen noodles I bought last week along with onions, broccoli and shiitake mushrooms. I used the same seasonings as the greens and I think it came out good? The noodles are a little sticky and gummy but otherwise it should be ok. I’ll need a find a more sturdy noodle but the two servings I made for this week will be tasty with these ramen :)

So I have a great start for meals for this week and had some great meals today! For the rest of this incredibly long post I’ll be showing you those :)

For breakfast I had some of the Farmer’s Market granola with almond milk and strawberries. The strawberries were so delicious. I really don’t want to say this but I wish I could say the same about the granola. I feel so bad saying it but I think she used salted nuts and/or seeds so the granola was really salty. All I could taste was salt. I didn’t even finish the third of a cup that I had in the bowl and I don’t know if I’ll be eating it again. Which is kind of a huge waste because it was really expensive.

Lunch was my delicious Macro Sushi. So good. Haven’t had this for so long but I guess WFs started carrying it again. Maybe that’s what replaced the stuffed grape leaves lol.

Speaking of stuffed grape leaves… ;) An afternoon snack of stuffed grape leaves, veggie chips and hummus. Delicious.

For dinner I made 1/2 cup of gluten free pasta with cauliflower mash and greens. So freaking good.

And that’s finally the end of the post, ha! This one ended up being super long but I just had so much to show you! I hope you all are having a good Monday and I should be back tomorrow with more meals!

Have a great night!

A Few Meals And A Toothache

Posted on by
16

Well my friends, I suspect that a root canal is in my near future. I bit down today and holy shit. Horrible pain. Luckily it doesn’t last but I suspect if biting down is a major problem it’s best not to let it go for too long. I learned my lesson a few years ago when I got a toothache so bad I couldn’t eat, sleep or drink for 3 days. It was horrible so I’m not letting it get to that point.

So I did the best I could with meals so far. Check out what I’ve eaten:

For breakfast I had a banana with a handful of Blueberry Almond Granola and some almond milk. It was so good and believe it or not this is not the meal that caused the problem.

Lunch was a delicious grilled veggie salad! I asked for extra grilled veggies and they really packed it in there. I didn’t even finish it (though I did power down most of it) and I was uncomfortably full for hours. It was soooooo good though. And the broccoli was the culprit in the tooth drama.

Haven’t had dinner yet because I’m not hungry and I’m still a little concerned about the tooth so I’m going to wait and see how I feel. Hope you all have a great night!

Raw Madness!

Posted on by
17

Hey everyone! I know it’s been a while and I haven’t even given you a raw update yet. This week has been madness with work, three side projects converging into one stressful nightmare and all of the effort it takes to eat a completely raw diet. That results in fewer pics and posts but hopefully I’ll be able to get back into posting more next week (even with jury duty, ugh!!!)

I figured I’d pop in to show what I have been able to get pics of:

First I thought I’d share that I started my apple cider vinegar routine again. 1 tbsp ACV in 8 oz of water chugged down 2-3 times a day. It doesn’t taste great but the effects are immediate. I started yesterday and I barely yawned at all (I usually yawn every 3 minutes), had tons of energy and even fell asleep easier than I have in months. I thought the pic looked cool with Instagram effects too ;)

Made some homemade raw almond butter using sprouted raw almonds from Whole Foods. Making your own nut butter is so easy, I don’t know why I don’t do it more often!

I’ve been enjoying my raw almond butter with some of my giant organic carrots :)

I’ve been enjoying lots of big salads like this one. This is a kale and avocado salad. Basically I just massaged kale with avocado that was mashed with salt, pepper, garlic powder and lemon juice. It was really good but the kale didn’t get as tender as I like. Still tasty though!

Haven’t taken pics of them but I’ve been drinking lots of green juices. I’m hoping to post a fun meal tomorrow too! I have off but I have to do a baby shoot but I should have time to get some pics of the yumminess and post :)

That’s all for today. Hopefully going to get to relax tonight after a long work week. Hope you all have a great night!

Gluten Free Almond Coconut Oatmeal Cookies!!

Posted on by
18

Hey everyone!! Happy Valentine’s Day :) I’m not big on Valentine’s day so that’s the only mention you’ll get out of me but I figured I’d wish you all a good one. I figured today would be a great day to share my recipe for my Almond Coconut Oatmeal Cookies!! I loved these cookies so much and I really hope you’ll try them. Soooooooo good!

I used this as my start point and made a bunch of changes to create this new cookie. Yum!

Gluten Free Almond Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup gf oat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar*

1/4 cup white sugar

2 tbsp maple syrup

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, drained on a paper towel

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

1 1/2 cups gf rolled oats

3/4 cups sliced almonds

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

*Instead of regular brown sugar I use Alter Eco’s Mascobado sugar that was sent to me to review. This was my secret for this recipe. It added a beautiful hint of caramel that was so perfect. I really love this sugar, you should definitely try it in place of brown sugar if you can get it in your local stores.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

3. Mix the sugars, syrup, applesauce, coconut oil and extracts in a medium bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix well.

4. Add oats, almonds and coconut. Stir until combined then let sit for 10 minutes.

5. Drop cookies on baking sheet (I used a small ice cream scoop to portion my cookies… probably about the size of a rounded tsp). Bake cookies 10-11 minutes until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes on tray then transfer to cooling rack. Enjoy!!

These cookies are seriously amazing. I really love the almond extract in it too. I may add a little almond flour next time too :)

That’s all for me my friends! Hope you all have a great night, whatever your plans may be!! I’ll be spending a quiet night at home. It’s Thursday after all… which means a new episode of Impractical Jokers :) Have a good night!

Kitchen Adventures and Rainy Day Dramz

Posted on by
16

Hey everyone. Hope you’ve all been well over the past few days. I’m writing this from my bed, barely able to move. I’m so exhausted! And SO SORE! A little from shoveling and a little from wandering around aimlessly for hours. See what happened was I left super early this morning to run errands so I could bake this afternoon and get to the gym. Well. No. Didn’t happen. When I got out of the store and started up my car… my windshield wiper wouldn’t work. The very one I replaced two days ago. Wouldn’t move at all and it was POURING. I was a little panicked because I literally couldn’t see anything while driving but I managed to drive about a half mile or mile down the road to a gas station, where I proceeded to wait for hours for a new part. The gas station was right next to the mall so I climbed over snow mountains in pouring rain then wandered like a teenager cutting school. It was very surreal and by the end of the ordeal I was exhausted.

I don’t know about you guys, but I like to get in the kitchen after having a bad day. Even though I was exhausted, I still managed to make all three recipes I had wanted to make :) Check em out!

 The first recipe I made was Alicia Silverstone’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups. I’ve made these before and they always come out great!

It is my friend’s birthday this week and these are his absolutely favorite treat. I first made them for him a few years ago and it has become a tradition. The recipe made 12 large cups and they fit perfectly in two layers in this cute little box.

There are a few other birthdays I’m celebrating in April and decided to gift these friends with some homemade cookies. I’ve been holding on to a recipe I wanted to try for a while and figured this would be the perfect time to test it out. I am so happy with the way these came out and I can’t wait to share the recipe later on this week!

Check out these beauties! They are my Gluten Free Almond Coconut Oatmeal cookies. They are light, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. I pulled out a secret weapon for this batch as well. Stay tuned to see what I used!!

The last recipe I tried was Laura’s Raw Snickers!!!! I knew the minute I saw these I HAD to try them before I embark on the Anti Candida Diet. These cuties are the naked candies, pre-chocolate dipped. My caramel was a little chunky since I don’t have an awesome high speed blender but I’m ok with some date chunks in my caramel ;)

The finished product. My bars aren’t as pretty as Laura’s but oh well. Not too bad I guess!

I cut one of the bars in half… you know, so you guys could see the inside ;) I tried a small half and it was so delicious!! They are decadent and definitely worth all of the effort. This treat will be a perfect send off into ACD land.

This will probably be the last sweet I have for a few months as I did a great job using up most of my sweeteners today (maple syrup, agave, dates, etc.). I just have a little bit of fruit to use up then I’m ready to start!! I’m excited about starting and hoping to see some improvement in how I’m feeling. I’m hoping to keep it up through the next couple of months, maybe until the spring? The plan in to be strict for at least three months then start reintroducing fruit slowly in the spring. Hopefully I’ll be able to tolerate fruit by the summer so I can enjoy my watermelon, cherries and berries (in moderation of course;)).

That’s all for today. I’m planning on just crashing the rest of the night and relaxing big time. Hope you all have a great night!