You know that feeling — the one where you’re laying in bed late at night completely exhausted and yet you can’t fall asleep? How about that dragging feeling that comes about an hour after lunch time – where you have significant doubts whether you will be able to make it through the day? Or, maybe you’ve recently tested as ‘allergic’ to quite a few of your favorite foods – and you’re completely overwhelmed by all the changes that means. Or if you can even make them. Perhaps you’ve been diagnosed as having IBS, followed by a lovely Doctor saying, “Here. These drugs will help your symptoms, but we really have no idea what causes IBS and there really is no fix. You’re just going to have to deal with it.” Sound familiar? 
 
That was me – and I know there are thousands of you out there that have been there. That are tired of feeling sick, tired of being told you have to fill your body with drugs/chemicals just to function properly each day, and absolutely tired of the sickness keeping you from enjoying life. From spending time with your kids, your husband, your friends. Maybe someday I’ll write my full story and maybe even Wes will write his, too. For now – I want to tell you something it took years for me to believe myself:  
 
There is hope.
 
 
I could go on a huge soapbox rambling of all the dietary changes I made trying to fix myself, the years of being a vegetarian, the resulting sickness, the days of soy milk and bread without yeast; or the joys of only being able to eat fresh food and yet, still, always feeling sick — but I’m not going to do that. At least not here. I’m not going to tell you that you have to ‘go Paleo’ for the rest or your life or that you are the world’s most awful person for even considering to eat an animal. It’s not about that.  
 
It’s about being healthy. It’s about eating to live  
 
I want you to wake up refreshed. To have all-day energy and clarity of mind. To go to sleep soundly. To rest. I want you to spend time with your family, your friends, your adorable little puppy-face or kitty-loo, or even just with yourself. To be able to relax. I want you to I want you to enjoy day to day life.  
 
For us – that meant one simple change: Eating real food. To provide our bodies with the nutrients it needs to function at its best. We’ve had to repeatedly heal our guts, detoxify, and get over cravings for things that just aren’t real food. We’ve had to make huge mental adjustments and learn ingredients so that we aren’t putting toxins in our bodies. We’ve had to opt out of eating foods that have anti-nutrients and instead eat things that give our bodies the ‘food’ it needs. To think about what we’re feeding our bodies and whether or not its harmful. It’s been rough. [Wheat-flu, anyone? Eek.]  
 
It’s been a tough ride, but as I tell people every day: I can’t ignore the results. Insomnia, migraines, food allergies, IBS, mood swings… all gone. I never thought I’d be able to eat a meal without feeling sick again. I’d accepted my fate. And then God gave me Wesley (but that’s a whole different story). God gave me hope… and He gave me healing.  
 
All that to say – despite the many dietary changes in our lives and how weird people think we are when we turn down a brownie or can’t find anything to eat on a menu at a pasta restaurant… we still miss things: like muffins for breakfast.  
 
So, in an effort to find a happy median I’ve spent the last four months developing a gluten-free, grain-free, all purpose flour. I’ve tried every ratio from here to kingdom come to find the one that works the closest to the AP flour we’re used to. It’s quite simple really. For most gluten free flours, you’re looking for about 70% whole grain to 30% starch. However, after testing I realized that due to the fat content in Almond Flour and the dryness of Coconut flour – and the fact that neither are grains – 70% was too much.  
 
So I started playing … and this is where I’ve ended up: 20% coconut, 30% almond, 20% arrowroot, and 20% tapioca. That’s about 50% protein/fat and 50% starch. It’s a lot of starch. a 40%-60% works well in a lot of things, but not as fluidly.  
 
I’ve tried to make quite a few things with this flour – and they’ve all worked. Pancakes, gravies, breading chicken, pizza crust. Next on our list is pasta noodles and bread. I’d love for you to experiment with this! If you’re grain-free or paleo or primal or just gluten-free – what ‘bready’ things do you miss? Please feel free to ask if there is something you’re curious if this will work for.  
 

I’ve been working on developing my Paleo AP flour recipe for a few months now. I’ve tried pancakes, gravies and sauces, breading chicken, and now muffins. So far it has worked in all of them. I’m super excited!  
 

I’ve been craving fish a lot lately – maybe going Primal has made my body realize how much I need Omega-3′s. Whatever the case, all I know for certain is that this recipe turned out fantastic. The balance of salty, sweet, and slightly tart in the sauce melds (dare I say) perfectly with the natural flavor of the fish. Try it – and let me know what you think?
 
 

 
I’ve received requests on Facebook for this recipe, so excuse the poorly executed snapshot and see through the fuzzy pixels. This recipe is fantastic. It’s adapted from a few versions of Gordon Ramsay’s recipe – and then morphed a little to suit our current dietary needs.
   
I haven’t posted in a while, and since the last post Wes and I have started eating like cavepeople. We’ve gone Primal. Which is similar to a Paleo diet, but not quite the same. Basically, 80% of the time we eat no grains or heavy starches, very little sweets, and lots and lots of meat, nuts & seeds, and veggies. This recipe was made with our locally sourced grass-fed beef. It’s quite possibly the best meat I’ve ever had. I’m a little addicted. Anyway, consider this the first (of many) recipes that are completely grain free – and completely delicious.
   
Don’t worry, though, I will still post the occasional cupcake or baked good recipe, pasta, etc. I just don’t eat those things very often anymore, so you probably won’t see much of them. Feel free to ask, though!
   

 
Zuppa Toscana. It’s amazing how much power two little words can have in the depths of a man’s heart. Especially when it comes to food. Zuppa Toscana is hands down one of Wes’ favorite meals. Every time I tell him it’s in the meal plan, he gets this wide-eyed excited look and says, “okay!” I really shouldn’t have been so surprised, then, when my brother-in-law responded with similar excitement, “Ohhhh…I lovvvvve Zuppa Toscana!”
 
I’ve made this soup many times now, have had this post saved in drafts and (oops!) accidentally posted, but haven’t published it with content yet because I wanted to make sure I had it down well enough to share. The one you see at restaurants usually has heavy cream in it, but being allergic to milk, I needed to perfect one that is dairy-free and still just as good (if not better) than the one people are used to. I read countless recipes, methods, ingredients, etc before arriving at my own perfect fusion of ingredients and technique to deliver the warm, savory taste necessary to be a good Zuppa Toscana. I hope you try making it – and enjoy it as much as we have.
 
Update Fall 2012: I’m no longer allergic to dairy, so the recipe has changed yet again to reflect that. Feel free to use soy cream or coconut cream to replace the dairy, though. I know it works.
 
 

 
After spending an entire day watching Pantry Raid on Netflix, I was inspired to make Wes a three course meal. Our CSA has been bountiful lately, especially in the area of summer squash (yellow and zucchini) and radishes. We have so much that often things start to turn and go bad before we can use them all. We’re only two people. Six HUGE yellow squashes cannot be eaten in a week. But I digress.
   
This is one of the things I ended up making for him. Ratatouille (inspired) Appetizer Pizzas. Traditionally, Ratatouille has eggplant in it – and I’m quite sure that this would be fantastic with an eggplant spread instead of sun-dried tomatoes, but – like I said – I was watching pantry raid and was inspired to make do with what was in my pantry (& fridge).
   
If you’ve never tried sun-dried tomato pesto, you really are missing out. Sun-dried tomatoes are one of our favorite “fancy” things. We put them in pasta, we put them on pizza, we put them on sandwiches. They add a depth of flavor that isn’t found anywhere else.
   
These are healthy, too! Kids would even love them. Pizza full of veggies and only a little cheese? Yum! I’ve had quite a few requests for them since putting them on my Facebook wall, so here you go everyone – the recipe:

 
If you would have asked me a year ago  if I have ever cooked with honey, I would have said, “Heckkkk no!”
 
If you would have asked me six months ago if I even liked honey, I would have wrinkled my nose in disgust.
 
Honey is something that my darling Husband has been trying to get me to enjoy since we met in 2009. I have never liked it: The taste, the texture, the idea, the sticky residue it leaves everywhere… Gross. But then… the almighty allergy season hit in Florida and he (sneaky man that he is) convinced me to eat  a spoonful a day of local raw honey to help build a resistance to local pollens. The results were kind of shocking for silly me – the severity of my allergic reactions dwindled to almost nothing because of that teaspoon of torture every morning.
 
Eventually, though, I started to enjoy the wildflower and orange blossom taste (It was pretty strong because we wanted the most potent to help with allergies). By the end of the cute little honey bear, I decided honey was something that I could tolerate (although, I admit I had to chase it with water each time I took my dose).
 
One of his oh.so.clever ways he convinced me to undergo the trial of honey-for-allergy relief, was by pointing out how much I loved a dish at a local Thai restaurant: little pieces of chicken breaded and coated in a ginger-honey glaze over rice. It really is a fantastic dish, and I’ve wanted to create something similar for a while. So we tried.
 

We are definitely still perfecting the technique of this recipe, but as far as flavor goes – it is very enjoyable.
 

 
Every weekday morning, Wes and I reluctantly wake up and get ready for work. I’ve never really been much of a breakfast eater. I don’t like most cereal, I can’t eat yogurt or eggs, and to be completely honest – I don’t like mornings. Wes, however, has grown up with the understanding that no breakfast = migraine. Admittedly, since I don’t eat breakfast until 10 most days, he has slowly weaned himself from eating it when he first wakes up to eating it when I do (at our first break during work). Still, though, it isn’t easy finding breakfast food that I can eat. I tend to eat a banana a day to keep the doctor away. [grin]
 
As of late, Wes has been wanting something a little more substantial for breakfast than a piece of fruit. We were meandering through the grocery store one night after work, both of us extremely hungry (which is NEVER a good time to shop for food) – and then I saw them: fresh, plump, pretty blueberries. I quietly picked up a container and placed it in the cart. Wes looked at me suspiciously, “What are you going to do with those? Smoothies?” I grinned. “No, I’m going to make my man some muffins… let’s just hope I can find a good recipe, eh?”
 
We got home and I started the search for a Kerry-friendly blueberry muffin recipe that leaned more on the healthy side than the sweet side. I found the one that inspired this recipe at Madhuram’s Eggless Cooking. A couple things in mine were different (as you’ll come to realize is a normative thing for me) and they still turned out fantastic! I know it is a little odd to use maple syrup instead of sugar, but the resulting flavor combination is pretty.darn.good.
 
 

I couldn’t resist posting this.

Do you blame me?

   
~Kerry