Life, Gluten Free

What we've been eating

I know this will be a huge tease. But, wow, these burgers were awesome. SO good. I don't have a recipe for you, but I have a 100% guarantee that we'll be making them again and we will write a recipe this time.

And our daughter started a teddy bear ballet class... (she's the one on the right - pony tail)

I also made some gluten-free e5e66666666666666666666666666666666666666666666t4t (my cat just walked over the keyboard, nice) + egg-free and dairy-free graham crackers, adapting a recipe from Celiac Teen.

I will post about them in the next few days. They were really good!

-heather

I was adopted! (adopt a gluten free blogger)

Maggie from She Let Them Eat Cake adopted me and made my recipe for Chocolate Fudge with Sunbutter Swirls.

Since then, we found out that my daughter is allergic to sunflower seeds so we do not keep them in the house anymore. But, I have kept this recipe on my blog to benefit others who can eat sunflower seeds. I used to love to eat them! They are nutritious as well.

I encourage you to check out Maggie's blog. She's a sweet person and I love the name of her blog! She Let Them Eat Cake. Great name. Her husband was diagnosed with Celiac Disease 7 years ago and she's been cooking gluten-free ever since. Her blog is well worth checking out, a great addition to the gluten-free blogging community.

Thanks again, Maggie, for adopting my recipe and trying it out! I am glad you liked it!

-heather

Dehydrated Banana Chips

I've been meaning to post these for a while. They make a great snack and are easy to make!

Ingredients:

Ripe bananas

Lemon Juice

Cinnamon

Preparation:

Slice bananas thinly. Place them in a bowl with some lemon juice - just enough to coat them lightly. Mix well and then place the banana slices on a dehydrator sheet.

Place your dehydrator on 118 degrees for 12 hours (or until they are pliable and not mushy).

The lemon juice is optional, as we have made them without with good results. You also don't have to sprinkle with cinnamon, but it's a nice addition :)

These are a great gluten-free snack and we really enjoy them. I hope you try them! We use an Excalibur dehydrator and are very happy with it.

-heather

3 Ways to Lower Cholesterol Naturally

Besides cooking, cleaning and just enjoying being a wife and mom - I also have a passion for writing. I just became the Boulder Natural News Examiner. That means, I will be writing articles weekly within the natural health niche.

You can view my first article: 3 Ways to Lower Cholesterol Naturally.

There is also an option to subscribe so that you are updated whenever I publish a new article.

Thanks for your support!

-Heather

Where do I buy my hemp seeds?

We use a lot of hemp seeds because they taste good and are very healthy, see my posts:

• Popcorn with hemp oil
• Hemp: How it's healthy and hypoallergenic  

Recently, we've been ordering organic hemp seeds in 5lb bags from this web site, The Raw Food World. I've also ordered chia seeds from there as well.

Coming up soon, I will also be speaking about Raw Kelp Noodles. Sound good? Well, they may or may not sound good to you but I assure you they are actually quite awesome. They taste good and are nutritious. I can't wait to talk about them more!

-heather

Sophie's New Years Cake

Sophie's New Years Cake (Vanilla Pound Cake)

NO: gluten, dairy, nuts, eggs, soy

Ingredients:
1 cup tapioca flour
1 cup coconut flour
1 cup white or brown rice flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/3 cup organic sucanat (or sweetener of choice)

2 1/2  teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup coconut oil

2 cups of water (added to pureed banana)

Egg Replacing Ingredients (or use 2-3 eggs)

1 cup pureed banana

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon egg replacer

Preparation:

Add flour ingredients to one bowl. In another bowl, mix the sugar and oil ingredients. Mix together the egg replacing ingredients in a bowl of its own. Start to add the sugar and egg replacing ingredients to the dry ingredients. Blend using a mixer.

Add mix to two round cake pans or pans of your choice. Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for about 40 minutes. Remember: every oven is different. Use a tooth pick or sharp fork to test to make sure the cake is done.

Coconut Vanilla Icing:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of coconut oil

1/2 cup coconut butter

2 tablespoons raw honey

Preparation:

1 teaspoon vanilla powder (or use vanilla extract)

Soften the raw honey, coconut oil and coconut butter.

Add vanilla powder (optional or replace with other extract of choice).

Beat until creamy with a whisk.

Be sure cake is cool before slathering with the icing and enjoy!

*We sometimes use Artisana Coconut Butter, as linked above. But we often use our high powered tribest blender and blend shredded coconut to a butter consistency, which is what we did for this recipe. We also wrote the recipe after we made the icing, so pay attention while making the recipe and adjust if needed.

The cake was a hit! I hope you try it soon!

-heather

Love yourself!

Do you know what the most popular New Years resolution is? You probably do.

To lose weight.

Most people want to change something about themselves, but it's not always for the right reason.

You may have see someone in the past that you thought was more attractive, confident, smarter - etc - than you are and you may have even caught yourself wishing that you could be like that person. Would you really want that? Why envy someone else? You have no idea how that person feels on the inside or what thoughts go through their head. Or even what their life is really like.

So I encourage everyone to spend some time loving yourselves this year and perhaps form a habit of loving yourself that you continue into the next year.

Here's a bit of my story.

I am thin and I've always been so, except for when I was pregnant. That's the most I've ever weighed. It's just who I am. I don't do anything to try to be thin.

I've had people say how nice it must be. Really? Is it? Unfortunately, I've had negative remarks and have had people make untrue accusations about why I'm thin. "You're too thin." By who's guidelines exactly? And who says someone is "too fat" or "not smart enough." These are all relatively really.

I'm sharing this to make a point that it's best not to spend time thinking about how good someone else must have it. Because you really have no idea. You're not them. Instead, spend time appreciating the wonderful qualities that make up who you are.

Skinny, overweight, average, too short, too tall... etc. No matter what, it seems, we may have endured some negativity from others in our life. Some of us may still be experiencing it.

Do you love yourself?

Because that is what matters and it is perfectly acceptable for us to love ourselves.

In a way, we've been somewhat conditioned not to. Society, as a whole, has somewhat shunned it. For example, a person may be considered "full of themselves" by acknowledging their beauty or good qualities.

But in reality, it's just accepting and appreciating yourself. Those who notice beauty in themselves but not in others are "full of themselves." Those who notice beauty in themselves and also notice beauty in others are just practicing infinite love for themselves and others.

And if you do want to lose weight, then try to do so by loving yourself. When you do love yourself, you want to choose healthy foods to nourish your body and a healthy lifestyle to promote well-being and energy in your body.

I'm on my own journey to learn how to love myself.

I am sure that we all need to spend more time loving ourselves and acknowledging what makes us who we are. You may have different desires, ambitions and qualities than others. That's something to be thankful for. We're all different.

And we're all beautiful!

I'll be back with more recipes. We're in a bit of a transition right now, computer wise and other wise. Keep an eye out for a new gluten-free cake recipe that we munched on for New Years.

Oh yes, and love yourself!

-heather