Food

Einkorn Bread

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My blogging friend, The Healthy Epicurean, inspired this post when she asked if I had the yeast einkorn bread recipe I’ve been using here or not. I have shared the sourdough version here, but up until today, I hadn’t shared the yeast version. This is a really easy recipe (easy is even in the title) and I throw it together two or three times a week. I use Jovial’s recipe, just as I used Jovial’s sourdough recipes as well, and I highly recommend perusing their site for more recipes and to shop their delicious goods. Jovial Foods is the one einkorn brand I can find so I am very lucky that Whole Foods and PCC both carry it now. I actually couldn’t find it for a while which is why I let my sourdough go (whaa!), and now that it’s back on the shelves I’m too worried it’ll disappear again to put in the effort of remaking a starter again. I know I can always order the flour, but being able to pick a bag up at the store just makes it seem so much simpler and I’m not willing to add more items to my “must be ordered online’ list at the moment. I think einkorn is easier to find in Europe, (is that right Fiona?) And speaking of Fiona, if you don’t already read her blog, The Healthy Epicurean, it’s full of tasty, healthy recipes and enough humor to get you through at least one dark pandemic winter day. Check it out when you need a new recipe along with a side of chuckles.

Why use einkorn? Einkorn is the oldest iteration of wheat that we still use, and it fell out of favor because of its weak gluten content. This of course means that for some who are sensitive to gluten this form is digestible and does not cause the usual wheat-induced symptoms. This is not for celiacs though and there is no guarantee that you can handle einkorn if you can’t handle other wheats (like spelt) so please be mindful if you try it out. My son and I can handle it but only after we took measures to heal our digestive systems and I am SO happy we can because it’s so good. If you are just someone looking for a healthier wheat, this is it! It has more protein and less gluten and tastes like real food which, let’s face it, gluten-free bread has a hard time doing. Gluten-free baked goods (besides bread) are awesome, but for some reason bread is just a hard one to replace.

Mix ingredients right on a kitchen scale for best results

Here’s the recipe copied straight from Jovial’s website with some of my own tips below:

Easy Einkorn Sandwich Bread Recipe from Jovial Foods
INGREDIENTS

  • 1¼ (295 g) cups warm water
  • 1½ teaspoons dry active yeast
  • 2 tablespoons oil or butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 tablespoon sugar or honey
  • 3¾ cups (450 g) jovial All-Purpose Einkorn Flour
  • 1¼ teaspoons sea salt

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, oil or butter, sugar or honey. Stir until creamy.
  2. Measure the flour with a baking scale or spoon into a measuring cup, then add it on top of yeast mixture. Sprinkle the salt on top.
  3. Mix with a spatula or jovial’s einkorn knead tool until the flour is absorbed and you have a wet, sticky dough.
  4. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise for 45 minutes.
  5. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter an 8½ x 4½-inch loaf pan.
  6. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. The dough will feel very sticky and wet, but try not to add more additional flour than what you have dusted the work surface with or you may find dry flour baked in the bread. Shape the dough into a loaf. A bowl scraper is a great tool to help with shaping the sticky dough.
  7. Place in the loaf pan, cover with oiled or buttered plastic wrap to inhibit the plastic from sticking the dough. Let rise for 30 minutes. Remove the plastic wrap.
  8. Bake for 40 minutes. Let cool completely before slicing.

Click the link for more tips from Jovial about this recipe, but I’ll give you a couple of mine here. For one thing, make sure the water is lukewarm and not edging towards ‘hot’. The bread will rise much more fully if the water is the right temperature. The next tip is that when I leave the bread to rise longer than the two times given above, the bread is much better and fuller. I usually like to give the first rise a good hour or more, and the second one even longer, so close to two hours if I have the time. You don’t have to elongate the times, but that’s what works best for me. For the work surface, I put down a piece of wax paper and then dust it with flour and also dust my hands with flour. When the dough is in the loaf pan, I throw the left over flour into the compost and save the wax paper for another time or two of bread making. (It just saves some clean-up time.)

Incidentally, I don’t mind baking bread several times a week but cooking on a daily basis is still a thorn in my side. The delivery service I tried ended up being a good thing for my youngest, but my oldest and I really didn’t care for the food. Back to the drawing board on how to make this constant cooking situation more manageable. Any tips would be appreciated!

Enjoy the last couple of weeks of this crazy year. If you are looking for homemade gifts to make, check out this old post or type DIY into the search box on here, and be sure to let me know if you make something.✨

Vegan, GF, Vanilla Pound Cake

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If you’ve visited here for a year or more, you certainly know by now that I’m not a fan of traditional Thanksgiving foods. Although, I must say that as far as those foods go, the desserts aren’t bad, but if you are looking for something else to add to holiday get togethers (wait, are we going to be able to get together at all this season?) scratch that. If you are looking for an easy dessert to have around the house this holiday season, or to gift your gluten-free and/or vegan friends, this is an easy, yummy recipe and it can be customized according to your tastes. Plus, pound cake in an appropriate breakfast food, right? Add some Greek (DF) yogurt and a satsuma, or an apple with peanut butter, and you have a full meal. Really, a pound cake is basically a muffin in a different shape when you think about it.

I looked for a simple recipe online that I could easily change to gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg-free, and this one from Dinner then Dessert worked well. It lured me in with an advertised ten minute prep time and hour bake time, and it didn’t let me down. This was the easiest thing I’ve baked lately and my sons and I have enjoyed every bite.

Here’s the recipe, but keep in mind it’s completely customizable to your own dietary needs and tastes. You can add chocolate chips or cinnamon for example, which I considered, but then decided to keep it purely vanilla. If you don’t do dairy but eggs work for you, I recommend using the eggs instead of the flax if you want that pretty golden color that pound cakes wear so well. Mine turned out more of a dull brown than golden but it still shined in taste. Here’s the recipe:

GF, Vegan Pound Cake (Modified from Dinner then Dessert by Sabrina Snyder)

Ingredients:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep a 8×4 inch loaf pan with a coating of vegan butter or spray with coconut oil. Sprinkle a small bit of flour on top of the oil/butter. Also, my loaf pans are 9×5 so the pound cake came out a bit shorter and wider, but it works.
  2. Mix the flax seed meal with the warm water and set aside. I always do this in a mig for easing pouring.
  3. Mix the vegan butter and sugar with a handheld mixer, or in a standing mixer. on high speed and beat until light and fluffy. It takes a couple of minutes for the mixture to get fluffy and really this is the most labor intensive part of the recipe. Trust me, it’s worth the three minutes.
  4. Turn down the speed of the mixer and add the vanilla and the flax mixture (these can be in the same mug), mix a bit and then add the milk alternative.
  5. Add in the flour, baking powder, salt, and anything else you want in your cake and mix until just combined. It’s ready to pour into the loaf pan and bake for an hour. Cool on a wire rack before digging in.

Have a great Thanksgiving if you are in the U.S. and I hope everyone, everywhere, has a lovely start to the holiday season.

Peace and Gratitude to all ☮🙏✨

Vegan Foods and Supps to Try

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These are the latest samples I recieved from the New Hope Influencer Co-op and as usual, there are some real gems in here!

First the food. These Umami Snaps are made of chickpeas, are gluten-free, nut-free, and vegan. Their taste reminds me of roasted chickpeas with a lot of garlic powder, but the texture is more like a thick rice cracker. It’s an addictive combination! These are really tasty and I can imagine eating them with Indian food, although we just snacked on them straight. They also boast more protein than the usual carb-y snack.

We were able to sample vegan Mexican dips again from Zubi’s which was a treat. Just like last time, we loved them all but the Crema de Jalapeno was our favorite. The vegan queso is one of those things that I didn’t realize I missed (since I rarely eat dairy) but once I had it I wanted to create a meal around it. If you are creating a gift basket for a vegan friend anytime soon, include Zubi’s queso and crema for sure, and I promise they will love you for it.

We all have immunity on our minds this time of year, especially this year, and this immune+ from youtheory is a great combination of mushrooms, vitamins C and D, and zinc. If you want to take one immune supporting supplement instead of dealing with three or four different bottles, this is a great one to try.

The SuperGrapes from humann are surprisingly tasty. I’m not sure what I was expecting but I was quite pleased that the instructions said to take 2 and not just one after trying this for the first time. They are gluten-free and vegan and are full of grape seed extract sourced from the Loire Valley in France. If you aren’t drinking your daily glass of red, you can supplement with these delicious squares. According to the packaging they promote energy, normal blood pressure, and and antioxidant support which all sounds great to me!

There will be more to share when we try more of these goodies. I’m especially excited to try the face serum and collagen coffee so if you are interested those too, stay tuned for an update coming soon!

Product Reviews Continued

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First of all, I have to say that I’ve already ordered more ultima replenisher from my last blog post. My oldest son and I both like to workout and after enjoying those electrolyte replenishers for a few days we were hooked. electorlytes

My youngest son did not miss out on the samples. Since he is the only one in the house that eats dairy and gluten, he was the guinea pig for the Iconic Protein Drink that is made with organic, grass-fed dairy. He is hard to please when it comes to anything food related but he loved the drink and said he’d definitely drink it again. It has 20 grams of protein which is great for a growing teenage boy so I’ll be looking to get more of these too.

He was also the one who got to sample the Eagle Foods Popcorn Indiana Movie Theater Butter Popcorn and he loved that too. My other son sampled the Eagle Foods Kettle Popcorn and he said that was very good. He liked the slightly sweet taste combined with the saltiness. Both have very short, straightforward ingredient lists that I appreciate, and are a lower calorie snack then a regular bag of chips.

Kettle popcorn info
Movie theater popcorn info

The St. Dalfour fruit spreads are not new and are something I buy off and on when looking for jam. They are tasty and I love the packaging (I’m an admitted sucker for packaging) which shows off its French origins and French-method recipe. (OK, I’m sucker for all things French too!) This is the type of fruit spread you can add to a gift basket or give as a hostess gift with some scones for spending the weekend at someone’s cottage and it will be a perfect treat. Or just use it everyday pb&j sandwiches like I do~ that works too.

We still haven’t tried the HopTea because it has calming, relaxing herbs in it which is perfect for right before bed, but I keep forgetting about it because I drink hot herbal tea every night and that can is in the fridge. It’s ingredient list is very short actually, just carbonated water, chamomile, and hops, which sounds so different and intriguing. I’ll have to write myself a note to remember to try it tonight! They have other flavors as well and I really like the fact that they are just herbs and/or tea, and carbonated water.

These all were part of the New Hope Influencer Co-op blogger box which I occasionally receive throughout the year and I don’t receive any payment for talking about these items, just as a reminder.

Thank you for reading and I hope your solstice is a good one!

 

New(ish) Natural Foods and Supps

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I just received a box of samples from the New Hope Influencer Co-op of which I am a part. Since it just arrived on Monday, I haven’t had a chance to try most things, so this will be continued next week. The first two things my family and I tried are worth talking about now though. The first thing I did was throw the sugar-free cookie mix from Pyure Brands into a bowl, added vegan butter and flax meal to replace the egg that it called for, and then ignored the directions which said exactly how far apart to drop the batter. I decided to save myself from cleaning up another pan and put them way too close together, so I ended up with a sheet of cookies that had become one, and when I tried to cut them up my youngest noted they looked like the shapes of countries. They are still good though and my sons don’t seem to mind a bit that they are sugar free and oddly shaped. Cookies can be any shape and still be good! But if you make these cookies, you might want to follow the directions all the way through.

The other product one of my sons and I tried is the Ultima Health Products’ Replenisher. I will now have to keep these in stock all the time because they are delicious and so refreshing after a workout. I rarely think about replenishing electrolytes and salts after a workout and tend to just drink a lot of water, but you can feel the difference when you take in something with added post-workout oomph to it. My son really loved it after his run today. He tried the grape and I tried the raspberry and we both thought the taste was just right in a slightly sweet and fruity way, without being sickly sweet nor too kool-aide-ish.

I will give out more information about these next week when we have a chance to try more of these items.

Stay well everyone and just think, you are living through one year that will certainly go down in the history books many times over and it’s not even half way over yet!

Gluten-Free and Vegan Not a Recipe

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I have never been so tired of cooking in my life. I know some people have become inspired by this lock down and groups of friends are exchanging recipes in chain letter fashion, but not me. I was asked to join one of those recipe exchanges and I declined, not because I didn’t want to share a recipe but because the thought of 36 emails coming at me with recipes I had no intention of making was more than I could stomach. (Pun intended.) There are three of us here, two of us eat relatively the same with avoiding gluten and dairy, and the other one is extremely picky, lives on gluten and dairy, and refuses to eat leftovers. Adding to the meal plan disruptions, the boys have taken full advantage of the online schooling and are sleeping until late morning or early afternoon, while I’m still waking up at dawn-ish so our timing is all off. That actually isn’t quite as bad as it sounds because the boys are teenagers and can eat pretty much anytime, all the time. In other words they can have breakfast at 11:AM and lunch at noon no problem. If I let it, this all means I can be in the kitchen making one meal after another all day long and by dinner time I’m not happy about it. In regular times the boys take care of their own breakfasts and lunches on school days, so I’ve tried to keep that going in this strange time, but for some reason it just hasn’t worked like that more days than not. Probably because if I’m making myself food, it’s just not possible to not end up making them food as well. So, the default dinner has turned into either gluten free pizzas, one with dairy and the other not, or gluten free and vegan mac n’ cheese, or its more posh cousin, pasta with Alfredo sauce, also gluten and dairy free. I thought I’d provide an overview of these with reviews in case you too are looking for the easiest way to get dinner on the table with as little effort as possible.

For pizzas, I use Trader Joe’s gluten free flat breads that can be found in packs of two in the refrigerated session. For one son I add Trader Joe’s vegan pesto, shredded vegan cheese, red onions, and turkey pepperoni slices. For the other son I add regular red sauce and shredded mozzarella or an Italian cheese mix. For myself I add 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil to each flat bread (I make each of us two flat breads at a time), sea salts mixed with herbs, extra basil, oregano, and rosemary. I cook these on 425 for about 10 minutes and make up a salad at that time for one of my sons and myself, and cut an apple up for the other.

Makes great bread sticks
Ingredients are gluten, dairy, and egg free
Easy gluten-free focaccia

Whole Foods has a vegan Alfredo sauce that the boys love. I’ve never tried it but they are happy to eat it any time with either Trader Joe’s gluten free penne or fusili. We sometimes get Jovial’s gluten free pastas which are a treat but usually eat the Trader Joe’s versions more often. My gluten and dairy eating son likes all these too by the way. That is saying a lot.

3D23850A-6297-4043-852D-09248F1F0D1A

Daiya’s mac n’ cheese and Alfredo boxes have been my sons’ go to meals of late. Again, both my sons love these which makes my life so much easier. To be honest, I’ve tried these and I don’t really love either one, but my sons think they are awesome so it doesn’t really matter what I think. I can eat them if I really don’t feel like making myself something different, but usually what I do is saute garlic, broccoli, onions, and smoked salmon to eat on top of the Daiya boxed food. (One son eats it all together, one needs them on separate plates.) I put the sauteed food on top of a salad or eat it on some other carb such as leftover rice which we almost always have. Easy enough. (The pics below are off their respective websites because I need to go to the grocery and get more.)

The last gluten free and vegan mac n cheese we have tried lately is Annie’s. This is the kind that needs to be mixed with non-dairy butter and milk, but I personally think this one is better than the Daiya. My sons disagree and since I’m making it for them, I’ll stick with the Daiya, but if you try the Daiya and are not thrilled, give Annie’s a try. I liked it.

Organic Gluten Free Vegan Cheddar Mac

What are your quick dinner ideas when you don’t feel like cooking? Or are you cooking up a storm and loving it? Whether you are relying on boxed foods or letting your inner Julia Child come out to play, do whatever it takes to stay sane during this strange time.

 

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake (GF, Vegan, Soy Free)

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It’s my son’s ‘sweet 16 in quarantine’ birthday and we decided a cookie cake was just the thing for celebrating. Usually we have traditional (gf) cakes for birthdays but considering we are just three beings sheltering in place without any chance of friends coming by to celebrate, a cake just seemed too much. I suggested a cookie cake to my son and he said he’d never had one (?!) and that it sounded great. That got me thinking…where have all the cookie cakes gone? I seem to recall every mall in the 90’s having a specialty store that sold nothing but cookie cakes. One year in high school I got my then boyfriend one for Valentine’s Day and then somehow ended up carrying it sideways to get it through a small space which of course made it a cookie lump, instead of a cookie cake. Apparently it was still tasty anyway, and of course it was because cookie cakes are ridiculously good no matter what, right?!

I found a recipe on Pamela’s website and intended to use it with Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix, but I realized just in time that there is dairy in the mix and my son has been really trying to keep all dairy out of his diet so that wasn’t going to work. I replaced the mix with Bob’s Red Mill One to One GF Flour and added salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and also substituted the egg with flax and water and the butter with vegan butter. Here’s the link to Pamela’s directions if you want to do a (simpler) dairy and egg version, and below is the recipe that I did with all the modifications.

GF, Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake:

DIRECTIONS

I put a piece of parchment paper in my 9 in circular pan and preheated the oven to 325°. I went ahead and put the flax in a small mug with the water because it take about 10 minutes to thicken into a proper egg replacement. Next I softened the vegan butter a bit before creaming it with the sugars. After that, I added the flax with water and vanilla to the bowl and mixed well. Once everything was fairly well blended, I added the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and blended again until well mixed. Then I added the chocolate chips and 1 Tbs of nutpods creamer because it just looked a tad too dry. You can use any non dairy milk you have on hand if your mix looks dry as well. Pour the dough into the pan and spread it out as flat as possible. Bake for 33 to 38 minutes, checking the middle with a toothpick or fork before taking it out to cool. Mine took 35 minutes and then about an hour to fully cool enough to decorate.

finishedcookiecake

Celebrations are looking pretty different these days but I hope you are all doing well and have something to celebrate in this strange time, even if it’s just the change of seasons.

Health and happiness to you!

 

 

Does Anyone Know What Day it is?

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I just got back from a walk and on it I tried to remember if schools had been closed for two weeks as of tomorrow, or three…? These days are running together in a blur and I have the building anxiety that I need to move on from the initial stages of getting used to this new ‘normal’ and start being productive and constructive again, but honestly the only thing I’ve been doing more of is sleeping. I have been taking walks, making food, and trying to do some dance cardio in my bedroom but it’s just not the same on carpet and with no other goofballs cardio-dancing next to me. Even cooking has been difficult since we moved into a new house at the same time as all this pandemic craziness really got going and by ‘new’ I mean new to us, it is a middle-aged house by human years’ standards and I don’t think anything has been updated since its rebellious teen years at best. The refrigerator freezes our produce no matter how warm I make the temperature, and it has also frozen some sauces and salads. The stove top is one of those flat ones and I don’t even know what the material is but I don’t care for it one bit. It just makes cooking more difficult for now, although I’m sure I’ll eventually figure out the issue with the fridge, or have yet another service guy out here to do it, but for now we are just dealing with it. I did see a pho recipe recently that got me excited though, not only because it’s a noodle soup and I love noodle soups, but also because it’s just for two which means I won’t have leftovers that might potentially freeze in our refrigerator. Not that leftovers are often a problem with two teen boys in the house, but best not to take any chances. In case you are new to pho, which is pronounced, I’m told, close to fu? with a lift at the end like a question, it is a Vietnamese soup that is packed with nutrients. It is usually made with pork or beef, but you can find chicken or vegetarian versions such as the one I intend to make later this week when I get back out to a grocery. What makes pho unique is the use of spices such as star anise, cinnamon, and ginger which are excellent for the digestive system and for supporting the immune system. Keep in mind that star anise is the primary source for the main ingredient in Tamiflu. Herbs are powerful indeed.

Here’s a link to the vegan pho on Frontier Coop’s website. Let me know if you make it or have your own go-to pho recipe. By the way, restaurants are very clever out here with naming their Vietnamese restaurants which I never understood until someone explained the pronunciation to me. My favorites are: What the Pho? and Pho King.

Stay safe and stay sane.

 

New(ish) Products

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Most of these products are new to me, although I know at least one of these has been around for at least a year or so, hence the ‘ish’. Here are my (and one of my son’s) favorites from the most recent New Hope Blogger Box.

Our favorite were the vegan Mexican dips by Zubiate Foods including queso, crema, and salsa (which is the only one that is not normally already vegan). These are not things we normally eat so when I asked my son if he thought the queso tasted like regular cheese-y queso, he said he had never had it before so he didn’t know but he really liked it. I tried it and it did taste like queso I’ve had if my memory serves me right, but more importantly, it really is delicious. We weren’t sure what to do with the crema but it turned out to be our favorite! It was also the best smelling and since neither of us really knew what to expect from ‘crema’ and were pleasantly surprised. It was so good! The salsa was tasty and spicy. We are used to salsa and this one was a delicious one, though probably a bit spicier than we would choose for a long chow session. The mix of the three with chips were really just right though! If you are vegan or simply avoiding dairy, I definitely recommend trying these for a fun snack or part of a full Mexican meal. I’m sure others can get a lot more creative with them than just the chips we paired them with, but my brain is currently filled with trying to find a place to move into so chips and dip were all I could muster.

Speaking of brains, this adaptogenic herb is also known to boost brain power. If you know one adaptogen, it’s most likely this one, ashwagandha, because it seems to be the most popular also the most versatile one in terms of helping the most amount of issues in the widest amount of people. It is also referred to as Indian Ginseng (actual Ginseng is also an adaptogen but has a greater effect on testosterone and can cause issues because of it. It is generally recommended that only men over 25 take it, and over 40 benefit the most from it. Women seem to tolerate it at any adult age.) Ashwagandha on the other hand has a more mellow effect and is far more about balance. It is recommended for mood stabilizing as well as stress management, and one way it does that is by stabilizing cortisol which most people know as one of the major ‘fight or flight’ hormones and has been recently documented to play a big role in holding onto belly fat. Ashwagandha is also the best adaptogen to help with sleep issues as well as helping with long term energy levels during the day time. This ashwagandha supplement by Youtheory is an easy way to get it into your daily life.

CBD is still having its day (years?) in the spotlight, and these by Hemp Fusion are intelligent mixes with thoughtful ingredients. The stress one actually has ashwagandha in it, no surprise there! They also sent a sleep one and an energy one, both of which I tried and I can attest to a lovely night’s sleep with the sleep one, but the energy one is harder to quantify. It might have been what helped me walk my dog this evening when I really would have preferred to sit on the couch with a magazine, but it really is hard to say. It didn’t make me buzzy or jumpy, that’s for sure. How are you guys feeling about CBD at this point? I’m curious as to what people are experiencing with it, or if they haven’t tried it yet, and if not, why? Let me know in the comments or contact me please :0).

The facial products from Probulin are a unique concept although I have heard before that putting probiotics on the face is beneficial, usually in the form of yogurt or kefir based facial masks. I am excited to try the entire line they sent because the ingredients look top quality as they are free of GMOs, sulfates, glycols, parabens, phthalate, sythetic fragrances, and they are cruelty free too. They really seem to have put together some products with the concept of ‘don’t put on your body what you wouldn’t put into your body’ in mind. I’ll have to let you know how my skin reacts once I use the line for a few days, but goodness knows that after this rough year I could use some intense facial therapy! I’ve tried everything once or twice as of last night, and so far so good. My skin feels healthy and the products go on nicely. I think the cleanser is my favorite for the way it leaves my skin feeling clean but not stripped.

The product that made me write the ‘ish’ on new in the title is Lively Up Your Breath‘s breath freshener because I wrote about it almost exactly two years ago in this post. It’s a unique breath freshener, not a mint, gum, or even spray. Instead it is a liquid filled capsule that you pop in your mouth and then break (it breaks easily pressing your tongue against your mouth) and the minty liquid does its thing. It’s strong and effective.

If you try any of these, please let me know what you think! I might not be writing here for a couple of weeks because I’m going to be moving soon so life will get hectic and the internet might get tricky, but I’ll still be reading emails and comments so please contact me anytime! And wish me luck with finding a place to live and moving for the first time in over 12.5 years. My kids grew up in this house so besides the fact there is a lot of stuff to pack up, there are even more memories and emotions that will be surfacing, boxing, and/or releasing. I’m saving the ashwagandha and stress CBD for the toughest days ahead.

Bye for now! XOXO

Thanksgiving 2019

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If you’ve been a reader around here for a while, you probably already know I’m not a big fan of Thanksgiving foods. I wrote about my Thanksgiving in Prague here with a non-traditional Czech recipe, and again here with a recipe of what I would prefer instead of the traditional menu staples, so I’m clearly not a traditionalist when it comes to T-giving, and yet this will be the first one that I’ll be spending without my sons. (They will be with their dad.) Not only that, I won’t be spending the holiday with anyone other than my four legged shadow, Bailey, and I have to admit I’ve struggled a bit with this transition. It’s one of many transitions this year and this one hit me by surprise because I really have never cared much for this holiday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m big on gratitude, but the holiday itself conjures up memories of my terribly shy, picky-eater years, sitting around a festive table fully of family and hoping I could get away with a couple of rolls with a side of invisibility but instead always ending up as the topic of conversation with all eyes on me and encouragement from all around to eat the turkey and green beans (cooked with ham) and everything else that truly made my throat close when I tried to eat it. That’s how meat always felt to me if any landed in my mouth, like it blew up in there ten fold and my throat would close and I couldn’t get it down. Anyway, for a people-pleasing, timid child, it was traumatic, and to this day I don’t care for any of the traditional foods and I’m pretty sure I know why. It’s not popular to say ‘I don’t like Thanksgiving’ these days though, but it has nothing to do with the giving thanks part. In fact, I’ve dedicated all of November to be especially thankful and taken extra time to make gratitude lists and be mindful of all the things I have to be grateful for.

Despite having the most tumultuous year in my life, I can easily fill a notebook page with my gratitude once I get started, and I’ve done that often this month. I won’t bore you with the details, but did want to share that each and every one of you are on those lists and in my heart and represent so much light in my life, especially during this rather dark year. Everyone of you who are part of this community with your eyes, your words, your enthusiasm, and your questions, are engaging with me in my favorite place, and I appreciate the heck out of each and everyone of you! There are so many parts of  my life I’d like to change right now, and so much I’d do differently, but this blog has been my happy place, consistent, stable, reliable, trustworthy, and growing, and this has been such a grounding force in my life that I can’t even tell you how much it means to me that when I show up here, I’m met with kind, curious, intelligent, high-quality people again and again. It’s enough to burst my heart open with gratitude. You guys are the best! Mmwwaaaah!

So however you are spending your Thanksgiving (if you are in America) I truly hope it fills you up in every way, with great food, people you love and appreciate and who give back to you that same love and appreciation, and most of all feelings of intense gratitude for this world we keep waking up in. Things might look grim at times, both personally and on larger scales, but in the end we get to show up each day and choose to be our highest selves and make the best choices possible, and when we fail, we wake up to another day with those exact same options. (Until we don’t.)

Baileybyme

Enjoy your day wherever you are in the world and know that I am thinking of you with gratitude while I happily eat non-traditional foods with my bff (best furry friend). Stay well and if you are looking for holiday gifts to start making this long weekend, I have more than a few ideas you can peruse~ just search ‘DIY’ or ‘gifts’ in the search bar. And if you are interested in what flowers traditionally mean “thank you”, this article is a quick read. 

Let the holidays begin! XOXOXO