dairy free

Eating Evolved Chocolate

Hey, y’all. 🙂

Sorry it’s been a while.

January is a slow month for my business. I’ve been using the time to do taxes and restock so when it picks up this month I’ll be ready to go.

If I wasn’t getting a refund I would have seriously given some thought to not filing myself.  😉

Also I hadn’t written about this yet but after I’d made 100 out of 104 days of dairy free…I tried adding dairy back.  I ate if for a week and let’s just say that my body rebelled big time.

I’m back off of it now and feeling a lot better.

Because of that I haven’t done any kitchen experimenting since we last met.

Did make a pressure pot of short ribs yesterday. They were so good.  The gravy is the arrowroot thickened pan juices. This was also one of my higher carb days so yes, those are potatoes. 🙂

JKR…taking out the garbage one tweet at time. 🙂

Decided to try the Siete chips.  Right choice. 🙂 They are totally worth it. Totally. These are nacho flavor but they have no dairy at all. That’s a bowl of ‘Frito’ pie…subbing the grain free tortilla chips for the Fritos.  I don’t add the chips to the bowl all at once though I just do it a couple at a time so they don’t get too soggy.

So I ordered a sample box of Eating Evolved primal chocolate goods.

It comes boxed with a bow and they included two extra bars as a little gift.  If you like dark chocolate most of this stuff is pretty good.  Well, what I’ve tried of it anyway. I’ve tried the green bar (72% dark chocolate), the red bar (72% dark chocolate with almonds) and the banana cream cups. I don’t particularly enjoy dark chocolate but I’m trying. 🙂

The one thing I didn’t like AT ALL was the hot chocolate. I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth for hours. It is super duper bitter and definitely not for someone who is just learning to like dark chocolate.

I’ll let y’all know what I think of the remaining items as I try them.  I only allow stuff like this a couple times a week though.

Thank you, Nordstrom. 🙂

We have to keep the pressure on these businesses, y’all. Let them know we won’t spend one cent in their stores if they support or give these monsters an outlet.   #GrabYourWallet

 More so than ever right now it’s up to each of us to be the good to counter all the hate and garbage. 🙂

 😉

 

Dear democrat senate and house members, over the last 6 years…every.single.day…the republican led senate acted out a ‘youtube-esque’ tutorial on government obstruction for y’all in living color. Take their blueprint and run, y’all. Obstruct this shit in every conceivable way (and some ways y’all don’t even know of yet).  Love and thanks, Texas Girl.  🙂

Also…if anybody in Texas wants to join us click that pic above and it should link to battle ground texas. 🙂

New current pic. Went shopping with Mama B and Sister B this past weekend. When I saw that seated picture I seriously asked them if I really look like that.  I struggle so much with seeing myself as I really am. In my mind I still look much larger and I’m still automatically drawn to tent like clothes. Automatically I pick up big baggy stuff.  Every time. Why is that?

I know part of it is style choice.  I love flowy / boho / hippy stuff but it’s really more that I just can’t see myself as anything other than huge.  It’s so annoying.  So if you see me in person and wonder why I’m wearing something 97 sizes too big…that’s why.  I’m working on it.  🙂

Anyway…that’s all for today.

Y’all have a great super bowl weekend and I’ll see you soon.  🙂

 

 

Cappello’s Gluten Free Grain Free Pasta

Hey, y’all. 🙂

How are things in your corner of the world?

Things are good here.

Took a little trip down to the homeland to take care of some financial stuff.  (The Homeland is what I call the formerly little town I grew up in.)

It’s on the super humid gulf coast so of course my naturally curly hair responded accordingly.  😉

 (source)

So I’m wondering…do we get to personally name those cowards Ryan and McConnell in our suits when we lose our health coverage due to our pre-existing conditions?  Oh please please say we do.  😉

Ok before I get started with the main topic of this post…a quick note. 

From day 100 on…about 85% of the time I eat super low carb. The rest of the time I allow higher days…usually around 50 and under…made up of all grain free / dairy free / sugar free stuff.  It makes this livable for me.  I want this to be something I can stick with for as long as possible. So while most of my meals look more like this…

…super low carb but also super boring.  I don’t post those here because… well they’re boring…and nobody wants to see my hamburger / bacon / mayo plate over and over and over again.  🙂  That’s sugar-free ketchup.

The higher carb stuff I do write about happens once or twice a week…and IS blog worthy / interesting.  🙂

This might be the most interesting yet.

Look what came last week. Cappello’s grain free / gluten free pasta.  It was super warm last week and it showed up in perfect condition.  One thing of dry ice had melted but the other two…two big blocks…were still frozen solid.  A++++, Cappello’s.  🙂

Always. 🙂

I ordered a mix pack of fettuccine, gnocchi and lasagna sheets.

Portioned out individual servings and vacuum sealed them.

Bought a block of my beloved dairy free cheese Follow Your Heart in Mozz flavor to try.  Another win.  🙂

Made that dough I keep raving about into a loaf.

 

Homemade dairy free ranch on top.

Y’all this stuff is legit. This is the best gluten free pasta I’ve ever had.  That whole plate had about 20 carbs (there’s only 1 oz of pasta here so 9 carbs).

When I portioned out the fettuccine I did it in 2 oz portions and had 1 oz left over.  I stuck it back in the icebox and then a few days later made it up with some ghee / bacon and mozz.  Kinda a Texan Carbonara.  So good.

It’s very expensive but if you’re like me and the only one eating it you can easily get 4 – 6 meals out of each box (if you do 2 oz servings).  Or make it a special meal every now and then if you’re feeding the whole fam.

The Women’s March is this weekend. Just a reminder if you can’t make it to D.C. there are sister marches all over the country. 🙂

You can find links to each city here:

https://www.womensmarch.com/sisters

The Houston march is going to be downtown at city hall.

The Austin march is going to be downtown at the state capital.

They’re being held in a bunch of other Texas cities too but I don’t know the exact locations of those so check out the link above.

Amen, Mrs. Scott King.  Amen.  🙂

Ok that’s all for today. Thanks so much for stopping by. Y’all have a great week and I’ll see you soon.  🙂

 

(I couldn’t find a version of this song without the picture of the domestic abuser duck dynasty piece of human garbage…so if you’re a decent human being who finds him repulsive on a 100 different levels…just listen to the music.)  🙂

 

 

 

 

 

My New Toy

Hey, y’all.  🙂

I hope y’all made it thru the super cold stuff this weekend.  It got down in the 20’s here.  Right at the same time the cold blew in my blood got dangerously thin from my blood thinner.  I thought I was gonna die from the cold. (I’m exaggerating about the dying part…but I seriously have never been so cold in my life.)

Today it was almost 80. I was in heaven (and my blood is almost back in range) 🙂

Took this pic this evening around 5pm.  Almost full moon shining bright while the sun was still out.

So when we last met I was waiting on a Christmas gift to show up.

Isn’t she beautiful? My first Vitamix. Red of course. 🙂  Thanks, family.  🙂

Since I’m making my own cashew milk and stuff now I wanted something a little more powerful than the bullet. Bullet served me well for a few years but I outgrew her.

I chose the S30 because of the size.  I wanted something that wouldn’t take up too much space on the counter or in the appliance drawer…and would also be light for lifting in and out of the drawer. I debated between the S30 and 55 but decided the extra money wasn’t worth it for what I’d be using it for.  Plus I wanted red and the 55 doesn’t come in red.  Easy decision then.  🙂

First I made some cashew milk and cashew sour cream (and ghee the same day).  It was restocking the fridge day.

Then I used Vita (I call her VEETA…ya know…because I like to play like I’m British and they call vitamins VEETuhmens) anyway…I used her to turn some cashews, cashew milk, red pepper, nutritional yeast, chicken broth base, spices into…

Cashew QUESO, y’all. 🙂  ‘Cheese’ without cheese.

This stuff is every. thing.

I’m going to add some jalapeno’s to the next batch to get it a little more Texan-y.

I used this dude’s recipe but he’s vegan (I think) and he doesn’t use chicken broth base in his.  I think it adds a great depth of flavor to the recipe and obvs I’m not vegan so I’ll keep on using it. He also uses both almonds and cashews. I did not and will not. This was awesome sauce and I’m not messing with more ingredients than necessary for my taste buds.  The fam gave this thumbs up too and they pretty much don’t like anything I eat these days.

About those ‘chips’ I’m dippin’ up the queso with.

Siete almond flour and cassava coconut tortillas.

Texas made by a Texas fam so of course they’re excellent.  🙂

The cassava coconut version is a little bit grainy because of the cassava but they’re so close to real tortillas. They make the best chips. The almond flour version makes good chips too but they’re thicker.  They have less carbs so I do use them when I don’t have the numbers for the cassava. Neither mess with my blood sugar at all.

To make the chips I take one tortilla, spread ghee on both sides, plop on a piece of parchment and into the micro for up to a minute on each side. Then I break it up into pieces. Easy and perfect portion control.  They also sell actual chips now (only in Whole Foods til mid-march) but the carb count on them is way too much for me right now.

😉

Annual family New year’s day meal. Almond flour coated pork chop, black eyed peas, cashew cream / follow your heart cheese-y green bean cass, mashed potatoes with cashew cream gravy. (This was just my meal. Everyone else had the regular version of all of that.) With this meal I learned that I don’t need to try to recreate everything to mimic the original version. I would have been perfectly happy with a non crusted pork chop.  It was way too much work and mess for one person’s food.  Isn’t that plate pretty? It’s from the motherland…Czechoslovakia. 🙂

I sobbed watching the President’s final address tonight. It’s so sad to know this amazing man, his beautiful wife and just overall classy family is being replaced with such deplorable human garbage. You can’t say it, Hill so we’ll say it for you.  🙂

Speaking of…I’ll be proudly rocking this beaut on inauguration day.  You can get yours here.

No shame, y’all.

Remember…

If you look the other way and stay silent in the face of hate and all the horrible-ness that’s fixin’ to be fully unleashed in about 10 days…you’re just as bad as they are.

 🙂

A quick before current:

This is one of my favorite shirts.  I tried it on today.  I’m sitting in the car for both top pics.  In the left pic (sometime in 2016) the shirt is stretched to the limit. You can see how it’s pulling across the chest. My whole body wouldn’t  fit in the frame.  On the right I have about 5 inches of material gathered in the back (just for the pic I didn’t walk around town like that).  I have on shorts they just perfectly match the blue in the top.

That’s the best I can do today.  I really don’t run around taking endless pics of myself and I haven’t been out much at all since the last time I posted pics.  I’ll definitely keep posting comparisons when I have them though.

Ok that’s all for today.  Stay safe and warm and I’ll see y’all soon.  🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Orange Cake 100 days and Birthday Wishes

Hey, y’all. 🙂

First…Happy Birthday to Sister B. The best sister a girl could wish for.  I hope you have an awesome day.  🙂

So…

I did it, y’all. 🙂

100 days.

No grains or sugar for 100 days and no dairy for 50 days. 🙂

I’m pretty proud of myself. It’s been rough in some ways but super zen in others.  It was the weirdest thing.  I didn’t have any inner debate with myself over trying this.  In late August I really did just wake up one day and say to myself “enjoy Labor Day and then you’re doing this grain free  / sugar free thing for a while”.  There was no way I could have given up the dairy right from the start.  It’s what got me thru that first month.  But I’m so glad I eventually tried getting rid of it too.

The whole point of trying this was to try to help my autoimmune inflammation. It’s helped a lot but I’ve just got so much of it raging in my body that it’s going to take a lot longer.

I’m planning to stick with this for as long as I can.  Hopefully this is now a lifestyle change but I learned a long time ago to never say forever.  It’s a one day at a time kind of thing and today…I am still all in.  🙂

Before / current. Before was August and current was this weekend.

Logo from the shirt in the current pic.  You can never have too many y’all Christmas shirts.  😉

Remember that caramel I wrote about last week? That’s what it looked like in action.

I read about this orange cake where you boil 2 oranges for 2 hours then..

Throw the whole oranges peel and all (chopped into chucks) into the food processor and process to mushy.

Add 2 cups almond flour, 4 eggs, 1 – 2 cups sugar (I used xylitol), 1 heaping tsp baking powder and process til well blended.

Bake at 350* for about 45 minutes.  I glazed it with a ghee / xylitol reduction.

It’s kind of pound cake-esque. I loved the flavor and the texture was good but I did have a reaction to the acidic oranges.  If not for that I’d totally make this again sometime.

In that caramel post I wrote about using Ideal brand xylitol / splenda sweetener.  I switched over to this for the cake along with some added liquid splenda and that’s going to be my new mix.

Quick side note…a reader reached out and wanted to know how I can claim to be staying below 25g carbs / day when using xylitol. The answer to that is that I don’t count sugar alcohols at all. I’ve tested my blood sugar after eating them and they have zero effect on me. For example an hour after a piece of that orange cake my blood tested at 80.  Two hours after it tested at 78.  (I’m not diabetic but someone in my house is so I just used their testing machine to test it out. I also did it when I decided to allow the occasional potato.)  Anyway…that’s just how my body works.  You have to know your own body before you decide not to count sugar alcohols.  As I’ve said many times though…you do you and don’t worry about me.  🙂

Ok that’s all for today. Hope y’all are having a great week. 🙂