Grain-Free birthday cookies

Several people asked me if I was going to eat Birthday Cake on Friday. I thought about it, but really, I'm more of an ice cream girl so I decided not to hurl myself off the gluten-free wagon in the name of tradition or birthday candles.

But I did want something sweet to share around the office, so I turned to my trusty G-Free board on Pinterest for an idea.

I decided to go with Coconut Lemon Meltaways from the Addicted to Veggies blog. I had all the ingredients on hand and I LOVE coconut and lemon. And who doesn't want to try something called a "meltaway"?

These cookies could be labeled and hashtagged with all kinds of non-delicious sounding things like #vegan, #grainfree, #raw, #refinedsugarfree.

But let me tell you, the more descriptive options would be #tasteslikesummer, #whoababythosearegood, and #notexactlyhealthybutslightlymorevirtuousthanaboxofthinmints.

Did I mention that they are embarrassingly easy to make?

Please check out the original post on Addicted to Veggies for the recipe and steps - I don't want to take any credit for her brilliance.

But it basically goes like this:
Mix the dry ingredients (I used Almond Meal rather than Almond Flour because it is cheaper and I had some  on hand. It does change the texture slightly, but probably not the taste).

Bust out your Stand Mixer (hooray!) or any hand mixer and blend the wet ingredients into the dry.

Roll the cookies into balls and set them out on a parchment lined sheet. These little babies are not going to be cooked, so they won't spread or rise. You can put them pretty close together.

The cookies are technically raw (not cooked). Don't worry though, they're also vegan so no angst about eating raw eggs or dairy. Bonus: you can eat as much "dough" as you want!

The original recipe says that you can leave them in a warm oven with the door cracked slightly (I had mine set at 180 for about an hour and a half) or stick em in a food dehydrator. I don't have one of those - yet - so I went with the warm oven option. All this really does is dry out the exterior slightly, which gives the cookies that divine "melt in your mouth" slight crunch on the outside, soft awesomeness on the inside.

My co-workers gobbled these up. I may have had 4 or so myself. The only people who didn't oooh and aaaahh were the handful of non-coconut eaters. I contend that the lemon has a stronger flavor than the coconut, but I guess there's no convincing you if you are anti-coconut.

Bonus #2 - These make your kitchen smell like lemon and coconut. Excellent reason to make them in February.

Put On a Frowny Face for Starbucks

Ok y'all - time to bust our your trombone to play a big Debbie Downer "Whaaah-Whaaaaaahhhhh".

I know knowledge is power, and we can't make better choices if we don't have accurate information. But don't you sometimes wish you didn't know? Wish for a do-over so you cold proceed in blissful ignorance? I've found out all kinds of routine-shaking, life-altering info on this quest for a healthier, greener, more responsible path. But THIS info goes into the category of "I kinda wish I didn't know."

100 Days of Real Food just posted this article about the nasty side of Starbucks.  And it is nasty, my friends.

I had already heard that the coffee you get from your smiley-faced Barista is NOT organic or fair trade, even though you can buy bags of organic fair trade coffee to make at home. And I know that Starbucks has been touting their "Trans Fat Free" stuff and "All Natural Ingredients" for a while now. I've even gawked in slack-jawed horror at the nutrition info for the stuff I occasionally noshed on while picking up my latte (no organic milk available BTW). But I really wasn't ready for the hard truth: that stuff is SCARY. Scary. Read the article and see for yourself. Spoiler alert: One of their Frappuccino ingredients requires a "substance known to cause cancer" label in California.

KNOWN.

To cause cancer.

Well this revelation couldn't have come at a better time for me, since our No Buy July scheme has succeeded  well enough from a "stuff" standpoint, but failed miserably from a budget point of view. We suspect that in our quests to avoid acquiring more stuff, our tendency to want to purchase things just shifted to categorize more things (ie: lattes and "healthy" snacks for me, other food/beverages for Les) into the NEED category. Our stuff purchases have been practically nil so far, but our overall budget hasn't shown much improvement because we've compensated for the magazines and cool new eco kitchen scrubbies (oh, the things we overbuy) by shopping for loads of food. And going out for burritos.

So Starbucks, now would be a good time to part ways. I can't afford you and you are killing me softly. And I never did bring Sock Bottle back to the counter. Whaaaah-Whaaaaaaaaahhhhh.

When New Plans Start Early

My year-long experiment will wrap up in February, and I feel like I've made some strides, but when I look back on the last 11 months, I see what looks like groundwork for a much bigger trajectory. I used to think that I was going to have to look a certain way or weigh a certain number in order to love and appreciate my body, but one strange thing that has happened over the course of this first year of G3 is that I noticed that the more I cared for my body, the more I loved it. I was doing the practical (eat healthy, eschew toxins, keep it simple), but I was feeling the ephemeral. An unexpected sense of well-being and acceptance that I expected to have to earn "the hard way". If you've known me a long time, you know that body-love seemed about as likely as a lottery jackpot.

But little by little, something started to change. I stopped grimacing in the mirror and loathing my gray hair and started actually loving it. I started looking at food as something to choose thoughtfully rather than a system of rewards or punishments ("I ate 3 cookies yesterday, so today it's spinach and veg broth for me..."). And I started feeling that my stuff was, miraculously, just stuff. And now that most of it has been packed in boxes for 2 months, I realized that I don't miss 85% of it. So when we move into our new place next month, I want to be super-hardcore and honest with the question "DID I MISS THIS?" and if I didn't, maybe I'll put it back in a box for a while, and ponder whether it's time for some stuff and I to part ways. We have 3 dozen boxes of unopened belongings, but we have somehow managed to scrape through almost 2 months without any of it. Hm.

Anyway, all of this has felt really really REALLY good. And exciting. So I didn't plan to give up on the blog or the goals when Feb. 22, 2012 rolls around. But my hair will be totally grayed out by then, so I won't need to worry about that part, so I was going to focus on the food. We'll have space for container gardens in our new place, and a much more cooking-friendly kitchen, so I was all jonesing to announce that 2012 G3 would be a Real Food Year. We'll just replace the gray of hair with the gray areas of knowing the best way to go about that.

But, as they say, life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

And so, after suffering in silence for a few months, I finally went to the doctor about some persistent GI unpleasantness that I was SURE I could "healthy-eat" my way out of. But 4 months later, I had not succeeded, so I went to the doctor. And guess what? That was a really good idea. She recommended a very strict elimination diet to try to determine whether a late-flaring food sensitivity may be the culprit. So, for the last 4 days I have eaten veggies, nuts, eggs, fruit and some particular grains like quinoa and spelt. And do you know what? (I would NOT have believed it if it were not so dramatic) I feel SOOOOOOOOOOO much better, I can't even describe it.

Sure, it is a lot more work. But I was going to spend the whole next year un-processing food and learning to really embrace large armloads of produce, so it really feels like the boot in the pants I needed to jump start a clean start.

Grain-free is even more restricted than gluten-free, but after I've been on the strict diet for 2 weeks, I can try to add corn or oats or something back into my diet and see if I have any adverse affects. Honestly, I feel so much better after being so uncomfortable for so long, I'm not sure I even want to do the "untest".

What is different?

• GI symptoms have largely gone away
• After 4 days of anti-inflammatory food, I am wearing my "skinny jeans" for the first time in months without them feeling tight, and my muffin top has vanished. At least in these jeans.
• My skin is clearer
• My joints don't ache like an old lady
• Even my back and neck and legs feel, weirdly, less tight and more limber

I really REALLY hope that this is not all in my head. I still have some more medical tests to do to make sure that food sensitivities are really the only issue to deal with, but I am hopeful that eating "clean" will turn my digestive ship around.

Les and I bought this book to help me get started:

All the recipes in here are vegan and gluten free, so it's a good resource. I am not vegan, and she uses some grains that are technically gluten free but still on my "eliminate" list, but this book goes a long way towards getting me started with a new food plan.

Please remember that I'm not a doctor, and I'm not recommending a grain-free diet to anyone, and we haven't made many of the cookbook's recipes. I'm just sharing what's up with ME these days, and how it has helped me to follow my doctor's advice. Go to your doctor, and get her advice before doing anything that anybody mentions on this blog :)

So there you have it. I'm a grain-free vegetarian for the time being, and I'm about to start planning out a grander-than-practical container garden scheme, chucking out unneeded possessions, setting up a Cooking Kitchen, and re-teaching myself how to eat. And keeping the Grace always in focus. Oh, and trying to keep greening along the way.

The Stinky Truth about Antiperspirant

GOOD Health just published this helpful article about why antiperspirant is bad for you. Really bad. Even if only some of the potential risks turn out to be as bas as they sound, it's probably worth considering an alternative.

Which is distressing, because there are few things that gross me out about my body more than sweaty armpits. I hate hate HATE the feeling of damp pits. And the sneaking suspicion that YOU are the stinky person that everyone is scooting away from on the Metra on the ride home.

I got this little trial size of Alba Botanica deodorant to try:

Which I'm excited to try next week, because the women's deodorant they recommend in the GOOD Health article (La Vanila) is EIGHTEEN DOLLARS per stick.

$18?

Really?

Could I just make some myself?  Well, that will be my next trick. My friend Kathi has made her own anti-stink sticks, and thinks they work pretty well. If the Alba doesn't do the trick, I will be your home made deodorant guinea pig.

Didn't miss it after all

So I had some Diet Coke on Friday. It was my first soda (pop, to my fellow Rockfordians) in about a month and a half. Les and I were out for our Friday Pizza, and we gave up alcohol for Lent, so we were both feeling a bit lost in the beverage department. Gooey pizza with a glass of water never really feels quite right. So, I took some friends' suggestions and decided to have my Diet Coke, since it was from a fountain (no cans or bottles) and could be considered a "special treat".

After I placed my order with the waitress, I leaned back in the booth and imagined what that fizzy, diet-cokey deliciousness would taste like when it finally arrived. When the waitress set it down on the table in front of me, I drew the straw up to my lips and took a luxurious slug of pop and savored it for a second before swallowing. 

But guess what? 

It did surprisingly little for me. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong. And there's nothing quite like pizza&pop. But I didn't wake up in the middle of the night and ponder sneaking out to the 7-11 for another fix.

So, anyway, the moral of the story is that I'm reassured that pop can be a "sometimes treat" without re-wrapping its tentacles around me. Or, maybe the longer I go between Diet Cokes, the less and less I will want it. Wonder if it works that way for all my vices?