Recipe for Hipster Granola

 

When you go “gluten free”, one of the things you find yourself missing is breakfast foods. I have yet to find a paleo waffle/pancake recipe that is worth making a second time. Usually the texture is so off, that I just can’t enjoy it.

Although this recipe is not paleo, as it uses gluten free oats, it is a welcomed treat every once in a while that tastes exactly the way granola is supposed to taste. I try to make sure to pair this with a healthy fat and protein, so I had the granola with some Greek yogurt I found at Whole Foods made from grass fed cows. Click here to view that yogurt. I also added Bee Pollen on top. Click here to learn all about the health benefits of Bee Pollen!

Could this recipe get any more hipster? Coconut oil, sea salt, flaked coconut, goji berries, and bee pollen! It kind of makes me hate myself for making this. But whatever.

Anyways, this makes quite a few servings. I don’t have an exact amount, but the granola fills a whole cookie sheet when it bakes, and fills up about 2 gallon size freezer zip lock bags.

This recipe is adapted from a granola recipe on America’s Test Kitchen.

Ingredients

1/3 Cup Maple syrup

1/3 Cup Brown sugar

1/2 Cup Coconut oil, melted

4 Teaspoons Vanilla

1/2 Teaspoon Sea salt

5 Cups Gluten free, old fashioned oats

1 Cup Chopped almonds

1/2 Cup Whole cashews

1/2 Cup Pistachios

1/2 Cup Cranberries

1/2 Cup Unsweetend flaked coconut

1/4 Cup Goji berries

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the maple syrup, brown sugar, coconut oil, vanilla, and sea salt. Once everything is incorporated, add in the old fashioned oats. Next, add in the chopped almonds, cashews, and pistachios.  Make sure everything is nicely coated. You won’t add in the cranberriers, coconut, and goji berries until after the granola is cooked, as they become leathery if cooked with the oats.

You then need to line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Then you can pour the oat mixture onto the cookie sheet. It’s very important that you take a spactula, and press down with some pressure on the granola, until it is packed into the cookie sheet. This will help the granola to form nice big chunks as it bakes.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through cooking.

Once done, let it cool completely before you try to break the granola apart, as the large chunks will be compromised.

Once cooled, place the granola in a large bowl, and from there you can add in the cranberries, flaked coconut, and goji berries, and anything else you might enjoy. I’ve also had this just as a snack plain, or with milk and bananas as ceral.

This can be stored in ziplock bags in your pantry, or really any container. And will last a while. We have had ours for about 2 weeks, and it still tastes fresh.

Happy Eating!

 

• Your Gluten Free Buddy

 

 

 

 

 

Day 1 – Pantry Purge

Click Here to see a quick video of everything that came out of my pantry!

 

If you follow me on Instagram, you will notice that I have started the 21 Day Primal Blueprint Total Body Transformation. Day 1 was on Monday, and it consisted of cleaning out the ol’ pantry.

I was surprised at how much stuff had crept into our pantry over the holidays. Half, we bought. Half was given to us.

I did not throw away any of the food here. I have put it into our food storage. Some of it will make its way back into our lives, after I have transformed my body from burning primarily glucose, to burning primarily fat. It will be used purely as supplemental carbs, during those days where I need a little something extra.

I’ll keep a journal of how the experience goes.

-Your Gluten Free Buddy

Chocolate . Sunbutter. Sandwich Cookies

Sometimes, you just need a real dessert. Not a “healthy” dessert. This hit the spot! The recipes were adapted from Paleomg’s Double Chocolate Cookie recipe, and Brittany Angell’s Peanut Butter Fudge Swirl Brownies.

Go and check out there sites for more amazing recipes! These are just my versions of their recipes. Recipe is below:

These are gluten free, but not healthy! I want to make that clear. But they are delicious, and quick, and perfect for any level of baker.

Enjoy!

• Your Gluten Free Buddy

What is Hashimoto’s Disease?

Let me preface this question first by sharing the symptoms that lead to me being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease.

Ever since high school, I have had very low energy, poor circulation, headaches, body aches, and painful menstrual cramps. I attributed them all to just being a teenager, with growing pains, playing a sport, and staying up too late. Looking back on it now, I can see that I was showing classic signs of Hypothyroidism.

At that time, I ate a Standard American Diet (SAD) of mostly processed carbs. That is consisting of a LOT of cereal, bread, and pasta.

I had those symptoms all the way up until I had my baby. Once my baby was born, they got SO much worse. I had the baby blues when he was first born, which included a lot of crying, but not necessarily depression. My body was just so tired, and my hormones couldn’t figure out a way to find balance. The headaches were stronger. I was freezing cold almost all the time. I wasn’t losing the baby weight. The scariest part was that my baby brain never went away. It only got worse. I had a hard time actually keeping a conversation with other people! I would lose my train of thought mid sentence. I was not use to this, and it made work really difficult.

Six months after Archie was born, I went to my OBGYN to get a check up, and she noticed that my throat was looking swollen. She had me take a blood test, and it came back with a TSH level of 30. A normal range is between 0.4 and 4. Mine were off the charts. By the way, the doctor never called me with the results. I waited a week with no word from them, called them, and the nurse said, “Oh yeah, you have Hypothyroidism, you need to take blah blah blah medication. Okay bye.” . . .

Okay, really? No more information than that? I was pissed.

I called my Mom, told her what was up, and we made an appointment with a Chiropractor we know, who specializes in holistic nutrition.

I went to see him, and he told me, “Nine out of ten times, Hypothyroid patients actually have Hashimoto’s Disease.” He turned out to be correct in my case, after we had a more in depth blood test taken. It looks how many antibodies my body is making, or something along those lines. Basically, mine was making too many, which is a sign that my body is fighting against something.

Which leads to our question. What is Hashimoto’s Diesease?

It is an autoimmune condition, where the immune system attacks the thyroid gland. The thyroid gland is in charge of your metabolism rate, which in turn manages how fast or slow your brain, heart, muscles, liver, and other parts of your body work.

Mine weren’t working well. Also, my vitamin D levels, non-existant. My doctor called me a “cave dweller”. Working from home, and being a new mom, he was right. And my digestive system, not working either. It wasn’t absorbing any of the nutrients I was putting in my body.

So we developed a plan to get me healthy again.

-Daily supplements including Vitamin D, a probiotic-fermented B Vitamin, Vitamin K2, a liver supporter, DHA, and a reliably sourced sea salt. I also take Levothroid. My holistic doctor said he usually tries to stay away from it, but my body was basically not producing ANY thyroid hormones on their own, and we needed to give it a little break. We are hoping to get it up and running enough to where it produces it on its own. But if it is too damaged, I may need to stay on it. I am maintaining staying on the lowest dosage though.

-Daily sun exposure, and, weather permitting, time in the grass with my shoes off. (Check out the research on grounding! It’s fascinating.)

-Daily walks

-Avoiding gluten (At all costs, at all times, forever!), chocolate, green peppers, soy, and dairy.

-Do yoga

I had already been eating a fairly paleo diet for about two years at that time, with a few cheat meals here and there, so it was not that difficult to avoid those foods, as I imagine it would be for others.

I knew there was more I needed to learn about healing my body, so I listened to over 100 hours worth of podcasts, read 4 books, all about holistic healing, and added a few more recommendations to my list my doctor gave me.

-Stay stress free!

-Eat more sardines

-Buy your meat straight from the farm

-Buy Kerrygold Butter

I have been doing all these things for 7 months now, and I feel amazing!

I don’t have any of the symptoms I use to have on a daily basis. I feel weird not having a midday slump anymore. I was always just so use to it. Also, my stomach looks completely different! I guess I have always had a little bloat because of the gluten, but now it is completely gone! I have also lost the bloat from my face. I remember a couple months back, my father in law said I looked like my face was glowing. That is what he was referring to. And NO HEADACHES! That is amazing!

I will still get a headache when I have too much sugar, or don’t eat enough fat. So I try eat low carb (lots of veggies, no grains).

Also, I had a check up blood test with my OBGYN about 3 months back, and my TSH levels are at 3, completely normal! Silly nurse thought it was due to the medication they put me on. I almost corrected her, but didn’t want to get into it.

I am most excited to have my brain back though, and to finally be out of the fog!

Thanks so much for reading. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions about my story, or if you just need some positive reinforcement if you are having any of these same issues. I would love to connect with you!

• Sam, Your Gluten Free Buddy

“The Pumpkin King” Inspired Healthy, Gluten Free, Paleo, Smoothie!

Gluten Free Does NOT Always Mean Healthy

For my first post, I wanted to make things very clear about going “gluten free”. It is super hipster to go gluten free right now. What this means for most folks though, is trading out those gluten-filled Oreos, for gluten free Oreos. If that is the case, you are about to walk into some pretty awful habits.

Let’s take the Oreo example, and look at some ingredients you would find in a typical gluten free cookie package.

oreo

So let’s see here. There are some parts that are cut off, but RED FLAG! I see vegetable shortening as the 3rd or 4th ingredient. Yuck. There is also soy in the vegetable shortening, and with my Hashimoto’s Disease, I avoid soy. I also see soy lecithin, which I avoid, and a whole lot of other ingredients not typically found in nature.

Go ahead and watch the video above, where Real Food Liz does a fantastic job in explaining what it really means to “go gluten free”.

And check out her site for helpful blog posts, recipes, and podcasts, all about a real food lifestyle.

• Your GFB