gluten-free

New Foods and Supps for Health

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The New Hope Blogger Box always has great gluten free goodies in it, and this month’s was no exception. I love granola and was thrilled to find Jessica’s Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Granola in the box because if there is anything better than granola, it’s granola with chocolate chips. This is a delicious treat for breakfast or an afternoon snack, with just right amount of sweetness. I ate it with unsweetened vanilla coconut yogurt or milk with a half teaspoon of my anti-inflammatory digestive spice mix.

My oldest son was thrilled with these unique Tahini Bars from the company Mighty Sesame. These are gluten free and only 100 calories a bar, and make for a nutty tasting, not-too-sweet snack or even a dessert. These bars come in different flavors but we tried the Pistachio Halva Bar and it was a hit, especially with my son who has taken all but one in his lunch bag. (I managed to grab that one for myself!)

Swanson Health’s Vanilla Protein Powder is packed with 20 grams of vegan sourced protein and one serving of veggies. I used this in the smoothies I make every morning and it blended in nicely and tastes good. It has 120 calories per serving which is similar to the other vegan protein I regularly use, and zero sugars. One bag has 20 servings in it.

My oldest son agreed to be the guinea pig for a natural deodorant by Prep U Products. He is almost 15, bikes uphill 1.75 miles to school everyday, and has PE there every day as well. He then bikes home. He also has sensitive skin and we have been through at least five (or more) brands of natural deodorants to find one that works and doesn’t irritate his skin. This deodorant works for him. It is gentle enough not to irritate, and yet it actually works throughout the day despite his physical activities off and on all day long. This is a golden find.

Here’s a supplement to get you fully transitioned out of cold and flu season safely and healthfully. Nature’s Answer has combined elderberry extract with probiotics which specifically target the immune system to create a powerful immune support supplement. This has 32,000 mg elderberry (which is an herb traditionally used to boost the immune system) per serving as well as 10 billion cfu probiotics. This is a great supplement to have on hand through cold and flu system and it doesn’t even need to be refrigerated. The directions are to take two per day with food or water.

The supplement’s color is so pretty!

Two bars that deserve mentioning are Hemp Health’s Cookie Dough Hemp Bar and gt brands’ good Snacks! Chocolate Peanut Butter protein bar. The hemp bar uses hemp for the main protein source and is quite tasty with a surprisingly good nutrition profile, including a decent amount of iron. It also has 12 grams of protein per bar, 5 grams of fiber and 4 grams of sugar. They have several flavors and other hemp products as well. The good snacks’ chocolate and peanut butter bar is delicious with a nod towards Reese’s peanut butter cups, though not as sweet. These have 15 grams of protein, 11 grams of fiber, and 9 grams of sugar. Both of the bars are gluten free, soy free, and vegan.

I’ve posted about Bellucci’s Olive Oil before, but in case you missed it, these olive oil packets are perfect for lunch bags, camping, or picnics. Now that spring is finally officially here (in the Northern hemisphere anyway) nothing sounds better than some outdoors noshing. With Bellucci you can actually trace your olive oil from the batch number to its roots so you know you have an authentic product, which is important because there is a surprising amount of oil out there masquerading as EVOO.

Thank you for reading and I hope you see something new to try. Happy Equinox!

Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Scones

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The other day I was working on some herbal crafts for a class I’ll be teaching in a couple of weeks, and things were not quite working out as I wanted. I was starting to get frustrated, and for some reason thought that trying to work out a new gluten-free, vegan scone recipe might be just the answer. It could have turned out badly, adding to the list of creative projects gone wrong, or at least sub-par, that day, but luckily, these turned out good. Really good in fact. These rival the gluten-free, vegan scones we used to be able to get at a local bakery which just closed last month, and they came together quickly~ no refrigerating the dough or anything that makes a more time consuming baking project. You can make these with butter and milk if you aren’t interested in keeping these dairy free, and two eggs will work instead of the flax meal + water. The cinnamon is optional but it gives the dough extra pizzazz. I used Bob’s Red Mill’s Gluten-Free Baking and Biscuit Mix which is a self-rising flour mix. If you don’t used Bob’s, pick another mix that is self-rising, such as Pamela’s.

Gluten-free, Vegan Chocolate Chip Scones

2 1/2 cups Gluten-Free Baking and Biscuit Mix (Bob’s Red Mill)

1/2 teaspoon of Sea Salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

6 tablespoons coconut oil, kept solid (room temperature)

3/4 cup coconut milk (I like unsweetened vanilla but you can use any kind of milk you wish)

2 tablespoons of flax meal mixed with 6 tablespoons of warm water (or 2 eggs)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or make your own)

1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl, add the water to the flax meal and set aside for about 10 minutes. In a bigger bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, cinnamon, and baking powder until thoroughly combined. Add the coconut oil, working it in until the mixture is unevenly crumbly. There will still be a lot of loose, dry flour at this point. Whisk together the coconut milk and vanilla  with the flax mixture and then add it to the dry ingredients, along with the chocolate chips. Thoroughly mix.

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Transfer the dough to a floured work surface. Gently pat and round it into a circle. Cut the dough into 8 shapes, or more for mini-scones. 

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Put the scones spaced-out evenly on the prepared pan.
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Bake the scones for 20 minutes, until they’re golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and let cool on a wire rack after first cooling about 5 minutes on the pan.

Store in the fridge in an airtight container and eat within three days, or put them in the freezer.

These scones are by far the easiest, quickest scones I’ve ever made. When you are in the mood to bake something but don’t have much time, these should definitely be on your go to easy-bake list. Please share with anyone who bakes gluten-free goodies, and subscribe for a weekly wellness post.

 

Gluten Free in Dublin, Ireland

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This is a post I wrote for my former blog back in early 2017, after a trip to Dublin. I happen to be feeling restless lately and a friend of mine just jetted off to Dublin (for work, but she’s gotta eat!) so I reread this post in order to remember all the restaurant names to recommend to her and I thought I might as well share it here too. These places are great whether you need to eat gluten-free or not, but if you are avoiding gluten, Dublin is an easy place to meet all your needs.

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Dublin was a surprisingly easy place to accommodate food intolerances and allergies. We found the food there to be fresh, healthy, and enlightened, as in menus marked with gluten information or restaurants having Paleo picks (not that we eat Paleo but it is generally gluten-free) and one even celebrating a month of the Paleo diet by offering an entire menu devoted to it. This restaurant, Saba, was right around the corner from our hotel and I could have ordered many things off their menu without having to worry about gluten. When we ate there we ordered rice with our pick which is decidedly un-caveman-ish, so we weren’t beholden to the Paleo diet thankfully, and got an excellent meal out of it.

Another place right around the corner from our hotel was our favorite restaurant of all, a healthy little breakfast, lunch, brunch place called Cocu. There are three locations and it looks like they are even open for dinner at one of two of those places so there are plenty of options for checking it out. Their menus are simple although a little hard to describe so I encourage you to look at them yourself and be inspired. Maybe so inspired that you open up your own version of their tagline “A Healthy Obsession”, and if so, please let it be within 15 minutes of Redmond, Washington because we truly were obsessed and it’s one of the first things I missed when we got back home. Basically, the main lunch items are these bowls where you choose your meat or vegetarian main which is cooked with certain spices/sauces/veggies to complement it, then add two sides such as mixed greens or rice or sweet potatoes or something else, then add a topping such as seeds, nuts, or herbs. It’s all in a big bowl together and works every time, no matter the combination. They also have soups, wraps (not gluten-free), and hot pots which is something like red lentil curry over rice and you add tofu or chicken which was my favorite dish there. Anyway, I could go on because I haven’t even started on the coffee bar area, breakfast items, or side pastries which included many gluten-free items, but unless you are in Dublin right now and can check it out yourself, there’s no point in sharing any more of the obsession.

It’d be a shame to go to Ireland and not get fish n’ chips, and luckily Beshoff Brothers has us gluten-free gourmands covered. This is not a fancy place, just as a proper fish n’ chips place should not be, but it was clean and bright and their gluten-free menu had onion rings on it which I can’t recall seeing anywhere ever before this place. This wasn’t our healthiest meal but it actually wasn’t overly greasy and we both were quite satisfied with our meals, (not gf for my husband, gf for me).

You can even have your sandwich cravings easily satisfied at O’Briens Sandwich cafes. They can make you a sandwich on gluten-free bread which also happens to be egg free, dairy free, and soy free. (Yay!) They use a brand called BFree which isn’t carried in my neck of the woods (yet) but I hope it’s coming soon because they have pita bread which is so hard to find. Do be aware that if you want your sandwich toasted though, it is toasted in the same oven as the traditional breads. I did have mine toasted and felt perfectly fine for the record, but you have to judge for yourself your own level of sensitivity. There are plenty of O’Briens around Ireland so you aren’t ever too far from a sandwich which is a nice change of pace.

Another restaurant that my husband and I found ourselves returning to the very next day after a fantastic dinner and ordering the exact same meals as the night before is Balfes.  They have plenty of gluten-free options and the food is fresh and delicious. I had a salad with chicken on it that used guacamole instead of dressing and oh my gosh, why haven’t I done that before?! It was brilliantly executed and my husband loved his meal also. We even thought about going there for a third night in a row but ended up just being too lazy.

Marks & Spencer (M&S) has plenty of gluten free options in their ‘food hall’. They do have a section of gluten-free items such as pastas, cakes, breads, granola, etc, but I only bought the granola because their baked goods all have egg in them. They have a lot more to offer though in their prepared foods sections which seemed to make up about the entire store. I’ve never seen so many individually wrapped meals in my life~ Trader Joe’s has been way outdone. My husband and I got breakfast from there several times and take-away dinner at least once. He was especially fond of the place and kept saying things like, “Look at that lettuce! It’s practically standing up it’s so fresh! It’s like it’s trying to get our attention by waving it’s arms and saying ‘pick me!'”. The fresh produce there did seem exceptionally vibrant considering it was January and I wasn’t aware that Ireland had a robust winter farming industry. I still don’t know what the deal is with their produce~ if it’s grown in greenhouses or imported from somewhere else on some wicked fast plane or what, but they have a good thing going though however they are managing it. Also, I should say that before going I had the impression M&S would be extremely expensive but we found their prices to be quite affordable which was a definite plus.

There are health food stores called Nourish around Dublin that have gluten-free options such as crackers, cookies, etc. The one I went into on Grafton Street didn’t have a huge selection but I did buy some crackers and chocolates from there which were tasty. But here’s a warning to take to heart~ if you rely on melatonin to help reset your body clock and beat jet lag, bring your own because we were told at Nourish that it is illegal to sell it in all of Ireland.  Fortunately I did bring some along but we were hoping to get more there and were sorely out of luck. What does Ireland have against melatonin? Another mystery to solve I guess.

Before going to Dublin I found a lovely listing of restaurants that are gluten-free friendly. I was so thrilled with finding it but in all honesty I didn’t have to go back to it often because it seemed everywhere I checked out had gf options. I made it a habit to look at every menu that I passed just to see how gf friendly it was and I found Dublin as a whole to be extremely aware and accommodating on that front as well as on all fronts really. It was a friendly, polite, energetic, and open place that I hope to return to soon and maybe get a chance to see the countryside a bit. If you are wondering where to take your next big vacation and gluten matters feel like a confinement, rest assured that Dublin will embrace you and your gluten issues with open arms and fantastic food.

One last thing to mention, before going I made sure to request gluten-free foods for our Delta airlines flights. They actually did a great job with the meals and I always got mine before they delivered the other passengers’ meals so I never had to wonder if they’d remember or not. I actually couldn’t even eat all the food they brought me which always included fresh fruit and/or salad which is so nice to have on a long flight. I was impressed.

Please share with anyone heading to Dublin, and if you haven’t yet, subscribe for a weekly wellness post. Also, please comment below on any experiences you have had in traveling through Ireland~ I’d love to hear it!

 

Zucchini Muffins (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Nut-Free)

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My sons still talk about the zucchini muffins I made years ago and ask me to make them again. I only made them once because shredding the zucchini by hand took me ages that first time, but now I’m ready to try again with perhaps the help of the blender. I looked up the recipe on my old blog and found I’d written it in 2014! Those muffins must have been better than I remember for my kids to still have a hankering for them four years later. Here’s the (slightly edited) original post with the recipe, though next time I’ll probably add another teaspoon of cinnamon which means a full tablespoon.

My friend gave me a zucchini the size of large 2 month old baby so I figured I’d switch my plan of making pumpkin scones to zucchini muffins. After looking for a recipe online that I could play with, I realized there wasn’t much out there that had all our needs covered~ gluten, dairy, egg, and nut free, so the “playing’ part was rather extensive. Anyone who believes that old adage, “Baking is a science, cooking is an art” has obviously never baked with food intolerances in mind. I can’t say it’s a perfect recipe as it was indeed my first go at it, but they didn’t crumble (and no xanthan gum!) and they taste pretty good. (My kids love them.) Plus we used that freaky zucchini so now my sons no longer have a prop pretending to be cavemen which was getting to be a bit much every time we were in the kitchen. I must admit though, it really did look like a primitive weapon. Here’s the recipe:

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Ingredients:

2 T flax meal + 5 T water (set aside at least 10 minutes)

2 C grated Zucchini

1/2 C apple sauce

1/4 C sunflower oil

1 t vanilla extract

1 C brown rice flour

3/4 C oat flour (make sure it’s gluten-free)

1/2 C millet flour

1/4 C tapioca flour

3/4 C brown sugar

2 t cinnamon (or more~ actually will do more next time, but it’s personal taste)

1 t nutmeg

1 t baking soda

Preheat oven to 350. Prep muffin pan with oil, spray oil, or liners. Add the grated zucchini, apple sauce, oil, vanilla extract, and flax that has soaked in water all together and mix well. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients together before blending the wet and dry together~ easily done with a spoon, no need to get your mixer dirty. Fill the muffin pan~ 12 regular sized muffins. Cook for 23-25 minutes.

Two zucchini muffins
Don’t these look good for a recipe without xanthan gum?!

These were good out of the pan but I did think a little more cinnamon would have made them better so I sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on top. My boys don’t mind the extra sweetness although they’ll probably miss running through the kitchen yelling “Aaarrrgh” with the zucchini.

It’s not quite the 2018 zucchini season here yet although the berries have been going strong for a couple of months now, so I’m expecting it won’t be long before backyard summer veggies start popping up. Happy Summer Solstice! Make sure you enjoy the sun safely this summer and please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share with anyone who might benefit from this article.

Gluten-Free Waffles and Cinnamon Bread

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When my kids were going through a period of food restrictions due to intolerances, giving up gluten was by far the hardest part. Waffles came in handy as bread substitutes because gluten or no gluten, waffles are almost always yummy. I could pack them in my sons’ lunch boxes either plain, or with peanut butter between two just like a sandwich, and they loved it. (If you have never tried peanut butter on waffles before, you have to try it. It’s way better than it sounds.) Now they are able to eat gluten again, one more often than the other, but I still make the waffles gluten free and egg free for easy breakfasts. I make a double batch and just stick them in the fridge for a quick warm up on school days, and if they ever didn’t eat them all up within a couple of days I’d put them in the freezer, but that hasn’t happened yet. I like using Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix, but it does contain almond meal and buttermilk in the ingredients so if you are avoiding dairy and/or tree nuts, use another brand such as Enjoy Life Pancake and Waffle Mix and follow their instructions for flour to liquid ratio, and add in the other bits down below as desired.

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With Pamela’s mix, to make about 8 waffles, you will need:

4 T flax meal with 3/4 cups warm water (or 4 eggs)

2 T sunflower oil or another oil you like

1 t ground cinnamon

1 t vanilla extract

1.5 cups water

3 cups Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix

3/4 cups chocolate chips (optional but my kids’ favorite part)

To make:

Add the flax meal to the 3/4 cups of warm water and set aside for about 10 minutes. If using eggs, just blend everything together all at once. Eggs make more golden waffles but I use the flax meal because of the good omega-3 oil and the fiber, plus one of my sons had to avoid eggs for a while (intolerance) so I don’t like him to eat them all of the time. If using the flax, add the ingredients to the flax and water in the order I’ve written them above. Stir until just mixed, then load about 1/2 cup of the mixture at a time into the waffle iron. I spray my waffle iron each and every time with coconut oil, but I’m sure you know your specific iron’s needs.

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These make an easy snack too. When anyone first does an elimination diet or is told they can no longer eat certain (usually favorite) foods, it really helps to have tasty alternatives to rely upon to help ease that sense of loss. It truly is a grieving period, and for kids it can be especially incomprehensible, plus it’s hard on the parents who have to suddenly scramble as well. Even adults need to know they still can enjoy delicious foods every day, even if they are not exactly the ones they relied upon for years. Any time familiarity can be reestablished, a person’s sense of security, and therefore confidence grows, and it really does take all of that and more to stick with avoiding favorite foods. It also helps to know that if it is an intolerance, rather than an allergy, you really can beat it (in most cases) as long as you systematically work on building up your digestive tract as well as avoiding the trigger foods for as long as it takes. You will inevitably find new comfort foods, healthy choices that provide both healing and joy, but the process can bring up uncomfortable feelings until you hit on those perfect-for-you finds. Go easy on yourself until you get there.

Here’s another comfort food recipe for the gluten-challenged. This one comes from Delicious Living and I plan on giving it a next weekend. One of my favorite activities to do on Sunday afternoons is to bake while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, such as Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me or This American Life, and considering this is a bread, and it has cinnamon, I know it’ll be worthwhile for my family because we love bread and cinnamon (as you might have guessed from the quite large bag of cinnamon I keep on hand in the picture high up above.)

Gluten-Free Cinnamon Roll Bread

For the Bread:

  • 2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1½ cups milk
  • ⅓ cup plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • FOR THE SWIRL
  • ⅓ cup brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted)
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

FOR THE GLAZE

  • ½ cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350˚. Grease bottom and sides of a 9-inch loaf pan; set aside.

  1. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. In a medium bowl, combine sugar, egg, milk, Greek yogurt and vanilla; add to dry ingredients, and mix until well combined. To make the swirl, in a small bowl, combine brown sugar, melted butter and cinnamon.
  2. Pour about ⅓ of the batter into prepared loaf pan. Spoon ½ of swirl mix into a few spots in the batter; use a knife to swirl around. Top with another ⅓ of batter, and spread evenly. Repeat the swirl step. Add the last ⅓ of batter. Use knife to create swirls.
  3. Bake in oven for 45–50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Remove bread from oven, and allow to cool. In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar and milk; pour over bread.

PER SERVING (1 slice): 223 cal, 3g fat (1g mono, 0g poly, 2g sat), 24mg chol, 206mg sodium, 43g carb (0g fiber, 26g sugars), 3g protein

May your days be filled with optimal health that is tailor made for you, and please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share with anyone who might benefit from this article.

Wheat: Is it the Gluten or the FODMAPs?

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When I first went to a gastroenterology doctor to discuss my blood tests that were positive for gluten reactions, his advice to me was not to go through the scope for celiac testing because, and I quote, “Lots of people have trouble digesting wheat. You just don’t eat wheat. That’s all you could do if you were diagnosed celiac anyway.” This struck me as mighty unconventional in an industry that loves to order as many tests as possible, but I followed his advice and I think I now understand that he must have seen people with wheat issues day in and day for decades to form that view. (And this was over ten years ago, before the gluten awareness explosion.) It isn’t just the gluten though, people can have trouble with wheat because of the FODMAPs, which makes wheat a particularly hard food for a lot of people since the protein and/or the carb can be the problem. It’s no wonder so many people find some relief when taking it out of their diet, but it might not be the cure-all they were hoping for. If that sounds like you, don’t get discouraged, there’s more you can do.

While gluten, which is a protein in wheat, rye, and barley, is the issue for celiacs and other people with gluten sensitivity, for others it might be the carbs of wheat, which fall under the FODMAPs acronym. FODMAPs stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols, which are molecules in certain carbohydrates that some people have trouble digesting. Wheat is one of the culprits but other items which fall under the FODMAPs category are beans, many dairy products, some fruits like apples and apricots, and a variety of vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower. For a complete list, check out Fodmaplife.com but before checking it out you should know two things: 1. the list is extensive and can be overwhelming at first glance, but don’t let it deter you because 2. not everyone reacts to all the items the same. When you start to explore if you are one of the people whose digestive issues stem from FODMAPs, you will need to limit all foods high in FODMAPs, but you then can start adding some back into your diet and experiment with what really bothers your personal system and what can actually be tolerated and at what doses. So, in other words, the list is not a list of foods you can never eat again, think of it merely as a starting point.

An easy way to experiment with this and take the guess work out of your meal planning is to try Delicious Living’s Low FODMAP Menus for a Week. They have put together meals that avoid all the high FODMAP foods and instead focus on healthy foods that are easy on the digestive tract. Here’s a preview of what you’ll find:

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If you have gone gluten-free and have found some relief but not total relief, it is worth a week of effort to try low-FODMAP eating to see if you can’t be healthier (and therefore happier). Time to go shopping~

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The low-Fodmap diet is often encouraged for people who suffer with IBS. It is worth trying if you have consistent digestive issues that do not fully respond to other diets or remedies as many people find it to be just what they needed. You deserve to feel your best so don’t give up searching for ways to make you feel great on a daily basis. Best health to you and yours. Please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share this with anyone who might be interested.

 

Thanksgiving in Prague

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This time of year always gets me thinking about the Thanksgiving I spent in Prague, over 15 years ago. We didn’t celebrate on the day that everyone in the states celebrated, we instead had a dinner party sometime between Canadian and American Thanksgiving because my flat-mate and I were from those two countries. We had another good friend who lived with us up until about that time in November when she changed schools (we were all English teachers) which meant she also had to change flats. She was from South Africa and if I remember correctly, it was her first Thanksgiving dinner.

The evening started out well, besides the fact my Canadian flat-mate’s turkey turned out to actually be a duck. (We couldn’t read that much Czech so it was an easy mistake to make, plus neither of us ate poultry at the time so we didn’t have any clue it didn’t taste like a turkey until our guests started commenting on the delicious duck to which we replied, “It’s turkey” and they all answered, “No, it’s definitely duck.”

After the dinner party which included English teachers from various countries and backgrounds, my South African friend and I headed out to meet a sketchy guy we barely knew at a club across town because we were young and thought it would be a fun, exciting end to the evening. My Canadian friend saw that it was all folly and most likely not going to end well, so she stayed home. She was the youngest of us there, but somehow managed to be the wisest more often than not.

Another teacher who had attended our Thanksgiving celebration decided to go with us which was not exactly good news to us. By that time the South African and I knew each other quite well and had a mutual understanding of people and timing that makes going out to late night clubs across town to meet sketchy strangers a little less of a bad idea. If one of us sensed it was time to turn around, we trusted the other to do it. This other young woman was a wild card in that respect and we both had our reservations about her, but what could we do? She came along.

At the club we ended up splitting up right away. The South African had recently moved into a flat occupied by a British couple who were in the middle of a very long break-up, and they happened to be at the club. They immediately drew her into their issues so she found herself playing peacemaker and go-between, as much as one can anyway with ear-bursting techno music pounding through the dark rooms. The other teacher disappeared in a social frenzy of partying as though she’d just been let out of her strict family home for the first time in her life. I was being dogged by a young American boy who actually was on his own for the first time in his life and seemed to decide I could be something along the lines of a babysitter with benefits. Not surprisingly, the sketchy stranger who told us we ‘had’ to go to that club that night never showed up.

My friend and I found each other and realized we were both having a terrible time so the plan to go home was quickly made with the last reasonable tram putting a tight timer on our ability to find the third one in our group. When we managed to find her and talked her into leaving, she confessed she had lost her keys. It was hard not to panic as we frantically looked everywhere in the dark until someone asked the DJ to make an announcement at which point the music stopped, the lights came on, and the announcement was made that “the Americans” had lost their keys. Other comments were also made which had an unflattering cadence but the Czech words were a mystery to us, but it produced a sea of eye-rolling and grumbles and side-eyed snickers.

I honestly can’t remember if she found her keys or not, but we eventually all left together. It was all very embarrassing and my friend and I were annoyed, which made the flaky social-butterfly annoyed at us in return. We walked as fast as we could to the tram knowing if we didn’t make it we would have to wait an hour in the cold, dark, midnight hour of downtown Prague which was much more than our thin coats were prepared for. Luck finally shined on us and we made it, but because of the tension all around, or maybe because she was embarrassed, the teacher with us refused to get on and instead started walking towards her room along the unlit, desolate streets of the city center. We couldn’t believe it and my friend ran after her to try to talk sense but I saw the stubborn set of her chin and knew there was no reasoning with her. I stayed near the tram with pleading eyes and hand gestures, but ended up just watching it ‘ding-ding’ away and it felt like it took all the warmth in the world with it. Sure enough, the South African came back alone, unsuccessful in her quest to keep us all together, so the two of us sat on separate benches, freezing, silent, worried, and desperately watching for the next tram.

Since it was the day we were celebrating Thanksgiving, I finally broke the silence by suggesting we think of things we were grateful for about living in Prague. The black quiet was even more complete after that because we were both so cold, worried, and miserable that neither of us could think of a single thing. Not one thing. It was the best Thanksgiving I’ve ever had in some ways, and yet despair so easily slipped up on us with some challenges, bad choices, and the cold that neither of us were properly prepared for that entire long, grey winter. (That is another area where the youngest of us came out on top. She was Canadian after all and had the most enviable winter wardrobe and warm accessories.)

Everyone made it home that night, and once I was in my warm bed, I’m pretty sure I was able to feel gratitude. There really was so much to be thankful for that year, the friendships, the beauty of the city, the life of young twenty-somethings living abroad with basically no responsibilities. I learned so much that year, and one thing is for sure, if you want to keep your humor about you, dress well for the weather. A warm coat, or the lack of one, can make or break one’s attitude in a big way.

Here’s a recipe for Sopsky Salat (pronounced shopsky) which is found at pretty much every restaurant in the Czech Republic. There are many ways to make it, and I went with what I had on hand instead of trying to make it completely traditional. It’s like a Greek Salad without the olives and it’s one of my favorites. I hope you like it too:

Sopsky Salat

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1 pepper (red, green, orange, or yellow)

1 cucumber

2 medium tomatoes

1/2 red onion

Feta cheese (as much as you want but I used about 4.5oz, or half that package shown)

1 T balsamic vinegar

1 T olive oil

salt (that is my favorite salt/herb blend ever!) as much as desired

pepper as desired

To make, simply chop and mix. Let the salad set in the fridge for at least an hour before eating for best taste. It actually is much better the second day.

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I like to spoon the salad on top of warm (gluten-free) bread and let the feta melt a tad. Delicious.

I hope all your Thanksgivings are full of warmth and gratitude. Na zdravi! (Czech for ‘Cheers!’) Please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share this with anyone who might be interested.

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos Gluten-Free and Vegan

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This is a post from around this time of year three years ago from my first blog. I’m hoping to get all the relevant recipes over here now. We actually are not hosting Thanksgiving this year but I still need to bring a few dishes…tacos instead of turkey? Maybe….

Just when I thought I never wanted another corn tortilla again, I got a craving for a taco with some sort of orange veggie in it. Whenever we go out to dinner we often go to one of two places where I order a butternut squash quesadilla. I love them, but I hate dealing with squash and its hard shell that eats knives for lunch so I have never attempted to make them myself. It got me thinking though that wouldn’t a sweet potato taste just as good in that kind of meal? And if I could eliminate the cheese it’d be even better for our family, so onto the web I went and sure enough there are plenty of recipes for sweet potatoes and black beans together in all sorts of fashions~ tacos, burritos, enchiladas, etc. I went the taco route and used several different recipes to cobble together what is written below to work with what I had in my refrigerator. My husband and oldest son loved these by the way, as did I, and my youngest who only gathered enough courage to try one black bean and one piece of sweet potato admitted the black bean wasn’t bad. That says more to me than the fact that my husband is generally not a huge sweet potato fan, nor a big black bean fan, and really he prefers flour tortillas and definitely cheese and preferably meat. This recipe outshined all that. It is a keeper. (Unfortunately, the pics I took are not very good. Next time I make this, I’ll take better ones.)

Vegan, Gluten-free Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos

1.5 T vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil and olive oil)

1/2 t salt

1 yellow or red onion (I used red b/c that is what I had and the purple hue was so pretty)

1 pepper (I used 1/2 red pepper and 1/2 yellow pepper, but orange or green would work)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium-large sweet potato

1 can black beans (or 1.5 c if using dried beans)

1 t cumin

freshly ground pepper to taste

corn tortillas

guacamole (or avocados)

Preheat oven to 400. Using a large cast iron pan or some other oven-friendly pan* sauté the onions, peppers, and garlic until the onions are translucent in 1 T of vegetable oil. (I used sunflower oil). In a bowl coat the sweet potato which has been skinned and diced into bite size pieces with 1/2 T of oil (I used olive) and 1/2 t of sea salt. Add this into the sauté pan and cook for 1 minute before transferring into the oven for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, warm up the rinsed and drained beans on medium with 1 t cumin in a small sauce pan. Also warm up some corn tortillas** until they are soft. Take the pan out of the oven and if the sweet potatoes are cooked through add the beans and stir to get everything mixed together. Load the tortillas and top with guacamole or fresh avocados. It’s a symphony of flavors played just right. If it were up to me this is what I’d make for Thanksgiving, along with kale chips and pica de gallo salsa. It’s enough to make a pilgrim say, “Ole!” but alas, we are hosting this year and I’m going to have to stick to the more traditional items I’ve already planned.

 

 

* If you don’t have an oven proof pan, use one that you can top with a lid or plate and add 2 T of water to the mixture to steam it for approximately 5-10 min.

** I use Trader Joe’s corn tortillas b/c they are thick and sturdy, plus they are remarkably clean. Their ingredient list is all of: ground white corn masa flour, water, trace of lime. That’s it. Exactly how it should be. And they taste incredibly good, much better than any other corn tortilla on the market.

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