I have a special place in my heart for this phase of life. This is where it all begins, in utero, and then during those first precious days and weeks spent nursing while gazing into your little miracle. Making milk is truly amazing. I remember the first sensations of my milk coming in with my firstborn, and then the gulping, eyes rolling back..."punch drunk on mommy's milk" Tom would say. I didn't know I had it so easy. Lily latched on immediately without a problem, my milk came in so soon, she never cried (until I ate broccoli soup that is). I was well nourished.

Rhubarb is not difficult to come by during this season. In fact, you probably have neighbors or friends begging you to haul some away.

Rhubarb can be great in crisps, sauces, or compotes, but the tart, tangy flavor rhubarb offers to gluten-free muffins is unequivocal. These little beauties are delicious hot out of the oven spread with strawberry jam.

Today I have a very simple grain and bean salad recipe for you. Something you can easily whip up if you have leftover grains and beans. My children love this salad. Today I made it for Tom and packed it up for him to take on a two day trip to Seattle.

I have had a number of emails over the summer for a gluten-free flatbread recipe. I also get emails and requests for yeast-free breads. So here is is, the best of all worlds....yeast-free, gluten-free, rice-free, whole grain goodness, and quick & easy! What more could you ask for. Oh yes, it tastes great too.

Today I thought I would share a very simple pancake syrup recipe that is full of blueberry lusciousness. This antioxidant-rich, blueish-purple syrup is great atop freshly made pancakes and also can be used as a Phase 2 Elimination Diet recipe!

The other day, while Tom was out of town, I got home from running a few errands at 5pm. The kids were all hungry and ready for dinner….like now! I had a beautiful fillet of wild Coho salmon which I had bought the previous day, ready to be seasoned and baked. My friend who was helping out with the kids thought I should use some of the blueberries we still had sitting on the counter waiting to be processed and frozen. Mashed blueberries with ginger to top the salmon was her idea. I thought yum, but I don’t have time for that right now.

The sultry days of summer are upon us and refreshing, cooling foods seem to be the daily mainstay. Watermelon has a high water content and is naturally sweet making it perfect for sorbet. This recipe is very easy to make and does not require an ice cream maker.

We had a cooler evening yesterday, perfect for Indian food I thought. I made up a double batch of the Lentil and Spinach Dal recipe from my cookbook along with two different curries. One was a potato chickpea curry and the other was a patty pan squash curry. We served everything over brown basmati rice. With all of the cooked food I like to serve something raw that will help digest the meal.

I received an email from a reader about two weeks ago for an allergen-free ginger cookie. When I saw the recipe I knew I had to give them a try. Here is the lovely email that Pam sent me: Ali, I have been following your blog for a while. We are gluten-free, dairy-free, corn-free, and some other stuff, and I have enjoyed reading your recipes. Recently my niece has been tested as intolerant to gluten, rice, dairy, egg, corn, cane sugar, yeast, vanilla, cinnamon, apple, and others. I sent her family a link to your website for rice-free recipes.

Today I have a delicious Cranberry Orange Punch recipe for you!  Today's punch recipe is very simple to prepare and only takes a few minutes. You'll need one 8-ounce bottle of unsweetened cranberry juice concentrate. I buy it from our local food co-op in the juice isle (it is not refrigerated). Simply mix the cranberry concentrate with sparkling mineral water, orange juice, and either liquid stevia or agave nectar. I like to float orange slices and cinnamon sticks in the punch bowl which add extra flavor and make for a nice presentation.

The holidays are famous for overeating, aren't they? I thought I would share with you a digestion-stimulating herbal tea recipe of ours. It is a unique combination of roots, leaves, and flowers. First you simmer the roots, called a decoction, and then you add the leaves and flowers to steep.

We make a pot of this herbal brew a few times a week. Sometimes we add nettles, sometimes burdock root, but always ginger and licorice.

If you are looking for a great alternative to traditional cheesecake for your Holiday celebrations, I’ve got one for you. A dairy-free, egg-free cheesecake with a gluten-free pastry crust….and the filling? Well, fresh baked sugar pie pumpkin to start, then cashews, and maple syrup….but what else? Hint: it is also soy-free!

This fantastic gluten-free yeast bread recipe utilizes high protein hemp flour along with other gluten-free flours such as teff flour and brown rice flour. It is dark and hearty, perfect for sandwiches. For a slight variation you can create a flavorful "Rye" bread by adding onion powder and caraway seeds.

Here is the feedback from my taste testers: rustic, hearty, "dessert bread," mmm, I'd like to make this!

We really are not just about sweets here. Really, we're not! But this week it seems we are, huh. Hope some of you enjoyed the White Nectarine Ice Cream I posted last weekend. More main dish recipes to come next week I promise!

I wanted to take a moment away from the Elimination Diet frenzy and post a gluten-free cracker recipe. I have been very excited to share this awesome recipe and now is my chance. Before I move on to phase 2 recipes I thought I would offer this to those of you not following the Elimination Diet.

This is a crispy cracker made from cooked quinoa, sorghum flour, extra virgin olive oil, seeds, and NO xanthan gum! It is very easy to make if you own a food processor. Plus, there are so many ways to tweak it.

This vegan nut cheese recipe is perfect for topping homemade gluten-free pizza or for using in between layers of lasagna noodles, vegetables, and sauce. It is easy to make using a high powered blender, such as the Vita-Mix.

I find the flavors of this dairy-free "cheese" sauce are best balanced with the acidity of tomatoes, such as my Homemade Pizza Sauce recipe.

For those of you following a soy-free diet, and who are desperately missing your tamari, I have found a fantastic alternative! The South River Miso Company makes a wonderful gluten/wheat-free and soy-free tamari! How do they do it?

I am sharing a favorite allergy-free cupcake recipe today! This chocolate cupcake is light, moist, easy to make, and has a mild chocolate flavor. The great thing about this recipe is the fact that all children love it, gluten-free or not. This recipe is perfect to serve for a children's birthday party. 

Welcome to Christmas Cookie season! Today I am sharing my recipe for gluten-free and egg-free soft molasses cookies. These cookies are delicious and so easy to make, I am sure you will enjoy them. Although I normally use Sucanat to sweeten them (unrefined dried cane juice), I have also tried making them using coconut sugar. I brought a batch, made with coconut sugar, to our large Thanksgiving gathering this year and they were a hit with the children! I have a 2-pound bag of coconut sugar I am giving away today, so be sure to leave a comment to enter!

Today I am sharing with you a delectable little cookie recipe. A version of chocolate chip cookies that you've probably never seen before. One that doesn't contain any flour, sugar, eggs, or butter. No xanthan gum or starches either. Yep. A true "whole foods" cookie. One that pairs well with a glass of fresh, raw almond milk for dunking.

The base of this cookie is made from almond butter and quinoa flakes. It's a high protein, refined sugar-free, vegan cookie. Crispy on the outside and slightly gooey in the center.

I have something fun planned for today. First, a wonderful gluten-free, casein-free, refined sugar-free muffin recipe to share that is full of healthy ingredients. No starches, no xanthan gum, just a few whole food ingredients. The recipe isn't mine though, it comes from another lovely food blogger, Kelly of The Spunky Coconut!

The other day a wonderful friend came to visit us from Seattle along with her children. She brought a spread of beautiful, delicious food to share. I also cooked up a lovely white bean, olive, tomato pasta sauce to go over noodles. I had plenty of leftover white beans in the pot which I wasn't sure yet what to do with. Well, my friend suggested I make a white bean dip.

And so I did.

Since Easter is fast-appraoching I thought you might like a recipe for healthy gluten-free cinnamon rolls. I grew up eating homemade cinnamon rolls nearly every Christmas and Easter morning. The yeasty smell of rising rolls filling every nook and cranny of the house is a memory hard-forgotten. This was probably one of my favorite foods growing up. Luckily I watched and learned how to make cinnamon rolls over the years from my mother.

Have you ever had a quest to come up with the perfect recipe? Well I've been on a journey for years to create the perfect peanut butter cookie recipe. Not just any peanut butter cookie recipe though! I set out to create one that is free of gluten, dairy, soy, and eggs and one that is naturally sweetened. To go a step further I also wanted a recipe free of starches and xanthan gum. A whole foods cookie if you will.

The words "creamy" and "soup" usually elicit thoughts of a rich puréed vegetable base with heavy cream stirred in. This simple soup gets its creaminess by puréeing part of the soup after it has cooked. I grew up eating my mom's creamy (and dairy-free) potato soup which very much resembles this recipe. She makes her potato soup using the simple combination of potatoes, celery, onions, salt, and pepper. I've added a few more ingredients, such as leeks, carrots, and dill, to make it more exciting!

We love anything curry here. Thai curries, Indian curries, curry roasted potatoes, you name it. Our kids love curry too. Those flavors are passed through breastmilk, so they became addicted quite young. One of my favorite things about making a curried dish is the fact that it is fast, easy, and of course, a one-pot meal.

We like to make biscuits around here. I grew up making biscuits with my mother and on occasion with my grandmother who never measured a single ingredient. She went by the way the dough looked and felt between her fingertips. That's the way to make biscuits. The art of making biscuits may take some practice but the results are worth it! The following recipe is one of a few I have created. This one is a spin-off of a recipe in my cookbook using sorghum flour in place of the brown rice flour with a few other minor changes.
Tips for making Gluten-Free Biscuits:

How many of you have tried Coconut Aminos? This delectably delicious soy-free sauce, containing 17 amino acids, is dark, rich, and salty. I am amazed at its resemblance to soy sauce. It is made simply from raw coconut tree sap and sun-dried sea salt, naturally aged of course.

These beautiful holiday cut-out cookies are made with whole food ingredients and sweetened only with stevia. Not only are they gluten-free, but grain-free as well. I use a combination of almond meal and shredded coconut pulsed in the food processor to create a nutritious, low-glycemic, and naturally sweet "flour" blend.

What? Beets in a smoothie? I know that may sound interesting, but it is truly delicious as long as you use a smaller sized beet. Too many beets in a smoothie causes it to become inedible, at least for my taste buds. The beautiful purple hue coming from the cherries and beets is very appetizing. At first sip, you'll be hooked. This recipe is perfect to use during Phase 1 of The Elimination Diet.

This scrumptious gluten-free, grain-free, sugar-free, and dairy-free coffee cake recipe comes from Kelly Brozyna's new cookbook, Grain-Free Baked Goods and Desserts!

This pumpkin cornbread recipe uses quinoa flour as part of the ingredients, though the overall cornbread flavors are not overpowered by quinoa's strong taste. Adding in a whole cup of pumpkin puree adds a touch of sweetness that creates balanced flavors and a wonderfully moist cornbread.

This luscious gluten-free, vegan apple pie uses a slightly different type of pie crust recipe. I first created this crust for a potato-pea samosa recipe. Everyone loved it so I decided to create it into an apple pie. The dough isn't your normal pastry dough because I don't use a saturated fat. Instead I use a mix of grapeseed oil, applesauce, ground chia seeds, and baking soda to create the flakiness.

This is a super simple recipe for making your own refined sugar-free, nut-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free candy. It has only two ingredients plus a little sea salt. It kind of reminds me of a Tootsie Roll but without all of the cell-damaging hydrogenated oils, genetically engineered corn syrup, artificial flavors, and sugar!

This simple gluten-free oatmeal cobbler is also refined sugar-free and vegan, though you can use butter if you like. I make it with Italian plums but you could use any variety of plum or pluot. It can also be made with peaches, blueberries, or blackberries. I've been dehydrating Italian plums like crazy lately. My children love to eat them as a snack in the winter. I keep filling up glass jars and storing them in the back of the pantry. Italian plums can also be halved, pitted, and frozen to use throughout the year.

Anyone remember those orange creamsicle popsicles we enjoyed as children? This frosty dairy-free smoothie captures those flavors and provides a host of nutrients and protein. I got the idea for this smoothie from one of our favorite restaurants, Thrive Cafe, in Seattle. Whenever we are in Seattle or driving through we make a stop there either to dine in or to get take-out for the road. It is a mostly raw, vegan, organic cafe with very reasonable prices. All of the to-go containers are biodegradable too!

We've been experiencing a rather cold, rainy spring here in the pacific northwest so the other night I made a big pot of vegetarian chili. It would not have been complete without a batch of warm corn muffins. Our family enjoyed these so much that I decided to share them with you. I needed to make another batch yesterday just so I could get some photos.

Stocks or broths can be used in many different ways, well beyond soups. Homemade stock is far more nutritious than store-bought stock, even the organic brands. For one, commercial stocks, whether chicken or vegetable, use many different "natural" flavorings. What is a natural flavoring anyway?

A few weeks ago, the night before Valentine's Day, my daughters asked me to make cupcakes and frosting to give out to their friends at school. I had an idea to make a healthy frosting using almond butter and coconut oil. Thinking that I needed to chill the frosting for a while before spreading it onto the cupcakes, I made it first. A few hours later I took it out of the refrigerator to whip up into what I thought would be this beautiful, light, and fluffy frosting. For a second it did look like that, and then the oil began separating.