This cake is delicious served with sliced fresh organic strawberries and freshly whipped coconut cream (or whipped organic heavy cream if you tolerate dairy). You can also bake this cake in two 9-inch round cake pans and create a layered cake if desired. If you plan on serving the cake with breakfast or brunch then make it the night before. The texture of this cake actually improves the next day! If a 9x13-inch cake is too much for you then you can easily cut this recipe in half and bake it in an 8x8-inch pan. This cake recipe does better when baked in a glass pan.

Serve this easy-to-make dinner with baked sweet potatoes or gluten-free tortillas and your favorite fillings! The shredded, slow-cooked beef is even better on the second day so feel free to make a double batch so you can have enough for the week. It also freezes well. I like to serve the stuffed sweet potatoes with my spicy lacto-fermented carrots and jalapeños. This not only adds a lot of flavor, but beneficial bacteria, enzymes, and fibers for healthy digestion!

I like a to make a few batches of this gluten-free and xanthan gum-free bagel recipe at a time so that some can go into the freezer. My children love to make sandwiches out of them....such as turkey-lettuce-mustard-raw cheese for their school lunches, or a fried egg and avocado sandwich for breakfast! Once the bagels are baked and completely cool you can slice them in half and freeze for later use. To reheat, simply toast your frozen bagel halves in the oven or a toaster.

This broth makes a delicious chicken noodle soup like pictured above. You can get very creative with what you add to your broth. Think of foods that naturally complement turmeric: Chicken, fish, lentils, chickpeas, brown rice, sweet potatoes, potatoes, kale, spinach, carrots, zucchini, lemon, green onions, cilantro, and parsley! Look for fresh turmeric in the produce section of your local health food store. It's usually found near the fresh ginger. Leave the skins on your fresh turmeric and ginger for this recipe....no need to peel them!

Use this easy method of making soup using just about any ingredients! Just simmer some broth, add some vegetables and herbs, cook until tender, then puree. The key is a very flavorful homemade bone broth. I love having soups like this for breakfast, especially on a cold winter morning. 

These gluten-free thumbprint cookies are slightly sweetened with pure maple sugar and full of lemony flavors! Any variety of fruit-sweetened jam can be used to fill the thumbprints. Try blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, cherry, or apricot jam!

Serve this beautiful goat cheese and dill roasted salmon as part of a holiday dinner or with steamed green beans, roasted winter squash, and an arugula salad for a balanced weeknight meal! Sockeye or Coho salmon work best in this recipe.

This recipe is designed for your slow cooker and takes just minutes to prepare! You can put it together in the morning then set your slow cooker to low and you will have a meal ready when you get home from work. Use Plantain Tortillas, Homemade Brown Rice Tortillas, or fresh collard greens for your taco shells. I initially created this recipe using pure, unsweetened pomegranate juice, but now prefer to use unsweetened 100% tart cherry juice.

You can make this cranberry sauce a few days ahead of time and store it in a covered glass container in your refrigerator. Add more dates for a sweeter flavor, and less for a tarter cranberry sauce. If you don't own a high-powered blender you can soak the dates in the orange juice for an hour or so before blending everything together. Cranberries are one of the most concentrated sources of ellagic acid—a potent antioxidant and anti-cancer compound!

Serve this salad as a whole meal! If you can't tolerate legumes then replace them with some cooked chicken or turkey, or just leave them out. I like to keep grated veggies in separate containers in the fridge to make putting together nutrient-dense salads really simple and quick. You can also use your food processor fitted with the grating disk to quickly grate a lot of veggies! Set all of the ingredients out onto your counter and let everyone make their own salads.

The dough for these cookies can be made ahead of time and stored in your refrigerator for up to a week (stored in an airtight container)! You can take a little out at a time and bake what you need if you would like. I use sprouted garbanzo bean flour from To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co. but you can use regular garbanzo bean flour that can usually be found at any health food store and many grocery stores. I find the flavor and digestibility much better in the sprouted version.

This recipe makes enough to frost one dozen cupcakes or a 9-inch cake (double the recipe for a layer cake). Use white-fleshed sweet potatoes for a white frosting (that can also be colored with natural food dye). 

Make this easy-to-prepare meal on a busy weeknight. Then, while it is baking, prepare a quick green salad or prep some green vegetables for steaming or braising. If you don't have fresh herbs on hand then replace them with dried. I like to use my Homemade Herbed Sea Salt or Herbamare to season the chicken. This Herb Zipper quickly pulls fresh herb leaves from their stems...a very handy little kitchen gadget!

This recipe can either be made into one loaf or a dozen rolls. Serve rolls with honey and butter (or coconut butter for a dairy-free option). Be sure to use freshly ground raw buckwheat flour in this recipe (see the tip below)!

Elimination diet cookies made from plantains! You'll love these chewy spice cookies if you are following our Elimination Diet or another special diet such as an autoimmune diet, gluten-free diet, paleo diet, or vegan diet! They are also a perfect treat to introduce to older babies and toddlers. Once your baby is okay chewing soft foods then try making these cookies.

In between nursing the babies, changing diapers, reading stories to the girls, and building block towers with the babies I still need to make a meal, right? Or shall I say three meals a day, every day.

People often ask me how many hours a day I spend in the kitchen. Well it is not as many as you may imagine. I find ways to cut corners, use what we have, and stretch the ingredients I have on hand. I have four children now and life is not as simple as it was with one or two in tow.

I don't know about you all but we sure have been doing a lot of Christmas baking these days. The girls just love to roll out the dough and cut out Christmas cookie shapes! The cookies are fun to give away to Christmas carolers and friends. Today I wanted to share one of my newest creations for you to enjoy this holiday season.

Spring is here, hurray! Spring is a time of change, a time to detox, and a time for greens. How fitting that after a long season of warming dense foods one of the only fresh things available at this time (if we just reverted back to the pre-industrial era) are bitter greens.

I created this soup today for lunch basically out of a craving for something healing and nourishing, while being warming and spicy all at the same time.

Well, we have been very busy lately. Hence the two-week gap in posting to the blog. Tom has been working for months now round the clock on a research paper entitled "Nutritional Deficiencies in Celiac Disease, is Supplementation Necessary?" He is just about done with it, and I am looking forward to reading it! I will let you know when it is published and provide a link to it.

I have had numerous requests for more breakfast ideas that don't involve eggs or soy, and of course without gluten or dairy. Here is a tremendously simple idea for you to take into your kitchen.
Beans and rice. With a Spicy Avocado Sauce recipe.
The idea isn't a new one. Cultures all over the world consume these two staple foods for most meals of the day.

Here I present to you a gluten-free yeast bread, sweetened with honey, reminiscent of whole wheat bread. Dark and hearty, full of whole grain goodness that is usually deplete in gluten-free breads. Because of teff's amazing nutrition profile this bread is higher in protein and iron than most of its gluten-free counterparts.

I tested this recipe a number of times, each time changing one aspect of the ingredient list. I finally settled on this version, knowing it was a winner because of how fast it disappeared in our house.

I am about to divulge another secret recipe. A sweet, nutritious little breakfast treat. Naturally gluten-free of course! Even those of you not following a gluten-free diet will enjoy these pancakes. They are also egg-free making them perfect for older babies and toddlers. Our 14-month old twins began eating these a few months ago and love them. In fact, if we have leftovers, I will pack them in a to-go container and take them for them to snack on during our outings.

Today was our daughter, Gracie's, 4th Birthday. I can't believe she is four already. Where did 3 go? It just disappeared into sleepless nights and endless days with twin babies.

When I was younger my parents made a well-rounded breakfast nearly every morning. Back then this consisted of scrambled eggs, toast, and fruit, or pancakes, sausages, and fresh fruit. French toast with maple syrup was a regular favorite too. Maybe even waffles made in a Mickey Mouse waffle iron. Remember those? Of course some mornings we were all running late and had cold breakfast cereal with milk but I don't remember those mornings so much.

Nori rolls are an all-time favorite in our family. They were a staple food through all of my pregnancies, I could even handle them during the 17 weeks of extreme nausea I experienced while pregnant with my twins!

Whenever our family goes out for a hike, a day at the beach, up to the mountain to play in the snow, or on an airplane trip, these rolls are sure to go too. They are the ultimate in healthy snack foods.

Who needs gluten or dairy when you can have this? Here is a real life testimonial from the mouth of my almost 4-year old daughter (with bread in hand): "This bread is so good you ever made, I love chocolate chips!"

Living in the Pacific Northwest we are blessed with a bounty of fresh, wild salmon, some of which comes from the pacific coast and some from Alaska. My cooking creativity is sparked just by looking at the plump and glossy, pink-hued fillets.

We have been picking pounds of cherries from our lovely friend’s cherry tree. Every year they give us a call in July when their cherries are ready and a call in late August when their peaches are ready. Both of their trees abundantly produce the most amazing cherries and peaches. Even after picking boxes of fruit there is still more on the trees!

Somehow soup and stew weather has crept into July; the temperature isn't even 60 degrees right now! I crave warming, soothing cooked foods in cold weather. This rich mushroom soup is perfect! Serve this creamy dairy-free and gluten-free mushroom soup with a loaf of crusty gluten-free french bread and a salad of greens, crispy apples, and pumpkin seeds with a good balsamic dressing.

This recipe was inspired by an email I received from a fellow gluten-free blogger and mother of a toddler. Her son is allergic to wheat, dairy, soy, eggs, oats, and nuts. She had great success in baking my Rhubarb Muffins and other recipes, and was wondering if I had any cookie recipes that fit her son's allergy criteria and that also excluded seeds. Hmm, seeds too? No flax, no sunflower, no nothing?

Today I offer you a recipe in spirit of sunny days and lighter fare (although it has been a bit chilly here). Adzuki beans and rice are very easy to digest while giving you clean-burning energy to get you through fun-filled summer days. I made this for dinner tonight, though I am looking forward to the leftovers for lunches.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, I thought I would share with you today a recipe from my cookbook (The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook). Some of you may have made these already, but for those who have not, the photos will probably inspire you to give them a try!

Fresh kale salads are so easy to make and incredibly nutrient-dense. Pictured here is kale I have growing in my garden. Kale is a cruciferous vegetable. It has the ability to speak to our genes and upregulate numerous detoxification and antioxidant enzymes! A wonderful way to use raw kale, other than green smoothies, is to toss it with lemon juice and olive oil. This softens it and mellows out the bitter flavors. 

What a gorgeous day here in Bellingham! I think it hit 75 degrees, at least on our thermometer. It was a wonderful way to celebrate May Day. Our 4-year old daughter, Gracie, danced around the May Pole at her preschool celebration and made flower garlands. I made 5 dozen Almond Thumbprint Cookies for the celebration, nearly half of which Tom burned because I left him in charge, its all good though, there was still plenty to go around.

As promised, here it is, finally, the White Nectarine Ice Cream. Naturally sweetened and of course gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free. The photo doesn't do this recipe justice. The consistency and flavors are simply amazing. Even after 24 hours of freezing, it is still soft and easy to scoop just like traditional ice cream made with cream and sugar.

When I make this, my kids practically eat the whole container in one sitting. I have to cut them off and hide the container in the back of the freezer!

Kitcheree is a highly nourishing, hypoallergenic stew made from mung beans and brown rice. It assists in the detoxification process as it is very easy to digest. The spices and summer vegetables create a luscious stew that can be made in just minutes using a pressure cooker, though you don't need one to make this.