I'm back... summer recap and a recipe!

Well hello there... it's been a while. Apparently I decided to take the summer off from blogging. Oops. Let's recap:

The first two weeks July were spent at my favourite place in the world... my real home on Prince Edward Island. The weather was spectacular and we had great fun with my family (immediate and extended) and friends. Lots of time at the cottage, beach walks, seafood, bonfires, wine -- everything needed to recharge the batteries after a couple of very busy months!

Arrived in time for Canada Day fireworks in Summerside!
Just waiting for it to get dark.

My mom and I hosted a baby shower for my sister-in-law.
This was one of my contributions for it.

Oh Charlottetown, you're so quaint and lovely.

Ah wine, I love thee.

Cottage life demands bonfires. Every. Night.

Love North Cape! Colours are always spectacular.
The tide was coming in on the reef.

The next couple weeks, I can't really remember what we did, but lots of taking in the sunshine here in Ottawa. Which finally lead to early August, when my other half had a pretty serious surgery -- a total knee replacement. That unfortunately put a bit of a damper on plans for August as we were mostly house bound. However, I still felt like I had a good restful summer despite being the sole cook and cleaner, not to mention ice getter, pill pusher, and all-round "fetcher" of too many things to count. On the one hand, having this surgery so young is a bit of an anomaly, on the other hand, I think his recovery might be going better than the norm. Blessings!

Since I've left you for so long, I've got a treat to share with you! There is a serious abundance of zucchini at my house, and I didn't even grow any in my little garden. Between our produce deliveries and my farmers' market outings, I've got a fridge full! And I don't really care for sauteed or roasted zucchini! So what to do? Make lots and lots of raw zucchini noodles! And baked goods. Yummy baked goods. I give you my gluten-free and vegan zucchini muffins!

Zucchini Muffins
Gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, refined sugar-free
Yields 12 muffins
Adapted from Florida Coastal Cooking

Ingredients
2 chia eggs (2 tbsp chia seeds + 6 tbsp water)
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/3 c maple syrup
1 cup shredded zucchini (tightly packed)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix the chia eggs and set aside for about 5 minutes. Mix the coconut oil, maple syrup, zucchini and vanilla in a medium bowl; add chia eggs once set. Stir in cinnamon, flours, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt; mix until wet and ingredients are just combined.

2. Spoon batter into muffin tins lined with liners, or oiled with a bit of coconut oil. Bake for 18 minutes or until browned and a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy the bounty of the season!

A lengthy list

Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote about how I conquered my allergies? Well I should have knocked on a lot of wood after I wrote that, because a couple days later the uncontrollable sneezing came back and never left. After one particular bad night where I couldn't sleep and then woke up in the middle of the night all congested and sneezing up a storm, I thought it best to seek some more help.

So once again, not wanting to just deal with suppressing symptoms, I made another appointment with my Naturopathic Doctor to see if she had any wise wisdom to share. To be honest, we thought we were dealing with a dust and mold allergy -- but I was doing everything possible to address that issue. So next on the list was food. She suggested I take a food intolerance test. It was a bit of a financial commitment, as it cost over $300, but we were both pretty sure it would reveal something that would be very hard to pinpoint on my own through elimination diets.

On Friday, I had an appointment to go over the results. And it was a doozy. I'm pretty much intolerant to most of the common food allergens. This doesn't mean anaphylactic shock, it just means by body is attacking itself in a way in response to these foods that it sees as foreign, because my digestive tract isn't processing them properly. Which all means that my digestive tract is somehow compromised and needs some healing time.

So the main culprits I am to avoid (in no particular order) are:

• gluten grains (I was already aware of this one)
• eggs
• dairy (cow, goat, sheep)
• potatoes
• yeasts
• almonds
• peanuts
• corn
• peas
• leeks
• mussels

Yikes, right! Actually, it's ok. I can deal. Believe it or not, my issue isn't so much the eggs and dairy, it's the almonds! No almonds, almond milk, almond butter or almond flour/meal. The flour/meal part is especially sad because it can be a key ingredient in gluten-free baking. Oh well, I'll be experimenting with some other nut flours such as hazelnut, walnut and pecan, in addition to all the other gluten-free flours.

I'm trying to stay really positive about it all. I mean there's no point getting angry or pitying myself. I already eat along these lines, so just a few adjustments to make and hopefully in a few weeks I'll start noticing changes in my body.

My dinner tonight: Thai Green Curry with Sprouted Tofu, totally made from scratch! A good weekend meal as it requires lots and lots of prep. But totally worth it, so yummy and so good for me (and you too!)

A new go-to smoothie

Last summer I wrote a post about my "go-to" smoothie at the time. Well things have changed and I've mixed things up a bit and I have a new "go-to" smoothie that packs an even BIGGER superfoods punch. Try it and let me know how it goes. I made this a few times and the colour changed from purple to brown... don't worry about the colour – it depends on the quantities of the food you put in. I never measure, which drives my scientist-brained bf a little mad. It should taste chocolate-y with a hint of sweetness no matter the colour.

"Check me out, I'm a lovely shade of poo.
But I taste A-maz-ing!"

Raeanne's go-to smoothie (2nd edition)

• 1 cup almond milk (or 1/2 almond milk, 1/2 water)
• 1 heaping tbsp of my seed mix
• 1 scoop of protein powder, I use Genuine Health Vegan Protein+ Vanilla
• 1 tsp maca powder (a superfood, great for stamina, fatigue and helps you adapt to different environmental factors)
• 1 tbsp raw cacao powder (the best antioxidant there is)
• 1 heaping tbsp of goji berries (another superfood/amazing antioxidant)
• 1 tbsp raw honey (full of good for you enzymes)
• 1 tbsp coconut oil (some good fat!)
• 1 tbsp of prepared Irish moss (information on how to prepare Irish moss)
• 1-2 handfuls of greens (usually spinach, but whatever you've got)
• 1/4 cup of frozen berries
• 1/2 or whole banana (frozen is good, but not necessary)

Put everything into a blender and let it go! If you'd like it nice and cold, pulse in some ice cubes after the initial blend. This recipe can result in a pretty thick smoothie, so get out a glass straw or spoon and slurp it up. 

Note: all the superfoods are optional as you may not have them all lurking in your cupboard as some of them can be expensive. Try to buy a new one every month to add to your pantry. That's what I'm doing as I know I still have a few more to add. Spirulina, you're next on my list! 

"I've overdosed on berries. Help!
Thank goodness I have a matching straw!"

Review: Café My House

On Friday night, in the middle of a snowstorm (or the aftermath of one), the boy and I ventured out to Café My House for dinner. I had "won" a free meal via a little facebook/twitter contest so I was anxious to get there and get my free meal!

I've been to Café My House for brunch twice before this trip and had a wonderful experience both times. Their menu is the same whether you are out to dinner or out to brunch, which may seem a little odd, but not so, many of their brunch dishes are lovely dinner mains.

Take for example my dinner on this visit, Herbivore’s Tempeh Burrito with Edamame Guacamole (organic tempeh/brown rice/cilantro/kale/black bean/vegan cheese/house edamame guacamole/organic multigrain tortilla wrap), is actually on the brunch menu but I had it for dinner and it was perfect and delicious! I asked for it to be made with a gluten-free tortilla, rather than the whole wheat one. I was warned that the burrito may fall apart, as I well know... brown rice tortillas just don't have the flexibility that wheat ones do – but I was lucky and mine held up fine. The flavours melded beautifully and the guacamole had just that little kick I wanted.

The BF had the Spicy Smoked Salmon Roll (capers/dill/cucumber/lemon zest/spicy mayo/avocado/green onion/smoked salmon/brown rice). It came out wrapped in nori, like large 7-8 large sushi roll pieces and just beautifully plated and equally delicious.

Both dishes were spectacular.

We finished off the night with one of their ever changing raw, gluten-free, vegan desserts. If you follow them on twitter, you'll be salivating as they are always posting their most recent dessert concoctions! There were three to choose from and we chose the strawberry and cream cake and were not disappointed. It was very similar to this dessert, which I've made twice. I spoke to our waitress about it and she confirmed it is a very similar recipe.

In my very humble opinion, Café My House is top notch and their food can be considered high end. The service has always been very friendly and the atmosphere is cozy and unpretentious – just my style! But if you make the trek out to Bank and Alta Vista you'll see and taste for yourself the deliciousness that is there!

P.S., Sorry for the lack of photos... I know, how could I post this without photos! But to be honest, nothing I would have taken with my iPhone would have turned out anyway, as the lighting was much too dim (lovely for dining, bad for photos). You'll just have to take my word for how good it was; and my word is good, promise!

Café My House
1729 Bank Street (Bank Street/Alta Vista Drive)
Ottawa, Ontario
(613)733-0707
info@veganlifeatmyhouse.com

Amazing-town homemade blizzard

I came across this recipe a week or so ago. It's from Angela Liddon, who blogs at Oh She Glows about healthy living. She also creates tonnes of vegan recipes -- I've tried a few, not because I'm vegan, but because they are delicious, the no animal products is just a bonus in my opinion.

I recently made her Peanut Butter Chocolate Crunch "Blizzard" -- and well, here I am blogging about it because it was that good. I feel the need to spread the word further. Dairy Queen has nothing on this -- and it's also gluten-free, seriously it doesn't get better. Try it!

Source - Oh She Glows

The results are in (partly)

In my last post, I described going gluten- and dairy-free for ten days. Last Thursday was day 11, so I opted to reintroduce gluten into my diet that day. My naturopath told me to eat a lot of it to ensure symptoms showed. So my day went like this:

• Breakfast: My usual protein shake, but with it two small slices of spelt bread toasted
• Lunch: A wrap (whole wheat) sandwich with veggies
• Dinner: I kind of had two since I was traveling to Vancouver and my day was quite long. When I got to the airport I got a small dish of penne pasta with a simple tomato sauce and then while on the plane I got a veggie sandwich (which was not very good and I didn't eat all of it, but it was the only thing that didn't have cheese on it!)

And the verdict – symptoms returned! So obviously not good news. But I have a still a few experiments to do before declaring myself anything and permanently changing my diet.

First, because I cheated a bit while on my travels this week (not much mind you, but maybe a tiny bit of cheese and bread here and there) I'm going totally gluten- and dairy-free again for three days. Today is day 2. On Friday I will reintroduce dairy and see how I feel. Saturday, I will continue eating gluten-free, and possibly dairy-free as well if I have symptoms following my reintroduction the day before. Finally, on Sunday, my plan is to eat lots of gluten grains, but not wheat grains. So I'll be loading up on spelt, kamut, barley, and rye in hopes that maybe, just maybe it's only wheat that's affecting me.

More to come...

Life without gluten and dairy

Last week, I visited a naturopath for the first time. I should have done it long ago, but alas last week it was. My initial complaint was that I was having allergic reactions indoors, mostly at work and I wanted to get to the bottom of it instead of popping over-the-counter antihistamines. That's what I like about naturopathy, it seeks out the root cause instead of treating symptoms – something that my nutrition program is teaching me as well. So seeking help from a naturopath was my first option.

During my first appointment we talked for at least an hour and of course that uncovered other issues as well that may or may not be linked to my reactions. So apart from doing an blood allergy test for grasses, molds and indoor allergens, I agreed to do a mini elimination diet. Since Monday, I've been gluten- and dairy-free.

Source

Dairy-free isn't a huge thing. I never drink milk any more (I've switched completely to almond milk with GMO-free soy milk every now and again), I usually bake and cook more with yogourt than I actually eat straight. So butter and cheese are the only things I have to watch out for.

As for gluten, well that's more of a challenge, because wheat is in everything! Reading labels has become an everyday activity. I also follow some great nutrition blogs that have all kinds of gluten-free or easy to change to gluten-free recipes. The key is to eat real, whole foods, and then there is no label to read! The real test will be my first dinner out on Friday night. Luckily it's Thai, which is based around rice and rice noodles, fingers crossed that I'll find something tasty!