I am so happy to share my book! I wrote this book in 2017-2018. I wanted to write a kids story about kids that are gluten free. Since I kept thinking of the word "kid" and the story refers to my kids, I wanted to make the characters goats. I love animal stories. I love them so much more than people/ kid stories. My favorites are Beatrix Potter and Berenstain Bears stories, or the Narnia books with talking animals.

I think it just triggers the imagination in a more memorable and impacting way when the characters are animals, verses people. 

So I wrote this story because my own children had a hard time "stopping" eating wheat and gluten and transferring to gluten free foods. At home was not so difficult, because I bought and cooked yummy foods that were gluten free. 

The difficulties arose when we would go to grandma's house or a holiday event, or special occasion or even just a sporting event. Nearly every where you go (or where we went) offered only foods with gluten. Now (a number of years since we began this journey) there are usually some gluten free options, but it is still limited. 

So, I wanted to share how we navigated these different events with our own foods. I have brought food to nearly every holiday and nearly every single place we go. Thankfully my own mother is very accommodating and makes gluten free meals for us. However, we have some relatives who are not so accommodating and actually quite offended that we can not eat gluten. 

In this story- which I hope will be the first of many, the goat kids are going to a birthday party where there will be pizza. Momma goat in the story, comes up with a pizza recipe that is gluten free and the goat kids love it! She then brings along this pizza to the birthday party for her children. 

I have done this many times. Sometimes it is awkward, but I usually mention something to the host/ hostess before we go somewhere, and 9 times out of 10 they are ok with our food needs. 

I even share my very own pizza recipe in the back of the book, so if your child or children need a yummy alternative, you can try ours!

My book is now available on AMAZON.  Please share with friends and family who are Gluten FREE!

I eat gluten free and have for over four years. I grew up eating wheat galore. Through college, the same. Pizza was my favorite food!! Oh and spaghetti. About 4-5 years ago I started seeing a Nutritionist/ Chiropractor who did Nutrition Response. We discovered that all grains were seriously bothering me. In fact they were causing so much stress and inflammation that my body was kind of going backwards in health and not stabilizing or healing. This perplexed me greatly because grains are the "staff of life." "The daily bread." How could I have problem with foods that have sustained people for thousands of years. Well what I discovered was that grains were A. Not GMO thousands of years ago. Wheat had much, much less gluten before the seeds were messed with. B. The modern processing left grains very acidic, and very hard to digest. In ancient times people knew how to prepare grains properly with soaking, sun-baking, fermenting, grinding. A many step, loving system that made the grains easy to assimilate.

Consequently I have had to remove Gluten foods from my diet for the past 5 years, and honestly do not even miss them! Mainly because I feel amazing without them. ONCE in a while I will test and see, but sampling something. I know within a short time that my body is still saying NO to that food. That is ok. That is where I am right now, and like I said, a whole new world of food opened up to me with removing the same old crackers, pancakes, bread, bread, bread, pasta, donuts, everything everything wheat! 

Below is one of my recipes. I love these! I have various alterations to this main recipe, but to me it is satisfying, especially to my sweet tooth, nutrient dense, and nourishing. Hope you make some and comment down below.

Pumpkin and Almond Butter balls, with a sesame seed coating. Being gluten free is challenging in finding foods, especially dessert-like foods that are delicious. It is however, really rewarding to cut the grain.

No more brain fog. More energy. No excess weight. Digestive stress gone. Clear breathing. Waking up energetic. Some of the benefits of going gluten free.


Recipe:
1 1/2 cups pumpkin (I like Libby's- linked here, unless I have time to cut my own pumpkin and grind it). 
1 cup Almond butter
*almond butter is much tastier than peanut butter in this recipe.
3/4 cup ground raisins. (I heated the raisins on the stove with a little water first.)
1 tsp. Cinnamon (Moutain Rose herbs- see banner in footer has great cinnamon powder)
1 tsp. Orange extract
1 tsp. Chinese 5 powder spice 
1/4 cup Slippery elm powder ( https://amzn.to/37G6s8b )
**Slippery elm is an herb that is powdery and can absorb liquid. It is very soothing to the digestive tract and absorbs toxins.
1/3 cup Licorice root powder ( https://amzn.to/3glwX6L )
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup chia seeds
Sesame seeds to roll
Mix all the ingredients together, except for the sesame seeds, and let sit for 10 minutes. If you mixture is too wet, add a little more Slippery elm.
Roll into balls, and then in a bowl, pour in about a half cup sesame seeds and roll the balls before setting on a clean plate.

#glutenfree, #glutenfreedesserts, #pumpkinballs, #healthytreats, #healthyfoods, #cinnamon, #slipperyelm, #licoriceroot,

This blog post is going to be followed by one that may seem to contradict this one, but really does not. It will be called "You Are What You Eat." In that post I will explain that what you eat matters. However, I am leading with this one, because I want to dispel the myth that you need to be a PERFECT eater, because there is no such thing!

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, ,;Before I began my health journey, I paid not a wit to what I ate. I was one of those people, who had been active, and never gained weight. I did have a weird spike in my weight before I found the way of natural healing, and than a dramatic drop in my weight; both things got my attention. The spike was from a bloated, grain and gluten packed diet, and the drop was from a graduated intolerance for those foods, causing my body to develop some sort or Irritable Bowel/Chron's. I'm not sure, because I never got diagnosed. I do know this- I was not well, had no energy, weighed below 100 lbs., and had a slew of other issues. 

This got my attention for sure! Before that, I ate kind of what I was craving, (and I am speaking of my college years). I went to a Chiropractor after a number of regular practitioners were unable to give me any help, besides drugs and prescriptions. I think I was a lucky one. I have heard stories where people in similar situations encountering years of tests and intrusive treatments, surgeries, and more until they gave up allopathic and went a more nature based route. I only gave a few months of my time, and I remember one of my doctors saying to me, in regards to recurring yeast infections. "Some women just have to live with them." 

I remember thinking. THIS is your answer. This is your solution. I have to live with them. I couldn't live with them; they were HORRIBLE. If you have ever had one, you know! Incredibly debilitating. God must have already been leading me to my path in life, because I was working at an herb shop, and met a Chiropractor who gave Nutritional counseling. One session with her, changed my entire life. 

1. She sat and talked to me like a human being. 2. She gave me two herbs which I will be forever grateful and worked immediately to fix my problem (Goldenseal and Echinacea), and 3. She told me to watch my sugar. 

At that point, I was a sugar addict, and didn't know it. I began to cut out sugar everywhere I could, and I was diligent because I did not want another infection. These efforts paid off, as far as the yeast infections were concerned, but I had A LOT to learn about nutrition and health before I really balanced myself. 

What I am going to say next is very serious and if you have a serious health issue, I must express you do not try to fix your problem alone. I think anyone who has something "big deal" going on, will have many facets that need to be addressed. I had help from a lot of spiritual guides, and natural health persons along my journey the past 20 years. I went to a Nutritionist for 3 years straight until I really sorted out my grain addiction/ gluten addiction. During that time, I did eat very strictly. So, if you have a serious problem and you go at it naturally, you may need to be strict with your diet and attempt perfection (FOR A TIME), but this is not sustainable long term. 

I am going to tell you why you don't need to eat PERFECTLY indefinitely and maybe I should say what Perfect might even be. When I refer to Perfect. I mean Organic. Organic food, Grass fed meats, (assuming you are eating meats), Local, Best soils, Best Farm Practices). EVERY SINGLE THING in your house says Organic. You only shop in the expensive aisle at the grocery store, or buy the most expensive everything! 
I know people who have attempted this, and tried this. They also got very sick and they were eating "Perfectly." The reason, in my opinion is that this is ridiculously hard, and stresses you out so much, that it negates all the benefits from eating well. 

During my time of eating "Perfect," For me that meant, not eating any Gluten, or Dairy. I could not tolerate either food when I really started working on my diet. (Or I found out that I could not). Removing these foods from my diet helped soooo much. I was darn near perfect too. I did not cheat at all. If I ate something, it was by accident, or if I had failed to ask the specific details in a dish someone else prepared. Today I eat dairy. Raw products, mainly goat, and some skim based yogurts. I do not over do it! Before I think I only ate dairy and wheat. Now I may have a cup of yogurt a week, or a cup of goat milk during a week with cereal. I may sprinkle a little bit of cheese in a salad, and this really works well for me. 

Going back to PERFECTION and eating. It can really become a disorder of the mind, and an obsession. You can become so worried about every bite you eat, that you are NOT helping yourself at all. I do think there is a term for this. It is called "orthorexia." It was coined in 1998 and is characterized as an obsession to eat healthy. I think I probably had this at one time. You do not want to get that way, and I am trying to warn you right now. You can be healthy and NOT be perfect. 

I have come to a place where I buy Organic produce when I can. We have a few great discount produce stores near where I live. When they have organic, healthy produce- I am thrilled and see it as Providence. I try to buy local as much as possible, and most of my local farms are not classified "Organic" but do not spray. I faithfully stay away from Corn Syrup, Food Dyes, and weird preservatives, but I do not buy 100% Organic by any means. I definitely do not when I go to a regular grocery store, because my bill will be triple what I spend when I shop discount (another whole blog post in and of itself).

One time I really prayed to try to understand God's will about shopping for food. I was driving allll over the county to get all the healthiest versions of everything I needed at good prices. God spoke to me and I heard distinctly that I should stop doing that, and buy local. I picked the 2 stores that I have within about 10 min. driving distance. 1 is 5 min. away, and the other about 10. The store that is 5 minutes is my discount store, and I have bought some amazing foods, on sale, and I put my trust in that God will provide, like He provided Manna for the Israelites in the desert. 

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The amazing thing is that He provides every single week, and what I do not find at the local store, I go get at my chain store. Then there are still some farms, and specialty shops I love, and I refrain from going there, unless I am already in the area. Just doing this took me a while to change my habits, but it saves me a lot of energy, stress, and anxiety over shopping for the "perfect" foods. 

SO HERE IS THE REASON YOU DON"T NEED TO EAT PERFECTLY....................

What I found is that most of my health problems were not wrong food problems. Although a healthy balanced diet is important, my health problems were more THOUGHT problems. I had a lot of bad thoughts, bad programming if you will. Negative thoughts, bad experiences, stress, regret, bitterness, upset, anger, and a slew of other "non-happy" feelings reeking havoc on my health. If I would have understood this sooner, I would have saved myself a lot of time and heartache. I wound up doing a lot of my mind reprogramming by reading spiritual books. This was a slow process of teeny revelations. One revelation at a time, I let go of many fears, and limiting beliefs that kept me trapped in an unhealthy body. 

If you do not have great health, diet will be very helpful, but I urge you to get some help with rewiring the thought processes in your brain. I didn't have a lot of money, in the beginning of my journey, so I did everything I could for free, or inexpensively. I listened to Podcasts, I attended some self help groups, prayer groups, counseling at church, book clubs, and even put together some of my own groups for encouragement and growth. I paid for some counseling, but in my opinion counseling can be very slow, very expensive, and often keeps someone stuck. I really tried to let the Spirit guide me to the next healer and the next healer in my life. Sometimes I had one appointment with someone and had major revelations which carried me through big hurdles. I did buy a few online course kind of programs that were more expensive, ones I could listen to over and over again and they helped enormously. They would also have course work, which became really important for me to grow. I filled art journals for a few years, visualizing a new me.

I also was a part of some private Facebook groups that shared similar problems, and I found support there. These days, I listen to a lot of self hypnosis videos that train the mind to think positively or program the mind rather, for success, health and wellness. My favorite teacher is Jake Ducey on You Tube. There have been many teachers in my life, some I never met, some I have only read their books. 

I guess to sum this up I will say- the reason why you do not need to eat perfectly is because SELF GROWTH is the key to unlock the door to Wellness. Do not get stuck at the food portion. GROW. This is a journey of life and about growing as a human being. I will leave you with this quote. 

"Half of spiritual growth is about learning what we don't know. The other half is about learning what we do know." 
-Mark Batterson

This is not an herb specific post, but related in many ways. On my blog I do receive commission as an Amazon affiliate when a person links from my web page, goes to Amazon and buys something. For this blog- I am recommending this chocolate, and do not have a commission link. This chocolate is just so good, I have to write about it, and because of the herbal component, I really wanted to write about this chocolate. 

The crazy thing is- I can not find this chocolate on Amazon, but on the Walmart site. I would never in a million years think that the manufacturer's of this chocolate would market through Walmart, because it is just so good and so natural, but ok. 

The brand is called Honey Mama's. I found it at my local discount store, and thought I would give it a try. I have to be honest, they only had 2 flavors, so I have not tried all the flavors. I bought Peppermint, and Nibs & Coffee. 

The chocolate is wrapped in a paper wrapping, and is square. It has "PALEO" on the label, which got my attention. 

 Honey Mama’s are honey-cocoa bars made from five nutrient-rich ingredients. We make each flavor from the same delicious base of raw honey, unrefined coconut oil, cocoa powder, Himalayan pink salt, and sprouted almonds, shredded coconut, or sesame seeds. That’s it! 
-Description taken from Honey Mama's website 
http://www.honeymamas.com/

They are Our bars are naturally free from soy, eggs, dairy, gluten, and grains.

Ok- Now I will describe my experience. 
So I opened the package and the bar is divided into segments, and they are thick. It is not a typical chocolate bar. In fact it really is not a bar at all. Almost like blocks. The taste, texture and flavors are heavenly. It is pure heavenly chocolate. This truly must be what chocolate should taste like. There is depth, texture, and richness. It isn't like fudge though, but if I were to liken it to anything it would be fudge. I tasted, and felt healthy! Very healthy, and extremely delicious!

I only tried the Peppermint, which I normally do not like peppermint and chocolate, but I loved it! I also tried the coffee and nibs, which was equally delicious. This chocolate melts in your mouth, but does not leave you feeling guilty, or with a sick "hung-over" feeling. The quality is amazing!

It looks like they carry 9 different bars. I have pictures below of the other 2 I am most interested in because of the herbal component. I am confident they will not disappoint, and will have to make an updated post after I try them. If anyone has tried these or other flavors, please let me know.

YUM!
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