Our two-month gluten and dairy-free experiment went well. We noticed some positive changes in health and behavior. However, a negative is that we discovered we were eating a ton more processed food: crackers, cereal, energy bars, gluten free cookies. So this month we’re trying to move back toward what I’ve decided to call a “sane diet.” Not one hundred percent gluten-free or dairy-free (although I have to be totally gluten free), but instead focusing on eating real food. Food we make from scratch. Food whose ingredients we can pronounce. Food without lots of added sugar. The kids can have bread sometimes, but right now it’s David’s homemade sourdough bread. Then when…

Happy Friday! Thanks so much for your kind words about our diet experiment and especially thanks to two wonderful friends who volunteered to cook for my kids this week in order to give me a break. We’ve had a much better week, and I continue to be so proud of Judah and Amie. Some of you have been asking me to post recipes, so I’m going to. I’ll admit that the thing that’s held me back is how self-conscious I am about my food photography. But if you can overlook my less-than-creative photos, I’m happy to post some of our family favorites, especially dinner recipes. Today I’ll start with something…

A couple weeks ago I told you about my first year gluten-free. Then last week I shared some of the things that David and I eat on a daily basis. A question I get a lot is: “What do you feed your kids?” So that’s what I’ll talk about today. And this is where you begin to see that I don’t by any stretch have it all together in the food department. It’s been one thing to make really big changes to my diet, and quite another to ask my kids to do the same. At first when I sat down to write this post, all I could think of…

In part one I described my first year gluten free. I’ll keep this post practical and tell you generally how I eat these days. The two single best food decisions I’ve made (possible even better than eliminating gluten) are: 1. Making a green smoothie or vegetable juice for breakfast and 2. Eating a salad for lunch (read my daily salad post here) In my humble opinion we as Americans way over-do it on eating grains and starches in general. Think about the typical American day: cereal or toast for breakfast, a granola bar for a snack, sandwich for lunch, pasta or rice or bread with our dinner. Then maybe dessert. That’s…

First gluten free donut, Charleston Market At the beginning of March one year ago I became completely gluten free. I celebrated the occasion with bronchitis and two rounds of antibiotics. Well maybe it wasn’t a celebration so much as motivation for finally removing gluten from my diet. It was a low point for me, low enough that I needed a big change. So I made the change. I’m not going to say it was easy. Especially since my family continued to eat gluten. I’d say there were several months of feeling generally bummed out about food and adjusting to spending a lot more time in the kitchen. However. What made it…

I used to eat salads because I felt like I should. Now I eat salads because I love them. I thought I’d tell you why. I’m pretty sure I first started craving salads in South Asia — when actually creating something like the photo above was an all-morning affair. We were supposed to avoid raw vegetables that hadn’t been treated with some sort of disinfecting rinse. So every vegetable purchased at the market had to be soaked for 15 minutes and rinsed for 15 minutes and dried. Sound simple? Try doing this with every component of your salad: lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers. Then do it with all your fruit. But you…

My brother Danny recently moved back to Columbia and last night we got together to cook.  He’s been working in the food industry for years and years, so he’s the real deal when it comes to all things food.  It was his idea to make pasta (believe it or not, I’m not so good at branching out and trying new things, and the very idea of homemade pasta terrified me). Danny did the research and found a gluten free pasta recipe he felt was authentic, then I went to Whole Foods and assembled the ingredients.  We put the kids down, poured a glass of wine, and got to work.  Pretty…

I’ve been gluten-free for over a month now, and wow, do I feel so much better.  It makes me wonder why it took me so long, but oh well.  We had a few things going on. The last time I went gluten-free was in South Asia, in a desperate attempt to get to the bottom of my illness, and I blogged about it here.  I can’t even describe how much easier it is to follow a gluten-free diet in the U.S.  It’s not just the access to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, with their glorious gluten-free aisles, but it’s also having several friends around me who follow a similar diet,…