Author: Sydney

I thought I’d share this super easy recipe because it’s a staple in our house. If we have pancakes, crepes or waffles I often make this super easy berry sauce. When I was growing up this was something my mom always made. I am going to share the recipe below but please note this is more of a best guess on the measurements as I typically just wing it.

This is a very forgving recipe that doesn’t need exact measurement. You can do more or less sugar depending on your taste and more or less of the cornstarch slurry for your preferred thickness..

Ingredients:
2.5 cups of frozen mixed berries (or any type of frozen berries)
3 heaping tablespoons of sugar
1 tsp corn starch mixed with 2 tbsp cold water (cornstarch slurry)

Instructions:
Fill a microwave safe bowl with frozen berries, top with sugar. Heat in microwave for 2-3 minutes. Once berries are completely defrosted & heated through, add cornstarch slurry and return to microwave. Heat until the mixture comes to a boil and it thickened. Stir and set aside to cool for a few minutes.

Note: After you add the cornstart it will make the mixture look a little milky. This color should go away when the mixture has been heated through properly.

Enjoy over your favorite breakfast item. Left overs can be saved in the fridge. This would also be super yummy added to greek yogurt with some granola on top!

Enjoy!

Well…It’s been over two years since I’ve blogged. To be honest the whole blogging thing has always been a challenge for me. I’m not good at doing it regularly, writing isn’t my strong suit and I think I’ve felt a little intimidated by the “professional bloggers”.

So I’m hear to tell you I’m back but in a really simple capacity. To share recipes, maybe a little bit of life and whatever else my heart needs to share. My hope is to share gluten & diary free recipes, tips and tricks for living a GF/DF life, and maybe a little about life and family. I’m hoping to post one to two times a month. Even that will likely be a stretch for me.

So lets start with the beginning – Why am I gluten & diary free now? In November 2016 I decided to seek out a naturopath to address some longstanding health issues I had been struggling with. I had GI issues, cystic acne & migraines. At her recommendation she suggested I try going gluten and diary free. Within two to three weeks I saw a huge improvement in my health. I’ve tried re-introducing both items back into my diet a few times and it hasn’t worked. So I’ve dug into figuring out how to bake and cook really yummy food that is gluten & diary free.

Over the years a few people have asked me to share the recipes I use. The thing is, I tend to use “normal” recipes and tweak them to fit my needs. So here I sit. Ready to give this blogging thing a try again. It will be simple. I won’t be fancy,  but I hope it’s a place where people can find a few yummy recipes and some hope that life doesn’t completely suck when you have dietary restrictions.

I hope you’ll stick around for my less then official blog – maybe we can have a little fun together!

I want to leave you with this pretty photo…the current recipe I’m trying to figure out. A diary free cheesecake. I made this by following a Martha Stewart recipe and making a few tweaks. I need to make it again and tweak a few more things before I post the recipe here. But just look how pretty it is!!

Today we celebrate 10 years of marriage. That’s a big deal.

We got married when we were just 21 years old. We were babies. So to say we have changed a lot in the last 10 years is an understatement. But here we are. We have made it through what I would consider to be some of the hardest years. But we are here. We are here only by the grace of God. He is the reason we have made it this far.

 Engagement Photos – 20 years old

We have had our ups and downs but I know that the good times and the bad have shaped us into who we are today. I know life will bring more challanges but we will make it through them together.

Wedding day – July 14, 2006 – 21 years old

 Here are a few pictures from our 10 year trip we took in February. We had the opportunity to build houses with a team of people from our church in Roatan, Honduras. After that portion of the trip was over our church friends left and we enjoyed a few additional days on the island together.

Thanks for begin so patient with me. I am obsessive about things that shouldn’t matter, I am a planner and I am a perfectionist. Thanks you for looking past all the things that are totally opposite of your nature and for loving me anyways!

Marriage is work… really hard work. It’s choosing daily to love. It’s letting the little things go (which is so hard…remember perfectionist). It’s hard but in the end the work pays off. Here’s to many more wonderful years ahead. I can’t wait to see where the next 10 years takes us! Love you babe!

Do you ever have things happen in life that are so obviously God?? When those things happen I can’t help but smile. We recently had a few of those experiences and I wanted to share. Towards the end of last year we found out some major changes were happening with our health insurance. Without going into all the details we found out that our premiums would be going up by about $500 per month. When you live on one income a hit like that will stop you dead in your tracks. I freaked…shed a bunch of tears and then slowly gave up on trying to fix it and decided to let God work it out. During this time I started looking for a job. I wasn’t exactly sure if that’s what God had for us but I figured doors would either open or close. I had been a stay at home mom for the last 4 years but I felt like I should at least try looking. I applied for several jobs and nothing came of them. Almost all of them were rejected by computerized systems. One day in December I got a call from one of the hospitals I had applied to. I went through several interviews and ended up accepting a per diem position. It was the perfect fit for our family.

The first couple months of the year were tight, but we had money in savings and we were grateful for that. We knew we would be getting our tax return so we thought we would be able to replenish our savings quickly. One day in February I noticed a couple discolored spots on the living room ceiling. Our contractor friend was coming over to bid a job for us so I asked him to take a look. He found multiple leaks. My heart sank. We had really wanted to replace all the windows in our house but this was obviously a higher priority (we live in the Seattle area….SO MUCH RAIN!!). Just hours before we found out we had an issue with the roof I filed our taxes. The return was more than we usually get so we were really excited. We made plans for that money but God had other plans.

After getting several bids we were able to get our roof completely replaced for almost the exact amount of our tax return!! And by a company that came with great reviews! Say WHAT??? God is so good! We were living on one income, and while our budget was/is tight we have never missed a bill. Through it all we continued to tithe, He provided the perfect job, and we were able to PAY CASH for a full new roof! So many details to work out and he did it. He was and is providing for us left and right!! No doubt about it!  So my point…it’s not always easy to trust God. We all have those moments where we think we can fix things…but it has been made clear to me time and time again that the better option is walking through life with God.

Today it dawned on me that not everyone roasts their veggies. In our house it’s the main way I cook almost all of our veggies. We grow  green beans our garden every summer and they are a favorite in our house. I’ve always known we could roast fresh ones but I recently tried roasting frozen beans and they turned out great! I prefer to eat fresh veggies when we can but it’s nice to have a couple frozen things on hand as well so these are a great way to cook up frozen green beans! I hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

Ingredients:
3 cups of frozen green beans
1 teaspoon sesame oil (optional but so yummy!)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1.5 teaspoons minced garlic
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line cookie sheet with foil. Put the frozen green beans on the cookie sheet pour the oils and remaining ingredients on top of the green beans and toss until they are all fully coated.  Bake for 15-17 minutes or until slightly crispy & brown.

Tips:
Buy your green beans at Costco! they are cheap, delicious and organic!

One of our favorite veggies to roast is broccoli. If you have never roasted broccoli before check out this recipe it is AMAZING!!