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Grain-Free Granola Recipe

A favorite breakfast of mine, growing up, was cereal and milk.  Through my stomach healing journey, I gave up all of my favorite cereals and granolas.  I tried granola recipes made with nuts and coconut flakes.  My body didn’t tolerate them very well.

I decided I can’t tolerate honey or maple syrup.  I can tolerate date syrup.  I created a granola recipe using date syrup instead of honey and maple syrup.

My favorite date syrup is Date Lady date syrup.

The kitchen smells so good, when the granola is cooling, my family has been known to eat it from the baking sheet.  You will want to bag this up as soon as you can.

Grain-Free Granola Recipe

  • 3 cups coconut chips
  • 2 cups nuts (walnuts, macadamias, pine nuts, cashews, pecans)
  • ¼ cup coconut oil
  • 3/8 cup date syrup (Date Lady Date Syrup)
  • 1 ½ t vanilla
  • 1 ½ t cinnamon
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
  2. In a large mixing bowl add the coconut chips and nuts 
  3. Place parchment paper on large baking sheet
  4. Stir together until mixed
  5. In a small saucepan, over low medium heat, melt the coconut oil.
  6. Stir in the date syrup.
  7. Continue stirring until it boils.
  8. Stir in the vanilla and cinnamon.
  9. Pour over the coconut and nuts mixture.
  10. Stir until the nut mixture is coated with caramel mixture.
  11. Pour the mixture on to the baking sheet.
  12. Press it down into one layer on the baking sheet.
  13. Put in a preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Stir halfway through.
  14. Take out of the oven and stir again.  Let the granola cool.
  15. Use a spatula to break the granola into bite size parts.  
  16. Put the granola in a large baggie.
  17. Keep in the refrigerator.
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Gravy Recipe

My Mom’s homemade turkey gravy recipe is the best I have ever tasted.  She never wrote it down of course. She was always in charge of making the turkey gravy at her house and later, when I took over the cooking, at my house.  It was always perfect.  No lumps of flour, smooth, and always delicious.  She told me her father taught her how to make the gravy.  He said you could never have too much salt and pepper in the gravy.

The gravy is an important side for our Thanksgiving Dinner.  When I learned I could no longer eat my Mom’s signature gravy, I researched and tested gluten free gravy recipes.  After several tries, I settled on a coconut flour recipe.  The flavor was similar to Mom’s.  The consistency was a little grainy but I liked flavor.  

We didn’t keep the leftover gravy.  It would get really grainy the next day.  We would throw the rest away by the second day.

I made a chicken soup recipe from a whole 30 blog.  My family and I loved it.  It was so creamy and had a great flavor.  It was still creamy the next day.  The recipe called for coconut milk and arrowroot.  I decided I would tweak this recipe to make our turkey gravy.

It works with chicken, turkey, and beef broth.

My sister-in-law, Katie, told me after our Thanksgiving dinner that she couldn’t tell the difference between my gluten-free dinner and the dinners my Mom used to make.  I have been tweaking my Thanksgiving recipes for 6 years now. The new gravy recipe made the difference.

I hope you enjoy this Creamy Turkey Gravy recipe.

Creamy Turkey Gravy

2 Cups of Bone Broth (Turkey, Chicken or Beef)
1 T Nutritional Yeast
¼ t Onion Powder
⅛ Garlic Powder
¾ t Salt
½ t Pepper
1 t Italian Seasoning
1 t Dried Parsley
1 can 13.5 oz Full Fat Coconut Milk( I use Natural Value Organic Coconut Cream)
⅛ c Arrowroot Powder

Pour 2 cups of bone broth in a medium sauce pan.  Bring to a boil. Add the seasonings to the broth.  In a separate bowl mix the coconut milk and the arrowroot powder.  Mix until the coconut milk is smooth.  Pour the milk and arrowroot mixture into the boiling broth and mix until smooth.  The gravy is done when it thickens.  Season with the salt and pepper to taste.

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Grain-Free Garlic Bread

I loved garlic bread.  Well actually, all things garlic.  I loved the texture and crunch of the french bread.  During my quest to heal my stomach, not only did I identify I can’t tolerate grains but I also can’t tolerate garlic.  After I went grain-free, I missed garlic french bread. 

I found that garlic infused oil has great garlic flavor, but doesn’t contain the part of the garlic that I am sensitive to.  My favorite oil is Garlic Gold Oil. I use it as a substitute for garlic. I put it in all recipes that use garlic. I substitute 1 T of Garlic Gold Oil for 1 clove of garlic.  I usually put it in the dish right before I serve it or when I stir fry vegetables, I include 1 T of the Garlic Gold Oil.   

After we found the garlic infused oil was so tasty, my husband experimented with frying grain-free bread in garlic infused oil and ghee to eat with hamburgers.  My family loved them.   

Grain-Free Garlic Bread

  • Grain-free bread slices
  • Ghee
  • Garlic infused olive oil (Garlic Golden Oil)

Brush the ghee/oil mixture on the griddle. Place the bread slices on the mixture. Flip and cook until browned.

They are great as a hamburger bun or crunchy sandwich bread.

For crunchy bread sticks, slice the bread slices into strips, fry them and serve them with guacamole, and other dips.

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Whole 30 Journey

My next goal on this journey was to increase my energy level.  My kids were driving themselves now and didn’t need me home as much. I decided it was time to increase my work hours to full time.  The problem with this was I didn’t know if I could sustain a 40 hour work week with my current energy level. In my research, the Whole 30 diet seemed to address energy.  The Whole 30 Diet was my next project.

For my first Whole 30, I followed the Whole 30 diet plan that Michelle Tam of Nomnom Paleo created on her website Nomnompaleo.com.  We enjoyed her recipes while we followed the Specific Carb Diet. It seemed a good transition for family. The recipes were very flavorful. My family never felt like they were deprived of good food during the 30 days.

Like all of the whole food diets I followed, the Whole 30 Diet would require a lot of work and planning.  Especially, since I love to snack. If I am tired, I can easily convince myself to go out or prepare an easy processed frozen or boxed dinner.  I had to take all of those options away from myself. This had to be so easy, I didn’t need to think about it, I just came home from work and did it.

At the begining of each week, I printed out the recipes.  I prepared a weekly calendar, a shopping/preparation list.  The calendar I created for the family was for dinners. I planned to eat leftovers for lunch.  For my breakfast each week, I cooked the breakfast recipes and froze them. Then I heated them up during the week.  

Sunday, was shopping day.  After shopping, my family chopped vegetables and stored them in containers for the refrigerator.  We prepared sauces, dressings, and seasonings for the week. We baked the week’s breakfasts and snacks. 

The calendar, shopping and preparation lists for the Nomnom Paleo Whole 30 I created are available if you email me.

Some Whole 30 tips and tricks I learned from the Paleo/Whole 30 bloggers I follow which helped me be successful during my Whole 30:

  1. Choffy brewed chocolate and a tablespoon of Nutpod to replace lattes,
  2. Tessamae salad dressings,
  3. Primal Kitchen Mayonaises, Ketchup,
  4. LaCroix sparkling waters,
  5. Hint waters,

During my Whole 30 the first and last weeks were the hardest, mentally.  In the middle of the 30 days I felt really good. My energy increased and continued to increase during the 30 days.  I was able to get out of bed with my alarm every morning. I hadn’t been able to do that in quite a while. It was amazing.  I have done 5 Whole 30s since my first one. Each Whole 30 I do, I find a new food I don’t tolerate exposing new layers in my journey to heal myself. 

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Grain Free Summer Vacation Food Plan

Going on vacation for my family has always meant eating at restaurants.  Usually we made unhealthy food and drink choices. Camping for my family has meant “traditional family camping food” again usually unhealthy food and drink choices.  Both vacation and camping eating usually result in low energy, bad digestion, leading to more unhealthy food choices. Also eating fast food and at restaurants is expensive.

After a year of practicing Whole 30 and feeling great, I decided this vacation we would take our camper and stock it with healthy choices.  I would know that all of the food I ate would make me feel great. My family knew we had good tasting food in the camper, so they wouldn’t be tempted to eat fast food or other unhealthy choices.

The trip was for 6 days.  I selected 5 salads. Our vacation was planned for the end of June.  The weather was 80 to 90 degrees. I didn’t want to do much cooking inside the camper for our dinners due to the heat.  All 5 salads included meat protein. We were going on a physically demanding vacation with hiking and stand up paddle boarding adventures and needed to have lots of energy.

I selected these salads for their ease and their great taste.

BLT Salad. Meals Made Simple pg 104

Asian Sesame Chicken Salad  Whole 30 Cookbook https://www.whole-sisters.com/asian-sesame-chicken-salad/

Warm Taco Salad with Creamy Avocado-Cilantro Vinaigrette Meals Made Simple pg 102

Beef and Broccoli Slaw Lettuce Wraps Whole 30 Cookbook pg 48

Six Ingredient Chicken Salad Whole 30 Fast & Easy pg 22

I completed a shopping and preparation list for the trip which is available if you contact me by email.

I cooked the meat portion of the salads during the 2 weeks before we left.  I made double recipes of the meals we ate during those 2 weeks. I froze the meat in ziplock bags for our trip.  I purchased the vegetables for the first 2 dinners because the camping fridge isn’t very big. We shopped at the local grocery store to purchase ice, lunch meat, and the next 2 days vegetables for dinners.

For breakfast, lunch and snacks, I followed the Whole 30 travel guide, https://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-travel.pdf.  Our cooler included boiled eggs, canned tuna fish, cooked bacon, canned olives, whole 30 compliant condiments, dressings and fresh produce.   I kept a copy of the Whole 30 seasonal fresh produce guide https://whole30.com/downloads/seasonal-produce.pdf in my purse for my shopping trips to keep my costs down.

I felt great the entire trip.  My energy was great. I was up at sunrise every morning.  My family enjoyed the flavorful meals. They also enjoyed the stocked fridge whenever they were hungry.

My family’s favorite part of vacationing with the camper was lunch time.  We would stop to fill up with gas. Move to the side of the truck stop to make our lunches in the camper.  Everything they wanted or needed was right there. They had a great lunch and we all felt great after eating it.  Lunch time was fast, fun and cheap.

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Camping Whole 30

The Italian Beef Soup recipe from Whole 30 Fast & Easy cookbook is a great recipe to make camping. 

I purchased a yellow zucchini and heirloom tomatoes at the farmers’ market.  I can’t tolerate the sweet peppers so I doubled the zucchini for the recipe.

For prep work, I browned the beef burger in my kitchen and froze it in a large baggy prior to leaving on the trip.  

The ingredients were easy to store in the camper.  I put the beef pouch in the freezer, chicken broth and herbs in the pantry, and I placed the whole fresh vegetables in the refrigerator.  

The soup is assembled pretty quickly.  Cut up the vegetables, thaw the burger, put in the soup pan with broth and cook.  Clean-up is quick because the beef was pre-cooked.

The soup is very flavorful and very satisfying.  Leftovers can be warmed up for lunch. A very easy recipe for camping.

Italian Beef Soup
Whole 30 Fast & Easy Cookbook
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Heal My Gut

The next part of my journey was the most painful and really prompted major change in my thoughts about what I eat.  I had a really bad flare up of gastritis. I lost about 20 pounds. I was in a lot of pain. My stomach burned constantly.  I had a few things I could eat without pain.  

I went back to my gastroenterologist.  She prescribed a stomach coating liquid in addition to the proton pump inhibitor and the fiber pills.  I didn’t get much relief from the medicines. Next, I went to a naturopath. She gave me a stool test. With this test, I was diagnosed with a fungus in my gut.  She prescribed a really powerful probiotic for two weeks and a buteraid supplement. The burning slowly improved over a 3 month period.  

I researched diets to treat my gut fungus and leaky gut.  I found a web site and diet authored by two guys in Bozeman, MT.  SCDLifestyle.com. I’m from Montana, so I decided to check it out.  They offered a specific carb diet for mild and hard cases for $99. I purchased it, and printed out the diet and all of the recipes.  I created a shopping list for each week. After New Years, I told my family we were going to follow this diet for at least 6 weeks.  

I liked the diet because it did not include any foods which caused inflammation in the body.  We followed the diet for 6 weeks. I didn’t really notice a change in my burning stomach during the 6 weeks. I continued to make the meals and cut out more foods which affected me when I tried to add them back to my diet.  A month later, my pain went away. Two months later, I quit taking the prescribed proton pump inhibitor. That was 3 years ago, and I haven’t had to go back on the proton pump inhibitor since.

I continued to cook much of the scd diet recipes.  My energy level, continued to increase. The scd diet used some recipes from Michelle Tam of NomNom Paleo.  I purchased her two cookbooks to try more of her recipes. They were wonderful and my family loved the food.

I still felt like my energy was not where it could be.  I was now more aware that food was my path to health. I decided to give the Whole 30 diet a try to see where it took me.

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The First Step in My Whole Foods Journey

My stomach always burned.  I had pretty low energy. Modern medicine prescribed proton pump inhibitors and muscle relaxers.   They didn’t work. I decided to take control and heal myself. This would mean changing the food I ate.  I told my family that I would need their support in making these changes. They agreed to help whenever they could.  

It’s hard to make the change from eating the American diet to eating a whole food diet.  My family loved flavorful food, comfort food, and good old American food. It was important for me to slowly make changes to our diet. I didn’t want my family to suffer while I made these changes.   I needed my family to be satisfied with the changes I made. I work full-time, I volunteer at my children’s’ school, and my children were involved in after school activities. With this schedule, I needed the food preparation to be easy.

When I finally decided to change the way I eat, I tried using gluten-free flours.  I tried different non-wheat flours and recipes to use the flour. I was amazed at how good the food tasted.  I cooked with the flours for several months. I didn’t really notice much of a change to my health, but I was encouraged to keep moving forward.

My husband suggested I check out Danielle Walker, Against The Grains.  I read Danielle’s blog. I read her story and it reminded me of mine. I was blown away.  I was not alone in my battle with unexplained painful stomach. There was someone else experiencing these issues that couldn’t be helped with western medicine.

I purchased her cookbook, Meals Made Simple.  Danielle provided an 8 week menu of dinner recipes in her cookbook.  She included a shopping list for each week. I told my family we were going to try this 8 week plan.  I followed the recipes and my family raved about my cooking. We really enjoyed the healthy flavorful meals and they were so easy to prepare.  

I learned a lot about reading labels and looking for hidden gluten in the ingredients.  I learned about selecting better quality ingredients that would encourage healing in my body.  I noticed an improvement in my energy right away. After the eight weeks, the burning in my stomach was improving.

I purchased Danielle’s other books, Against The Grains, and Celebrations.  Her recipes are so easy and taste great. With her recipes and shopping lists for each week, my confidence in my cooking increased and I was ready to try other whole food diet authors.

I stuck my toes in the water.  I was exposed to a different way of healing myself.  I didn’t feel completely deprived of my favorite foods.  I had a long way to go to heal myself. It was time to research stricter diets that would treat my gut fungus.

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Whole Food Diet on a Budget

Eating a whole food diet can be expensive.  I learned some cost saving tricks. With my son in college, my daughter going to college in the fall, my family follows a food budget.  The tricks I learned allow us to eat healthy and stay within the budget.

These tricks can help you eat healthy without busting your budget.  I will post these tricks on this blog to share them with you. My money savings ideas are for Missoula, Montana grocery stores and a couple on-line stores. The concepts can be applied to your town grocery stores. Research your store’s sales and coupon systems and with planning these tools should work anywhere.

Free-range eggs are a big part of my family’s diet.  Our favorite brand cost $5.49 a dozen at most grocery stores in Missoula.  At the Missoula Natural Grocers I signed-up for {N}Power, the in store discounts program.  The free-range eggs through {N}Power pricing are $1.99 per dozen. We usually get 3 dozen a week. That would be $16.47 at most grocery stores.  At Natural Grocers in Missoula, the 3 dozen eggs with the {N}Power program are $5.97. That is a $10.50 savings every week or a $40 savings for our monthly budget.

Saving in areas like this where I can, allows my family to continue eating a whole food diet within our budget.

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My Journey

With this blog, I will share my journey to improve my stomach health.  After many years of feeling pretty awful and no real help from my doctors, I was feeling very frustrated and hopeless.  I hope that through these blog posts others may find they are not alone in their frustration of feeling lousy and undergoing test after test and not finding any relief.  I will share my journey to heal my body through changing the food I ate. I want to give others hope that relief is possible. Everyone’s journey is different. I hope this blog will give someone struggling with digestive issues ideas on how to heal themselves.

My stomach problems started in college.  My stomach would burn when I got stressed out during finals week.  I would take antacids for relief. Eventually, they weren’t enough.  The health service doctor prescribed an acid reducer. I took the acid reducer for 2 years.  My symptoms got worse and I went to a gastroenterologist. I had an endoscopy which verified I had gastritis.  The doctor prescribed a muscle relaxer to clear up the gastritis and then I went on a maintenance protocol of a once daily fiber drink.  I also ate a fairly bland diet.

Seven years later, I had another gastritis flare up.  My gastroenterologist did another endoscopy with the same results.  Gastritis! The doctor prescribed the fiber drink with the prescription acid reducer to clear up the gastritis. I managed my symptoms for another 7 years.

I couldn’t take pain medication, because that caused flare-ups.  I would get a flare-up from cold or the flu. I would use over the counter acid reducers, and drink only chicken broth for a week to clear up the gastritis.

I experienced a really bad flare-up a year after I lost my sister to suicide.  My gastroenterologist did another endoscopy. Same diagnosis, gastritis. The usual protocol of fiber and acid reducer didn’t work.  I had an mri twice on my liver. Nothing was wrong with my liver. I went on a proton pump inhibitor. I managed with the bland diet but my symptoms didn’t go away.

My husband encouraged me to try changes in my diet.  I tried cutting out gluten. It helped but it wasn’t enough.  I read a grain free, dairy free food blog. I bought the author’s cookbooks.  I learned more about reading labels, hidden gluten, and being dairy free. The food was great and easy to prepare.  It opened my mind up to other possibilities on this journey to heal my stomach.

I went to a chiropractor  who told me about stimulation of my vagus nerve to help with digestion.  I thought, why not, right now I’ll try anything. I was amazed at how much it helped my symptoms.  I started with once a week appointments, then went to two weeks, once a month, and now I go when I have symptoms.  Definitely, part of my maintenance protocol.

I read about a supplement protocol that reduced inflammation.  I followed the protocol. Within a couple weeks of starting the supplements my symptoms improved.  No pain. I was really encouraged. Next, I tried to go off my proton pump inhibitor, and within 1 week, my gastritis flared up again. My symptoms continued for 6 months. I lost 20 pounds. I was miserable.

I went to a naturopath for some help.  She recommended a stool test. The test results indicated, I had a fungus in my gut.  She gave me a strong probiotic for 7 days followed by a buteraid supplement. My symptoms improved greatly.  I was able to gain the weight I lost.

I researched gut fungus and how to treat it.  I read a specific carb diet can help treat a gut fungus.    I tried a specific carb diet for hard cases.  I followed the plan. My symptoms slowly went away. After three months, I was symptom free.  After another month, I went off my proton pump inhibitor. I still take the buteraid supplement and the daily fiber.

I feel so much better but I still have work to do.  I am very thankful for the autoimmune issues, and food blogs, I researched.  Each story I read gave me hope that I could be healthy.