Tropical Traditions Features a Sola Gratia Recipe

Imagine my excitement when I logged in to facebook and saw a familiar picture of a familiar meal we recently ate...and it was on Tropical Traditions blog! I was like...wait, that's my pic...oh yeah...we submitted the pic and recipe! How cool is that?? There it is on their blog on facebook! :)

This is my first published recipe! AND a published picture taken by my son, Jeremiah! Rejoice with us in how God has provided!! (You can earn free jars of coconut oil by submitting recipes...if they post them to their blog.) I am so grateful!

Thank you, Tropical Traditions!

Elimination Diet Diary, Day 30

Judah's Mario cookie creation

These cookies are from Ali's recipe over at Whole Life Nutrition...they are so amazing!! They are totally sugar free, made from almond flour and coconut ground into flour...sweetened with stevia. I used 1 cup of almond flour and 1 cup of coconut. I grind my own almond flour in the food processor...I ground up 1 cup of almonds then measured a cup and saved the extra. I put the ground almonds back in the processor with the coconut and let it run til it was all nicely powdered. Other than that I followed the recipe exactly.

Delicious! You do need to keep them in the freezer to keep them crisp and flaky...if you leave them out they soften. They are tasty that way too...but we eat them straight from the freezer. So good with or without Ali's yummy frosting...which is amazing and so pretty as a glaze.
I did get interrupted while I was making these and stored some frosting in the fridge. It turned a different, thicker texture and did not return to a glaze state even at room temp. But it was still good...just not as pretty as the glaze...more of a matte finish than a glossy finish. (Can you tell I am a paper crafter...lol!) Another thing to note, as I was working with the dough I noticed 10 minutes was great for baking when the dough was straight from the fridge but as I re rolled the leftover pieces and the dough became more room temp it only needed about 8 minutes. The taste and texture of these cookies is amazing. I usually feel the need to tweak a recipe. Not this one, Ali got it right on! Try these, you will be delighted! So yummy and nourishing too!

The picture above with the toothpicks added is Judah's creation.:) It's Mario. :) He had a blast making and eating these! :)

Easter morning I made a delicious coffee cake from almond flour...I may share the recipe some day, when I have it perfected. :)

Family Easter gathering was at my brother Matthew's house. My assignment was to bring a vegetarian main dish and a healthy dessert. Someone else was doing mashed potatoes but we can't have milk or butter or cream cheese etc that was in them so I also took roasted potatoes in the crock pot. We took the sunflower seed burger's from Ali's book...yum! For the dessert we took the cookies above as well as the cookies I made the other day, and a raw apple pie (recipe below) that is really tasty. My sister in law Mariya loved the cookies and my niece Savannah (7) loved the apple pie. :) There was also a delicious green salad there and a to-die-for Russian Carrot Salad that I put on top of my salad in place of dressing...yum! Being together with the whole family was the highlight and we enjoyed all the babies, the Easter egg hunt and the good stories being shared! Mariya's parents came as we were leaving so we enjoyed visiting with them a bit too. Mariya is from Ukraine and her mom has all kinds of interesting remedy recipes...equal parts lemon and garlic pureed and stored five days in fridge and then take 1 tsp a day at night helps with cholesterol and blood pressure. I will have to try it! :)

Last night we went to hear the Jostie's and skipped dinner...I snacked on some almonds and fruit roll. When we got home I made some teff cereal. Then I put the small pot in the fridge. This morning the cereal was hard so I dumped it out onto a plate. It was round, the form of the pot. I sliced it in 1/4 inch thin rounds and fried it in a skillet in some coconut oil. We put a bit of maple syrup on it and it was such a good breakfast, really enjoyed it! I will share that recipe soon...forgot to get a picture of it this morning.

Raw Apple Pie
Here's my recipe for the Raw Apple Pie...I have shared this post at Amy's Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, check out all the great recipes everyone is sharing.

Favorite Raw Apple Pie

1 3/4 cups sunflower seeds
1 cup medjool dates, no pits
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 T coconut oil

Process the sunflower seeds until ground well. Remove 1/3 cup of the ground seeds and sprinkle around the bottom of a large deep dish pie plate. Add the dates, sea salt and coconut oil to the remaining ground seeds and process well. Shape into a ball and press into the pie plate. Using a hand held pizza dough roller, roll the dough flat, then use your hands to press the dough up the sides of the plate. Or you can roll the dough out between pieces of plastic wrap and then transfer to pie plate.

For the filling you will need:

1/3 cup medjool dates, no pits
2 small pears or 1 extra large pear
6 organic fuji apples, processed very thin slices
1 cup organic raisins
2 T ground cinnamon
1 T lemon juice or juice of small lemon
1 T coconut cream concentrate

Place the apples into a large bowl. Stir the cinnamon, raisins and lemon juice into the apple slices. Blend the dates and pears well. Add the pureed pears/dates to the apples and stir well to incorporate.

Store the bowl of apple slices in the fridge until ready to serve. Store the pie crust in the fridge as well. When ready to serve, fill the crust with the apple slices and cut into 12 slices. Serve with a topping of toasted pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and coconut flakes if desired. Enjoy!

So...we have made it to day 30. :) We are doing well. Those of you who are praying for us, thank you! Please continue. God is so good and faithful!

Tonight for dinner we had millet and tomato sauce and garlicky green beans. I loved the beans...so good. :) Jeff and Judah had brown rice pasta, which I don't think we are allowed as it's made from brown rice flours.

We were supposed to add Salmon in on Sunday but didn't until Monday and even then we couldn't do it 3x's a day. Can't afford it and can't stomach it...I hardly like it at all...I ate a 1/2 portion and said skip it. Oh well, we never ate it very often anyways, we are likely not allergic to it and if we are, we eat it so rarely it probably doesn't matter. Or does it? Maybe I am getting lenient...maybe we will just add it in later.

We are thinking of skipping adding tofu and tempeh...we don't care for either really and I am still not sure what to think of soy products. How do you feel about the soy debate?

Elimination Diet Diary, Day 25

Lemon Truffle
Bon Bons

Well, that's what I am calling them anyways. :)
They are officially called Lemon Coconut Energy Bites and I found them on the Mighty Vegan Blog. I did adapt the recipe somewhat. I used coconut cream concentrate instead of coconut butter and I omitted the maca. I also made 22 instead of 10. They turned out really tasty...I am enjoying them.

Jeremiah prefers these snicker doodle like cookies that I am still in the recipe development stage on. I have made them twice so far...the first time they were too dry...yet very tasty.



























The second time I made them they were too moist. I am also a bit disturbed by how discolored they become while I am working with the dough. I think it is oxidation of the apple sauce so I may try adding some lemon juice next batch. When I broke one in half the next day the discoloration was a bit disturbing as well...little greenish blue flecks inside. Weird...but still tasty. :)



























Jeremiah and I are still doing well. It has been fun to add things back in and have more variety. We have developed some new recipes and are looking forward to making some cookies for Easter. I thought we would do that today but the day got away from us so we'll do it tomorrow.

Today we were to add in pineapple, banana and papaya but for some reason we forgot and we didn't do it. I guess we will eat them starting tomorrow.

Here's what was for dinner tonight: Roasted Broccoli and Purple Cauliflower, Salad, Sunflower Seed Burgers and Fried Potatoes. It was good.
















Delicious Homemade Ketchup :)


Purple Cauliflower before it was roasted...very pretty!

















After roasting...yum. Next time no lemon though. Need to remember that. We liked it better roasted without lemon like we did last time before we were allowed lemon.

I won 3rd place in the Biggest Loser Contest with Family and Friends!!

When I started the Biggest Loser competition with my family and friends I really had no intention of winning. I knew I wouldn't get a lot of time for exercise and I knew I wasn't very competitive. I also knew I wanted to support my brother, Matthew, who started it and I knew it would help me as far as accountability went.

I would have to pay if I gained weight during the week between weighing in. It was $10 to start with and so even that small investment made me stick to it and follow through. For 7 weeks we did this. (The rules we used are at the end of this post.)

I was truly shocked when I found out I won a place! There were 10 people in total and I was in 5th place the week before. I was pretty pleased with taking a place...it was fun to get the call from my brother informing me. :) AND Very fun that my investment more than doubled!! :) AND I lost 22 pounds! I only need to do that 8.5 more times to reach my goal of 150. It may take awhile. But I'm in. :) I will keep plugging away at this.

My highest weight ever was 408. I am at 338 now.

I know that this can be done...but it will be only by His grace! Linda

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

PS If you want to start your own competition, here are the rules we used:

We will start Sunday, February 27th. At some point during the afternoon or evening, everyone should come to Mariya's parents house for weigh-in. This way we are all using the same scale. Mariya will be the official weight keeper and log all our weights on http://www.corporatefitnessleague.com/ web site so we can see who is winning. I was thinking about trusting everyone to weigh themselves, but then if we got one dishonest person, they could take all our money. :-) What do you guys think? If everyone would rather go with weighing themselves, I'm up for that, too.

Here are the rules:

1. HAVE FUN! Eat healthy, and exercise.

2. The first weigh in will be February 27th at Mariya's parents house. If you can't make it that day, please arrange with Mariya for another time.

3. The final weigh in will be April 17th, during the afternoon or evening at Mariya's parents house.

4. Unofficial weigh ins will be every Sunday at your own house. E-mail Mariya your weight and she will enter it in thehttp://www.corporatefitnessleague.com/ web site so we can see who is winning. (They didn't really do this link because people didn't want everyone to know what they weighed..instead Mariya figured the percentage each person lost and posted it to us each week in a group on facebook.)

5. There is a $10 registration fee which must be paid during your first weigh in. All fees will go towards winners prizes. We may try to open a Chase bank account to earn a $100 bonus to go towards the prize as well.

6. (You can join at any time during the first two weeks, but the longer you wait the harder it will be to win.)

7. There will be a penalty fee of $1 if your weight stays the same and $1 for each pound your weight goes up during one week.

8. There will be a penalty fee of $1 if you fail to weigh in and e-mail to Mariya by each Monday.

9. Each contestant must share two healthy recipes during the contest via the Facebook group, for the benefit of others. One recipe should be submitted in March, and one in April. Failure to do so will result in a $5 penalty per missing recipe.

10. The winners will be the people who lose the largest percentage of body weight. (start at 200 pounds and lose 10 pounds you have lost 5%). [ Weight Loss / Start Weight = Percentage Loss). The first and final weigh ins will be the only official weights and will be done on a digital scale at Mariya's parents house.

11. 1st place gets 50% of the fees collected. 2nd place gets 30%. 3rd place gets 20%.

12. No cheating allowed!!!!

Snacks for the Hubs

This is the fastest fudge I have ever made...and Hubs says it is delicious! It's from one of my favorite blogs, Elana's Pantry, and I made it for my husband...who says my diet hurts his feelings...he likes it. :) Thanks, Elana, appreciate all your efforts in sharing healthier foods! :)

Elimination Diet Diary, Day 19

Today we had minestrone soup and these delicious crackers. We can't have sesame seeds so we simply used flax seeds instead.

We just finished the three days of adding in nightshades…potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. We didn’t try eggplant but especially enjoyed the tomatoes, potatoes and peppers. I made some yummy ketchup and tomato soup and minestrone soup. We also had fried potatoes, hash browns, baked potatoes. We get to use cayenne again. And we can use our everyday seasoning that has peppers in it too.

Kinda funny story. We use bionature bottled tomatoes and I recycled the bottle for storing our ketchup that I had made. Surprisingly everyone liked the ketchup this time. In the past I was the only one that would use homemade ketchup. Well, I was happy that everyone liked it and we all enjoyed some on our hashbrowns that morning. As I put the bottle away I noticed it was almost gone and thought how could that be? Then as I sat it on the shelf next to what I thought was the tomato sauce bottle in the fridge I realized that what we had used was the tomato sauce and we had used it instead of the nice full bottle of homemade ketchup still on the shelf in the fridge…and none of us knew the difference. LOL…save myself the time and trouble of making it and we can just use tomato sauce for ketchup.

Today was the first day of beans so I added beans to our minestrone, we had refried beans with chile in it for breakfast. It’s really great to have some more options for meals. I am looking forward to black bean soup and spicy black beans and refried black beans etc. We love black beans here.

This is a busy weekend to be on an elimination diet. But I am determined to make it work. Tonight we have a Care Group Pizza Party and I am taking Quinoa pizza crusts, tomato sauce, basil and sunflower seed burgers to put on top. I am also taking the crackers I made today, carrot and celery sticks and some homemade ranch dip. I think I will take some fruit too since we wont be able to eat the desserts. Tomorrow night I will take salad to the Leaders meeting we will attend…maybe an apple crisp too. Then on Sunday I will take a crock pot of Greek Potatoes and some cinnamon apple slices for the church potluck.

I know that there will be a lot of things to tempt me off this path. But I also know that God is able and wanting to help me…and will help me to keep going. I found Elyse Fitzpatrick to be very encouraging in her book Love to Eat Hate to Eat…breaking the bondage of destructive eating habits. She said, “ When you face the reality of your present eating habits and the despair and hopelessness of never seeing any lasting change, take heart! If you are His child, then you can rest in the knowledge that “He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one (not even you!) can ward off His hand” (Daniel 4:35, emphasis added). He will fulfill all His plans for you!”… “He’s in the business of changing people. That includes you.” Elyse Fitzpatrick in Love to Eat Hate to Eat.

Please pray for me if you think of it. I would appreciate it. I am really grateful that the Lord is changing me…I am fearful of myself though. I know He is faithful and I know that I am not. May I continue to look to Him in my weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9 and 10. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9 and 10.

Elimination Diet Diary, Day 15

Acts 17:24,25 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands and He is not served by human hands as if He needed anything because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else".

I found this scripture so encouraging today...God is Sovereign! :) I hope you are doing well and feeling encouraged today. God is so good and He is in control and has everything under control and we can trust Him!

As for the Elimination diet...
Well, I haven't posted for awhile...Jeremiah (my son, and photographer) was away and took his camera with him...so I wasn't motivated to post with out the pics.

For anyone that may be following along, I am just going to quickly report that I am still doing this. God has been gracious and has provided all that I need. :) I have not strayed from the path even once and that is certainly only by His grace!!

Today Jeff was sick and stayed home from work. He needed gluten free soda crackers...I doubt they are even available here in town so I made him some...(I didn't use the sour milk, just water). I had never made crackers before. They looked and smelled delicious and he and Judah really enjoyed them. This was my hardest day yet. I was so tempted to just taste them and see how they turned out. Oh well...I know they were good because they ate them. :)

I really wanted Teff cereal this morning but I ran out. Have to get to Bob's Red Mill soon...but then again I don't want to go there...they have food in the restaurant that I can not eat...and would want to eat. :(

Tonight I had these parsnip fries...I made them with my sunflower butter. They tasted like sweet potato fries to me. I also had a small piece of sweet potato, butter lettuce, avocado and sunflower seed burgers, my new favorite from Ali's book, Whole Life Nutrition.

Even though I was tempted today I still think things are going well. :) I am happy with the food I am allowed and am enjoying things. I noticed today I wasn't drinking enough water so will need to start using a water bottle and paying more attention to where I am at on that.

I did lose another pound too. :) That is always fun!

So far we have added in lemons/limes/tamari. Tomorrow we add in potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. Jeremiah and I are pretty excited about that. We have especially missed the potatoes, tomatoes and peppers. We like eggplant too but don't eat it that often.

We've been invited to my brother's place for Easter. I am to bring a vegetarian main dish and a healthy dessert. I was happy he asked me to bring things we can eat. :) I think I am going to take the sunflower seed burgers and an apple crisp. I might take a crockpot of roasted potatoes too since I am sure we can't eat the loaded mashed potatoes that will be there. Looking forward to the time of fellowship with the whole family and spending time with everyone.

What special things do you do for Easter? Any family traditions that you have?

Elimination Diet Diary, Day 9

Last night we tried something new...Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower (no lemon though). We really liked it! We also enjoyed red lentil dal...pictured below...hopefully I will put the recipe up before I forget it...it was one of those wing it recipes. :)

Today was very much more of the same as yesterday...green smoothie breakfast, rice cake and sunflower seed butter, red lentil dal and brown rice leftovers for lunch along with a green salad made from butter lettuce.

We are feeling fine. We are still doing well and not feeling deprived. Jeremiah and I are both enjoying the foods we are allowed and feeling very grateful.

I had to make some more Cinnamon-Sunflower Truffles today. I had some really fresh, soft dates from Trader Joe's so didn't need to add any sweetener besides the dates. Here's a picture of them in process...I've already powdered the seeds and cinnamon and just added the dates and 2 T. of coconut oil. Blend that up well and then roll into balls and into coconut. Keep in fridge for snacking as needed. Yum. I also stored some of this in a jar, not rolled. I am planning to use it for apple crisp topping.


Dinner today was really good. I made Sunny Sunflower Seed Burgers from Ali's cookbook and topped them with avocado and lettuce leaves...then ate atop of the Quinoa Pizza Crust. I only use 1 T of oil in my cast iron skillet and I have reduced the salt in this to 3/4 tsp. We can make 3 cast iron pans of this crust from this one batch.


YUM!! So good. I think these burgers will help me to replace the junk food soy products we use to eat. I am thinking maybe I can learn to make them seasoned like sausage...I will have to give that a try. :)

Elimination Diet Tip: We will be able to add things to our diet now every 3 days. This is how we add things back to the diet and test for sensitivity. We are suppose to watch for any symptoms and note how we feel. Each new food is eaten 3 times a day for 3 days. In order to help us see what new food comes in to our diet and when, I wrote the foods right on to the calendar...here's what we are looking forward to adding and when:

4/6 lemons and limes... try: lemonade, lemon kale chips, lemon in soup and dressings.
4/9 tamari... try: stir fry w/tamari, add to soups, season seeds
4/12 potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers...try: Quinoa Pizza, oven baked fries, soups
4/15 beans of all kinds...try: vegetarian CHILI!! Our fave! Spicy black beans, refried beans, soups :)
4/18 nuts of all kinds...try: tamari almonds, spiced pecans, walnut topped apple crisp
4/21 banana, papaya, pineapple...try: banana ice cream, smoothies, banana and almond butter
4/24 SALMON!! Salmon burgers, salmon pancakes, salmon salad
4/27 tofu and tempeh...try: ?? not sure yet...don't usually eat it
4/30 STRAWBERRIES!! :) try: in smoothies, add to banana icecream...eat plain...YUM!
5/3 oranges...try: smoothies...eating fresh
5/6 peanuts...try: banana and peanut butter, add to soups and sauces
5/9 sesame seeds...try: gomasio, tahini, sesame green beans
5/12 chocolate...try: dark chocolate
5/15 eggs...try: scrambled, egg foo young
5/18 dairy...try: Quinoa pizza w/cheese, salmon and cream cheese, yogurt, kefir, sour cream
5/21 gluten free bread...try: muffins, pancakes, flat breads
5/24 millet...try: biscuits, cereal, soups
5/27 oats...try: oat meal, granola, cookies
5/30 corn...try: corn, soups, corn chips, corn tortillas, nachos, taco salad

If you think of me, pray for me. I am starting to entertain the thought that I am not making progress. I know that this is a lie. Why do I believe lies? I know I need to start preaching the truth to myself. This is a battle... and I don't want to lose.

Thanks for reading, :) Linda

Elimination Diet Diary, Day 8

Treasure in Jars of Clay 2 Corinthians 4

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.

13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

This passage has been on my mind...with all of life's pressures and stresses...when I keep my eyes on Him then I am encouraged and I do not lose heart. God is good and He is faithful.

The elimination diet is going well. I have had some very busy days and God has been faithful to see us through those and keep us on track! :) I didn't get a chance to blog for several days so let me catch you up to speed.

Day 5, Friday night Care Group. We had company for dinner and enjoyed green salad, leftover kitcheree and baked sweet potato fries. At Care Group later in the evening there was a dessert buffet. I took Cinnamon-Sunflower Truffles and enjoyed a couple of those. They are really yummy. :) It was not hard to leave the fudge brownies, chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes alone. That was definitely an act of God because usually I would have had several things with gluten and sugar. I did not even feel bad that I couldn't eat them. I did miss the coffee though..I drink coffee socially but not daily.

Day 6, Saturday, Just some fruit for breakfast. I made some more Healing Quinoa Soup before I left for the ladies Connect mtg at church. (So Jeremiah would have something to eat while I was gone...he asked for more. ) I didn't have time to eat any and wished I had. They had a potato bar at the gathering and I had brought sweet potatoes, toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds and Cinnamon Sunflower Truffles. I had a sweet potato with the seeds on top and some steamed broccoli. They had salads there as well but they were already mixed with cesaer or cheese type things so I skipped that. They also had cheese cakes, fruit tarts, beautiful cakes, cookies, fudge, brownies, etc etc. Again I felt God's sustaining grace. I had no trouble not eating those foods that would normally have been so tempting. I did think the tart with lovely strawberries and other fruits on top looked good though. :) When I got home I had some lentils, rice and broccoli.

Day 7, Sunday. We had some sweet brown rice cereal for breakfast. I added a bit of coconut oil (buy one get one free sale right now! Check it out!) and a bit of coconut cream concentrate (just coconut), some sea salt and cinnamon and sprinkle of toasted seeds...yum! Sometimes we would go to Sweet Tomatoes or Baja Fresh after church on Sundays. Not this week...we took snacks with us...toasted pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, dried fruit, carrot sticks, apples. We had to do a lot of grocery shopping and when we got home we were starving...we had salads and then some broccoli and kitcheree or brown rice/lentils with steamed broccoli and wrapped in tapioca wraps. It was good and hit the spot. For snack we had rice cake and sunflower butter.

Day 8, that's today. So far we have had our berry green smoothie with about 5 slices of ginger added. YUM!! We also enjoyed a brown rice cake w/sunflower seed butter again. For lunch we had Healing Quinoa Soup and a variation of this delicious pizza crust made from the quinoa grain...we had it plain like flat bread and ate it with our soup and salad. I can. not. wait. to try it as pizza once we add tomato back into our diets! :) Something to look forward to.

Quinoa Pizza Crust

My variation was that I used only 2 T of oil and used cast iron pans. I put 1 T in each pan and heated them as directed. Then I poured in the batter and baked about 12 min. (not 20) and flipped them over and baked the other 10 min. or so. Watch carefully so as not to burn but you do want them brown and crispy...yum!! The kids loved them and I enjoyed too with slices of avocado on top.

We plan to have carrots/celery sticks, lentils and roasted broccoli/cauliflower (minus the lemon) over brown rice tonight.

I have lost 6 pounds and Jeremiah has lost 9 pounds this week. :)

God is good and it's Only by His grace, Linda