Homemade Coconut Vanilla Spiced Peanut Butter (refined sugar free!)

This year has been speeding by; it’s hard to believe it’s been so long since my last post! My health has definitely improved, but the journey has been full of challenges and seems to move in looping cycles that can shift between forward and backward momentum. I also feel it’s been a time of infinite opportunity to learn, grow, reflect, and change.

One interesting shift has been the need to alter my diet again. Now, I am not only vegetarian and gluten-free, but also refined sugar free. I know there are a lot of folks out there who have already made these changes, but it’s been eye-opening to realize how much sugar was overtly or covertly woven into my diet. And a wonderful challenge to learn how to make my own staples or must-haves in a way that will work for my system.

2015 in review

I’m still here! It’s been a very strange year. Long story short: I’ve got a clinical diagnosis for Lyme disease, which helps clarify many years of culminating health concerns (I’m 8 years in).

Fingers crossed treatment options improve in 2016, that I find a team of local docs who know what they’re dealing with, and that I’m able to get back to this beloved blog as my mental and physical energy improve!

Thank you to everyone who has been a reader, experimenter, commenter, supporter, or guinea pig. I am so grateful to you!! May your 2016 be a healthy and happy one.

Two Approaches to Refrigerator Pickles – Easy + Quick!

Let me begin this post be stating: I love dill pickles. The whole family does. I only made one batch last year, and it was gone within a week.

And so… we began the summer with 3 lovely cucumber plants and dreams of a bountiful harvest, leading to a plethora of homemade pickles. We headed away on vacation in June with multiple very-promising cucumbers starting to appear. I felt buoyant with hope.