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Zero To Sick In Sixty Seconds: The Time I Found Out I Have Lyme Disease

There are some things I’ve been meaning to tell you…

Maybe you’ve noticed I haven’t been around as much lately. I want to let you in and tell you why.

I’ve been writing this post in my head for months. There are several drafts that have never left the confines of my brain. Do I really want to put this into the world — or rather, my world? Will these words sully my happy little blogging space where we talk about dancing bears and high five each other over the melted chocolate in our bra? This silly space where I tell you about trying to cook bacon pantsless? Everything is breezy, sunny, honest and goofy over here. I like it. It feels happy. That’s my intention. I have a feeling you come here to laugh. I love that you do. Honestly, truly.

But sometimes I’m not laughing. Sometimes I’m scared. Sometimes my gut is swirly and dizzy with anxiety. Sometimes life hands you a bucket of lemons and you get exhausted in the process of trying to make lemonade — it’s too many lemons for one person to juice. You want some of these lemons? I could use someone to share them with. I guess this post is me giving you a handful of lemons — sharing some sour honesty and being vulnerable enough with you (my wonderful readers) to let you in on what’s been going on lately. Whew. This feels vulnerable. I feel naked without my usual puns and sarcasm. Naked, with a whole bunch of lemons. I’m only kinda sorry for the visual. […]

Cucumber + Mint Limeade | Celebrating Pure Ella’s Virtual Baby Shower!

Hey! Today we’re celebrating our dear friend, the writer of the strikingly beautiful blog Pure Ella! Since Ella is expecting a brand new little one, we’ve decided to throw her a virtual baby shower! Maybe we can’t all get together in person and stuff our face with pretty food while rubbing her cute prego-belly, but that’s not going to keep us from celebrating. We’re rocking this baby shower virtual-style. We’re raising our glasses in front of the computer, wearing pajamas while totally thinking about the cute party dress we’d wear in real life. Oh, and I’m totally bringing the mocktails. […]

Slow-Cooker Beef Brisket With Bourbon BBQ Sauce {Gluten-Free & Paleo}

So, remember last week when we did our virtual rain dance while chowing down on these scones? Well, IT WORKED! As I’m writing this, the skies are stormy and the raindrops are pounding rhythmically off of my roof. There are puddles. I should know. Emma jumped in one earlier. This is one of the hazards of Golden Retriever ownership. That whole “I’m a water dog” thing? Yeah, that runs deeps. Instincts are real. Where Emma’s instincts are to throw herself into puddles and try to hurl her body into my bubble bath (yes, while I’m inside of it–it’s alarming to see a vivacious sixty-five pound creature running at you full tilt while you are naked in a confined body of water–trust me), my human instincts are telling me to cook something warm. Take a hunk of beef. Put it in a slow cooker. Take a nap. Watch a movie. Wear a chunky sweater. Meditate on the sound of the rain. Be cozy. Put on some jazz music. Pour yourself some tea. Did some bourbon slip itself into that cup of tea? Whoa. Sneaky. […]

Super Green Apple Juice

Oh, look. Green juice.
You saw this coming, didn’t you?
My body is into it. After cookie-ing and booze-ing and making the world’s cheesiest mac and cheese for Christmas dinner, it just feels like a solid move to open up my fridge and cram all of the vegetables I can muster into a quart of super-charged green juice. It feels Popeye-esque. I halfway expect to drink this jug o’ juice, spawn some serious triceps, and punch the day in the face with awesome force.
In other words, it feels good. It feels like a proper New Year reset button. I might have not spawned immediate Popeye triceps, but I totally got out of the yoga pants I’ve been living in, put on a decent looking adult human sweater and slapped some mascara on my eyelashes. Oh, and there is a bra and it is on my body. Are we not supposed to talk about bras? I don’t remember the rules. Things are moving in the right direction. I’m officially recovering from the sloth-ity that was my holiday vacation. I’m nearly ready to sit down and do some intention setting for this year. Maybe I will even do a post about it in order to keep myself accountable. Things become progressively more real once you put them out into the world… or in my case, the entire interweb. Yikes. […]

Totally Easy Slow-Cooker Kalua Pork

Happy New Year, Friends! I hope you enjoyed a bit of holiday R&R! What did you do? Did you travel? Did you stay home? Was there any Christmas caroling? How about scandalous NYE romance? Did your crazy aunt get drunk and take off her wig? I want stories. Spill it. You should write me. I enjoy a good tale.
I had a quiet holiday this year. The husband and I enjoyed cozy fires and copious amounts of carbs mixed with cheese. There was bourbon-sipping and movie marathons. There was friendship, wine, merriment and board games. There were cookies, a bag of butterscotch caramels, and a complicated relationship with a bag of chocolate-drizzled kettle corn. I’m just now slowly and reluctantly coming out of my Netflix coma and assimilating back into the real world. I suppose I should start drinking more water and wearing less yoga pants (oh, and possibly doing MORE yoga) — but, let’s just ease into things. I’m needing a little more time to regroup and reboot before I come in here guns blazing a fired up trail of resolutions and green juice. We’ll get there. There will be a notebook scrawled with 2014 intention setting and polar bears doodled haphazardly in its margins. But, for now… let’s just enjoy that sleepy moment right after waking up from a long nap. The late morning sun is shining in through my window and I just want to lay here a little longer with my eyes closed and take it all in. It’s comfortable here. […]

Gluten-Free Christmas Cookie Exchange!

It’s officially one week ’til Christmas. Whoa.

So, as I sit here frantically ordering Christmas presents on Amazon and trying to figure out who is going to puppy-sit my crazy dog when we go out of town next week, I thought it would be best if we eased some of the frenetic energy with COOKIES. Lots of cookies. I have some pretty talented cookie loving blogger friends. We’ve got you covered.  […]

Bacon & Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies {Gluten-Free}

To say you don’t like cookies, would be like saying you don’t like happiness. Or puppies. Or air to breathe. Sure, there’s probably a variety of cookie you may avoid due to preference, allergies, or dietary restrictions – but who the heck doesn’t like the idea of a cookie?

I LOVE cookies.When I was young, we used to buy a big tub of cookie dough at Costco, which my brother and I would attack with a spoon (salmonella be damned!). I used to take a to-go box from my college cafeteria, and fill the entire thing with fresh-baked cookies. I’d go so far as to say that most of life’s problems can be calmed with a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk (or almond milk in the case of my early-30’s, late-onset lactose intolerance). There’s a great scene in the film Stranger Than Fiction that covers this idea.

Somehow I am not obese.

[…]

Holiday Gift Guide + $500 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway!

Howdy, Friends!

So, it’s kind of been GIVEAWAY CENTRAL around here lately, and today we’re continuing the fun with this $500 AMAZON GIFTCARD GIVEAWAY! Woo hoo!!

I sorta-kinda feel like Oprah. Only, I don’t get to point to each and every one of you and hand you pairs of my favorite sweatpants and bars of chocolate and expensive noise-canceling headphones. Also, no one is getting a car. That would be fun though, right?  Okay, so, nothing like Oprah. But, you get it. I’ve been teaming up with lots of my lovely blogger friends in order to bring you some SWEET holiday giveaways. Have you entered to win my $100 Paypal Cash Giveaway? How about my Vitamix Giveaway? I’m telling you, it’s like a Santa’s workshop around here…but, with Oprah. No. Still no? Okay. I’m going to give up on the Oprah references. Maybe. […]

The Ultimate Gluten-Free Pumpkin Recipe Round-Up

(Photos by, Tasty Yummies, Texanerin Baking, Healthful Pursuit & The Pig & Quill)
Oh Em Gee… Pumpkin.

It’s happening. Pumpkin season is in full swing. I can’t be the only one who is trying to add this stuff to everything. I pretty much want everything to taste like pie. Is that so wrong? I say no. I say everything is better when it tastes like pie. I’m sure this isn’t true, but fall is ruining my brain with such thoughts.

As it turns out, I’m not the only one that is going absolutely pumpkin bonkers. Oh, no. I’m in some really great company. A lot of my blogger friends have gone off the rails and joined me in this celebratory pumpkin on pumpkin on pumpkin par-tayyyy! You wanna come? You’re totally invited. That’s why I’ve put together this recipe round-up of FIFTY pumpkin recipes that are all GLUTEN-FREE!!!

Well… what are you waiting for? Let’s dig in, shall we?  xox […]

Plantain Skillet Brownies With Salted Caramel Sauce { Gluten-Free & Paleo }

You know how I can’t seem to NOT let a banana turn all brown and mushy and gross? It’s like one of my hobbies. Should we count the times I’ve actually reached into my purse and accidentally squished an over-ripe banana all over my wallet? It’s a lot of times. I never learn that lesson. Curse the banana for being so portable and so quick to ripen! It’s a trick of nature. This is my way of shifting the blame onto an entire species of fruit that I can’t seem to get it together and clean out my purse like a grown up. I think it’s working.
Lucky for you, my reckless regard for the shelf life of a banana is working in your benefit. Remember this Tipsy Blueberry Banana Bread? That recipe rose from the ashes of a bunch of black bananas like a gosh darn Phoenix. After that post, my lovely friend Lauren commented that I really should be freezing all of these bananas and that they don’t need to hang out on my counters dying and attracting fruit flies. Okay, she didn’t put it like that… but, I got the hint and I totally started loading up the freezer. There are a comical amount of frozen bananas in there. I am seriously waiting for my husband to open up the freezer and have an avalanche of frozen bananas rain down on him. Not only would that be comically genius, but the look on his face would be priceless and probably pretty angry. Is it wrong that I find it super endearing when he gets angry? Oh, marriage.  […]