Low-Carb Cauliflower Mashed un-Potatoes

So, I've been getting some requests to hear about how my candida cleanse is going. I've been on the diet aspect for about a month and a half now, and have tried two candida cleanse kits from the health food store so far.

The first one, Zand Candida Quick Cleanse, was something I grabbed on the fly. I mainly wanted to start with something non-invasive to see how my body would react to an herbal cleanse of this kind, and I sure got what I wanted! Non-invasive, for sure. I felt no different, really. It helped initially with the yeast infection (brought on by antibiotics earlier in the year), but it came back as soon as the cleanse was done. I did get a little light-headed a few times during the cleanse, but that was the only noticeable effect it had on my body. Oh, and they smelled and tasted like death. Thumbs down.

The next one I started taking about a week after the first product ended. Solaray Yeast Cleanse - it was a little more expensive, and a brand I've used before. Less Ingredients, which was fine because I was taking a couple other immune system and probiotic supplements along with it. I was a little happier with this one. I still didn't feel any different in terms of brain fog, fatigue, etc. but it helped a lot more with the yeast. I just finished this cleanse a couple days ago, and it hasn't come back yet.

I'm beginning to think that either candida isn't my issue (highly unlikely, given the symptoms) or I need something FAR more hardcore than over the counter supplements. I understand this will be a long process, but is it too much to ask to see SOME kind of abated symptoms? I feel like if I fudge and even have a little bit of carbs or sugar while not taking any herbal supplements that the candida will just RAGE in my system again. This makes me so unhappy, considering the time of year I'm doing this. I want to make pumpkin pie and have mashed potatoes with roasted carrots and pickled beets and SUSHI! But.. not all in one meal. That might be pushing it. ;) (I'd probably still eat it though, if given that dinner option!)

Speaking of potatoes, for Thanksgiving I wanted to make a mashed potato substitute that I could have with gravy, and I believe I may have found it in a cauliflower.

You heard me: Cauliflower Mash! With roasted garlic, I might add.

I've been using cauliflower a lot these days, and what better thing to use for a mash than cauliflower? It doesn't have the creamy, starchy consistency that potatoes have, but it's an awesome side dish - especially with gravy. ;)

Low-Carb Cauliflower Mashed un-Potatoes

1 1/2 heads of cauliflower
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil-based Earth Balance
2 Tbsp. roasted garlic (I had some on-hand)
1 Tbsp. brown rice miso paste
salt and pepper to taste
splash of Bragg's liquid aminos
saffron to garnish

Put a pot of water on the stove to boil. Once the cauliflower has been washed thoroughly, cut it into uniform florets, and add to the boiling water. When they're tender, take them out and drain.

In a large bowl or food processor, mash the cauliflower until it's a mostly-smooth consistency. Add remaining ingredients, and mash to combine. Mash, mash, mash! (Can you tell I did this by hand?)

Garnish with saffron and serve!

Do you have any favorite mashed potato alternatives? How do you like to dress up your mashed potatoes?

Update: Change in the Winds...

Hello everyone!

It's been a long time since I've posted here at The Gluten-Free Hippie, and I'm sad about that. My life has been an intense ride since the holidays, with a lot of dietary changes and adjustments (including months of eating gluten - booo!) Because of this, you'll see a lot of new subject matter in the coming months, including omnivorous recipes, more product reviews, news, and fun giveaways. :) But don't worry, this blog will always and forever be 100% gluten free!

Wait, what? Omnivorous posts, you say? Yep! I've come to find that my body has a hard time not only processing gluten, but also most beans, lactose/casein, and most soy products (unless they're fermented, like tempeh, miso, etc.) I have, however, always digested animal protein just fine. So, I will occasionally post recipes with meat, but keep mostly vegan. Soon I will have a smaller tab below my banner with a link to JUST my vegan recipes, so you can skip right to them if you're vegan. I would hate to lose my vegan readers/recipe lovers just because I need to change my diet!

Despite all of the dietary fluctuation, I'm in the best shape I've ever been in, and feeling great about life! Now I just need to cleanse my internal system and stop giving in to useless indulgences. :)

I hope to see and hear more of you all in the future! I look forward to sharing all my fun and tasty recipes with everyone!


Blessings,
Lyra

I'm baaack!

Hello everyone!!

It's been far too long since I've posted here. I'm very happy to say that I am back and will be posting MUCH more from now on!

Jeremy and I have moved back to Eugene, OR, after getting offered work here in the spring. He's working for an alternative energy company, and thriving. I'm currently looking for work, as my job offer was temporary. Getting into modeling though, which is being really fun! I'm loving the networking aspect so far, and looking forward to getting some steady gigs from that in the future. In the meantime, I'm still writing. :)

In regards to this blog, you may see some interesting changes in the coming months. I've just started an anti-Candida diet, with an accompanying cleanse. So for the next couple months at the very least, I'm going to be excluding sugar, alcohol, most carbohydrates, most soy, processed anything (unless it's raw fermented or probiotic), fruits (except lemons, limes, tomatoes and avocado) and starchy/sweet vegetables. Most of my diet will consist of protein and lightly cooked vegetables.

I've heard many many arguments that mushrooms should be excluded as well, but that never really made sense to me, so I did some digging and found this article. In the article, Sarah and John Vaughter write:

Candida albicans in both yeast- and mycelial form is about as related to mushrooms or the fungus in blue cheese as a fish is to a lizard, and over-generalizing will harm instead of help. Discouraging the consumption of molds and mushrooms because “You are feeding the Candida its own kind” is utter nonsense on many levels, and you’ll never see a link to a scientific article to prove it – because there aren’t any.

They also link to studies on the subject. Whew! I'm going to keep mushrooms in my diet unless I notice a change.

What does this mean for you, my loyal readers? Nothing! I'll still be posting all the fun and eclectic dishes that I always have, but now with more creative, focused style. I'm looking forward to posting some awesome dishes for all of you!


Blessings and love,
Lyra

Update! GlutenFreeHippie.com!

Hello everyone!!

I'm so pleased to tell all of you that my blog is now hosted on GlutenFreeHippie.com! Yay!! I'm so excited to have my own domain name now. And don't worry, Blogger will automatically redirect to the new site, so you don't have to change your bookmarks. ;)

There are also some new things in the works: a new affiliate program, a Gluten-Free Hippie store, and a new blog that's all about chocolate! Look for these things up on my site in the near future!

I'm really glad that things are back up and running, and very much in full swing! I missed posting my fun recipes while I was off getting married!

So, today, being a Sunday, and having just set up my new site, I'm off to the lake. ;) See you tomorrow!

Blessings and foodie love,
Lyra

Of Moose and Melons: A Faerieworlds/Wedding Story

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the lateness of this post, but we just got home! We arrived in Powell River yesterday morning at 1a.m., wow!

This was my fifth year attending the Faerieworlds Festival (Aug. 1-3), and I have to say that this year was the best year I've ever attended. Camping with all of my FW friends from all over the world definitely put it over the top for me; I really enjoyed the intense community of family that we all put together, and a lot of us had never met in person! That's a hard thing to pull off, for sure.

Ironically, I think the best night was after FW was over! Sunday night, we all converged on our camp for food, fire, and firewater! Thanks to Sammy for creating such an amazing, gigantic curry feast for everyone. And Sammy, Cat and Dede were also pretty liberal with their home-made Limoncello... Yum!

Jeremy & I got a chance to firedance (fire fans!!) together for the first time, and our friend Brandon got a chance to do something he'd always dreamed of: a hoop-strip that had him spinning while disrobing, ending up in nothing but gold lamé hotpants and a sequined bow-tie, lying on his back with one leg extended up, spinning his fire hoop with his foot! Then there was Yona, who firedanced in nothing but my frilly new bloomers! The whole evening was better than any bachelor/ette party we could have asked for. :)

After FW, we went back to Eugene, picking up odds and ends that we hadn't already acquired for the wedding, and then on Tuesday evening, we headed to the coast. A few of my family members were already at Whalen Island, Oregon, the camp ground we'd picked for the event. Whalen Island is an island in a coastal estuary south of Tillamook that just got turned into a nature preserve. It's full of all kinds of waterfowl, shellfish, even foxes - and when the tide goes out, there's sand flats for miles around the island!

On Wednesday, we had a small gathering of friends and family for my birthday, and I firedanced for my family for the first time! And thankfully, we'd even set up a separate kitchen for vegans and those with food allergies. :) Oh, what merriment was had!

Thursday, more people were showing up and we started to scout the location of the ceremony. We saw the sun a couple of times, but mostly low-lying clouds kept the atmosphere cool and mysterious - a blessing, considering how much we'd baked in the hot sun at Faerieworlds! We had a large sail borrowed from a friend that we had planned on setting up as a shade structure, but we didn't end up using it (which turned out to be a good thing, as pretty strong winds came up Friday and Saturday).

Friday, August 8th: The main event!

Our original plan had been to have the ceremony on the beach, but the older folks weren't really up to the walk, so we were going to change to a grassy location by the water... until the wind came up. We found a little sheltered area, almost a chapel secluded among the trees, and set up there.

The ceremony was beautiful: our friend Ariella (who is a musician, trained opera singer, and cantorial soloist) was the officiant, and she did an amazing job writing it with us. She knew exactly what we wanted with very little help from us - very nature-based, loosely Jewish, with emphasis on an equal, spiritual partnership between our hearts, minds and bodies. During the ceremony she passed around a hemp string for everyone to hold a piece of, representing the connection we all have with one another, while she sang three of the traditional seven blessings. I arranged the ceremonial altar myself, with objects that hold meaning to us (a few pieces of which were found objects from FW.) Our flower girl, who was Jeremy's seven-year-old niece, Shira, quite animatedly flung the flowers (that she picked herself) at us. Our chuppah (Jewish wedding canopy) was supported by seven-foot poles from downed saplings, topped with a wool blanket that Jeremy got in the Greek Islands. We exchanged rings of hammered rose gold, made by a wonderful artist from Portland. Most of the seating was bamboo mats and tapestries on the grass. Oh, and the bouquets for the bridesmaids and I were made from lavender, marjoram, roses (for me), basil and mint (for them) and get this: purple KALE leaves and flowers! It fit perfectly with our purple/green color theme.



After the ceremony, we all gathered in Camp Central (my Uncle Sunny's gift to me) and loaded up on vegan root veggie curry (and various meats that my carnivorous family provided), with gluten-free, organic vegan mini-cupcakes from Divine Cupcake in Eugene. The tablecloths for the dining tables (read: picnic tables!) were fabric which my mom will make into a quilt for us.

Once it got dark, Me, Jeremy, and half a dozen of our friends firedanced for the crowd. Jeremy and I did fire fans together again and overall had a pretty wonderful time. There was one time toward the end of the night where I yelled "Ok everyone! Anyone who wants to hug the bride can do it right over here!!". Surprisingly quickly, I had about 25 people all snuggled around me, swaying back and forth, ohming loudly in various harmonies, which lasted a good 5 minutes! :)

Saturday, we woke up to two cases of young coconuts being opened and passed around by our friend Fenicks, who arrived late Friday night. We had intended to stay and chill one more day, but it was getting a little too chilly by then, with rain forecast for the evening, so we all packed up and said our goodbyes. Literally 30 seconds after the last people got finished packing and closed the car doors, it started POURING down rain! Like big, heavy bucket loads. Jeremy and I were having lunch in town at that point, and were watching the raindrops shoot sideways against the windows. What an intense send-off!

The next week was spent in Vancouver, WA getting marriage and name change stuff taken care of, and seeing more family and friends. Ironically, after the cool reception we'd had at the coast, the temperature started soaring, hitting 105 on Thursday. Our Gypsy van started having trouble in the heat, so we took her to a repair shop, they couldn't recreate the problem she was having, so we chalked it up to heat issues.

On Friday, we headed up to Seattle to spend the night with our friend Nora, and on Saturday, just past the border, we got caught in traffic. It turned out that someone had run out of gas on a bridge a couple of miles ahead of where we were, and that's when Gypsy started acting up again. Chalking it up to heat yet again, we pulled off to the side of the road and sat in the shade for about an hour. Once traffic let up a bit, were back on the way, but only for a short while. Traffic slowed to a crawl again once we got onto the bridge, and she finally died going uphill. A very nice traffic guy gave us a nudge to get over the bridge, and we coasted downhill and made our way to a place we could pull off. We waited and waited, but Gypsy wouldn't restart. We stayed with a cousin of a friend there overnight, who was wonderfully obliging, and took us out to eat since we'd spent the last of our money in the car shop in Vancouver, WA. We packed a couple bags of necessities, and took the bus to Powell River, finally arriving Monday morning at 1a.m.

So, our van will have to be donated to charity (everything that would need to be fixed to get her to run and then all the rest that would go into getting her fixed to be licensed and registered in BC just doesn't make financial sense) and all of our stuff from our month-long trip is sitting in a garage in Port Coquitlam, south of Vancouver, BC.

With that said, we're still in high spirits and feeling good about everything that happened. We have to let go of our most wonderful Gypsy van, but it could've happened very differently, so we're thankful that everything happened the way it did. We still have Pixie, our VW Cabriolet convertible, so money that would've been used to fix Gypsy will now be put toward winterizing Pixie.

...And this, my beautiful Foodie friends, is why we embrace Chaos. ^.~*


Blessings and exhausted, chaotic love,
Lyra and Jeremy

Update

Hello everyone!

As you've probably noticed, I've put this blog on the back burner for awhile. I love writing this blog, but there are far too many things taking up my time right now for me to be able to write on a regular basis.

I do plan to keep The Gluten-Free Hippie going, but I need to let you all know that I'll be taking a break until after out wedding, August 8th of this year. We'll be leaving for Portland next week to finish with wedding plans and see family, then the wedding will held on the Oregon coast on the 8th of next month. :)

Unfortunately, I don't have any guest bloggers lined up. BUT! I will be writing and taking pictures of food that I create (or find at restaurants) so I can post them when the craziness has subsided.

I look forward to cookin' up a storm and writing for you again soon!


Blessings,
Lyra

Update: I'm in Los Angeles!

Holy crap, guys!

Jeremy and I drove down to Los Angeles last week from our home in BC. We left Tuesday afternoon, and arrived in L.A. Thursday afternoon. Something like a 30 hour drive all the way through, not counting a couple stops to see family.

We came down for the Natural Products Expo West this last weekend, which is a trade show for all things organic, natural, healthy, and sustainable. Not just food, but things like body care, clothing, home decor, etc. We've got a ton of new writing material from it, as well as new products I'll talk about, and made some really good connections with a few food companies.

Going to the Expo has inspired me to start another blog, The Cruelty-Free Hippie, where I'll be talking about vegan non-food items like clothing, beauty lines, etc. Also, Jeremy and I are co-creating a blog all about exotic chocolates and teas. We're totally revved up, and can't wait to share all of these things with you! :)

We're going to be staying in L.A. until Saturday morning, at which point we'll be taking a leisurely drive back up the coast to Portland to see family, then haul our Gypsy Van back up to Canada.

Things are going really well with this trip, for sure. I'm still amazed at just how many things we pack into one schedule each day. It's why I haven't posted in a few days - it's been pure madness! It's been refreshing to be down here again, but I'm going to be very happy to be back at our home in Powell River. :)


Blessings and love,
Lyra

March Royal Foodie Joust!

Remember my entry for the Royal Foodie Joust, but on by the Leftover Queen? It was the Ginger-Lime Tofu with Citrus Marmalade Glaze. Well, the voting begins today! I would love it if you could take a few moments to go to the forum (if you're registered) and vote for me. The winner receives a Royal Foodie Joust Apron. If I win, I promise I'll post pictures of me modeling it! :D

You do have to be member in the forum for at least a week to vote, so if you're not a member yet, you can't vote for me this month. It's a really fun forum though, so I encourage you to join and vote for me next month!


Vote for me!

Update!

As you've probably noticed, I've added a lot of new things to my blog in the past few days. I can now do email subscriptions, joined a couple affiliate sites, added a feature where you can rate my blog, and am now part of a few (really) fun Blogrolls. I'm particularly happy about the Blogrolls, because it connects me to so many other food geeks and brings more people to my page. After putting them on this morning, I came home tonight and had three new comments from Blogroll people! Yay!

The Foodie Blogroll is going to be quite exciting because they do a "Royal Foodie Joust" (run by the Queen of Leftover Foods) which is a monthly contest for all the foodies out there who want to participate. The idea is, everyone gets three ingredients to work with, chosen by the previous month's winner, and whoever gets the most votes as "best dish" wins a Royal Foodie Joust apron! I'm SO excited for this!


This month's ingredients are:

pork (I'm using tofu instead)
citrus
pink or white peppercorns

I'll be making my dish tomorrow for an early Valentine's Day dinner, then going out to an undisclosed (by Jeremy) location for drinks to watch the sunset over Vancouver Island. Watching the sun set over those high peaks is just breathtaking.


If you scroll down through all those icons on my right-hand side, make sure to rate my blog, and leave me a comment to tell me what you think of the new updates. I'd love to get some more comments and feedback on my recipes, too! *nudgenudge* ;)


Blessings!
Lyra

Update: Canada! (With Mandarin-Date Sweet Potatoes)

Wow. It has been a long while since I've posted here. But I have good reason! Jeremy and I moved to the Sunshine Coast, in British Columbia. Powell River, to be precise. Jeremy got a job at The Peak, which is the local newspaper, as a reporter. We've been looking to move to Canada for awhile now, to start a sustainable farm, but didn't think we'd get here so fast! The Sunshine Coast lives up to its name, but it was as if Winter rose up to greet us. The Day after we arrived, we got 4 inches of snow! It was definitely a white wonderland.

Here's Jeremy and I at our new home:

More photos coming soon!

I'm VERY excited because of this particular town. There are many good things going for it:
- First city in the world to ban GMO crops
- High population of people who follow the 100 Mile Diet, shortened to 50 Miles to accommodate the isolation - Only accessible by ferry (a must if strange, apocalyptic things happen[like zombies]) with a population of about 14K proper, 20K with surrounding towns
- Right-wing parties make up about 10% of the population, last to the Green, Liberal, and Socialist parties
- 600 musicians in the local musicians' directory (slightly irrelevant, but awesome!!)

and because of all (okay, well.. most) these things, there is a very high demand for more farms! I'm very pleased, because I can start with making food for the Farmer's Market and it looks like there aren't really any businesses around here that do lacto-fermented and cultured foods. So, I'm going to try my hand at cultured veggies! I've always wanted to do that, but never really had the fire lit under my ass to really do it. So, I've started my sourdough starter, and in a couple days will be able to make some breads and things to begin with. :) Yay!

AND, how could I post without a recipe? I mean seriously. I made this for US Thanksgiving, and is was a huge hit! Much better than your typical, gelatin-filled marshmallow stuff.

---

Mandarin-Date Sweet Poatoes

3 sweet potatoes
juice of four mandarin oranges
half-package of dates (about two dozen)
two thin sliced mandarin oranges
two tablespoons earth balance
a light dusting of cloves and cinnamon

Chop the sweet potatoes and dates, and throw them into a rectangular baking dish. There's no need for peeling the potatoes; the skin is good for you!
Squeeze the oranges all over the potato mixture, then mix it all up really well with your hands*.
Top the mix with little dollops of Earth Balance (or smear, your hands are dirty after all), arrange the slices, and dust the spices across the top.

Bake in a 400 degree oven, covered, for about 30-45 minutes, 'til desired firmness.

Serve warm and enjoy! We loved this. :)

(*I tried mixing this with a big spoon, but quickly failed miserably, since the pan was so full. I prefer using my hands anyway. :P)


I hope everyone is having a wonderful winter season! <3