Chicken Fingers and Fries were always my favourite comfort food. When I had to remove gluten, corn, soy, and nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant), dairy, eggs and sugar, I wasn't sure what was left to eat. So finding or experimenting with allergen-free versions of some meals I missed led to some awesome discoveries. This is one of our family favourites!
INGREDIENTS:
5 Chicken Breasts
1/2 Cup Milk (Almond, Coconut, Milkadamia, Hemp, Rice for Dairy Free)
1 Cup Flour (Millett, Coconut or Almond work well!)
4 tbsp Flax or Sesame Seeds (Milled Flaxseeds were used in the photo above)
2 tbsp Baking Powder
2 tbsp Paprika
1 tsp Sea Salt or Herbamere
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F.
- Cut Chicken Breasts into slices of equal thickness (4-5 pieces per breast).
- Put cut slices in a bag or dish and cover with your choice of milk to coat.
- In a separate bag or container, mix up the rest of the ingredients to make the coating: Your Choice of Flour, Seeds, Baking Powder, Paprika, Sea Salt.
- Take chicken pieces a few at a time and drop them in the coating and shake to coat.
- Place them on a Baking Sheet covered with parchment paper.
- Bake in the oven until cooked through and inside temperature is 165 degrees F.
Serve with a Sweet Dipping Sauce!
I use 1/2 jar of Apricot Jam mixed with Poppyseed Dressing (Goodness Me makes an awesome version to avoid allergens). Just stir together and enjoy!
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When I was first diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, I didn't want to hear about anything that involved changing life habits. I had Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome. I didn't have the energy for change!
My first step was to just learn to rest and deal with the inner guilt that was triggered by being unproductive and withdrawing from people and responsibilities. I was used to gaining identity from success, accomplishments, appreciation, and helping others. I didn't know how to be the one in need. There is no script for just being - learning to rest our identity in God's value for us. I would feel ashamed when Lance would come home and ask about my day and I would say: "I didn't do anything. It was a low day."
Lance would repeat the same words to me each time: "You are doing something! You're healing. That's your full time job right now!" Such words of life to a perfectionistic achiever who burned out. I knew I was on a downward spiral. The more I avoided movements that made my body ache, the more I would lose strength and gain weight that would put more strain on sore muscles and joints.
Gradually, as I was ready to learn about making efforts to heal I began to try things.
I tried ways to be active that didn't involve hurting my achey muscles - like toning tables! The pads moved and my job was to resist the movement. It was something!
My Nutritionist Nurse Friend visited me with some resources to show me how I could get more nutrients from food by incorporating more vegetables like sweet potato, broccolli and other veggies that had never been in my diet before. I had always been a picky eater with very limited vegetable likes - think carrot and celery sticks, lettuce, corn, peas, beans... that might be it! It was time to grow up my taste buds into a more adult form!
I read a book about the yeast connection to Chronic Fatigue and learned that giving in to sugar cravings was feeding the harmful part of my microbiome or gut space. Too many anti-biotics in teen years had depleted the good bacteria that kept yeast in check. Without the probiotics, yeast were overgrowing in my digestive system and creating intestinal dysbiosis or leaky gut - a problem behind many food allergies and sensitivities. I did my first digestive and parasite cleanse to help clear away undigested food and build up of white flours and sugars that stick to the lining of the colon. Finally some positive change! As I dropped toxic waste from my system, my body began to function better. Digestion improved, headaches and body aches decreased and my energy was a little better. I felt like a weight was being lifted off!
My doctor sent me for allergy testing - the pin prick test - and found I was allergic to molds, dust, feathers, pets, eggs and a few other things that I can't recall now. It was hard to really know since my whole arm swelled up.There wasn't a lot to do about these things but keep an antihistamine and Ventolin inhaler on hand at all times.
After Cleansing, I was ready to track down foods that were a problem to me. I started with an anti-yeast diet cutting all sugars and most grains. I started to feel better gradually gaining strength. I still had daily headaches and muscle pain, alongside brain fog and low energy - but I was seeing improvement with quality of sleep and ability to function. I could do simple stretches and gentle movement. Eventually I had gained enough ground to want to start our family! My first son was born while I still had very limited energy, but my husband was sharing bottle feedings. My body couldn't produce enough milk for my sleepy preemie baby!
After child number two, I heard about Wheat and Dairy as prime suspects in creating food intolerances. Removing them helped my sinus and chest congestion, but did little to impact the headaches and body pain.
I was visiting my chiropractor after a car accident when I learned about a method of muscle testing that helped me track down the rest of my food sensitivities. My muscles weakened to a bunch of foods: Gluten, Corn, Soy, Dairy, Eggs, Nightshades, Sugar. I decided to remove them and see how I felt. This was overwhelming for me at first! What was left to eat??! But I started hunting for recipes and making over my cupboards. I just made one change - added one new recipe at a time. After a few weeks I was starting to have some pain free days. It was like my body had been on fire with inflammation for years and was now cooling and moving better. I could exercise a little more but the fatigue was still part of everyday. I was just so grateful to feel life moving forward again - my dreams of having a family were happening!!
After a miscarriage, I was so grateful to bring our third son into our family! But my health was still very low - about 60-70% of what I remembered normal to be.
Next learning curve was to remove toxic personal care and household products from our home. I tried a lot of different green brands - many were not appealing or effective and many still had harmful ingredients that I was looking to avoid. I was using essential oils and DIY cleaners, but not with total success.
Fast forward ten years and I don't even miss the foods I've cut out.
My friend introduced me to Young Living and I found a company that shared my values for environmental sourcing and practices, healthy relationships with workers, and so many healing options for my family that improved my everyday wellness!
After three years of gradually incorporating cleaner quality YL ingredients, I could never go back to using the products that used to cause respiratory and skin issues! I am grateful for the YL community around me that has kept pointing to a path ahead that I could try! It has been such a healing change one step at a time.
If I had been told I had to do all these steps when I was at my sickest to improve my health - I would likely have thrown up my hands and been discouraged enough to do nothing!
But little by little - small adjustments change our trajectory! I feel so much better now than I did in my twenties! But it was a long windy 30 year road to get here for me! So I encourage you, take one thing that resonates with you as a wellness habit to begin! Start with one change for a month or two... and when you are ready - take another step!
My passion has grown to reaching my hand back to those that were where I was - looking for a way forward! Let me know how I can be a support on your journey into new health and possibilities!
It's time to Thrive - together!
I sometimes wonder if it was wise to set up my office in the kitchen. Since I do the bulk of the cooking, I like the convenience of checking email while I wait for water to boil and staying nearby as things simmer so that I notice any problems.
But it is also the place people land to graze, make their lunches and play games. So it can be a hard place to focus.
But today I was grateful that my office is in the middle of the action. When each of my guys came down to find a lunch, I enjoyed connecting with them and making sure we are all doing well. This has been a long time from normal.
I see things when I make time to connect.
Today I forgot my rule to ask: "Would sympathy be helpful or do you want to problem solve?"
I got into problem solving mode with one of my guys when I realized this was not energizing to my family member. His slumped body posture told me he just needed a hug and a neck massage to refill the tank and just feel his importance. Love languages are important anytime.
I'm glad that many of my tasks are flexible and time deadlines are often self imposed. I want to make caring for my inner circle number one in whatever ways make sense day to day.
Having my workspace accessible to my family is good at this phase of life. My guys don't ask for much. But when they do, I'm glad to be present and available.
And when I do need a quiet work place to write, laptops are extremely portable - and so is my cuddle buddy, Cosmo!
Now if I was writing this reflection when they were little... you might get a different answer. To every season there is a rhythm that serves needs well.
Where is your home work space? What works best for you?
"We are made to grow and stretch and learn and we can't help but have our beliefs shift and grow with us. To force belief to be the uniting factor has been damaging to the church, I think.
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."
I believe our common ground should be "What is fruitful?" for we know the tree by its fruit.
God's way is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self Control, Creativity, Beauty... to walk in God's way empowered by the Spirit is what I feel unifies the Body.
We will often disagree - but the things that should hold us all to account are character things that make us more Christ like - not whether we all think the same.
The inquisition, the Crusades, witch hunts stem from a fear of other - "there is us and them..." but I think of humanity as just us.
I know this is rather broad minded but I can't help but think of the scriptures: "Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7 and I John 4 where "everyone who loves is born of God and knows God..." which means to me that as we align our hearts with God's Love we will be led to healthy places.
Pharisees and Sadducees were full of arguing points of Jewish law - but Jesus embodied the Spirit behind the Law. I feel like as I lead others to connect with God and encourage good fruit, I allow God the freedom to guide and shape each of our experiences and growth. I like healthy dialogue over checking belief boxes...
I, too, get discouraged by the prevalence of hate and fear being spread in Christian circles. I am so thankful that God is big enough to calm such storms and that I have the role of praying and doing my best to live a life that would please God - where love is the commandment I place above all other beliefs and thoughts...
I don't know if my perspective is helpful for you as you continue to find the way of love in the midst of increasing pressures and demands that people all around us are experiencing. I really have found the emotional prayer routine to be incredibly freeing over time as it is helping me move from places of fear and insecurity to more peaceful places of possibility. https://getoiling.com/.../14610/emotionally-grounding-prayer
Many of us have experienced harshness from places where we expected to find grace. Know that grace is God's language - anyone can judge, get cynical and criticize. To extend the table to outsiders was Jesus' way of making us all one. The table is big enough for all of us as God's creative masterpieces - with our goal to become what God intended us to be when creating and forming us!
I hope you recover your sense of your Belovedness and hear the voice of the One whose thoughts are higher than all our thoughts and whose ways are beyond ours. May the voices that crowd out grace fall silent in the midst of the God who IS Love - whose Spirit is Life and Peace.
“Thanks for telling me what you need!”
I found myself saying this to Cosmo, our 5 year old toy poodle, yesterday and it got me thinking about self protection.
Cosmo came from an unpredictable, threatening environment. He was 2.5 years old when we got him from a New York rescue. The moment he arrived he looked for the most nurturing person in the room and grabbed hold tightly. We wanted a dog for our youngest son, but he wouldn’t let me out of his sight. Eating was tricky. His digestive system was delicate and it took awhile to figure out the right food routine. He never let us know he needed to go out. He’d been trained to toilet on pee pads inside. He had never had experience walking for exercise. He didn’t know how to play. I found him really anxious, clingy and unpredictable. We needed to figure out some healthy routines and boundaries to keep me from feeling overwhelmed.
Alternately he was very reactionary. The world was approached as a threatening place and so strangers, opening a door, loud noises, walking near any other animal resulted in quick aggression. He would bite, growl and bark aggressively to warn away anybody who wasn’t family. He was very protective of me and would run to bite anyone outside our family circle who got too close while he was on my lap or walking with me. He allowed others in only if they were seated, quiet, nurturing and calm. We still have to watch him closely and teach him how to socialize with people. I don’t think he will ever socialize with other animals.
Three years later, he loves his routines. The predictability, the regular connection, the stimulation of performing tricks for rewards in the evening if he eats his dinner. He loves our essential oils that have relieved his digestive discomfort and help him feel nurtured. He relaxes deeply and lives very peacefully in our home.
Back to yesterday, I started to wash his dog dishes to refill with water and food after our morning walk and got distracted by putting away the dishes on the counter. Cosmo did a quick bark - just a signal - to remind me to finish the job of giving him water and food. To signal and ask for what he needs seems to be a sign of feeling safe. It means he is confident that his people want his needs to be met. My response was: “Thanks for telling me what you need!”
The sentence rang in my soul after I said it.
I realized that I, too, need to remind my heart that communicating need is not wrong - or burdening those who want to love us. My husband, sons and friends can’t read my mind. I need to learn how to ask for what I need.
I learned early to be a pleaser, a helper, an achiever and found it easy to defer and respond to the needs of others - but I can numb out and get lost in the exchange. Learning the vulnerability of admitting I need things from my people - that I have needs that should be factored into the plans each day - keeps me alive and present instead of numb, robotic and remote. We creatures connect in the places of our need… intimacy and trust is built on these connections without which the soul starves.
I’m committed to continuing to grow in communicating needs in healthy ways - not passive aggressive or sarcastic or withdrawing and self pity at a safe distance - not blaming when other's don’t perceive what my hints imply or anticipate what I might enjoy- not assuming someone doesn’t care because they can’t read my mind - not perceiving that the world is a harsh and threatening place that I need walls to survive. Just a simple ask from a place of vulnerability to people I trust because they want to love me well.
I hope, friends, that you have found a safe place where you can bring your needs without fear or without feeling like you are ‘too much’. Safety is one of the foundations on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - from there we can grow, create and life becomes full of possibilities!
