Wow what a journey the past months have been!  I will update my bio section as some of the recipes featured in this blog will change a bit!  I am on a dairy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free diet due to Lyme Disease.  The part of the proceeding that’s been really hard for me (and I still have some cheat treats here and there) is no SUGAR!!! I love making desserts and sweetening them with honey, coconut sugar, maple syrup, maple sugar, etc. Finding new sweeteners was always fun because I LOVE SWEET TREATS!!!  Stevia is my friend now – getting used to the taste, but sometimes I feel like it makes me feel sick.  It is a detox agent for Lyme so it’s the only one right now.  I am on the hunt for good dessert recipes using stevia – hopefully I will be able to feature some on this blog!!  In the mean time I did make tapioca pudding using french vanilla flavored liquid stevia from Whole Foods – I can’t complain!

                

For this recipe I followed the instructions on the back of the box.  I doubled the recipe so I would have a week long treat.  Personally I like my tapioca a little on the thick side.  I usually decrease the amount of liquid to tapioca ratio. For doubling the recipe, it would have called for 1/2 cup of tapioca & 6 cups of coconut milk.  However, I did 1/2 cup of tapioca pearls & 3 cans of coconut milk (roughly that is almost 5 cups).  I have also experimented with different coconut milks and it seems that the following works the best in the sense of consistency:  thick & creamy.

Okay moving on!

Let’s talk about oral care!  I have switched to paleo mouth products.  Super exciting to announce I am totally digging all the products!!  Here are some toothpastes, mouthwashes & powders I have started to use – check back later this week & I will post reviews in the main heading section of “beauty.”

Below are two different mouth washes – they are completely different in texture & compound.  I believe that having two different products to target different bacteria (promote the good, rid the bad) is always great!!!  You can use one as a morning rinse after breakfast and one as an afternoon rinse after lunch… or if you have kids & work you can just do it whenever it is convenient for you!

Below are new toothpastes (Hello Products – they also make kids’ paste) I found at our local Wegman’s!! I was so happy to see paleo products there!! GO NATURAL OR GO HOME!  As you can see I have used the pink one.  I love it so much that I have been banging the container on the counter for the past two days in hope of getting every last drop out; and, you will be happy to know I have succeeded!  For your reference, the pink tube is “sensitivity relief” and the grey tube is “whitening.”  I have no tried the whitening one yet, but I did notice some improvement from the pink tube.  I have tried every OTC sensitivity toothpaste including prescription strength fluoride toothpastes, etc. and nothing has worked.  I was excited to find that this did help a little, not much, but it’s better than nothing!!  Give them a try, great taste, natural ingredients!

… and of course Taylor’s tooth powder (featured in the beauty section already) is an absolute favorite.  I did start doing some coconut oil pulling – not sure if it is having any benefit, but if you want to try it all you do is put a big dollop of coconut oil in your mouth, swish for 20 minutes & spit!

 

One last thing to overwhelm you with in this random post about everything!  A new nut butter featured at Costco has me going crazy!!!

Oh my gosh I am obsessed!!! I have 1-2 tbsps of NuttZo throughout the day instead of turning to my sugary paleo sweet treats!!! Love this so much, highly recommend – it’s a great blend of a variety of nuts.

Tune back friday!