Hey There… I’m Erika!
I’m pretty much just your average wife and mother whose days are filled with wiping little noses & butts. I also make YouTube videos about food & life – after washing my hand of course! Oh, and there’s this little obsession I have with my VitaMix… It’s ok to hug your kitchen appliances every now and then, right?
My insanity began the day I said ‘I do’ … that was when my Raw Food / Vegetarian world collided with my Meat & Potato Husband’s. Fast forward to today… We’ve added 3 precious boys through the amazing gift of adoption – each one of my little men came wired with very different allergies and health issues. Their allergies range from dairy, wheat/gluten, nuts, eggs & fruits to requiring liquid diets and all kinds of other things I pray they’ll outgrow.
Between all of our different dietary preferences and restrictions, I found myself re-writing our family menu over and over again until I had just about lost my mind over what to prepare everyone to eat. I also did not have the time or money to prepare 5 different meals. Determined to keep our meals whole, healthy and as raw as possible, I prayed for wisdom and set my mind to create recipes that can be easily adapted for almost any allergy or diet restriction – but that are still tasty and affordable!
The end result of my madness is what you’ll find here.
I’m not perfect, but I always try to make sure my heart’s in the right place… I hope you’ll keep that in mind when you poke around the site or watch my videos.
I’d love to hear more about you, so drop me a line sometime!
Thanks & God Bless!
~ Erika
Wife, Mother & Chief Nutjob
By the way, if you haven’t figured it out already… I love Jesus more than anything else in this world! Everything I do is influenced by Him, so naturally you’ll find my faith intertwined in many of my posts/videos. I understand and respect that not everyone shares my viewpoint, so I only ask that you be respectful towards my beliefs as well when commenting. If there’s something I’ve said or done that you don’t understand, please feel free to email me directly! Thanks!
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WHAT YOU’LL FIND HERE:
My favorite topics are usually about preparing healthy meals that are adaptable for most diet types, restrictions & budgets. I’ll try to post several suggestions for substituting ingredients whenever possible. And I almost always try to make my recipes with all organic, whole food & as much raw (uncooked/fresh) ingredients as possible. I almost always post a corresponding YouTube video for each recipe.
I occasionally like to talk about my family since they inspire me in all I do at home and here online… they are also the driving force behind my insanity.
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MORE ABOUT MY FAMILY & OUR DIETARY WEIRDNESS
Me? Well, I’m a total health nut and prefer a raw, vegetarian & whole food diet whenever possible. Extreme health issues and personal taste have driven me to find my niche in the food world, and I’m satisfied with that. Some people call me ‘picky’, but I respond with ‘No, I just know exactly what I like!’
My husband on the other hand (who was raised on a cattle ranch), will eat anything… and by that I mean, anything. I affectionately call him the ‘human garbage disposal.’ You can imagine my reaction when he brought me home for the first time to meet his parents… only to be served up a 2 inch slice of bloody beef on a giant slice of sourdough bread! (dry heaves!) But, apparently our love for each other ran deeper than diet, because we married in 1995, and with a little compromise here and there he’ll still eat anything I put in front of him (except pumpkin pie). I like to think of him now as a ‘reformed’ eater.
Unable to have our own biological children, we have been blessed with 3 magnificent boys through adoption. Their unique abilities and challenges bring a range of color and character to our home – which includes their special dietary needs.
Our first son is highly allergic to many things including dairy, eggs, soy, some nuts & fruits, artificial food coloring, and more! His diet also greatly affects his behavior, and even the slightest deviation from it can mean days of horrible allergies and aggravation of his sensory processing & rage issues.
Our second son has neurological, speech (Apraxia of Speech) & bowel issues and cannot have gluten/wheat, dairy and casein. On top of all of that, he had severe dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) for the first couple years of his life and needed a liquid diet to prevent choking. Early intervention therapy and his modified diet has contributed to a miracle turn around in his mental clarity.
Our third son is still very little, but has already shown a clear aversion to dairy and soy. The good news, is that I already know what to do with this one!
I am convinced that diet directly affects every aspect of our lives, including physically, mentally and spiritually. Although I’ve made some food compromises over the years, I still believe that food we eat must be good for you. If you were to stop by for a meal today, you’d find that we generally eat a 50/50 ratio of raw & whole food… although we almost always eat 100% raw if someone gets sick. It’s a balance that works well for our family and I hope you’ll find something here that will help you too!
Whew! If you’ve read down this far, you deserve something chocolate… or if you’re a glutton for punishment you can read more about us in the FAQ’s (which may or may not have a scary photo of my bangs from the 80′s!).
