Noelle likes Good Food

*update: I also wrote an article for the detox and got published in a magazine!! Click on the link to see the article :). OR Today - Kombucha Detox Chris and I are doing a two week detox together!! We will be starting Monday, Jan 6th and we want to welcome anyone that wants to join us. Today I will be going over the basics of what to eat and what not to eat. As well as some recipes that we plan on using and other suggestions to aid in the detox process. So, lets jump in! First of all, starting a detox is a big step and shouldn't be taken lightly. It can be a wonderful opportunity to reset your taste buds and help you start the new year eating more mindfully and intentionally. I shared with you in a previous post how much I enjoyed doing this detox in November and this time my husband is doing it with me :)! For the detox there are a few food guidelines that we need to go over. We will start with what not to eat. DON'T EAT: Pork, Conventional beef, Processed meats, Da...

Hey everyone! Again it has been way too long since I have written. I feel like I have so much to tell you. The last several weeks have been full of cooking, preserving garden harvests, giving my husband a surprise birthday party, making cookie cake for 300 people, and lots of work and school. Speaking of, school is almost done for the semester! I have 1 week of classes left before Thanksgiving break and after that I just have finals. So many happy things :). I will talk about all of that later, but for now I want to tell you about my detox. Last Friday I started a detox with my friend, Jaime. It was all her idea and I am so glad we are doing it! We decided to cut out dairy, ALL sugar (refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, fruit, honey, stevia, etc), corn, gluten, soy, caffeine, alcohol, pork and processed meats. My friend is also cutting out red meat, but I decided to keep eating beef. We have a freezer full of grass-fed beef, and organic chicken and wild caught fish are way o...

I wanted chocolate for breakfast. So I made chocolate pancakes.  Mission accomplished. Dark Chocolate Pancakes (Free of Gluten, Dairy, Refined Sugar, and Eggs) Makes enough for two pancakes 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp Brown Rice Flour 2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder (I used Hershey's Dark Cocoa) 1/2 tsp Cinnamon 1 tsp Baking Powder pinch of salt 1 Tbsp Coconut Oil 1 Tbsp Honey 1/4-1/3 cup water (add a little at a time until you get the right consistency) Mix dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients. Heat up a nonstick pan, add a little bit of butter, pour half the batter in. Flip and wait until cooked through. Repeat with the rest of the batter. Enjoy with your topping of choice.  I spread a little bit of peanut butter and drizzled some honey on top. But I also think that some blueberries or strawberries would be amazing. I like very dark chocolate so I barely sweetened the pancake. If you like something a little sweeter you can add some stevia or a little more honey. I thought these were...

I have had a bag of cranberries sitting in the freezer for a few months now. I bought them because they were featured in a big thanksgiving display in my local grocery store. You know I couldn't resist, thinking of many tasty and seasonal possibilities. But after I brought them home, inspiration never quite struck, and they stayed tucked away in my freezer. This morning I was thinking about how much I love craisins, but I don't like how they are loaded with sugar. It got me to wondering if I could make them myself.  I figured why not? I really don't have anything to lose. Consequently, I dumped my cranberries onto a toaster pan and added 1 Tablespoon of coconut oil. I turned my toaster oven to 300F and baked the cranberries for about 2 hours. Between the first half hour to hour they started popping. I guess that is normal so don't be alarmed. As far as I can tell nothing exploded onto the toaster.  Here is a picture of the finished product. They turned out great, h...

I have already told you about my twin sister Nicole who lives in Mexico. She only comes home to visit once a year around Thanksgiving and she is home right now! I stole her away from the rest of our family for a few days to spend some time with me up here in Homer. During her 4 day stay here we exercised, cooked lots of food, ate said food, and spent hours at thrift stores and bookstores perusing shelves of books. It was perfect! We actually are very similar and our time spent showed our equal love of literature, fitness, and food :). A highlight of our culinary creations were waffles. We tried several different varieties, but our favorite was one we created with cornmeal, beets, and coconut milk. It is naturally gluten free, as well as dairy and sugar free. We decided to make it savory and topped it with avocado and tomatillo salsa. Nicole wanted to add the extra beet on top for presentation, but it didn't go too good with the salsa. We just picked it off before eating the rest....

So I know you have all been waiting with baited breath. I told you I was going to reveal to you today what I used my coconut butter for. Are you ready? I used it to make homemade coconut dark chocolate. If that doesn't make your mouth water, I don't know what will. It was a work in progress that took a few days. But I definitely learned some things along the way, and I will share with you what I learned. I based my first attempt off of a recipe I found on the internet. I used the double boiler method by placing a bowl with the ingredients over a pan of simmering water. The three components are cocoa powder, coconut oil, and sugar (I used stevia instead). Once they were melted and mixed together I tasted it and it was bad. I don't know if it is because I used the Hershey's Dark Cocoa Powder but it was chalky and nothing like the creamy chocolate I was looking for. I thought pouring it into a pan and letting it solidify would help things and they didn't. It just t...

We have this ongoing debate at our house about tortillas. I like corn tortillas and Chris likes flour tortillas. I have made them both from scratch before, and Chris doesn't even like the homemade corn ones. Crazy, right? I was trying to find an alternative that is gluten free and corn free to try and compromise on our tortilla differences.  Then I came across this incredible blog called Book of Yum that has gluten-free recipes from around the world. I love the passion that she has for other tastes and cultures, and I want to try so many of her recipes. She has a recipe for an indian roti or flat-bread made solely out of sorghum flour. Sorghum is a source of protein, calcium, and iron and naturally gluten free. You can go and check out her blog and look up some of the great recipes at Book of Yum . To view her sorghum flat-bread tortilla recipe with detailed instructions click here .   The dough is made out of sorghum flour and water. The technique for this is similar...

Today has been another stressful day. I have been trying to apply for college to start classes spring semester.  My case is a little special because I was home-schooled and I also qualify as a non-traditional student; meaning it has been five years since I graduated high school and I don't have to submit SAT scores. I emailed the admissions office almost a month ago and asked them if I had to submit SAT scores because I was home-schooled and they said no. So I haven't been worried about it. I have submitted everything else and today I found out that I do indeed need to submit them because I was home-schooled. It is too late to take the test again to be able to still be accepted for the spring semester. So I called the SAT place and they will send my old scores, but they are in the archives and it will take them 2-4 weeks to find them and send them out. I don't know what to do, but I am going to be really disappointed if I can't start classes because of it. Any suggestio...

Last week at the grocery store there was a sale on organic canned tomato products. I jumped on that deal and decided to make my mom's famous spaghetti sauce. My Mom is a wonderful cook. From a young age she has instilled in me a love of cooking and being creative with food. She enjoys making people happy with food and has a way of remembering what people's likes and dislikes are. She remembers that I like to eat healthy and brought brown rice chips for me to eat on vacation. She also knows I don't eat pork and while everyone else was eating ham on easter she got me sushi :). Yeah, she is great! She will ask us what are favorite foods are so she can make them specially for us on our birthday. I have so many wonderful memories cooking and working with Mom in the kitchen, that is something I have missed greatly since moving away from home. Even at our church people will come to an event if they know my mom is cooking. You know that there is love in the food she makes and I ho...