Hi, I’m Elizabeth. I’m glad you’ve found my site! Whether you’re a friend from down the road or someone on the other side of the globe, I’m glad you’re here. What I hope you will find is some encouragement and inspiration for your day and hopefully some recipes you and your family will love.

You can find all the nitty gritties of my life on the about me page and all the details on my health struggles here. Just so you’ll know what to expect from me, I’d like to give you a few details: I’m a 40-something homeschooling mom who loves to cook (and eat) and also happens to have an autoimmune disease. My husband also has autoimmunity so we’re dealing with two kids who are genetically predisposed to autoimmune disease as well. In this super busy, fast food world, we are doing our best to keep all of us sane and healthy.

I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease six years ago. For the first four years living with that diagnosis, I took the drugs and had the tests and generally drank the water of our standard medical system. Then two years ago, I had a wake up call. A friend’s daughter was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and they were NOT willing to go the mainstream path recommended by their doctors. I didn’t even know that was a choice! You mean, you don’t have to do what the doctors tell you?!? I felt like a whole new world had just opened up before me.

Long story short (again, if you want the long story, it’s here), I started reading everything I could get my hands on about the paleo diet and then the autoimmune paleo diet. There are a lot of really smart people out there who have been researching these topics and writing about them for years and I have learned so, so much from them. I’ve been researching these topics for just shy of two years and all with the goal of finding a way out from under the depressing and sometimes scary options presented by my doctors. I don’t have all the scientific answers for you.

I’m here to share my experiences, my struggles, my ah-ha moments and hope that at least some of it strikes a chord with you and brings some hope and encouragement.

And oh yeah, I have a husband and two kids who were not super excited that I took away all their gluten and yummy treats. I have always been a cook and prepared most all of our meals at home, but we had no food restrictions. We cooked and baked with wild abandon. After Thanksgiving, we would sit down as a family and everyone would choose two or three types of Christmas cookies we just HAD to have that season. We baked all of them. The kids and I in our aprons at the island baking up a holiday storm – lovely picture, isn’t it? It was lovely and great fun and super yummy. It was beautiful together time, memory-making time. What is going to happen to our cookies with this new way of eating? What’s going to come of our baking time together?

It’s tough. I’m not going to lie. I’m a people pleaser at heart. I want to see my kids’ faces light up when they walk in to find a plate of cookies on the counter or sit down to a delicious dinner. There aren’t a lot of baked goods around here anymore and none of them are like the old favorites. And some of our dinner experiments have been total flops. My kids hate spaghetti squash. You can do so many wonderful things with that amazing vegetable, but I get the groan and sad face every time it’s on the menu. One of my missions in life is to come up with a recipe involving spaghetti squash that they love. I will shout it from the rooftops when I do. (that means I will post it on the blog)

One more thing I feel like I have to tell you just so you know what you’re getting into if you become a regular visitor here, which I hope you will. A lot of the super brilliant folks who write about and espouse the wonders of paleo, like to talk about how we have evolved to eat this way over millions of years. I am not here to tell you those people are wrong, but that’s just not what I believe. As a Christian, I believe that God created the earth and He created me in His image. I did not evolve from some other creature. I am fearfully and wonderfully made and a loving God did that. He created me with this disease and all my other limitations and He helps me navigate this life with this body. I know that some day I will be in heaven where I won’t have Crohn’s disease or arthritis and I can run again. I love my family and I love this life here on earth, but I do look forward to the days in eternity with my God and without pain. So I’m not going to preach to you, but I am coming at everything from this perspective. I know it’s not for everyone and that’s ok.

My goal is to post for you twice a week. People have always asked for my recipes and I love to share them. It’s become clear to me through the years that there aren’t a lot of old school cooks out there anymore. We have a lot of convenience foods available to us and people use them. If you are going to come out of autoimmune disease using food rather than drugs, the convenience foods are out and real, home-cooking is in. I want to help you learn how to do that. Cooking isn’t scary and it doesn’t have to be hard. You might need to learn some new tricks, but you can do it and if I can be even a small part of helping you get there, I’ll be so glad!

So I hope you’ll check back in soon. I have so much I want to share with you. And no, all my posts won’t be this long. 🙂

Elizabeth