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Five Baby Must-Haves That Saved The Last Five Months

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I’ve been thinking about how I may want to incorporate this new found life of motherhood as I jump back into my previously food, fitness, and apartment life blog and I realized it’s a no brainer… I’m here to share what’s going on in my life and right now it’s baby, food, baby food, and fixing up an older home.  So welcome to shifting gears. Life is in overdrive and I’m deliriously exhausted and I love it. Now that I’m an expert in child rearing after a cool five months (please roll your eyes as hard as I just did) I figured I’d share while it’s fresh the top things that have made life SO much easier (or as I see it, marginally survivable) with a newborn. I still don’t know what the hell I’m doing, but I know I wouldn’t want to do it without a few key items. The BabyBjorn Bouncy Chair $199 I can’t speak to any other chair on the market, and I never will. (if you want expert comparisons, go to …

Classic Burger Bun

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Oh, heyyy 👋🏻 Long time no see! I posted these buns on Instagram the other day and I realized I’ve been a bad friend for not sharing. Ok it’s worse than that. When I downloaded the WordPress app on my new phone it reminded me it’s been over a year since my last post. In my defense, it was a busy year. Husband. House. Baby. Basically all at once – but I’m back. Ok, back-ish. Let’s see how much the boss baby allows! I discovered Better Batter GF flour from Nicole at Gluten Free on a Shoestring who has an amazing library of resources for new and seasoned GF bakers alike. While it’s more expensive than making your own blend, my goodness is it a handy, versatile solution and baking at home is always better and cheaper than surrendering to the $7 pack of hockey puck hamburger buns. This dough is so easy and so quick. Start the dough before you start prepping your burger/chicken/portobello for the grill and they’ll be ready in time to …

Gluten Free Soft Baked Pretzels

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It’s Pride in Seattle and it turns out I live at the epicenter. In addition to the inspiring atmosphere of celebrating love (and people watching of epic proportions), there’s a street fair with all of the expected food typically reserved for closing time and cash only establishments. By the time I got home all I could think about was food on sticks and… Pretzels. I had not yet tried making my own, but my bagels were a success a few years ago and knowing that my flour blend has improved I figured it was worth a shot. I based this off a regular flour recipe by The Kitchn and made modifications as I’ve learned for gluten free baking, including doubling the yeast, and using milk instead of water for the liquid. Ingredients: 1 Cup Warm Milk 4 Teaspoons Active Dry Yeast 1 Tablespoon Sugar 2-2.5 Cups Gluten Free Flour Blend, such as my blend here or something similar 1 Teaspoon Salt 1 Teaspoon Xanthan Gum 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil 1/4 Cup Baking Soda 1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar …

Cauliflower Fried “Rice”

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Where’s Whole30 week 3? Yeah, there’s not. Life got too hectic to control every bite I ate and I didn’t feel I was going to get the full benefit doing it half way (more on that later). For now, I’m still keeping it fairly light hoping my pants will respect my efforts. I bought cauliflower to make a creamy ‘bisque’ like this one, but in my pinterest rabbit hole got caught up in the idea of making cauliflower fried rice. I’ll preface this with saying that I’ve tried cauliflower “mashed potatoes” and “pizza” and god knows what and I didn’t like any of it. But the texture of this seemed promising, and it was a good chance to use my new little Ninja chopper that’s been lurking since Christmas with no love.  I pulverized half a head in the chopper. I was surprised and impressed by the rice like texture. Promising. Repeat with some mushrooms, garlic, and a shallot. So turns out? A wok would be a helpful piece of kitchen equipment to have. Add …

Homemade Mayonnaise

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One of the fun/terrible things about Whole30 is reading labels and discovering just how much unnecessary crap is lingering in what seems to be “safe” food. Mayo is one item I was told ‘should’ meet Whole30/Paleo criteria – afterall, isn’t it just egg yolk, oil, salt, and lemon juice? No. No, it is not. At least, not if you buy it off the shelf. Those that are shelf stable come with a whole host of other ingredients, many of which I cannot pronounce. Among these? Sugar. Or even more fun? High fructose corn syrup. Why? I don’t get it. It’s stupid. If you like sugar, go eat that weird Miracle Whip nonsense. Stay out of my tangy mayo. Since I already had to abandon sour cream and greek yogurt until March, it didn’t take much to motivate me to hit the google machine and decide I could do this on my own. The results? Unbelievable. Why have I been buying this? I can say with certainty I never will again.* *I’ll probably buy it again because I’m …

Whole30 Week 1

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It’s day 8 and I think I’m over the emotional hump of all of these changes. I still want a glass of wine at night or a bowl of rice, but I’m feeling beyond the absolute lamentation that they’re “off limits”. Perhaps one of the best parts of this experiment is that it really forces a thoughtfulness about what I’m eating and putting into my food and as a result, I’ve broken out of some of the lunch or dinner ruts I had been in.  Or, conversely found myself happily entrenched in some others (like breakfast – if you follow my Instagram you’ll know the egg and avocado habit is real). Rather than day by day, I’ll give you a meal by meal of what I’ve been eating this week: Breakfast: Poach eggs with avocado (seriously. every. single. day.) Lunch and Dinner: Salmon (sous vide with ghee) with pan fried kale Roasted Carrots and Onions Pulled Chicken in coconut milk with tomatillo, chiles, cilantro, and lime Steaks with roasted red potatoes Roasted Chicken Thighs with …

A Whole30 February

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If you might have noticed, and as I drew attention to earlier this month, 2015 was not a great blogging year for me, or if I’m being honest, particularly good in general as it pertained to food, fitness, creativity or any of the other snippets of Ginger I generally share around here.  The calendar was jam-packed with events and my health wasn’t the greatest. I was hit by a car in April that I’m still fighting to bounce back from, dealt with a broken toe (a surprisingly disruptive injury!) in August, and a kidney infection in October. Fun. TMI? Complaining? Maybe a little, but what’s a blog if not a little personal? Ups and downs are real. The point is pulling your shit together once you realize that it’s happening. As ShareABitOfLove told me recently:  The last year saw a dramatic decrease in my dedication to exercise and a moderate increase in my wine consumption (let’s be honest, the wine devotion always ran deep). I believe in balance but right now the scale is about ready to stop using numbers and just give …

::tap, tap:: Is this thing on?

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Hello, 2016! How are you? I’m good. I mean, not that you would know that, since evidently I posted exactly twice last year. Twice. That is terrible, mostly because I adore my little corner of the internet and everyone that choses to share it with me (and there were a LOT of you) even if I’m absent. So, against my better judgement, I DO have a resolution this year. I promise myself to hang out here more often. Share more recipes. Explore more crafts. Spend more time seeing what my other favorite bloggers are up to. Take more photos AND share them beyond a hard drive. I already feel like I’m getting ahead of myself. I also think I’m already behind. I just made a New Year’s Resolution on January 8th. In the interest of getting back on the blogging bandwagon, I’ll start with a few of my favorite things: best friends, family, babies, dogs, home, holidays and snow. That’s right, ShareABitOfLove has a bundle on board and she let me take some super fun photos of …

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Obviously these are gluten free – they’d really ruin my Thanksgiving if they weren’t – but it doesn’t seem fair to label them in a way that could imply that they’re anything short of awesome, perfectly chewy, with a just-crunchy-enough edge cookie – a universally loved treat. Now, I had never made this recipe, and in addition to it being a first round go, I was in a bit of a hurry and made modifications along the way that had me guessing as to whether this would be bloggable or simply good-enough-to-get-my-sugar-high-post-turkey. Why do you care? I didn’t take any photos along the way.  When I make these again (I definitely will) perhaps I’ll update the post with a step by step (I probably won’t). So, if you have questions, post them below or email info@thenaturalginger.com. Adapted to be gluten free and amazing from Alton Brown’s The Chewy Recipe on Food.com

Chilled Avocado & Cucumber Soup

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It’s here. Finally. The warm weather that makes me choose salad over mac & cheese and a run over hibernating with a book, blanket and glass of wine. Ok, fine. Claiming the wine is seasonal is a total lie, I just switch from pinot noir to pinot grigio. After a glorious weekend with some of my favorite, favorite people in New Orleans I came back craving some fruit, veggies, and generally detoxifying fare. (Eating your way through a foodie city and having a drink at every stop has that effect on anyone.)  I had stopped daydreaming about fried alligator (which, by the way, is amazing) and was daydreaming about the chilled cucumber & yogurt soup from our last stop before the airport at Satsuma Cafe.  If you ever find yourself in the Big Easy and want some healthy, organic fare that more than caters to the gluten free and vegan set, this is your spot. Don’t worry, their fresh wheat bread and bacon also seemed delicious. Truly something for everyone. Since menus don’t come with recipes, I went by taste, feeling …