Our Special Thanksgiving Promotion starts today!

"Happiness is not a state to arrive at- but a manner of traveling." --Margaret Lee Runbeck

If there is one thing that life has been teaching me this year, it has been about how to accept the hard, painful things in my life, as well as the beautiful and amazing moments.

No matter how much I try to avoid it, the hard stuff of life is inevitable.  I am starting to understand that it’s what I do with the hard stuff that makes the difference.

Do I try to shove it aside and try to make it go away?  Deny it by watching TV or staying too busy?  Or, am I able to be present with it, even for a moment?

This isn’t easy, but I am starting to see that this is where the miracles happen.

This week I learned about a family whose daughter attends my son’s preschool co-op and who is truly having a hard time.  My normal response in the past would probably have been one of sadness, but also one of – “Well, what can little me do about it?  Plus, I have x, y and z going on in my life,” etc.

My heart said something different.  I want to help them and somehow I was shown a very easy way to help them.  And I’m going to make it easy for you to help them too.

My hope is that your heart will be touched by their story and you will want to help too – even if it is simply sending them loving thoughts.

About the Smith Family:
I have only recently met the Smith family and am most acquainted with their preschooler, Cilly (short for Celilia).  Her bright eyes catch anyone’s attention and she is truly a sweet little girl.  She also has two brothers, one year old Neil and 5 year old Aiden.

The long and short of their story is that Cilly’s father, John Smith, had brain surgery last year for a malignant tumor.  Unfortunately, the doctors discovered this fall that it had grown back, and he had a second brain surgery this past October.

Because John is in recovery, Sabrina, Cilly’s mom, had to take time off work.  With three kids to feed and no income, they have been very strapped financially.  I was told that they currently cannot pay their rent.  They also need to fix their van and pay for basic needs on a day to day basis.

Beyond that, Cilly’s tuition for school needs to be paid in some way (the school is working on a scholarship fund for her) and of course, the Holidays are coming.

Below is Sabrina’s story:
John and I met when he did a trampoline show at the school where I was teaching in Charles County in 2001. We were married May 1st 2005 at Thorpe Wood Environmental center in Thurmont MD. Aiden was born March 2, 2006, and we added Cecilia Justine to our family tree on July 18, 2008. Our third child, Neil, was born on August 29, 2010 through my 3rd Cesarean section, rounding out our family.

When Neil was only two months old, John was bothered by a headache that was minor, but persistent. Our G.P. saw him and sent him to get an MRI. On those black and gray films, we saw the 4 cm mass in the right temporal lobe of his brain and began to panic.

Two days later, on Friday, my father-in-law, John, our three little kids and I were at Washington Hospital Center. Dr. Aulisi, the surgeon who treated Ted Kennedy (who died of the same cancer my husband has) looked at the films and in John’s eyes and told us that a biopsy wasn’t necessary.

He immediately admitted John to the hospital, put him on steroids to reduce the swelling in the brain with the hope of avoiding seizures, and scheduled him for brain surgery on Monday.

Meeting with Dr. Aulisi post-surgery and discussing the pathology, I asked what the median life span was for someone with this type of cancer, a Glioblastoma Multiforme. He had given us this information for Grade 2 and 3 tumors, but not this one, not the grade 4. Turns out, the median life span is 52 weeks.

My world spun out of control, things lost focus, and I seemed to lose the knowledge of how to breathe. My thoughts were simple: Neil may not ever get to know his father. In a panic I left the hospital room, the tears welling, falling, speeding, to find a window, some connection to the world outside.

But my husband, who does fire dives, raced street luge, roller bladed down stairs, the man who hid my keys the first night we had an honest to goodness fight so that I couldn’t leave, he doesn’t do things that fall in the medians.

He qualified for a study at NIH and went right from surgery into an aggressive radiation and chemotherapy treatment. The drugs made his white blood counts drop severely so that portion of his treatment was cut short, but he handled the radiation well and went the full course.

He then went almost a year with no re-growth. Just about the time we were organizing a list of people to invite to a personalized version of a Day of the Dead/One year without a tumor party, the doctors put up another black and gray film and told us it was coming back.

October 19th 2011, he had his second brain surgery, this time at NIH. His 3 week post-op MRI scan already shows a small nodule that may very well be tumor re-growth. He will start taking a phase 1 experimental drug and continue taking it for one month before getting scanned again. The hope is that this medication will attack the proteins the tumor needs to grow. So now we wait.

How you can help the Smith Family AND receive the Thanksgiving Menu Planner, Holiday Menu Planner and Just Desserts e-book for FREE ($20.85 value):

• Subscribe to the Membership Site at any level between 11-16 and 11-24.
• You will receive the Thanksgiving Menu Planner, Holiday Menu Planner and Just Desserts e-book for FREE. This is $20.85 worth of FREE gifts for you!
• WHEN: Between next Wednesday November 16th through the day of Thanksgiving 2011.  (Offer expires 9:00 pm EST on Thanksgiving)
  

• The Smith Family will receive 10% of all sales during these 9 days.

Donate to the Smith Family:

• Not interested in menu planners? You can also help them right now by simply clicking on the donate button and donating anything your heart would like to give to them.
• 100% of all donations will go directly to the Smith Family.  (I am assuming Paypal still charges a small fee for transactions, however.)

Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Update 11-16:  We have over $100 of donations for the Smith Family so far.  Thank you for all of you who have donated!

Update 11-29:  We have received $1182.00 in donations.  Thanks so much everyone!

Pumpkin Pie with Coconut Crust

It’s that time of year – again!  And although it is still October, the Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up this Monday October 10th.  I can hardly believe it is October – this year has flown by.  And I regret that I have not been able to blog very much this year – I very much miss it.  I just spent some time looking back on my old blog posts and hope to get back to regular blogging in the New Year.

So without further ado, I’d like to give you some links to some delicious holiday recipes that are allergen-friendly.  All are gluten, grain, sugar and dairy-free.   There are some egg-free and some nut-free recipes as well.  Enjoy!

Ground Turkey and Apple Stuffed Winter Squash

Healthy Traditional Green Bean Casserole (gluten, dairy and grain-free)

Pumpkin Pie – gluten, grain, dairy, sugar, nut and soy-free

Egg-free Pumpkin Pie from GNOWFGLINS

Walnut Torte with Lemon Whipped Cream Icing

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Cinnamon Walnut Raisin Egg-Free Cookies

Vanilla Bean Macaroons

Carob Macaroons (egg-free)

Looking for a gluten and grain-free menu planner for the Holidays? If you’re looking for an easy way to to plan your allergen-free Thanksgiving menu this year, you may want to try out our Thanksgiving Menu Planner.

We’ve been having a Back to School Sale this weekend to prepare you for the new school year.  All memberships are 20% off through tomorrow, Tuesday August 30th at midnight EST.

You can read more about what the member site  includes here.

If you’re wondering about kid-friendly recipes and menu planners, we have several menu planners that are kid-friendly.  These are listed under Allergy Free Menu Planners when you login as a member.  We also have over 450 recipes in the database and it grows by about 40 each month.

A main focus this coming fall is going to be kid-friendly, quick, easy, allergen-friendly and yummy meals for the weekly menu planners.

I hope you have a great day!

Everything on the menu is picnic-friendly and is all reminiscent of summer coming, as well as being GAPS-friendly and free of many common allergens.

This week’s menu is gluten, grain, dairy, soy, seafood, peanut, sugar and starch free.  There are a couple recipes with nuts and eggs, but with the new member site, it is easy to swap out recipes if you don’t like or can’t eat something on the menu.

Here is this week’s Memorial Day Weekend menu plan that will be posted on the membership site by Friday afternoon:

1.    Barbeque Chicken and Veggie Kabobs
2.    Turkey Lettuce Wraps with Cashew Cheese and Mock Potato Salad
3.    Nutty Vegetable “Pasta” and Minty Spinach and Sugar Snap Salad
4.    Mushroom Meatloaf Muffins and Carrot Raisin Salad
5.    Spinach Timbales  and Garden Tomato Salad
6.    Barbeque Sauce
7.    Dill Pickles
8.    Lemonade
9.    Strawberry Shortcakes with Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

I can’t guarantee it, but I may even add another dessert for people who are egg-free.  It would be a Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp with Pecan Topping.

And like all the other menus on the member site, you can access this menu planner as well as all of the other Nourishing Foods and Allergy Free menu planners on the website.  This is already Week 11 of the Spring Menus, so the menu planner archives give you a great selection of recipes to choose from.

Enjoy!  And have a great Memorial Day weekend!

• Anti-Candida
• Elimination
• GAPS 
• SCD
• Paleo

Plus, you can recieve a FREE copy of the first Elimination and Detox Menu Planner! Click here to receive your FREE copy!

All dishes in these planners are free of the following:

• Dairy-Free
• Grain-Free
• Wheat-Free
• Gluten-Free
• Soy-Free
• Sugar-Free (only stevia and berries are used in the menu)
• Egg-Free
• Tree Nut-Free – seeds and coconut are used in the planners
• Nightshade-Free (potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, hot peppers, bell peppers)
• Beet-Free and limited carrots
• Starch-Free (quinoa, amaranth, potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, and parsnips)
• Corn-Free
• Peanut-Free
• Shellfish-Free
• Pork-Free
• Preservative-Free and MSG-Free
• Limited in beans and lentils

Here is the list of the recipes in the FREE bonus planner:

Basics:

• Crispy Nuts and Seeds – How to soak and dehydrate nuts and seeds
• Homemade Nut or Seed Flour
• Cabbage Wraps

Breakfasts:

• Egg and Grain-Free Breakfast Burrito
• Turkey Sausages
• Coconutty Avocado Sunflower Bowl

Lunches:

• Pumpkin Seed Avocado Wraps and Asparagus Soup  
•  Seed Flatbread and Italian Veggies with Artichoke Hearts
• Green Pea Soup and Green Salad with Pumpkin Seeds

Dinners:

• Lemon Herb Chicken with Zucchini Relish
• Coconut Ginger Salmon and Steamed Broccoli with Herbs
• Slow Cooked Rosemary Beef and Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
• Coconut Fried Chicken and Mashed Cauliflower
• Saffron Lemon Chicken and Lemony Green Beans

Dessert:

•  Cinnamon Sunflower Seed Cookies

So, if this looks good to you, get your FREE copy here. You can also subscribe to the additional four weeks of planners on the membership website.  Have a great day!

Artichoke and Leek Risotto

You know the routine.  You wake up, look in the fridge and make the same breakfast you had yesterday.  Or maybe you simply don’t know what to eat because you just found out you can’t eat a list of foods such as gluten, dairy, corn, soy, eggs and nuts.

You go about your day, wondering if there were a simple solution to the problem you face every time you open the fridge:  what to eat on a limited and allergen-free diet?

I know this problem all too well myself.  I have allergies and food sensitivities to a list of foods such as grains, starches, dairy, soy, egg whites, corn, beans, almonds, salmon, MSG and artificial additives, hydrogenated oils, and probably other foods I am forgetting about at the moment.  My son has almost the same allergies as well and is now three. It is almost impossible to eat at a restaurant so I end up cooking almost everything.

It’s been quite a journey but part of my process in being able to survive all of our dietary changes has been to explore and create new recipes in the kitchen.

After creating the first set of Allergy Free Menu Planners, I started working on a membership site about 10 months ago.  And now, with a lot of planning, hard work and with the help of an awesome web programmer, the membership site is now available!

Here are some things you can now do with the member site that will make menu planning for an allergen-free and limited diet extremely easy and simple:

• A new, seasonal and allergen-friendly menu will be available every week of the year
• View ALL available menu planners and recipes on the site
• Choose a menu planner or change it by searching for new recipes
• Easily search for recipes free of your allergens
• Add your favorite recipes and custom menu planners to your Recipe Box
• Print your PDF with the menu, recipes and shopping list easily from the website
• Receive email reminders every week to login and print a menu planner

It’s really very simple.  So far there are over 180 recipes stored on the database.  I will be adding a minimum of 45 a month and my goal is to reach at least 600 by the close of the year.

If you want to know more about the new member site please contact me or leave a comment.  You can read more about it here too:

http://allergyfreemenuplanners.com/our-menu-planners/about-the-new-member-website/

This site was really designed with you in mind so any feedback I receive usually leads to positive changes in the menu planners.  Have a great day!

It’s finally here!  The pre-order sale has begun…

Pre-order a membership to the new member website anytime between now and Wednesday, December 22nd and receive 20% off all memberships.

Plus, receive the Substitutions for Allergy-Free Cooking e-book for FREE (regular price $15.95)!

Click here for more information about what the member site will include

Pre-order and get 20% off all regular prices

Plus, we’ll be offering Lifetime Memberships for only $288 to people who have purchased a menu planner or e-book from Heart of Cooking in the past.  If you’re a current customer, you will be receiving an email about Lifetime Memberships in your email.

Pre-order prices will expire Wednesday, December 22nd at midnight PST (Pacific Standard Time)

Have a great week and thank you for all your support!

Get 20% off this Thursday:

A simple and brief announcement today!

Starting this week on Thursday the 16th until next Wednesday the 22nd of December, we’ll be offering 20% off all memberships to the new menu planning website.

If you’ve been curious about the prices for the memberships, here they are:

Pre-order Prices for Basic Membership:

• 1 month:  $15.96 (normally $19.95)
• 3 months:  $38.36 or $12.78 a month (normally $47.95)
• 1 year:  $115.16 or $9.59 a month (normally $143.95)

Plus, we’ll be offering Lifetime Memberships for a great price to people who have purchased a menu planner or e-book from Heart of Cooking in the past.

Click here to subscribe!

Get the Substitutions for Allergy Free cooking ebook for FREE:

I just finished a new e-book called Substitutions for Allergy-Free Cooking, a 72 page guide book for people on limited diets who need help finding substitutions for common and not so common food allergens.

I will be giving it away for FREE this week to anyone who pre-orders a membership during this time frame.

Want a sneak peak of the Substitutions for Allergy-Free Cooking e-book?

You can read the first 11 pages of the book including the following dairy free substitutions and recipes:

• Butter
• Recipe for Butter Alternative
• Butter Substitutions
• Yogurt
• Yogurt Substitutions
• Cheese
• Recipe for Vegan Cheese Sauce
• More Dairy Free Cheese recipes
• Cheese Substitutions
• Nutritional Yeast Substitutions

Click here to read the first 11 pages

I hope you enjoy the sample!  Have a great week!

2008

When I started creating weekly menu planners for people with food allergies in November of 2008, I quickly learned that making meal plans for people on limited diets is tricky and complex! This is mostly due to the fact that people’s allergy lists are always slightly different.  Add in likes/dislikes as well as vegetarian verses meat eater diets and you get a whole slew of variations of menu plans!

2009

I started to solve this problem in the Spring of 2009 by creating menu planners specifically for certain allergens such as dairy, gluten, soy and nightshade vegetables.  I also included substitution sections where people could reference different foods they could use to replace ingredients in a recipe.

When I discovered the GAPS diet, SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet) and the Paleo diet, I created menu planners for these specific diets as well.  It’s been great – people have received what they need to a certain extent and I am grateful as my business has grown.

2010

But it hasn’t been enough!  People continually email me and tell me about their long list of foods they have to avoid.  The main problem is I haven’t been able to keep up the requests of creating new menu planners.  Lots of people have been requesting completely vegan or vegetarian menus as well as other specific diet menu planners such as a Candida diet menu planner. Furthermore, people want plans that include breakfasts, lunches and snacks.

So, I decided it was time to go onto my next step of creating a membership site for people with multiple food allergies and limited diets.  The original idea for this came from doing research online for other menu planning services.  The menu planning sites that appealed to me the most were the ones that allowed their members to change recipes within a menu planner or create a custom meal plan for the week.   Also, the shopping list would be updated if someone changed a recipe.

This format seemed to be the solution for creating menu planners for people with specific diets and multiple food allergies because people could change recipes in the plans very easily.

Getting your feedback:

To get some feedback from my subscribers back in February, I wrote the blog post – What kind of weekly menu planner are you looking for? Thank you to everyone who answered my question and told me about what you need and dream about when it comes to menu planning for your diet.  This was very helpful to get me started.

In the spring time, I ran a couple of surveys for the people on my free newsletter list and for people who have purchased one of my menu planners.  Again, thank you if you participated in the survey and please know that each one of your answers has been considered and incorporated into the plan whenever possible.

From there, I compiled all of the data and created an outline of a service that would serve almost everyone’s needs in terms of menu planning for a limited diet.

November 2010

I have been so excited about this project and feel somewhat “unstoppable” when it comes to creating it.  In the beginning, I actually didn’t know how it was all going to happen.  I just trusted that my enthusiasm, determination and commitment to the project would result in it’s manifestation.

Well, my work has paid off because I have a wonderful web programmer working with me as well as an awesome graphic designer.  We also have the final launch date set for January 15th, however it is somewhat flexible due to the Holidays and such.

What’s the new site going to be like?

In short, I believe it’s going to an awesome resource and a very user-friendly menu planning site for people with limited diets.

To give a feel for the changes that are going to occur, I will list what I have available now and then what will be changing with the new site.

Presently:

I presently have only 1 month or 4 menu planners available for each of the following diets:

• Wheat-free and Gluten-free Menu Planner
• Gluten-free and Casein-free Menu Planner
• Dairy-free Menu Planner
• Wheat/Gluten-free, Dairy-free and Soy-free Menu Planner
• Nightshade, Wheat/Gluten-free, Dairy-free and Soy-Free Menu Planner
• GAPS/Paleo and Limited Diet Menu Planner
• Egg-FREE GAPS/Paleo and Limited Diet Menu Planner

Seafood/Vegetarian Diets

• Nightshade-free, Wheat/Gluten-free, Dairy-free and Soy-free

I also have special event menu planners and e-books:

• Thanksgiving Limited Diet Menu Planner
• Holiday Limited Diet Menu Planner
• Valentine’s Day or Special Event Menu Planner
• Just Desserts for Limited Diets e-book

Like I said, I have had great response to my present menu planners, but they are missing some important factors:

• Only 4 week’s of menu planners available for each diet
• People can’t change the recipes very easily
• Updating the shopping list has to be done manually
• People can’t create custom menu planners
• People with different diets or different allergies are left out

The New Member Website:

This is what the new website will include:

• Instead of paying for one menu planner, you become a member to the website for 1 month, 3 months or 1 year
• I will have four (4) new menu planners available each month
• You will have access to ALL of my recipes on the member website
• You will have access to ALL of the weekly menu planners as a member
• You will be able to change recipes in the menu plans with different ones available on the website
• The shopping list will update automatically when you change the recipes
• You will be able to create custom menu planners
• People with multiple food allergies will be able to create meal plans that work for their diet
• Families who have different food allergies or diets will be able to create menu planners for specific family members

Well, that just about sums it up.  It sounds so simple but it is really quite a process to create it.  Plus, I decided to go ahead and redesign the layout of the website with the help of a wonderful graphic designer.  This part is almost done and we plan to relaunch the new WordPress design November 15th, right around the corner!

Pre-sale for the member site coming soon:

Once we complete and launch the new WordPress site, I’ll be doing a pre-sale of membership for the new site.  This is a great gift for people during the Holidays.  So stay tuned!

So, any questions?  It feels like I’ve been telling so many people who email me about the site.  I’m glad I finally have something written down so that people can more fully understand what I am creating for them.

I hope you have a great day!  And please do tell me what you think of the new plan!