I am a huge fan of guacamole.  I would happily eat it every day (with a spoon or a cracker, but especially on a corn chip from our local Mexican restaurant).

Sadly though, corn and I don’t get along very well.  Which I am okay with most of the time (except when we go to that local Mexican restaurant, then I give in).

At home, it’s much easier to avoid corn.  We don’t eat many packaged foods, so we don’t get it there.  If I do buy corn, I make sure it’s organic and preferably local so I can chat with the farmer.   That way I know it’s free of pesticides and it’s hopefully not genetically modified.

But every now and then, a girl wants some crunchy chips to go with her guacamole!  That’s where these Homemade Gluten-Free Tortilla Chips come in to play.  They’re corn-free too!  And my kids love them as much as we do!  I haven’t put them in their lunchboxes yet, Callum is at that stage where he wants his lunch to look like everyone else’s lunch.

That will pass, right?

Homemade Tortilla Chips
Inspired by our friend Lisa K. Thanks Lisa!

Ingredients

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
¾ teaspoon paprika
¾ teaspoon sea salt
3-4 gluten-free, corn-free tortillas, depending on size

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, paprika, and sea salt.
3. Grease a large baking sheet with oil, paprika, and salt mixture.
4. Cut tortillas in half and then into strips – or chip-sized pieces.
5. Place on prepared baking sheet and brush each chip with the remainder of the oil, paprika, and salt mixture.
6. Bake for 8- 10 minutes or until crisp – watch them as they can easily burn.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Makes 4 servings

I am reading an amazing book right now – it’s called Allergies: Disease in Disguise : How to Heal Your Allergic Condition Permanently and Naturally by Carolee Bateson-Koch DC ND.  If you’re living with allergies, or you know someone who is, you MUST grab a copy of this book!

Have you noticed that healthy gluten-free products can be hard to come by?

Thankfully we have companies like Enerjive – their crackers were created by two Canadian women who were also looking for healthy (and tasty) gluten-free products.

Have you tried them yet?

I am excited to share Enerjive Crackers with you – they’re delicious and nutritious.  My favorite combo in the gluten-free world.

“Creating food that is delicious and prepared using wholesome and clean ingredients is imperative to us. We take pride in providing healthy, gluten-free options to our consumers.”

Don’t you just love that?  I certainly do.  We need more companies with this same kind of commitment to healthy gluten-free foods.

So what else do I LOVE about Enerjive Crackers?

• they come in 6 amazing flavors (Garlic Cayenne Heat, Rock Salt Crave, Chocolate Fix, Lemon Berry Burst, Cozy Apple Cinnamon, and their newest one, Italian Bella),
• they use healthy whole grain gluten-free ingredients (quinoa seeds, quinoa flakes, buckwheat flour, hulled millet, sunflower seeds),
• they’re lightly sweetened with honey,
• they’re super crunchy,
• they look fabulous beside a bowl of pesto or hummus; I just love the artisanal look to them.

My favorite cracker (it was really hard to choose just one) was the Cayenne Heat.  A close second was the Rock Salt Crave (I’m a salt lover).  My kids liked the Cozy Apple Cinnamon and Chocolate Fix of course (dunked in peanut butter, oh yum). Did I mention there’s mini chocolate chips in the Chocolate Fix? Oh yes there are!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.  WINNERS HAVE BEEN CONTACTED BY EMAIL.

To enter, do one or all of the following.  Leave a comment for each entry.

1. What is your favorite cracker topping?
2.  Follow Enerjive on Facebook.
3.   Follow She Let Them Eat Cake on Facebook.

Giveaway is open until Wednesday, May 15th, 2013, midnight EST.

Contest is open to readers in the United States and Canada.  Must be 18 or older to enter.
Winners will be chosen using random.org and contacted via email. 

Disclaimer: Enerjive gave me some crackers to try and to review.  The opinions expressed above are my own.

Hello lovely readers!

I would love it if you took a couple of minutes to answer FIVE questions – I want to make sure you’re getting what you need from She Let Them Eat Cake.com!

Click here to take my 5 question survey.

Thanks so much for your support!  I can’t wait to hear from you!

It is Celiac Disease Awareness Month and I am excited to kick it off by sharing something amazing (and free) with you.

Attune Foods wanted to help you make this year’s Mother’s Day celebration extra special so they created a  FREE ebook filled with recipes any mom would love.  There’s almost 40 pages of recipes and photos created by Mom’s, just in time for Mother’s Day.

Within the pages of  A Gluten-Free Mother’s Day: Recipes for Moms by Moms, you’ll find gluten-free dishes with simple ingredients for breakfast in bed, brunch, recipes designed specifically for cooking with kids, and those you can make ahead of time. They’ve included something for every type of dietary restriction, too. Mom can choose her favorite and hand the recipe off to Dad, or she can bring her kids into the kitchen and let them help prepare a meal to celebrate her.

Attune Foods gathered eight incredible gluten-free, allergy-friendly mom food bloggers and asked them each to develop a recipe to make the occasion deliciously memorable.  I am honored to be a part of this beautiful ebook.

The recipes include:

• Blueberry Breakfast Pudding with Granola Topping from Kim Lutz (vegan, tree nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free)
• Turkey Strata Muffins with Orange Slices and Balsamic Glaze from Beth Hillson (tree nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free)
• Corn Flake Quiche Lorraine from Karen Morgan (tree nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free)
• Roasted Asparagus and Tomato Tart from Kelli Bronski (vegetarian, tree nut-free, peanut-free)
• Blueberry Scones with Vanilla Lemon Sweet Cashew Cream and Homemade Blueberry Chia Seed Jam from me (vegan, egg-free, dairy-free, peanut-free)
• Peanut Butter Crunch French Toast with Maple-Peanut Butter Syrup from Alta Mantsch (vegetarian, dairy-free, tree nut-free)
• Chocolate or Carob Tart with Dairy-Free Whipped Topping from Adrienne Urban (vegan, dairy-free, egg-free, peanut-free)
• Strawberry Streusel Oatmeal Breakfast Cake from Kim Maes (vegetarian, dairy-free, peanut-free, tree nut-free)

Doesn’t it sound amazing?  Make sure you head over to Attune Foods and download your FREE copy of A Gluten-Free Mother’s Day: Recipes for Moms by Moms.  And then you can share it with all of the people you know who would love an ebook like this.

I am so happy that our Spring weather has finally arrived. I feel like I’ve been waiting for months. Oh wait, I have been waiting for months.

I don’t like to complain about the weather, but our winter seemed to really hang on this year and I know I was suffering from some seasonal Sun deficiency. I was taking a quality Vitamin D supplement all winter, but unfortunately it just wasn’t enough. There’s nothing like getting Vitamin D straight from the Sunshine.

Now that the warmer weather is here, and the Sun is shining on us more often, it’s time for salad season. I’ve been craving crunchy greens, local foods, and juicy strawberries (it’s our first berry of the growing season and I can’t wait).

To tide me over, we’ve been eating a lot of Creamy Kale Salad and Creamy Avocado Slaw. I think you’ll love this recipe for slaw. It’s super easy to whip up, and it makes a perfect dish for a BBQ gathering or your first patio meal. The salad dressing could easily be used for a more traditional slaw too, or even as a dip for veggies (my kids love it that way).

Creamy Avocado Slaw

Ingredients

1 package of Broccoli Slaw (approximately 3 ½ cups)
¾ cup red onion, thinly sliced
½ cup raw cashews, chopped to bite size pieces
½ cup unsulphured apricots, chopped to bite size pieces
½ medium sized avocado, pitted
1/3 cup Vegenaise
1/8 teaspoon stevia (I like NuNaturals )
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions
1. In a large bowl, combine broccoli slaw, red onions, cashews, and apricots.
2. In your food processor or blender puree until creamy: avocado, Vegenaise, and stevia.
3. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Pour avocado and Vegenaise mixture over slaw and toss to coat.
5. Chill until ready to serve. I like to toss mine about 15 minutes before serving.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Makes 6 servings

Did you got your copy of Crazy For Kale yet?  There’s 40 recipes for amazing dishes using one of the healthiest greens we can grow and eat – kale!  It’s not just for smoothies and kale chips anymore.

The Gluten Free Garage is a pop-up market place – held in Toronto, Canada on Sunday, April 28th from 10-4.  It’s a one day event with expert speakers, gluten-free vendors, and lots of gluten free tummy love.  If you live nearby, you must attend!

We took the kids to the first Gluten Free Garage last November.  They loved it almost as much as we did; partly because they got Bunner’s cupcakes while we were there.

The founder of the Gluten Free Garage, RonniLyn Pustil, has gathered over 50 vendors (with lots of samples and freebies), some of our favorite Toronto bakeries and eats, and so much more. Admission to the Garage is only $10 for adults and kids 12 and under get in for free. Proceeds from ticket sales will go to the Canadian Celiac Association.

If you want to learn more about the event, make sure you visit their website.  I’ll be presenting a workshop titled Growing Up Gluten Free: Tips for raising happy, healthy, awesome GF kids.  You’ll also see Ricki Heller from Diet, Dessert, and Dogs, Kathy Smart, Lisa from GlutenFreeFind.Com, and many more amazing gluten-free crusaders.

You can follow Gluten-Free Garage on Facebook and Twitter.

Hope to see you there!

I am super excited to be sharing one of my new favorite companies with you.  Plant Therapy is a company that sells 100% pure essential oils.

I’ve been using essential oils for about 4 or 5 years.  We use them in the bath, in our laundry, with the humidifier, and to clean our house (scroll down to see my recipe for Homemade Disinfectant).

Here’s some information about Plant Therapy:

“Plant Therapy was founded with one goal in mind… we want to provide the highest quality essential oils (and accessories) at a price that everyone can afford. Plant Therapy provides oils that are 100% pure, undiluted and therapeutic grade. We source each oil from top suppliers around the world, buy in large volume, and negotiate the best prices possible.”

Check out my recipe for a Homemade Disinfectant.  It’s more economical than most commercial cleaners, not to mention, much safer. Our bodies are inundated with chemicals – in our food, our air, our water, our clothing, etc… It’s time for us to step back and look at where we can easily eliminate some of those chemicals.  Essential oils will help you get started.

Homemade Disinfectant

I got this recipe from a friend of mine who is a Naturopathic Doctor.
She uses it to disinfect her office and toys between client visits.

10 drops of oregano oil (a natural disinfectant.)
10 drops of tea tree oil
1/2 litre of water
5 drops of an essential oil (I use orange)

1. Place all ingredients in a spray bottle, shake gently to combine.
2. Store in a dark cupboard, away from sunlight.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED
1. Leave a comment below telling me how you use (or how you would use) essential oils.
2. Follow She Let Them Eat Cake on Facebook & come back to leave a comment telling me you did so.
3. Follow Plant Therapy on Facebook & come back to leave a comment telling me you did so.
Giveaway is open until Monday, April 15th at 9pm CST.  Must be 18 or older to enter.  Open to US and Canada readers only. 

And if you don ‘t win the giveaway, or you want some essential oils now, use one of the following coupon codes:

sheletmeeatcake10 – it is good for $10 off a purchase of $25 or more.
sheletmeeatcake20 – it’s good for $20 off Plant Therapy’s Top 32 Essential Oil Set.

 (Only one coupon per transaction and coupons cannot be used towards the purchase of Gift Certificates.)

Want to learn more about using essential oils? Check out this resource: Reference Guide for Essential Oils Hard Cover 2012

My friend Hallie from Daily Bites is launching her latest e-book today: Crazy for Kale: Glow From The Inside Out with 40 Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Recipes.  It contains 40 recipes with kale as one of the ingredients (33 of which are Paleo/grain-free and 31 are vegan or have vegan alternatives).

To help Hallie celebrate, I thought I’d share a recipe for Kale Salad with Sweet and Creamy Dijon Dressing.   I think we all know the amazing benefits of kale – high in antioxidants (those cancer-fighting warriors), high in calcium (eliminate the middle man – the cow – and go right to the source), and high in B Vitamins (known as the energy vitamins).

I try to get kale into our meals on a regular basis, sometimes it’s in smoothies and other times it’s in soup. And don’t forget about kale chips! But this time I’ve created a yummy kale salad for you with some of my favorite salad ingredients.

 

Kale Salad with Sweet & Creamy Dijon Dressing

Dressing Ingredients

3 tablespoons lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
1 small clove garlic, finely chopped
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon grainy dijon mustard
2 1/2 tablespoons local maple syrup or raw honey
1/4 of a ripe avocado
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (preferably cold pressed)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender.  Adjust sweetener, salt, and pepper to taste.
2.  Refrigerate or use immediately.

Salad Ingredients

6 cups loosely packed kale, washed, patted dry, and cut into strips/bite-sized pieces (I used lacianto kale)
1/2 cup grated sweet potato
1 cup sunflower sprouts
1/4 cup hemp hearts
1/2 cup roasted beets
1/2 cup raw walnuts, chopped to desired size

1. Combine kale, sweet potato, 1/2 cup sunflower sprouts, hemp hearts, 1/4 cup roasted beets, 1/4 cup walnuts in a large salad bowl.
2. Toss with Sweet & Creamy Dijon Dressing, using your fingers to massage kale and evenly distribute dressing.
3. Garnish with remaining sunflower sprouts, roasted beets, and walnuts.
4.  Serve.

Make sure you check out Hallie’s site for all of the details about her new e-book. And if you want to get it right away (which you totally should), you can buy Crazy for Kale right here. It’s only $5.99!

Here’s the guest list for Hallie’s virtual e-book launch party – we are all celebrating our passion for kale. So make sure you swing by every blog to join in on the fun!

• Ricki at Diet, Dessert and Dogs
• Alyssa at Queen of Quinoa
• Elana at Elana’s Pantry
• Lexie at Lexie’s Kitchen
• Alta at Tasty Eats at Home
• Johnna at In Johnna’s Kitchen
• Amy at Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free
• Kim at Cook IT Allergy Free 
• Tessa at Tessa the Domestic Diva

Have you signed up for Tera Warner’s fabulous WISH Summit?

I’ve participated in the WISH Summit (Women’s International Summit for Health) for the past two years, and  doing so has truly changed my life.

I know most of you come here to find yummy and healthier gluten-free recipes, and I am so grateful for that.  I really love my blog because it gives me the chance to connect with so many amazing people who care about the food they eat and the food their families eat.

But my greater goal as a blogger is to help women become healthier on all fronts.  I want your tummies to be healthy just as much as I want your spirits to be healthy.  I really think the two go hand in hand.

So today I am going to let Tera Warner get the healthy spirit conversation started.

I know so many women who are tired, unhappy with their career, overwhelmed with their children’s (or their own) allergies, pressed for time, and so on. I don’t believe we’re meant to live our lives worrying about our dress size, putting our own health last, wishing we could escape it all, and so on.

We deserve more than that, don’t you agree?

So please take a minute to check out Tera Warner’s WISH Summit. It’s free and I promise you, you’ll find someone who will speak to you; someone who will tell you what you need to hear; someone who will make you feel fabulous!

What is WISH?

• 40 days and 40 nights of experts and passionate people sharing their experiences and expertise
• Some of the topics include: food, relationships, sexuality, reproductive health, fitness, health and beauty, meditation, breast health and sensuality.

Here are some of the speakers I’ve loved so far:

Nadine Artemis (you MUST listen to this one)
Tom Cronin
Michelle Phillips
Dr. Belisa Vranich

Here are some of the speakers I am looking forward to:

Gabrielle Bernstein
Bob Proctor
David Wolfe
Mastin Kipp
Tara Sophia
Ocean Robbins
Meghan Telpner

When will I have time to listen to these calls?

• I download each speaker as they arrive in my inbox and then load it into iTunes so I can put it on my iPhone.  This way I can listen to the calls on my early morning runs or while I’m doing dishes – how’s that for good time management?
• You can also listen to them as they arrive in your inbox.
• I’m sure you’ll find time to listen – if you’re ready for it!
• Don’t worry about starting mid-summit (it started on March 8th – International Women’s Day).  You’ll be able to access all the calls once you sign up.

Click here to sign up – it’s not too late!  And follow Tera on facebook so you can be part of the amazing discussion that continues to blossom.

Click here for the full list of speakers.

Are you listening already?  Please tell me below.  If not, let me know if you’re going to sign up.

Tempeh is one of my favorite vegetarian protein sources (though it has taken some time to get used to).  It’s like nothing I’ve ever eaten before – the texture is different, the taste is different, and the way you prepare it is a little different too.

Tempeh is made from soy beans.  I do try to limit my soy intake to once a week (usually in the form of tempeh, organic tofu, miso, or edaname), and I always make sure it’s organic.  Soy is a popular crop that’s genetically modified.  Thankfully, organic soy isn’t genetically modified so it’s a much safer choice.

I won’t get in to the soy debate here, but if you want to read more about it, head over to The Balanced Platter and check out The Soy Dilemma.

This Tempeh Sandwich with Caramelized Onions is one of our weekly faves.  It’s a quick meal and it’s so satisfying.  Pete and I feel like we’re totally indulging, especially when it includes a side of homemade sweet potato fries!  Hello vegetarian heaven on earth!

Tempeh Sandwiches with Caramelized Onions

Ingredients

• 1 cup of Caramelized onions (I follow this recipe)
• 1 block organic gluten-free tempeh
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (cold-pressed if possible)
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• Gluten-free bread or tortillas
• Vegenaise
• 1 large ripe avocado, pitted and sliced
• A handful of sprouts or greens of your choice

 Instructions

1. Begin by preparing caramelized onions.  I use this recipe (with olive oil and no sugar).
2. While onions are caramelizing, cut tempeh into one-inch strips.
3. Steam tempeh in a medium-sized pot for 8 minutes. You can skip this step, but I find steaming the tempeh adds moisture and results in a better texture.
4. Remove from heat and let the tempeh cool to touch.
5. Preheat a pan and coat the bottom with olive oil.
6. Add steamed tempeh strips and let cook for 3-4 minutes.
7. Flip tempeh and let cook for another 3-4 minutes, or until lightly browned.
8. Add vinegar (stand back as it will splash a little) and cook for another 2 minutes.
9. Remove tempeh from pan and build your sandwiches.  We like ours with a swipe of Vegenaise, sliced avocado, a handful of sunflower sprouts, and topped with caramelized onions.

Yield: 4 sandwiches or wraps

This is one of my favorite vegan cookbooks – The Vegan Table: 200 Unforgettable Recipes for Entertaining Every Guest at Every Occasion. Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s recipe for tempeh bacon is delish!