Natural Archives - Strength and Sunshine

Easy 2-Ingredient Strawberry Mango Popsicles (No-Sugar Added)

July 26, 2017 by Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine 53 Comments

Don’t let summer escape without enjoy all its perfectly sweet and natural fruit! These Easy 2-Ingredient Strawberry Mango Popsicles are made with the real fruit you love, no added sugar, and are gluten-free, vegan, paleo, and allergy-free! A great healthy snack or dessert for the kids to enjoy (or yourself!).

Am I a sell-out if I give you a “recipe” that’s not really a recipe? I just couldn’t let another summer pass without sharing my popsicle memories here on the Strength and Sunshine. You already heard the horror story of my sad popsicles molds I used one last time for those fudge-pops, and this time I have my new $1 popsicles molds to showcase too! What’s better than a super easy, real fruit, no added sugar, ice pops in the summer? Not much. It seems to be a right of passage during the season and I always been a proud ice pop/popsicle connoisseur. I grew up with those fantastic chemical, artificial, sugar liquid in a plastic sleeve pops you bought in those big boxes and froze in your freezer. You know what I’m talking about…Fla-Vor-Ice!Read More

How To Make All Natural Homemade Gluten-Free PlayDoh

June 12, 2017 by Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine 65 Comments

Safe PlayDoh for celiacs and kids of all ages! An easy tutorial on How To Make All Natural Homemade Gluten-Free PlayDoh. A fun and easy craft to DIY with the kids and have them playing for hours! Non-toxic, no artificial colors or chemical ingredients required!

Yes, I made this for all my celiac and food allergy moms out there, but also everyone who wants something a little fun to make on a rainy weekend! I’ve been dieing to share this here on the blog, but I wanted to make a video of the process first. You don’t need a video; this craft is so super simple! There are different options for the ingredients as well and that makes it 99.9% guaranteed you have everything you’d need to whip up some gluten-free PlayDoh at this very moment!Read More

5 Ways To Harness The Power Of Mother Nature

October 29, 2016 by Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine 24 Comments

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #HealthySkinSolutions #CollectiveBias

Mother Nature provides us with all the healing, health, and vitality that we need. It’s up to us to harness that power and bring these natural elixirs into our lives so we can lead a glorious, happy, healthy, and long life!

There’s something to be said about the “magical” effects that Mother Nature has on humans, us. We all know how wonderful a deep breath of fresh air feels as it enters our nose and fills us up with crisp cool vitality. We’re not even obligated to give anything in return. We should, however, always be striving to live a sustainable and kind life. Sometimes we even take Mother Nature for granted. We forget about all the natural benefits we could glean if we just stopped rushing, using so many unnatural products and ingredients, stressing out about things beyond our control, and running through life with tunnel vision of the modern world. Here are 5 ways you can harness that power Mother Nature gives us that you may have forgotten along the way:Read More

How To Help Ease A “Glutened” Stomach

May 26, 2015 by Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine 52 Comments

It’s the day after Memorial Day, back to work after a long weekend of fun, sun, and food. It might also be a day of major stomach and intestinal distress for a Celiac. If you didn’t follow the gluten-free grilling safety principles I posted last year and shared on Facebook over the weekend, that may be the problem. My heart goes out to you and send you tummy healing love, but I know that does little to help the physical and emotional pain of being glutened. There is no “cure”, only time, but there are some things you can do or try that may help ease the pain and fatigue while everything is moving through the system. Thankfully, I can count on one hand the amount of times since my Celiac diagnosis that I’ve been “glutened” for sure. They were all results of my own stupidity. Like eating brown rice cereal that said “wheat-free”, but contained barley malt. Or experimenting with some Wheat Thins “just to see” and not having a happy tummy afterwards.

Along with my other tummy troubles and allergies, I’ve developed some methods that seem to help ease the tummy when it’s in distress. Hopefully you can find some relief by trying these, but when you’ve been glutened, the #1 thing to do is be kind to yourself and rest up!

1. Drink, Drink, Drink Water – Besides rest, this is essential! Flush out the toxins your body is reacting to. You need to stay hydrated and amp up the water intake stat!

2. Hot Pure Peppermint Tea – Besides water, drink some good hot mugs of peppermint tea. Peppermint soothes the tummy and it a nice way to stay hydrated with some more flavor. I drink peppermint tea every day no matter and it always makes my tummy feel better.

3. Take Probiotics – Make sure you’re taking some gluten-free probiotics. Refeed your body with the good bacteria it needs to keep things in balance.

4. Try Fermented/Cultured Food – Some sauerkraut, kimchi, dairy-free kefir, or yogurts, that type of thing. The provide good bacteria (probiotics) and help with food absorption which can give those “injured” intestines some help!

5. Eat Easy To Digest Foods – I’m talking white rices, potatoes, dry cereals, light crackers (all gluten-free of course!). Give the body fuel, but make it fuel that can easily be digested without much work. This is not a time to amp up the fiber intake 😉

6. Use Turmeric And Ginger – These are both wonderful anti-inflammatory and will help ease the stomach, digestive tract, and intestines. You can take them in capsule form, as a spice on food, or even in tea form!

7. Try Activated Charcoal – I’ve never personally tried this, but some Celiacs swear by activated charcoal capsules. Apparently it’s supposed to grab on to and absorb the “toxins” in the digestive tract and help move them out of the body.

8. Replenish Electrolytes – If you’re running to the bathroom every 5 minutes, you need to keep the fluids in as well as electrolytes your body is eliminating. Instead of processed Gatorade or Pedialyte, make your own electrolyte drink like this or this!

9. When In Doubt, Take Some Pepto-Bismol – I always have Pepto on me, no matter where I am. It doesn’t always work, and it might be more psychological than anything else, but it does give me a bit of ease when I’m having stomach trouble. It may be the nice minty taste you suck on (I get the chewable tablets), so try sucking on mints to help ease the tummy if you don’t have Pepto.

10. Get Plenty Of Rest & Sleep – This truly is the most important. The is no cure for Celiac Disease, meaning when your body gets invaded, these isn’t much you can do but ride out the storm. That’s why it’s so important to know what to avoid and how to prevent cross-contamination. But if it happens, take it easy, give your body rest, allow it to recover, and get some sleep. Let the body heal itself after attacking itself.

Getting glutened doesn’t just cause a sour stomach. The symptoms can occur right away or a day or two later. You can be moody, fatigued, get horrible headaches, diarrhea, muscle aches and pains, vomiting, foggy head, disoriented, cramping, etc. So turn the lights out, get some sleep, stay hydrated, and let your loved ones know they need to show compassion and kindness as well. Your body is under attack from itself so there is nothing you can do about but let the course ride out.

So tell me:

+ What are your go-to tummy healing remedies?

+ Celiacs, when was the last time you were accidentally glutened?

+ Have you ever made your own electrolyte drink or tried activated charcoal? No and no.

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Recipe ReDux #6 Pretty Pink Pancakes

April 22, 2014 by Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine 41 Comments

Hey, hey, it’s Recipe ReDux day! Haha, I love saying that. I am so excited for this months ReDux! Not necessarily the theme, but the recipe I have to share is freaking awesome! The theme left me kind of disappointing as I had nothing for it, but of course I was able to kind of think of something. It could be any recipe, but with a story of some treasured cookware…which I don’t really have. Nothing sentimental…but…

April’s theme: Treasured Cookware – Share a story of classic cookware – and a healthy recipe to go with it. Some of us will be celebrating Mother’s Day next month (May 11,) but it’s more than once a year that many of us cook with a pan, a wooden spoon or another piece of cookware passed on to us from the kitchens of our favorite relatives. Let’s see what you can cook up with your treasured kitchen tool!

One piece(s) of cookware I love and always use are our old blue measuring cups. You can’t even see the measurements on the inside of the cups, but there are only 4. 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/3 cup. and 1/4 cup. I love them though and I would feel so bad buying a new set. I think they are so cute and vintage, haha, hipster foodie right here 😉 Well, I use these guys everyday. For measuring grains, flour, or whatever. And of course I always use them for PANCAKES!

I will always trust these cups to give me the perfect quantities. Yes, when baking you can get better results by using flours by weight with a food scale, but that seems like such an unnecessary hassle for simple pancakes. Thus I always break out the measuring cups. They measure the flours, liquid, veggies and puree for my pancakes. Yes I do use dry ingredient measuring cups for liquids! Why get the liquid measuring cup dirty when you can just use the cup you used for the dry? Minimal cleaning is what’s up 😉

And what better way to use these measuring cups then with a Spring inspired pretty pancakes recipe? Spring is full of beautiful colors and nature is finally becoming a bit more happy and bearable. Hopefully not all the flowers have died due to this crazy winter. Let’s stay positive though and just enjoy these pink pancakes. You know what is also great? Natural coloring. From veggies! Yes, more veggies for breakfast. I though using purees was the best way to go when making vegan pancakes, but I am loving using grated veggies instead. These pink cakes contain zucchini and wonderful raw beets! I love beets so much! I used to bake them, but the last few months I can not get enough of them raw! So crunchy and sweet, perfect in salads, and dinner bowls. I also wanted to use a light colored flour for these pancakes instead of my usual buckwheat. So I went with that new millet flour and it really let the beet pink color shine!

Pretty Pink Pancakes

Ingredients: (serves 1 )

+ Flour Mix: 2TB Millet Flour and 3TB Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Gluten-Free

+ 1 1/2 TB Grated Raw Beet

+ 3TB Grated Raw Zucchini

+ 1 Tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer

+ 1/4 Tsp Baking Powder

+ 3 Drops of Vanilla Stevia

+ 1/4 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

+ 1/3 Cup Water

Chocolate Sauce:

+ 1 1/2 TB Cocoa Powder

+ 1 TB Chocolate Protein Powder

+ 3 to 4 TB Water

Directions:

+ Mix the flour, egg replacer, and baking power in a bowl with a fork. Then grate your veggies add them in along with all the wet ingredients. Stir!

+ Wipe some coconut oil in a pan and heat over medium heat while they pancake batter sits.

+ Once the pan is hot, reduce the heat just a bit and pour about 1/3 of the batter in the pan. Cook for about 3 minutes, flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Repeat for the rest of the batter.

+ For the sauce, just mix all the ingredients in a tiny snack bowl. Add more of less liquid for the consistency of you liking.

So pretty! And hey, these would be perfect for Mother’s Day or Easter….if I wasn’t late on that bandwagon 😉 Whenever you decide to make them (and I hope you do!) I can bet you will feel pretty and pink just like I did (yes, you can feel like a color)! The next colored pancakes on my foodie list to-make has got to be GREEN! Spinach pancakes anyone?

So tell me:

What is your favorite pink/red food? BEETS!

Have any vintage cookware you love?

Do you use chemical filled food dye? No! But there was this weird period of time in 5th grade? when my friend and I would drink glasses of water with food coloring in it. We would sneak in her kitchen and make weird colored water with different colorings…so gross!

Make sure you check out the other Recipe ReDux members recipes for this month! Just click the linky button below to bring you to the link-up page!