Welcome back to Grain-Free Tuesdays! We are very happy to see you again. If you know the drill please scroll down to the bottom of the page to post your link. This linky is a resource for folks on the GAPS/SCD or Paleo diets so please only post recipes and content that follows the guidelines for those diets. Thanks!

A couple months ago I did a post called GAPS/SCD Recipe Roundup. My idea was to do it every full moon. I discovered in the process it is best to do a bloghop once a week on a regular basis–this has resulted in Grain-Free Tuesdays! There are lots of excellent bloghops focusing on Real Food, but since we are currently on the GAPS diet, I am personally interested in the grain-free recipes to diversify my menu.

A grain-free diet is also a very practical way to boycott industrial agriculture and support family farms. Most processed foods contain some kind of grain–it is a cheap filler, allowing the manufacturers to make more profit. A grain-free diet is also good for your gut and promotes diversity. There is currently a huge demand for nutritional information, experiences and recipes for folks on the GAPS diet or who are simply grain-free. I myself am one of these people and am eager to try out tasty grain-free recipes. I also just love all the amazing and creative ways that people are discovering for cooking grain-free. It is not only fun but gets you to think out of the box.

I got a sick for a few days a week or so ago, and being on the GAPS diet, with lots of my food taking three days or so to make–my nuts need to be soaked overnight then roasted on low heat overnight before making into bread or whatever, my sauerkraut needs to ferment a few days–getting sick really throws the whole delicate juggling act off and it takes a while to get everything back in order again. So I am sorry I am a bit behind in my emails and comments and posting! I also have a biodynamic craniosacral therapy training the rest of the week so I hope I will be able to stay on top of posting the rest of the week…I will probably just post recipes. That will probably be a good thing since I am way behind posting those–I have some tasty ones just waiting to go online so stay tuned.

I had a couple very exciting food experiences this week, the first on Saturday when I got me a huge amount of pork fat, I am processing it into lard as we speak. Very cool, but I did go a bit overboard and get a LOT of pork fat :). The other exciting thing was that I got some water kefir grains finally! I got it through a friend of Woodward Smile another local Vancouver blogger, who adopted kombucha and milk kefir SCOBYs from me and then passed some on to her friend who was inspired to track down some water kefir grains and has shared them with us. I have my first batch brewing now, and can’t wait to try it. She has promised us a guest post, this all makes me very happy, I must say 🙂 [Image shows only ONE of my bags of pork, in my other hand is a violet–great for vitamin C–photo by Caitlin]

Checking out Grain-Free Tuesdays from last week I have to say I really love this recipe from FoodForager for Salmon patties. Check out her blog post on the subject, I know we all know that salmon is good for us, but perhaps we didn’t know exactly HOW good or what the nutritional differences are between farmed and wild salmon. Her post explains it all and this video recipe demonstrates how quick and easy they are to make–goes to show you not all meals on the GAPS/SCD diets have to take three days to make!

Another great recipe from last weeks bloghop is from Nourished and Nurtured: The Best Stovetop Hamburgers with Homemade Ketchup (GAPS-legal). I have just realized that this bloghop is even better than I had expected! I have my menu for the next week in place, and my man will finally start getting some more variety in his diet. He never complains but he is probably getting tired of carrot soup all the time. I am really looking forward to trying out this recipe. It has been ages since I have had a hamburger patty!

As a matter of fact I have just decided I am making this recipe: Fantastic and Frugal French Onion Soup tomorrow night for dinner as I have some marrow broth in the fridge just dying to be made into something scrumptious. Thanks a million to A Mom on a Mission for that recipe.

I was just checking out Sugar-Free Sundays at Flip Cookbook, what a great idea! Be sure to stop by and link up your recipes over at their “Virtual Potluck” as well. I just love boycotting refined sugar. We should have done this years ago, just think of the benefits to humankind. Funny thing is I have been seeing lots of concerned articles by Big Sugar these past couple month saying that there isn’t enough sugar to meet demand this year–to me that is a good thing, so I am not sure what they are complaining about, anyway I guess we are helping them out by reducing the amount of folks consuming it.

Can’t wait to see what wonderful recipes are posted this week! Keep boycotting that evil white powder 🙂

This bloghop is based on the Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet. It is grain-free, sugar-free and processed-food free–no industrially processed fats either (in particular canola). Please only use honey or fruit as sweeteners, other natural sweeteners such as maple syrup and agave are not used on the GAPS or SCD diets. Natural stevia is OK too. I know the Body Ecology Diet includes quinoa and millet, but I prefer to leave those items out of this particular bloghop as well. Fermented foods are highly encouraged!

Please share your favorite grain-free or fermentation recipes, GAPS experiences or resources, tips on cooking from scratch, homemade cleaning products or cosmetics, herbal remedies or even your favorite way to detox. Detoxing is a very important part of the GAPS diet, and many people who are on the GAPS diet are sensitive to industrial chemicals and prefer to make their own shampoo, dishwashing detergent and soaps.

Please be sure to link back to this post and leave us a comment at the bottom.

Please just share one link each week.

Please also tweet, stumble, digg and/or share this post on facebook–I will also share your links. In the meantime, happy cooking, eating and connecting with local farmers 🙂

The Linky will open Monday evening around 10:00 (Pacific coast time) and be open all week. Happy Eating! May your gut flora be as diverse, plentiful and beautiful as the stars in the sky and the flowers on the earth.