Baking

Last Thursday was my birthday. I didn't celebrate for many reasons. The main reason being that I was, and still am, sick. My husband did the best he could to keep me smiling when he got home from work. Gave me lots of hugs and some rad bowls I'd been admiring at a local shop. He offered endlessly to take me out for dinner, buy me a cake (baking is not his thing), but I just wasn't, and am still not, up to it. It was a nice night in, watching movies and sneezing so much I think I drained all the water from my body... By Friday I was still quite sick, worse in fact. I was also quite sick of being sick. It had already been more than a week of next to no appetite, sore throat, coughing and now endless sneezing. You may have noticed I haven't baked much for the blog lately. I just haven't been into it. But for whatever bizarre reason I decided to bake myself a cake that morning. Determined to acknowledge the occasion in some way. Cake is not something I recommend sick ...

I LOVE Mexican food. I LOVE tex-mex food. I love easy to make food. I love this salad. I often crave decadent and hearty food. Fries, creamy pastas, tacos, nachos. That's why I put so much energy into trying to make my favourite meals healthy. If I ate the real deal all the time I'd make myself sick! No thanks. But a delightful high protein, good fat, gluten-free substantial salad like this I'll enjoy any day of the week. This week it was several days of the week, ha. This salad has a lot of flavour and a lot of texture. I transformed canned brown lentils into spicy fat-free 'refried beans'. They hang out on top of crunchy kale in a creamy avocado dressing. I top it all off with some fiery salsa, more avocado and some soy-free vegenaise instead of sour cream. Oh my lanta.  This salad is seriously comforting, surprisingly healthy and ridiculously easy to make. Its also vegan, grain-free, gluten-free, soy-free, high in protein, and most of all suitable for countless s...

I was recently sent a few samples of Grain-free JK Gourmet and asked to do a product review of their gluten-free, dairy-free and paleo friendly products. I happily obliged but quickly realized that everything they sent me was nut-based (I have a sensitivity to tree nuts and stay far away these days) so, committed to carrying out my review I used my husband as my taste tester. He is the official Baking Backwards recipe tester and nothing makes it onto this blog without passing his inspection. His taste buds are wholeheartedly endorsed by me, ha. I should start by saying that I received a call one afternoon from a very hangry husband announcing that I'd received the product package, he'd opened it and was waiting for my permission to eat it all..."But I need to take a photo..." *Expletive*. "When will you be home dear?" "30 minutes." *grumble* "Looking forward to it..." I came home to find the package I had left on our counter ripped open, ...