New Discoveries

I know I recently posted about my favorite snacks, but I’ve found more. I get so excited with every new discovery I just can’t resist sharing! During this quarantine alone I found three more goodies.

CEREAL

Those who follow me on Instagram may have already seen my post about this first item. It’s NUCO Coconut Crunch cereal. I can’t express how excited I am about this one. One of the things I missed the most (pre-autoimmune diagnosis), was just getting up in the morning and having a bowl of cereal. With my autoimmune nutrition protocol I had to reluctantly give that up. Aside from the breakfast tradition and taste of cereal in the morning, it was the ease of it I missed. I longed for the days of waking up in the morning and making a quick breakfast.

The past six years on this protocol, I have had to flip the script on what I always thought breakfast should be. For years I ate meals, typically designed for lunch and dinner, and had them for breakfast instead. I eventually created my own autoimmune friendly cereal, but it was very time consuming. Needless to say, when I discovered this cereal I was over the moon!

MILK

This next item is great because it goes along with the first one. Elmhurst walnut milk (I get at Sprouts located with the non-refrigerated milk items). I realize this is not and AIP friendly food item. It is however, Paleo friendly. To take a step back, many of us have been able to do what is called an AIP Plus nutritional plan. Most of the Functional Medicine doctors encourage the AIP-ers to try to re-introduce foods over time as their bodies heal. Nuts are considered one of the safer items to start with. For me, a handful of a nut species ended up being successful re-introductions. Thankfully walnuts made the cut.

What I discovered, with the majority of available nut milks out there, was that there were always additional preservatives and binders which were harmful to the gut. Once again, if I wanted nut milk, I’d have to make it from scratch. Well, not anymore my friends! This milk only has two ingredients…walnuts and water. And it just so happens to be a great accompaniment to the Coconut Crunch cereal.

BUTTER

This last find was actually not found by me, but recommendation by my mother. It is called Miyoko’s and it’s a butter substitute (also found at Sprouts). I am giving you a disclaimer on this one as well. It does contain non-AIP friendly cashews and sunflower oil, but is an otherwise pretty clean vegan product. This brand does have other vegan products, but keep in mind, many are far from Autoimmune or Paleo friendly. The reason I wanted to recommend it is because, for those who have been on a good road to healing their digestive tract, this is a nice treat to have on occasion. And let me tell you, it tastes exactly like butter. I recently created this amazing cream “cheese” frosting with it to decorate an AIP cake. It was just a nice treat for a birthday gathering.

I hope you give at least one of these recommendations a try. It’s nice to have a glimmer of light in this, difficult to navigate, road to healing.

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