8 Week Autoimmune Protocol Celebration and Giveaway!

Winner:

Ok- did I say Thursday at noon? I meant MIDNIGHT. Forgive me… first giveaway here, getting my sea legs. Its a wee Giveaway… there will be others.. yes indeed! But We DO have a winner *DRUM ROLL PLEASE* Our winner is Dyanne Spease! (Am I the only one hearing Price is Right music) Congrats!

So another busy weekend flashed by. How does that happen?

I had this intent on getting this entry on the blog on Friday and then one thing led to another. Turns out it probably wouldn’t have been worth your time on Friday anyway. Today however… its worth your time! Unless you simply don’t like giveaways or just hate paleo or dislike me in general. If that is the case, I am not sure why you are hear to begin with. But I digress.

So, today marks officially EIGHT WEEKS of my AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) Journey. I know, I am not the only one who does AIP, but its been tough and honestly I feel like celebrating a little. Seeing as I am such a giving person (honestly I am) I decided to celebrate with a giveaway. Yay! Who doesn’t love giveaways?! Me. I never win dammit… but that’s ok, cause this time I am the one doing the giving. Either way- details at the end.

For now the updates ya’ll! This week was a lot of fun, even though my kids were away. I had some gardening to do and man those squash, phew they sure do take off don’t they? Yeah. Weeds at bay and new plants! Decided on sweet potatoes, we eat them like they are going out of style. Everything else is humming along and growing beautifully, so much so that phase 2 planting plans are under way! Ah yes, time to get those second round seedlings going. This coming month we have plans for getting the summer plantings trellised and putting in one more bed for a winter crop of tubers. Lots of great garden progress.

Thursday and Friday I spend out and about running around and scored two new gadgets to help with preserving foods a dehydrator and pressure canner/cooker. I have never admitted to being the “cool kid” especially when I totally nerd out about my dehydrator, yeah I am THAT excited. Just you wait until I get my spiralizer… oh man, then its ON.

So- we decided this weekend with all our barbecues and all we were going to mess around with the new gadgets. So, we made a bone broth with the pressure canner/cooker which Richard now refers to as PCC. After the broth, with the remaining bones we made a dog food blend for the pups leaving absolutely nothing to waste. I think my pups now believe they have died and gone to heaven, but they deserve it.

We visited the farmers market in the morning yesterday and scored some amazingly over ripened apricots to again use the PCC, this time for canning! I had a plan for a Ginger Honey Apricot Jam using the kernels to naturally add a little pectin. Its Ah-mazing. (recipe to come)

In my efforts to try to find some like-minded people in my area, I joined a meet-up group online for whole foods. There was an event listed for a Raw Foods Brunch at Lizz’s Creative Juices in Downtown Fredericksburg (which was today) so I decided to grab my girlfriend who is very much like myself in the foodie-ness and rsvp for the brunch. We didn’t know what to expect, I didn’t even know the place existed before. I mean Fredericksburg isn’t exactly a Mecca of gluten-free and raw food options. But let me tell you, Lizz’s food could easily be in a cafe in Fairfax or DC. The brunch consisted of four courses, each small, but delicious and beautifully displayed. The beverages were refreshing and everything was raw and gluten-free minus one or two selections. Being AIP at the moment was not difficult because most everything on the brunch menu was inbounds on my eating options and it was ALL delicious. My favorite item was the green tomato gazpacho and next the Pad Thai made with squash noodles (can’t wait for my spiralizer!!) I will definitely be back to visit Lizz and her wonderful offerings soon!

Today the mother in law came over and had blueberries! I was at a loss as to what to first dehydrate and since my apricots were too ripe for the dehydrator, I was needing to find SOMETHING to dehydrate. Blueberries, yes. They dehydrate as I write. I can’t wait!!!

So… I said it, yes? A give away? Ok. So I have been feeling pretty fabuloso and am super excited about this week and next. Next week Beyond Bacon is being release! There are so many wonderful paleo cook books coming out this summer. We are heading to the release party next Friday and can’t wait to meet some of the folks that have really helped me get to this 8 week point in my AIP Journey thus far. But for the moment, I do know many of the autoimmune folks and paleo folks pay homage to Practical Paleo. As I have said before, it has been my AIP bible and guide so far and I keep it with me always. SO for my giveaway, the fantastic folks at Balanced Bites and the wonderful Diane Sanfilippo have given me a copy of Practical Paleo to offer you! *tosses glitter and streamers* Yay! So all you have to do is enter the raffle copter below for your chance to win! The winner will be chosen randomly on Thursday at 12pm. Winner will be announced at the beginning of this post on Thursday, so check back for the result!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rules (cause there have to be rules):

Must be a US resident (dude, I am just not able to ship overseas, sorry!)
Use a valid, that means a REAL, email address please!
Winner will have 24 hours to respond or a new winner is chosen, I run a tight ship! (did I mention I am a former Marine?)

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