Yummy Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

      Ever since I started the low fodmap diet I've wanted to create a wheat free oatmeal cookies, and now I've finally got a recipe that I think deserves to be shared with you guys! The recipe does make 4 dozen cookies, so share, or don't, but don't be surprised.

Ingredients:

• 3 Eggs
• 1 c Raisins (1/2 c Raisins, 1/2 c Dried Cranberries)
• 1 tps Vanilla
• 1 c Butter
• 1 c Brown Sugar
• 1 c White Sugar
• 2 ¹⁄₂ c Almond Flour
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 2 c Oatmeal

1. Combine Raisins, eggs and vanilla and pop in the fridge for 1 hour. This may seem silly, but it is SUPER important for keeping the mixture moist and ending up with great chewy cookies!

 2. Combine sugars and butter. In separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon

 3. Cream sugars and butter

 4. Add Dry ingredients and egg mixture and mix well.

 5. Add Oatmeal and mix well.
6. Dole out tablespoon sized dollops onto non greased trays.
7. Bake at 350 for 10-13 minutes, until browned at edges.
8. Enjoy!

Extra things to add: Chocolate, coconut, other dried fruits
Note: this can be made with normal wheat flour if you're not trying to stay wheat free

Citrus Berry Crumble for One

     SO many berries, so little time. As a result I've had quite a few go bad or soft or wrinkly. So here's an easy way to use them! I've been playing with this recipe for the last week and I think I finally like this one best.

Crumble:
Half a Lemon
Handful of Berries
Sprinkle of Sugar

Topping:
1 Tbs Coconut Oil
1 Tbs Almond Flour
1 Tbs Oats
1 tps Brown Sugar


1. Place one thin slice of lemon with skin removed in the bottom of the ramekin

2. Wash blueberries and put them in the ramukin
3. Sprinkle with sugar and mix them up

4. On a seperate plate mix Coconut oil, Almond flour, Oats and Brown Sugar until well combined

5. Crumble over blueberries

6. Top with a little sprinkle of Sugar
7. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until you see purple liquid bubbling up around the sides.

8. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes and top with any yumminess!

Stunna Shades fit for a SPY

       A few months ago I went to a little shin dig put on by Spy Optic at their Happy Camp in Solana Beach. A little while after they sent me these beauteous glasses to try out on my adventures! But I figured I'd get them a real audition before telling you how much I like them.
     So I put these guys through their paces and here's what I think: they are awesome!!
     The Mulholland is part of Spy's new "Crosstown Collection". Spy has made lots of awesome performance glasses but the guys are street wear. But that doesn't mean that all these glasses have going for them is their looks, they're still just as hard core as their performance buddies!
     They all have Spy's signature Happy Lens! This means that they cut down on glare so you can see real colors of what's out there on our adventures. I took these bad boys kayaking and got zero glare off the water! Plus I looked super cool.
     I had always thought of Spy as a brand for super active water fueled kids, but with the addition of these awesome shades, we can all look cool while making sure things look good!

Cute Little Frittata

 Ingredients:
3 Eggs
2 Small Potatoes
1 Tbs Garlic Olive Oil
2 Handfuls of Spinach
2 oz Cheese of Your Coice
3 Green Onions (The spring green part for low FODMAPers)
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Dice up those Potatoes and boil them for 5-10 minutes (depending on the size of chunks)
2. Warm up oil, drop in Potatoes and brown on each side
3. Scramble up Eggs with diced Cheese and Green Onion

4. Put Spinach in pan until it wilts

5. Pour Egg mixture over Spinach and Potatoes

6.Cover and leave until Egg sets

7. Slice it up and season to taste

California Scrub Company

 Skin: We've all got it, so let's treat it right! I got an offer from California Scrub Company to try out their product, and since I like it so much, I'm gonna tell you about it!
So here's little Q&A with myself for you.

What's with all the hype about coffee scrubs?
     We all love to exfoliate, it makes our skin soft and gets rid of black heads. But until recently the main exfoliating agents were salt, ground nuts and evil microbeads. Salt is not great if you have a grey water system because it may kill your plants. Ground nuts are often too rough and large and can actually leave small cuts on your skin and cause further damage (warning to St. Ives Almond and Apricot scrub users: STOP NOW). And lastly micro beads...They are covering our oceans soil, filling up the gills and bellys of creatures and take a whole lotta time to break down. So this leaves coffee grounds: You'd already put them in compost, so we know they break down fast, the pieces are small and soft so no damage to your skin, and they're basically considered trash, so you're not creating a new product. So all around, pretty great!
     The caffeine also does other things like tighten your skin and reduce stretch marks, but that's all individual preference.

 What's so special about Cali Scrub Co?
 1. Upcycled coffee grounds. They get the already used grounds from Rawvelution in Santa Monica (down the road from them) and make this "garbage" into an awesome product for us to use.
2. Zero Plastic. I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture, but their packaging is a mason jar. Recycle it, reuse it, whatever, it probably won't go in a landfill for a billion years.
3. Ingredients you can understand. I've baked with vanilla, cinnamon AND cloves! I've gotten that on my skin and know it causes no damage or extra sensitivity to sunlight (I'm looking at you Salicylic Acid).
4. It makes your skin feel and smell great, and who doesn't love that!?

Ok, you've convinced me, now what?
Go check out their awesome website, learn more and maybe even buy one of their 3 awesome scents!

If you want to live somewhere where things are made, you need to buy things that are made in that country. Shop Small. Shop Local.

Summer Smoothie Bowl

SMOOTHIE BOWL! They're delicious, and if you do it right, nutritious.
Here's my recipes for a low FODMAP friendly one.


Bowl:
1/4 Avocado
2 Handfuls Spinach
1 Handful Frozen Mango
1/2 Handful Frozen Pineapple
3/4 c Almond Milk
1 Spoonful of Sun Butter
A few frozen Blueberries
A tiny piece of Ginger

Topping:
4 Strawberries 
1/2 Banana
Handful of Blueberries
2 Tbs toasted coconut
1 Tbs sliced Almonds

The best part about smoothie bowls? If you say to yourself: I wonder if _____ would be good on it... The answer is probably yes!

Key Components:
Creaminess: Avocado, Banana (frozen or raw), mango
Green: Spinach, Kale
Liquid: Types of Milk, Juice
Protein: Seed or Nut Butter, or Protein Powder
A Little Bite: Citrus, Pineapple, Ginger
Toppings: Fruit, Nuts, Granola, Honey, Coconut, etc.

So get out there and experiment!

Nudity in Nature

Pretending to be a tree nymph

     I was going to write about San Diego Pride today, but with the storm I only got one good photo and we were at the event for a mere 20 minutes before we were freezing. So instead we're gonna talk about a shoot I did about a month ago!

     Being a model I've gotten tons of offers to to nude or implied nude shots, and until this point, I've said no. But after working with this fantastic Make Up artist twice in 3 weeks, I decided to take a leap and take a step outside my comfort zone. And I loved every second of it.

     Hair and Makeup began at 3:30 in the morning. We shot at sunrise at a secret place in Southern California (no I'm not telling you where). The other wonderful women worked together seamlessly to create a gorgeous styled shoot. By the end of our time together I was dirty, exhausted, and incredibly comfortable in my own skin.

    This experience led me to the brilliant conclusion: Everyone should feel fantastic being naked.

   

     I'm not saying that everyone should whip off their clothes and jump in front of a camera, but you should experience your body unencumbered by clothes. I've always liked having less boundaries between me and my environment, whether that involved walking in the woods barefoot or finding a good place in a tree to curl up. But this adventure was beyond any of those. There were no jeans riding up, no t-shirts twisting into my armpits, no socks slowly bunching up around the arch of my foot. I was able to become fully aware of my body and how it connects to the earth around me.

     So go for it! Clean your room in your underwear, make a sandwich in the nude, don't huddle in a towel while you wait for the water to warm up. (But maybe make sure your blinds are closed before doing any of these things). 

     I'm so grateful that I was able to have this experience with some wonderful humans, and I hope every person on earth can feel the same about their body at some point in their life.

Photographer: The Heart's Haven

Hair, Makeup& Styling: Thorne Artistry