9 Best places to eat gluten free and dairy free in Seattle

I thought I might share the 9 best places to eat gluten free and dairy free in Seattle.

1. Chaco Canyon in the University District and West Seattle (Serves a variety of dishes) - All day eatery
• Certified organic and vegetarian restaurant with vegan, raw food, and gluten free dishes. Delicious raw food dishes such as enchilada and pizza.  
2. Thrive in the University District (Serves a variety of dishes) - All day eatery
• Vegetarian restaurant with vegan, raw food, and gluten free dishes. Delicious bowls with red rice and veggies topped with raw food sauce
3. Cafe Flora in Madrona (Serves vegetarian dishes) - good for brunch, lunch, and dinner
• One of the best vegetarian restaurants in Seattle that also has many gluten free and vegan dishes. Try their gluten free and vegan pancakes, or scrambles tofu with roasted potatoes. Yum! 
4. Plum Bistro in Capitol Hill, Seattle, and Tacoma (Serves a variety of dishes)- good for lunch, brunch, and dinner
• Organic vegan restaurants with gluten free options.
5. Hugo's Organic in Redmond (Serves a variety of dishes) - good for lunch, brunch, and dinner
• Allergy friendly restaurants. Gluten free, cow dairy free, and more. Has a couple of raw food dishes.
6. Portage Bay in several locations(Serves pancakes, toast, and egg dishes) - good for brunch
• Go here for your gluten free, dairy free, and egg free pancake fix. Big berry buffet for toppings to your pancake. The main attraction is the berry buffet. If you are after pancakes, I would go to Cafe Flora.
7. Homegrown in Fremont (Serves sandwiches, salads, and soups) - good for breakfast and lunch
• All the breads are vegan, and you can get them gluten free as well.
8. Healeo in Capitol Hill (Serves smoothies and juices, but has also started with breakfast, lunch, and dinner) - good for breakfast and snack.
• This is not a full-blown restaurant. I would go here to expect a proper dinner. Better to call first and ask what they are offering.
9. PCC in various locations (This is a grocery store that has many allergy friendly lunch items) - good for lunch.

The reasons why I have selected these restaurants are because they are very accommodating regarding food allergies and the food in these places are good and healthy. 

Please let me know if you have other suggestions about similar restaurants.

Happy Easter and losing a part of me

I know it has been awfully quiet from me lately. I have been in a big thinking mode lately.

Having lived in Seattle for seven years, I feel like I am losing some of the feeling surrounding Swedish culture and tradition, but I am not really being able to replace it with something. I guess it is a typical feeling when you have lived in a new country for 5-10 years or so. There is probably even statistics with numbers. But I have not looked into that yet.

So I want to ask all of my friends out there who live outside Sweden if you have experienced this yet and, if so, what are your thoughts?

Well, this weekend I am going to make the most of Easter by socializing and eating typical Swedish Easter food, such as marinated salmon, smoked salmon, eggs, asparagus, and marzipan eggs.

Glad Påsk!

Please turn out the light on Saturday evening

I hope that all of you guys join me for Earth Hour this Saturday, March 23 at 8:30 pm, wherever you are.

I will be turning out the lights for one hour and hope to see neighbors and friends and cities do the same. I hope it will become dark, with only flickering lights from candles here and there.

Mr Nasty Flu: you are not welcome here

No raw food in the world helped when I came down with the flu a couple of weeks ago. That is why it has been rather quiet here lately.

I have not been that sick in over ten years. Fever, throbbing headache, and a sore throat. I have to consider myself lucky that I do not get the flu every year. At least not so far. My body still kind of feels weak, so I am taking it extra easy for another week. A lot of resting and drinking tea and water.

So glad I can work with my laptop of the sofa, in a horizontal position.

Yesterday, I went to the Swedish Cultural Center to sell Swedish Easter eggs, Swedish candy, and Scandinavian design products. Thanks to all of you who supported me.

If you missed me, I still have some Daim, Dumle, Kex Wafers, Licorice pipes, and Easter eggs left, so give me a call or FB me.

Now time to do some bookkeeping.

So long.

Raw food brownie recipe

Several people have asked for the raw food brownie recipe, so here goes:

Brownies (24 small)

4 1/2 cups fine cashew flour or pecan flour (put the nuts into a mixer to make flour)
3 cups cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup of maple syrup
1/2 cup agave
1 1/2 cups water
3/4 vanilla extract

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Put the mixture in a 9 x 13-inch pan lined with parchment paper or plastic wrap. Put the mixture in the pan and spread evenly. Put in dehydrator overnight. Take out the brownies, cut them into two-bite sizes, and turn them upside down. Place them in the dehydrator again for 4-6 hrs.

Enjoy!

Raw food cures for colds and flus

The raw food brownies I made last week were delicious. I did not even have time to take a photo of them before they were gobbled up by my family. I will definitely make these brownies again.

This weekend was a bit slow in our family. I volunteer at I's school in a program called "Read Naturally" where I sit and read with the children. Last week I had two kids with really bad snivels and so on Friday guess who was totally knocked out on the sofa the whole day. Enter raw food smoothies.

Yes, I decided to go completely raw and just vitamin boost my system. Hence green smoothie in the morning, citrus smoothie in the afternoon, and then another smoothie in the evening. I think it did the trick. At least, I would like to believe it did. Saturday and Sunday I was just a bit low and had a sore throat, and today I am good to go.

In the citrus smoothie I put one orange, one tangerine, one clementine, one kiwi, water, and a handful of frozen pineapple chunks. My 2 cents if you are experiencing a bad cold right now.

And, of course I stay away from sugar and dairy too.

Stay healthy out there!

Keeping it up is hard

I have already laid Vail and Colorado behind me and got straight back to working on my business. Some information about Vail is coming in a later blog post once I have transferred my photos to my computer.

With kids back in school, husband at work, and me in front of the computer a lot these days, it is hard to keep up the raw food explorations. I am at the point where I know the basics of raw food, can make a number of dishes, and enjoy trying different things out. However, with less time now that I am a business owner, I wish I just had a larger repertoire of recipes in my head.

That being said, I managed to get the dehydrator going this morning with corn tortillas, buckwheat for porridge, flour, and granola, and, last but not least, brownies. All raw food goodies. It is the first time that I make these brownies so I cannot wait to find out how they taste like. And yes, I have to wait a long time; they will be ready sometime tomorrow drying away as they are in the dehydrator. But then again, all the things I prepared for the dehydrator only took a few moments so it is well worth the wait.

I know that the corn tortilla does not look so tasty but they are, and when you add some salad, olives, tomatoes, and hummus it is better than ordinary wheat bread.

Vail, Colorado here we come

After a very intense month, I am happy to say good bye to Seattle for a few days. The kids have their mid-term break starting tomorrow and what could be better than going on a little trip when there are a few free days to fill with fun.

Last year we explored Snowmass and Aspen in Colorado. I would say Snowmass is the place to go if you have younger kids. Aspen has steeper slopes and the sun disappears quickly since the slopes are facing north. Aspen has a lot of good restaurants and shops though and is close to Snowmass.

This year, we decided to explore Vail. As usual, I will bring books and training gear. No skiing for me. Fortunately, little I took some ice skating lessons, so we will check out the ice as well. For those of you who do not know Seattle that well, I can tell you that it can be really hard to find ice to ice skate on outdoors here during winter hence the ice skating lessons.

San Sebastian

I sit here and realize that I did not blog about our vacation in Puerto Vallarta. And now, Christmas and Mexico feels very far away.

Puerto Vallarta was excellent to have as a base from which to go on excursions.

We rented a car while in PV and one day we drove up into the Sierra Madre mountains to visit San Sebastian, a small town that was founded in 1605. Very picturesque and hardly any tourists.

Centered around a square, this former mining town have a few restaurants, hotels, and a church.

We had a stroll around the town and had a very good lunch.

The town church.

Little I in search for ice cream

And she found it.

Later in the afternoon, we rented a couple of ATVs and drove further up in the mountains.

This was a wonderful day trip, but if we come back we have decided to stay the night so we have some time to explore this area.

ER - long time, no see

When little I was younger, she reluctantly frequented ER. Little I played with window blinds and hurt her lip badly. Plastic surgery hello. Then she played with a saucepan and fell. Stitches on chin hello. And she got a bad bug of some sort so she had to go in for fluid refill. And so on and so on. And yes, the bead in her nose. I am pretty sure she is not the only child who has had that experience.

She has also dislocated her elbow twice, and this is what I thought happened yesterday. So off to ER again.

We were lucky as there was no queue to register and no people in the waiting room. I do not think that I have ever experienced that. It turned out her arm was fine, at least according to the X-ray, but something must have happened during her gymnastics class earlier in the evening.

Well, it was a short in-and-out visit and this is the first time I see a happy girl at ER.

And I have to tell myself to be happy as long as our whole family is well and healthy.

Crafts for Valentine

When I moved to Seattle about seven years ago, I did not realize Valentine was so big here. My oldest daughter came home from school one day and said she was going to make Valentine cards for everyone in her class. I thought it was a bit unusual. According to my experience from Sweden, Valentine cards were given to loved ones, that is family members, best friends, and a boyfriend or girlfriend.

I was glad she made those Valentine cards because everyone in her class had made her one and they all had given her a piece of candy. Although I think it is a pretty sweet tradition, I am opting out of the candy part. Instead we have included pencils, heart-shaped erasers, or some other small functional thing.

The other day the little one and I had a Valentine craft session. Well, the little one did all by herself. I just needed to help out with the spelling a bit.

What am I doing these days?

I am finally getting into a routine and concentrating on working on my online retail store. And it is hard work, but a lot of fun.

Things that I have been busy with lately are paying sales tax to Washington State for all products sold and preparing my taxes. It is not as boring as it sounds, just a bit tricky the first time. And I really love doing all the different things you have to do when having your own business, everything from web design and taxes to customer interaction and market research. 

I have also finally found someone to help out with marketing, and I think it is going to be a fun team effort. Thanks Kristin for being such a good friend and for providing your expertise.

The best part with having your own business is being your own boss. I can make all the decisions and I can only be angry with myself for making the wrong ones. I also enjoy interacting with customers and selecting the products for my store. Life is good.

I am currently focusing on getting the word out about my business, so if you would like to help me, you can do so by liking my company Facebook page, and you can also go to my store and Facebook like one or several products or pin them on Pinterest. And if you have purchased a product in my store, please write a review if you liked it. I really appreciate your help.

Apart from running my business, I am enjoying reading time with little I. She is making great progress reading in Swedish and English. And I am very thankful for the library at Swedish School here in Seattle.

Z has just finished her finals and is planning for her trip to Vancouver this weekend where she will take part in Model UN where they practice international debates and discussions. Z is representing Sweden and will discuss copyright and women's education. I wish I could go! At least we can enjoy good and interesting conversations at the dinner table, apart from when little I totally takes charge and wants all the attention.

Amazon's annual party 2013

Last Saturday it was time to join all Amazonians for the annual Amazon party. For those of you who do not know, Amazon has its HQ here in Seattle and has over 51,000 employees around the world. It is a fast growing company and so it is not strange that the party took place at CenturyLink Field to house all people.

This year's theme was global shipping (my definition) and we were welcomed by boxes hanging from the ceiling.

Containers with wall dancers.

Japanese themed bar.

And a good old British bus.

And we got to enjoy Imagine Dragons coming from Las Vegas to play us some tunes.

It was all a nice evening, although I must say that it was better last year when it was easier to find friends and colleagues.

Martin Luther King Jr Day

Thank you Martin for giving the kids an extra holiday. What would we have done without you.

I got to spend some good time with I at our local bowling joint where we practiced not to throw the bowling ball and not to forget to take out our fingers from the holes before the ball rolled away.

After out bowling session with our glow-in-the dark bowling shoes, we were ready to go home.

At home, I had a Semla and little I did some Valentine crafts.

And Zoe, well she is studying—as usual—with friends.

Too early!

When I lived in Sweden I used to decorate my home with daffodils during Easter. To me daffodils make me think about Easter eggs and spring.

To my surprise I saw these mini daffodils in my local grocery store today.

Pretty little things, but please wait with blooming a couple of months.

How difficult can it be?

I think it is really simple. No guns for the public should be the general rule.

Only the police, military, and certain security roles should be allowed to carry and use weapons.

If you are a hunter, then yes you should be able to use a hunting rifle during hunts, and when not hunting, you should store it according to strict rules.

Having a gun for self defense. You have got to be kidding me. The state should guarantee safety for its citizens. If it can't, then I think we have a different kind of problem that should be addressed accordingly.

Very simple!

Tools for making raw food

Many people have asked me about good tools for making raw food.

As a base you only need a chopping board, a couple of sharp knives, and some bowls. A high speed mixer makes life easier so that you can make smoothies, sauces, soups, and porridge. For those of you who want to make crackers, bread, desserts, pancakes, pizzas, and pies a dehydrator is invaluable.

Some people also invest in a juicer and food processor. It is really up to you and which preferences you have. I have managed without a juicer and food processor so far, but they are definitely on my radar.

What you will realize is that it is wonderful to prepare food in a totally different way. Less things to wash, less time to prepare your food, and no bacon odor in your hair.

Chop, chop.

Raw corn tortilla with salad

The corn tortilla I made in the dehydrator the other day turned out to be perfect with some hummus spread, different kinds of lettuce and a few slices of avocado. Some sea salt and pepper on top and lunch is ready.

If you want to start making raw food, I would suggest the following books:

• Ani's Raw Food Esstentials: Recipes and Techniques for Mastering the Art of Live Food by Ani Phyo
• Raw for Everyone by Alissa Cohen

The following book on raw food is good if you want more information about nutrients in food:

• The Raw Food Revolution Diet by Vesanto Melina

And if you want a book in Swedish, I can recommend the following book:

• Raw Food på svenska by Erica Palmcrantz

I have not chosen these books because they are the best raw food books, but because they have many easy recipes to get you going.

Happy socks

A few weeks ago, I was meeting a friend to explore a new furniture store in Seattle. My friend was a bit late so I popped into Sole food which is my favorite shoe store here in the US. To my surprise I found the Swedish sock brand Happy Socks there. Being a Swede and living in another country, I am always a bit proud to find that our little country with only 9 million people can still compete internationally with everything from IT and traditional industries to music and fashion.

I bought a couple of happy socks for little I for Christmas and she likes them very much. Happy Socks are available for children and adults.

A raw morning

With rain dripping outside my kitchen window and the grayness of the day hanging heavy over me, I thought I badly needed some high energy food to cheer me up. Time to whip up some raw food mixes.

In a jiffy I had made zucchini bread, corn bread, and Brazilian nut and banana pancakes and put into the dehydrator. No photos I am afraid. These mixes tend to look rather drab (can food look drab? well I have just decided it can.) so let's see if I can take a photo once all the food is ready instead.

Raw food is so easy to make. All the above only took a few minutes to prepare and all I needed was a mixer, a spoon, a knife, and a cup. I don't understand why not more people are trying this way to make food. Healthy and delicious and easy to make.

Maybe I should have you over for an introduction to raw. Anyone interested? 

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a relaxing holiday. We celebrated an early Christmas without snow here in Seattle, and then we took off to the Mexican sun for a week. More about this trip in a later post.

2013. New year, new things to do and discover, isn't that wonderful?! There are no new year resolutions in our family as far as I know, but this year I would like to explore raw food a bit more, have time to read many more books than last year, and find some beautiful places to visit in the Northwest.

Hoping you all will have a tremendously good year!

Picture from April and May.