I first heard about the GAPS diet over 2 years ago.  Ever since then, I have been thinking on it.  Pondering, reading, understanding, and psyching myself out to do it, one day.  The GAPS diet, or Gut and Psychology Syndrome, was designed by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, from the UK.   In craze like fashion, it appears that everywhere I turn, someone is on this diet.  But why?  What makes this diet so intriguing?  Well, if you have not heard of it before, be rest assured that this is not a weight loss “diet”.  Though, some people do lose weight on it because this diet gets rid of the junk and removes difficult to digest foods.  The purpose of this diet is to heal the body by ‘healing and sealing’ the gut lining.  Not many people make the connection between our gut and the rest of the body, but think of your gut as your second brain.  It makes perfect sense to me.  We digest our food and absorb (or not) vitamins and minerals through the gut in order for our body to function properly.  If our digestive system is not working properly, or has been damaged in some way, how can our body function properly? It hasn’t received and absorbed adequate nutrition in order to do so!

Well, the holidays are officially behind us and a new year has begun. I wanted to share with you all some of the holiday treats we made and what we ate at our Christmas dinner. I tried a few new things and I’m glad I did, because I have a new favorite! I’d like to share with you a recipe for a fabulous green bean casserole. I had heard of people making this dish over Thanksgiving or Christmas, but I had never made it or even tried it myself, until this year. I don’t think I would have made this yummy side dish if I hadn’t taken A Happy & Healthy Holidays, from The Nourished Kitchen. This series was great by the way, and I now have a whole repertoire of wholesome holiday recipes.  Some of the other recipes I tried included the chocolate fudge, sprouted flour gingerbread cookies, roasted chestnuts, and cinnamon-molasses cookies.  From the Cheeseslave blog, I also made her recipes for raw eggnog, sprouted flour shortbread, and bacon-wrapped dates.  On Christmas day we went over to my moms house.   For dinner she made a traditional roast turkey, stuffing with giblets, mashed yams and squash, mashed potatoes with gravy, green bean casserole and caesar salad.  For dessert we had eggnog cheesecake and Christmas cookies.  Ok, I’m getting hungry now!