To Whom It May Concern:

I was able to have kefir this week! No, it is not some mystical hallucinogenic illegal substance that I recently discovered and experienced. Kefir is a probiotic beverage cultured from dairy. In laymen's terms: it's a more liquid version of plain yogurt that is full of good digestive bacteria. It is filling, delicious and easy to mix with other ingredients to create a variety of yummy dairy-creations. Why is this a big deal? It will be the first dairy product I will have successfully reintroduced (outside of butter) into my diet. I haven't been able to consistently consume dairy in several years, and it has been two years since I officially completely removed it from my diet.

I have also been craving sweet and baked goods lately, and wanted to pass on a recipe I found in an allergy-friendly cookbook last summer. The cookbook is titled "Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet" and contains recipes that are Grain-free, lactose-free, and sugar-free. The recipes are easily adapted to accommodate allergens (particularly soy) that may be included in the recipes. If you struggle with gluten-intolerance or multiple food-allergies: I highly recommend this cookbook. I also found a blog that has a lot of similar recipes on it: Specific Carbohydrate Diet

I love this particular recipe and ate it often in a past life, but be warned that it does make a mess. Just trust me. It is worth the clean-up if you are craving sweet foods.

I'm going to type in the recipe as it was written, and insert my modifications in parentheses next to each step.

Hazelnut-Vanilla Pancakes

You'll Need:

• 1 cup of almond flour
• 1/4 cup of hazelnuts (I left this ingredient out)
• 4 eggs (substitute: 4 tablespoons of ground flaxseed boiled in 3/4 c. water until gelatinous)**
• 2 tbsp of honey
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• Butter

**Boiled ground flaxseed acts as the binding agent needed for the recipe. This is usable in any recipe in place of eggs.

Blend all of these ingredients (except for the butter) together (recommended for a blender, but easily done by hand). The butter is used to fry the pancakes in; so butter up the pan! You then simply fry the batter. A tricky part that I found when frying the pancakes is that the pancakes tend to enjoy falling apart and giving you a minor heart attack as they do so - it's best to make them as thin and small as you feasibly can. The good news, is that even if they do fall apart while frying, it is easy to mold them into a small mound that you can continue to flip and fry until they are cooked. The almond flour makes them crumbly, but even though they may look...interesting, they are delicious.

Syrup:

• 1/16 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup honey
• cinnamon

The syrup is simple: heat the ingredients together (add as much or little cinnamon as your heart desires) for one minute. It is recommended that you do it in a pan, but you can just as easily do it in the microwave.

Delicious. You should try it at least once, even if you despise me for the mess that you will make :)

Tip(s):

• Wear comfortable shoes to lab, and understand that you will often require a heating pad after being on your feet in said lab all day.
• Study and write ahead of time. Procrastinating on a research paper will only end in trouble and madness.