Category Archives: Gluten-Free

5 Easy Ways to be Allergy-Friendly for Trick-or-Treaters

Preparing for trick-or-treaters who have food allergies doesn’t have to be scary! Read on for easy ways to have an allergy-friendly Halloween.

5 Easy Ways to be Allergy-Friendly for Trick or Treaters this Halloween | Fairly Southern

Has anyone else noticed how the number of kids with food allergies has skyrocketed over the past few decades? When I was in elementary school, I don’t remember a single child in my classes having a food allergy. Back then, our parents brought homemade cupcakes for school parties, and none of us had ever heard of the word “gluten.” But y’all, times have changed.

According to the CDC, the prevalence of food allergies in children increased 50% between 1997 and 2011. At least 1 in 13 children now has a food allergy.

Read More

11 Year-End Superlatives for 2017

At the end of 2016, I did a post with 11 superlatives for the year. This year, I’m making it an annual tradition! As we approach 2018, it’s been fun to look back on 2017 and reflect on the good, the bad, and the ugly. Here we go!

1. Biggest Milestone: Launching this blog! The new name and layout felt like coming home…like this was always where my blog was supposed to be. And since the launch, I’ve been better about posting more regularly, which has been an exciting achievement!

Fairly Southern | Blog | Welcome to my fair trade, eco-friendly, socially conscious front porch

2. Hardest Challenge: My family lost a sweet pup this year, and we have had several other losses and trials within our wider family circle that perhaps haven’t had an enormous direct impact on me personally, but that I have certainly felt and grieved over. I also struggled with some anger and anxiety from a political perspective earlier in the year. I honestly had to disengage myself somewhat from politics and the news in order to cope. I’m not super happy about this, as I think it’s important to be informed and involved, but my mental health just couldn’t take it anymore. All in all, I hesitate to truly label any of these things as “challenges” because they certainly don’t compare to finding out that, say, you yourself have cancer, but they were the tough parts of life that we struggled with this year. Read More

Tips for Eating Gluten-Free in Italy

Tips for Eating Gluten-Free in Italy | Fairly Southern

When I traveled to Italy earlier this year, I was pretty nervous. As someone with a gluten intolerance, the prospect of navigating restaurants full of pasta, pizza, and bread in a foreign language was more than a little daunting. To my amazement, however, Italy proved to be the most gluten-free-friendly place I’ve ever been! I had an amazing time, ate some great gluten-free food, and was not inadvertently “glutened” a single time. Read More

Small Joys: Volume 3

Small Joys Volume 3 - Cultivating Gratitude! | Fairly Southern

Spring has sprung, days are sunny, and there’s so much to be grateful for! About time for another Small Joys post, right??

Actually, truth be told, I was struggling with some major discontentment this morning. After wallowing for a bit, I convinced myself that the best way to snap out of it was to cultivate gratitude. So, here I am!

Here are the little things that have been bringing me joy lately:  Read More

Food Favorites (October)

October has been an absolute whirlwind, and I can’t believe it’s almost over! As I mentioned in my last post, Wes and I kicked off the month by buying a house. It’s taking us awhile to get unpacked and organized! Because of all this craziness, food has had to be two things for us this month: easy and fast. Yes, this sometimes means cereal for dinner. Here are the products and recipes I’ve been loving in my kitchen this month:

Tofu Chickpea Stir Fry with Tahini Sauce. On one of the rare evenings when we actually had 10-20 minutes to devote to cooking, this recipe was a winner. So easy and healthy! The key is baking the tofu ahead of time (I did it the night before). This is the only way I will eat tofu from now on. The only “weird” ingredient is the tahini, but thankfully we already had some in the fridge from when Wes attempted to make homemade hummus a few months back. In typical lazy form, I omitted the onion and pepper because I didn’t want to take the time to go buy them. I threw in some garlic to make up for it.

Art of Oil balsamic vinegars. My entire family has a love affair with Art of Oil in Boone, NC. I could probably spend hours in the store sampling all of the different flavors of olive oil and vinegar. I am a huge balsamic lover, and by that I mean that I enjoy drinking it straight from the bottle (yes, I’m a freak). Mixing the vinegars with a little EVOO makes for a perfect homemade salad dressing without all the nasty preservatives and other scary ingredients. Lately, I’ve been dabbling with the vinegars in my cooking as well. This week, I used the Pumpkin Spice White Balsamic Vinegar in a green bean and pumpkin seed pasta that I took to work for lunch. Perfect fall flavor!

Green Bean and Pumpkin Seed Pasta | Fairly Southern Read More

Food Favorites (September)

Do y’all like to talk about food? I do, so I’m hoping you’ll enjoy this food favorites post! I’m hoping to do one at the end of every month with my favorite foodie products and/or dishes from the month. I am not a gourmet chef and find myself very pressed for time when it comes to food, so for the most part you’ll find that these posts include quick meal ideas and favorite healthy snacks. Without further ado, here are my September favorites:

Suja Cold-Pressed Juice. This stuff makes me feel amazing. I have so much more energy, and it’s a great option for those like me and Wes who are too busy/lazy to actually cook vegetables. This is the most reasonably priced cold-pressed raw juice we’ve found. Local juicers sell similar products for up to $12/bottle, and the least expensive grocery store alternative is twice as expensive. It’s still pricey, though, so hubs and I usually split one when we buy it (he has his half for breakfast, I have my half with lunch).

September Food Favorites: Suja Cold-Pressed Juice | Fairly Southern Read More