Healthy-Family is celebrating our very first birthday this month. On July 1, 2007 we went on line with our first post, Attention and Behavior Problems can be Alleviated with Good Food and Supplements. Since that time we have provided over 135 posts from six different authors about varying topics such as eco living, parenting, health and nutrition, crafts, technology, education, and allergies. Over 118,000 folks have viewed our site and we have been privileged to have nearly 30 individuals subscribe to us as well.

As recently as January we launched our allergy specific forum, which now has 22 members and includes many free recipes within its pages. We hope to expand both the website and the forum in our second year and have plans for many more articles in the future. (more…)

Blueberry muffins have been a fetish of mine since I was a child. They are a handy on-the-go snack that freeze very nicely. I make bulk batches when I get the urge and then freeze them for future use.

After several unsuccessful attempts I have finally figured out how to make them light and moist. Rather than use sugar and a liquid, I substitute with maple syrup (honey tends to make them brown too fast) and I use 1/3 part almond flour in my muffin mix. I have used both fresh and frozen blueberries but I prefer fresh, folding them in after the batter is fully mixed. (more…)

It is very exciting to see an organization develop for the sole purpose of helping families of newly diagnosed children battle autism head on. Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) does just that. It gives people timely information, offers resources, and supports families affected by autism.

TACA’s goal is to empower parents to effectively treat children newly diagnosed, speeding up the recovery of their children and strengthening the autism community by connecting families with other families and professionals who can assist them, allowing them to share their stories and successes. (more…)

Got a corn-allergic kid? How about educating him or her with an online game show?

The University of Illinois Extension has a game called the “Great Corn Adventure“ hosted by Zea Mays. It is part of a collection of educational games for kids.

Lovely Ms. Mays takes the viewer on a tour of the corn world, starting with the Native Americans in the valley of Tehuacan in Pueblo Mexico in 5000 b.c. (more…)

What do you do when you have a corn allergy and you want something sweet to eat? After keeping careful watch and reading labels for a year, I have come to the conclusion that our only best bet is to make our own ‘on the go’ snacks from scratch. And drinks? Just forget about them. As a matter of fact, I challenge anyone in America to read the ingredient listings on every snack product in their favorite vending machine. It would not surprise me if every item had some association with corn, however odd or far removed as it may seem. Heck, even the water bottles are more than likely made from a corn byproduct! I digress. I really want to focus my attention on America’s romance with sugar, corn sugar to be specific, its prevalence in our lives, and a little history about how we became so addicted to the sweet stuff that grows in abundance over our midlands, and now even clutters the landscape surrounding the rocky mountain region. (more…)

I waited until the last minute to get together something for my son’s Mother’s Day Tea Party. Wanting to make these cookies as healthy as possible by avoiding all sugars, even maple syrup, I decided to check out Pecanbread.com, a website devoted to helping folks following a Specific Carbohydrate Diet. There I found a handful of recipes. One in particular peaked my interest because I had all the ingredients for it on hand. This was my first attempt to bake cookies without any flour or sugar and I was very surprised at the results. The kids loved them, and for anyone not familiar with the SCD diet, as it is often referred as, this recipe is gluten-free, corn-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and Feingold approved. Oh, and one last thing I forgot to mention–delicious! (more…)

Check out this alternative to corn-produced ethanol. It is not as widely publicized in the news, but may be a more economical and productive way to reduce energy costs in the future!

Founded by MIT chemist Isaac Berzin in 2001, GreenFuel Technologies of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has developed a process that:

“uses a portfolio of technologies to profitably recycle CO₂ from smokestack, fermentation, and geothermal gases via naturally occurring species of algae.”

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If you have issues with sensitive skin, and especially if you have recently been diagnosed with allergies or intolerances, you may want to take a long look at your soaps, deodorants, perfumes, and cosmetics bag and perhaps do a little purging this weekend. Many favorite name brand cosmetics and personal products are full of common allergens and known cancer causing toxins. After having had a few strange reactions after using popular drugstore brands over the years I finally switched to high end cosmetics only to find that even those irritated my skin. I soon became an occasional makeup wearer, but now there are better options available for women with sensitive skin and known allergies. Not only will your complexion improve, and your confidence, but you may actually feel healthier too. (more…)

If you have a full time job and are attempting your major allergy-friendly cooking on the weekends, then this recipe is just the thing you need for a fast semi-homemade meal in no time at all. From start to finish you can have this one on the table in 30 minutes, thanks to Eden Organics two awesome gluten and corn-free prepared canned items: Caribbean Rice and Beans, and Diced Tomatoes. This dish is also naturally dairy, egg, and soy free. Traditionally a spicy dish, my three boys ate this tasty lunch in stride with a touch of added honey.

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We like to make oatmeal once a week, now that we’ve been gluten-free for a year. There is a lot of controversy on the use of oats in a gluten-free diet, but several new studies have proved that as long as the oats are Elisa batch tested and are certifiably free from cross-contamination they are perfectly fine for celiacs.

Today there are several companies offering gluten-free oats in both Canada and the States, so do check out whether or not your local grocer would be willing to carry one or more brands for you. This dish is great for a weeknight. Yes, you heard me right. I said weeknight. Just simply dump all the ingredients into a 2 quart slow cooker just before you go to bed; set it on low and in the morning your breakfast is ready. This is the favorite breakfast dish in our house.

Our version is naturally corn-free, soy-free, and dairy-free. (more…)