Announcement: Damn Good Gluten Free Cookbook

Brand new recipes and blog favorites including:

Well, it’s officially happening, I have a cookbook!

I’m so excited to finally share this labor of love with the world!

As you may know, I have spent the majority of my life dedicated to health and wellness. Over the years I nourished my family back to health with a gluten free diet, elevated my own wellness, and coached countless clients on their individual healing journeys. The pages of my new gluten free cookbook, Damn Good Gluten Free, contain so much of the knowledge and experience I gained along the way (plus a lot of my heart and soul!)

My goal is to help you live your most juicy, vibrant life, and to me that means eating amazing food that actually benefits your body and your soul. Naturally, creating a gluten free cookbook was a great way for me to share some of the best I have to offer.

I wanted to create something that anyone could use as a guide…but a fun guide, like having my crazy self right there with you in the kitchen! If you’re feeling overwhelmed by a recent diagnosis, struggling to find healthy foods that make you feel good, or just need some new ideas for dinnertime with the family, I’m here – right in this book.

I didn’t just slap a bunch of recipes together—this is a deeply personal project that combines all of the wisdom I have gained in my journey. The heart and soul of Damn Good Gluten Free is based on philosophies I have been developing for years on food and wellness.  

Eat food that loves you back…

I first turned to food as medicine in the late 1990s when my mother was battling breast cancer. During those years of caring for her, I learned a lot about the connection between food and disease. Her ultimate passing sparked a fire in my heart. I started raising money for cancer research, but soon realized that progress was slow, and I felt that my contributions needed to be bigger. I wanted to make a difference in my community—today. And more importantly, I wanted to help prevent disease from ever taking root in the first place!

I began leaning into education: I started offering cooking classes where I taught hundreds of families how to cook using the highest-quality ingredients, and encouraged them to take a proactive approach to their health. I also co-founded an educational non-profit, GrowingGreat, where I helped hundreds of thousands of students learn about nutrition and how to make healthy food choices.

Ironically, during this process I noticed that my own family’s health was declining. Megan had recurring earaches and always seemed to be sick; Tim battled chronic migraines; and my other girls were suffering with behavior issues, anxiety, and stomach aches. Everything came to a head one fateful day in 2006, when my entire family was diagnosed gluten intolerant!

I had to re-learn how to feed my family. 

I dove into the research, changed our diet, and began creating new recipes that we could all enjoy. Guess what? It worked! Within three short months, we had recovered from severe autoimmune disorders. We went from chronic suffering, to living symptomless, pain-free lives. No joke! No pills. No special treatments. We simply changed the foods we ate. Food was our hero!

When I finally pieced the puzzle together I knew I had to share my discoveries. The early days after being diagnosed were overwhelming—not knowing what we could eat, or how to eliminate foods without compromising flavor—and I didn’t want others to struggle like I did. I created this gluten free cookbook to be the guide I never got.

The beauty of it is that Damn Good Gluten Free isn’t just for people with Celiac Disease or gluten intolerance. It works for any major lifestyle change: whether you’re going vegan, reducing processed foods, or just looking for healthy recipes that everyone will enjoy.

It all fits perfectly with my “Ohana” mentality — Everyone is family and no one is left behind, especially not at the kitchen table. You have a vegetarian and vegan coming to dinner? No problem. What about paleo or dairy free? I gotcha. Every recipe is designed with as many variations as possible so that you can adapt to a variety of needs or preferences (and no, I don’t call them limitations!)

Everyone has different needs to maintain their own health and Damn Good Gluten Free celebrates that uniqueness.

I had so much fun making recipes to suit these customizations! Some of my favorites include Farmers Market Stir Fry (when you only have 20 minutes to get dinner on the table), Chicken Fajitas (for feeding a crowd) and Gluten Free Pumpkin Bars (we don’t skip dessert).

The magic is in the process…

Honestly, ingredients are only a big part of the equation, however, the making of meal had to be fun too! If the process is too daunting or time consuming, then I know you might not even do it.

In this book I try to take all of the guesswork out of menu planning, shopping, and of course, cooking. I have a full chapter dedicated to setting up a healthy pantry. Each recipe has step-by-step instructions and most have variations that you can use when necessary. And when it comes to planning, I created a super simple process that anyone can do, called the KIND. Method (Kitchen Integrations that Nourish Daily). It’s a basic formula that helps you save time and money, and not die of boredom…

The heart of the KIND. Method is daily themes, which allow for predictability, but also creativity. For instance, if Wednesday is “Wild Fish Wednesday” you could make Baked Salmon, Mediterranean White Fish, or dairy-free Clam Chowder (It’s made with coconut milk, and let me just say, it’s better!) The result is a hassle-free well-planned week, with lots of variety, depending on your mood or what’s fresh at the market.

A delicious life starts in the kitchen…

I grew up in a large Jewish family surrounded by a gaggle of great cooks. My mom, Evy, both Nana Roses, and my Auntie Ruth all certainly knew how to make life delicious. Their joy of cooking permeated my soul, and their table—rich with tradition and warm memories—added greatly to my love of delicious food-centric gatherings. All of my childhood kitchen mentors taught me how cooking can say “I love you,” and how the ritual of a mealtime gathering can strengthen bonds in families, or even chosen families.

When I married my husband (42 years ago!) we carried on the tradition of eating dinner together every night. Those meals became the foundation for our new family dynamic and culture, not because of what we ate, but because we gathered. We raised our 4 daughters with the same joyful mentality (and a lot of the same recipes) that our families had raised us with. We listened to each other, shared laughter, and enjoyed our time together. The kitchen table became a place where our kids grew up, free to discuss whatever was on their mind.

To this day, even as all of our girls have moved away from home, we are all very close, and I think those evenings around the kitchen table had a lot to do with it. Heck, Megs and I have been running Curry Girls Kitchen together for almost 10 years now, if that isn’t a testament to our bond, I don’t know what is!

“ When it comes right down to it, I hope this book sparks the joy of cooking in you. Whether you love to cook but need a kick in the pants in the planning department, or you’re a novice learning the ropes, or a recent diagnosis requires you to re-acclimate your kitchen habits… this book is here to guide you through those elements of cooking that may be causing you stress.”

A Gluten Free Cookbook You’ll Love

This gluten free cookbook is jam-packed with adaptable, crowd-pleasing recipes to make your heart soar. It’s filled with positive stories about friends and family enjoying food together. Most of all, it’s created with your health in mind.

Buy the book SOON (link to follow) and start making life delicious! In the meantime sign up to be notified once this cookbook becomes available!