Meet the face
behind the posts
Welcome to Not Nuts About It! It has taken me many years to get to where I am today, with many lessons learned, and many hard paths that were full of surprises. I went from being in a relationship to becoming the only parent, rushing my daughter to the doctor’s office because she was having an anaphylactic reaction, learning a totally new lifestyle, being extra cautious with people and products, learning how to broaden my experience with cooking as well as learning how to bake, how to make homemade health and beauty products, how to garden, seed saving, all the way to preservation of my bounties from my garden and many more things. I’m one of those people who love to learn about everything and anything.
I have been a single Mom since I was pregnant, it just didn’t work with my partner at the time. And that is perfectly fine, it was for the best, we wanted different things in life and just grew apart. I’m just grateful we fell apart before my daughter was old enough for it to bother her. I have had to go through many things alone, many scary things alone since I’ve had my daughter.
I have had a heart condition since I was a small child. I have what is called Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT for short) and vasovagal syncope (VVS for short). My heart's electrical system doesn’t function properly, so my heart rate lying down would beat over 120 sometimes up to 180 BPM. For those who don’t know that is the equivalent of running a marathon while you are at rest. I would have a rapid heartbeat, could feel my chest pounding, could hear my heartbeat in my ears, chest pain and tightening and to top it all off my VVS would feel left out and then make me pass out. There wasn’t really any rhyme or reason to when this would all happen, I could be sitting down watching a movie or playing a sport. So, before I was able to get pregnant, I had to get clearance from my Primary Doctor, Cardiologist, and my arrhythmia specialist. They all had to do their own workups and make decisions if it would be ok if I got pregnant at all or if it would be too big of a risk to my life. I was considered a high-risk pregnancy, and it was explained to me that I could die giving birth due to my heart condition. My doctors all got together after their workups on me and decided it would be fine for me to get pregnant, everyone came to the same conclusion that the baby's or my life was at no greater risk than anyone else's. However, I could not come totally off all my heart medications. I had to stay on a low dose of my beta-blockers, and they did the research to make sure it would not affect my baby, they put me down to the lowest possible dose and just monitored me extra.
I went into the pregnancy feeling absolutely at ease because I was being watched over by so many doctors whom I’d known for over a decade and trusted with not just my life, but soon to be the life I would be carrying. My pregnancy was fine, I had a good one all the way up until my 7th month when they saw something on the ultrasound. I remember the ultrasound tech not being as talkative as she usually was, I remember her concentrating hard on the screen and turning it a bit towards her. She also took a lot more pictures than she normally did. But, at the same time it didn’t really raise a red flag and make me think something was wrong with my baby, I just thought maybe she was having a tough day and didn’t really feel like talking much today. After the ultrasound, I went to the exam room where I waited for my midwife. When she came in I could tell something was bothering her, then she started to speak and my only reaction was, not remembering how to breathe and I felt like the room was closing in on me as my midwife is looking at me saying I have some news and I’m not sure what is wrong with the baby.... I remember not hearing a word she said the first time she told me; I was trying to catch my breath and regain my senses. It was like in the movies when it goes silent and all you see is a blurry figure and their mouth moving. After I cried and was comforted by my midwife, she told me again that they saw my daughter’s abdomen glowing on the ultrasound and they had never seen anything like this before, I would have to go see a specialist who works with high-risk pregnancies and let them do further scans to find out what is wrong.
They got me in very quickly at the specialist office, it was a couple of days and there I was in the waiting room with my mom. She came with me because I didn’t want to do this alone, this was very scary, and I needed the comfort of my mom. As we were in the waiting room there were other pregnant women waiting with their significant others to have their scans or ultrasounds done, and I asked myself, “Did I make the right choice doing this alone?”. I couldn’t believe I was in a doctor’s office that deals with high-risk pregnancies, this was not in my plan, and this was not happening. Yes, I was considered high-risk, but I didn’t need a high-risk pregnancy specialist to be on the team. That made it much more real and scary. They did some scans and it seemed like forever until the radiologist and Doctor came into the room to discuss the results of the scan. They found that my daughter’s gallbladder was full of sludge and had a stone. He said this is rare, and usually when this does happen it is in boys. I also did not need to continue to see them because this was not a risk to the baby, and my regular visits with my OBGYN was sufficient. I was able to have a healthy pregnancy and delivery they just needed to monitor the baby and me making sure we stayed on the good path.
So, for my entire pregnancy, we had bi-weekly visits with my OBGYN and ultrasounds. And when I was in my final trimester about 28 weeks (about 6 and a half months) we started on weekly visits to the OBGYN and weekly ultrasounds. I guess the one good thing that did come from this experience was that I was able to see my baby grow with so many ultrasounds. My daughter was due on July 3rd, and they stated that if she did not come by July 6th, they were going to take her that morning. It was too much a risk for both her and I. The doctors didn’t want too much extra stress on my heart for much longer. I guess being the strong independent female my daughter is she said, “I will make the decision when I enter this world”. And at 8 am July 5th, my daughter started to make her entrance into this world.
I did, however, almost die after giving birth, but it didn’t have anything to do with my heart. I did fine with the checks they did after to make sure everything was ok, there was no cause for alarm. I got up to go to the bathroom and the toilet was filled with nothing but blood. I walked slowly back out there, and the nurse helped me lay down, I told her how drained I felt and how much blood was in the toilet, and she said it was all normal I just gave birth. So, I laid back down, and when the new shift of nurses came on and she came to meet me and see if I needed anything I shifted in bed and felt a huge gush of warm liquid, to which I asked her to check and see what it was. Well, her jaw dropped, and she hit the nurse’s button repeatedly and told them they needed a doctor in here STAT! The doctors and nurses came running in and she examined me to find out what was going on. Apparently, I wouldn’t clot so I was essentially bleeding to death. So, they gave me medications to help me clot and said if this didn’t stop I would need to be rushed in for a procedure to make it stop. Well, as you can guess it didn’t stop, they came back in and had to do the procedure in my hospital room, they couldn’t risk moving me. She did an extremely painful procedure without any pain medication, anesthesia, or numbing agents and found there was a clot that was in the canal that prevented me from clotting to stop the bleeding. Thankfully this procedure worked and I’m here today because of her quick thinking.
After I delivered my daughter, she had to start going to see the Hepatologist at two weeks old. For everyone like me at the time who doesn’t know what a Hepatologist is, the medical definition looks like this, “Hepatologists are medical doctors who diagnose, treat, and manage problems associated with your liver, gallbladder, bile ducts, and pancreas." I found out this was who we were going to see when we got off the elevator and saw the sign with the doctor’s name, Hepatologist, and organ transplant written on it. Talk about a smack in the face like HELLO! All these thoughts race through your head like why we are here to see this doctor, an organ transplant, they NEVER said anything about this. I think sometimes doctors fall short of really explaining why you are going to see a certain specialist and what that specialist’s qualifications and job is. The Hepatologist required us to have blood drawn at two weeks old, and ultrasounds to which my daughter screamed because she is so tiny, and they were taking her blood, and I was destroyed in the fetal position crying because well this isn’t how it's supposed to be it's not in my plan!! We had to go every 3 months for bloodwork and an ultrasound. They also put my daughter on medication to try to break the stone up and dissolve it, it did not work, and I wasn’t willing to continue this treatment for many reasons. So, we would continue to monitor her through ultrasounds and bloodwork, with daily checks of her eyes and skin for jaundice and stomach for tenderness. We would see the Hepatologist every 3 months until she felt comfortable with every 6 months bloodwork, ultrasound, and office visit to go over the results and do a physical check on my daughter.
You’re probably like phew! Poor Mom! While all that was going on I took my daughter for her year checkup to which they make you wait to try them with peanut butter (at least back in 2015 they did). She had an amazing checkup doctor said you can take her home and introduce her to peanut butter, just do a small amount about the size of a pea. I was like sure, this is awesome! I’m thinking of all things peanut butter! Cookies, pie, cake, desserts, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! I did what her pediatrician instructed me to do, a smear on my finger and swabbed her mouth to which she immediately screamed and drooled. Her chin turned pink, so I was like um what is going on? But she kept rubbing her chin, so I didn’t think anything of it, I just got a washcloth and wiped her mouth off. I figured I’d try again in the morning. I did the same thing and smeared a very small amount, not even close to a pea size. Immediately she starts screaming, two red race stripes come down her chin, her hand where her saliva dripped is now bubbled up, there are angry hives popping up everywhere, and her lips are swollen. I panicked and raced her to the pediatrician's office where they snatched her from me and did their thing to make the reaction stop. Obviously, we didn’t need blood work to confirm she is anaphylactic to peanuts and a high level at that. We did the bloodwork and prick test, both confirmed she is highly reactive and a borderline level 6, which puts her at a high level 5. She is contact along with ingestion which makes life extremely hard. Having a child with a food allergy is so scary. They constantly have their hands in their mouths and touch everything they can put their tiny hands on. So, you go from this normal everyday life of watching your child but not watching like a hawk to being the worst helicopter parent you know. I had to buy one of those shopping cart covers to put on all the buggies to make sure she did not encounter any peanut residue. Having play dates was a scary thing, I mean peanut butter is the easiest and quickest thing people feed their children and eat themselves as an adult. I had to make sure whoever’s house we went to had to wipe down the toys we would let them play with and not feed their kids peanut butter that morning. Thankfully I had some great and understanding friends who helped make it less of an anxious experience for me. When I took her to the park, I would have to wipe down the swings and the side wall of the slides where the kid’s hands would’ve touched just in case anyone had peanut butter and then touched it. A simple thing like going to the grocery store was like a nightmare, being so young and they don’t really understand anything yet, they just touch things or do things just because. I was always petrified that she would touch or grab something peanut related or something that had cross contamination. I don’t know where y’all are from but down here they have big 25 lb. sacks of peanuts in the produce department. Talk about anxiety attack, panic attack, feeling like you’re having a heart attack, these are all the feelings that would go through me and sometimes do today too if I happen to see the bags piled up.
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My daughter is 8 now and we still must go do yearly ultrasounds for her gallbladder and yearly blood draws for her liver function however we only need to do blood draws every 3 years for her peanut allergy to see if it changed levels at all. Our Gastroenterologist thought it would be a good thing to meet a children’s Gastroenterologist surgeon just in case we ever had to rush her in for emergency surgery. This came after a radiologist messed up his reading of her ultrasound and called our doctor saying my daughter’s gallbladder was about to rupture at any moment now! Our doctor immediately called me and spoke to me about it, but said he was looking at the scan himself and he did not see what the radiologist was seeing. He ordered us a new ultrasound at the hospital this time, for Monday morning instead of the place we used before, because this all happened on a late Friday afternoon, we had to wait the weekend out and hope the radiologist was wrong. Our doctor gave me a list of things to be on the lookout for and if any of them came up I was to rush her down south to the children’s surgeon so that she could have immediate surgery to take her gallbladder out. There is only one in the whole South Florida area, so we hoped we would never need to call on her. We traveled down South after we did the new ultrasound to meet the children’s surgeon. After her examination and tests that she ran she had good news all around for us one being that I do not have to watch her like a hawk and check her eyes for jaundice multiple times a day, or touch around her stomach to make sure it wasn’t tender and monitor her stool. I was relieved of that duty because the sludge is gone, and her stone is too big to get into the duct. However, her peanut allergy is still a high 5 so we monitor her like a hawk but at the same time try to give her as normal of a life as we can.
My daughter may not be able to do everything that kids without contact food allergies can do, but she can damn near do almost all of them with proper precautions and safety measures. She has experienced being able to eat out at a few places, gone to a Theme Park, museums where they are touching everything, mini golf, ordering ice cream at a parlor, going to festivals, being able to go to the movies and order popcorn, along with many other things. I won’t pretend that doing these activities doesn’t come with anxiety because there is a high amount of anxiety as we are doing them and then hours after. Because reactions can happen up to hours later, I feel on guard when everyone including her is having a great time. And I will take that job as long as she is having a great time and living life. She also does dance and plays sports. She has asked to try out for more sports and cheerleading, and now she feels as if she is really living her life instead of the bubble I tried to keep around her. I guess when you have the right tribe around you and all the support you need things just flow better. My partner plays a huge role in my daughter living the life she does now. She started small with me getting me comfortable then pushes my limits and broadens my comfort zone. With her being there to support me and keep me as calm as can be, she is teaching not just me but my daughter also how to live and still be safe. Our tribe is amazing, and they ran with these new experiences and boundaries being set. Everyone took my partner’s lead and learned you can’t push me into something you have to ease me into it because of the amount of anxiety that is carried around with having a contact allergen child. Because of this tribe, we are in a great place and continue to move forward, even if they are baby steps at times. Progression is the key, not the speed at which we progress.
I felt deep down in my soul that I needed to learn to bake because there are few store-bought baked goods that are safe and forget about trying to find a bakery, and when you do find allergen friendly ones, they are expensive! My feelings were confirmed when for her birthday I was trying to find a place that could make a safe cake for her and after umpteenth call and still no luck I started to look for anything cupcakes, pies I’d take anything at this point! Baking is hard for me, the reason being I have severe ADHD and I have dyslexia. So, for me to have to pay attention to all these measurements, times, ingredients, and everything else that goes with baking was rough when I first started. I have had to find ways to adapt to baking due to the fact I ended up with a lot of horrible inedible things when I first started. I would space out on time and end up with a burnt beyond recognition product. I wouldn’t pay attention to the specific amount of ingredients and man can that change something from moist and chewy to rock hard! So, my baking journey has truly been a rough one, but I am adapting, finding ways to make this easy for me and to end up with amazing desserts at the end.
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This is the reason why I’m so in love with using the scale for baking, so my products turn out the same every time I make them. And using a timer or multiple timers so that things aren’t a guessing game to my already scattered brain. I make my scale work for me, what I will do is write down the first time I make the recipe what the grams or whatever measurement is called for, if the recipe I’m making called for 2 cups of flour I make sure I measure out 2 cups and write down how many grams that is. When the product is done baking and taste testing has commenced, I will then go back and decide if it needs adjustments in the ingredients or if it was perfect the first time. I can tell you it hardly ever comes out perfect the first time. I can speak from experience don’t get discouraged with baking, it is a very hard thing to do. Even the professionals mess it up and end up with inedible things. I can say that the more you bake and learn how things react, it does get easier, and you do end up with less inedible final products and before you know it you are baking like a pro!
Every year I set long term goals for the kitchen that I want to accomplish. I also set goals every quarter, I find this more satisfying to me and less stressful. I have become passionate about the kitchen; never did I think making make out chocolate chip pie would be a seductive thing. But it is! Making mouthwatering desserts that smell so intoxicating has been so pleasurable. To make a rustic bread for dinner and everyone drooling and fighting over the last piece. Copycat Texas Roadhouse butter to blooming onions, everything has been a joy to cook, bake, sauté, broil, steam, and air fry for my family and friends. To have a great conversation over a meal that I prepared with using about 97% or more from my garden is heartwarming. Having my daughter in the kitchen with me cooking and baking, having her in the garden with me learning everything about what makes it a self-sustaining and productive haven is so mind-blowing to me because it is not a typical child thing to want to do.
I have notebooks upon notebooks and binders full of recipes that are either originals, passed down by family, or adapted by myself over the years. So, there will always be new content being put on the site. I firmly believe in you can never have too much information and you can never just stop learning. Everyday things change or you can find another way to do things. I have adapted so many recipes because what the author wrote just didn’t fit either my lifestyle or my tropical climate. Any bread maker will know that there is a huge difference between dough rising in the tropics or in the temperate climate. I have been getting more and more into making my own original recipes, and so far, it is going well. However, I also find creating my own recipes tedious and frustrating sometimes. Having a picture and what you think should go in and how much of it and what the reality is are two very different things. I have worked on recipes for hours, days, weeks and even months sometimes. I find putting them down and working on something else helps. I love creating recipes and having my testers (family and friends) sit down to eat and leave with clean plates. My goal is to never stop creating, always continue to adapt, create, and love original recipes too. I truly believe the kitchen is such a magical place where all the rules go out the window for the most part, unless you're baking then please follow the instructions! Just take a deep breath, clear your mind and create whatever it is that you are craving or seeing in your mind. I often find myself just making it up as I go. I’ll go in the refrigerator and pick out the ingredients that look good, put them on the island, and let myself just start to cook. I’m a huge fan of herbs (fresh and dry) and spices, huge fan of working with ingredients that work well with the body. I am mainly plant-based, and I will never push that on anyone. I will always leave it up to you to replace ingredients I use with whatever you feel is best. So, the recipes I do write I make them very versatile so that things can be substituted, and it won’t change the recipe at all. I love cooking recipes from different cultures, some I have totaled nailed it and some I haven’t even begun to try yet. I have nailed Asian cooking, both traditional that you would eat in someone's home and American take out from your favorite Asian restaurant. I love Mexican, Italian, and different states in America. I find learning about cultures and what their ancestors did when they made the dishes is the best way to recreate these recipes. You find why they used specific ingredients, herbs and spices, being it was because they were seasonal cookers or because they used specific ingredients because of how they reacted with the body and preformed things like lowered sugar, inflammation and even supported your immune system with what it needed to run in tip top shape. I love how I can cook for my daughter a recipe that her friends or family members are eating and normally she wouldn’t be able to eat it because it contains peanuts. I sub out the peanuts and make it safe for her so she can say she has had it too. Because she is only anaphylactic to peanuts, I do have the option to substitute other nuts in place of, or just omit the nuts all together and use like an air fried tofu or chickpeas. I can substitute peanut butter in sauces or dressings with either sun butter or almond butter. Trying to keep life simple and always give experiences is very important to me. To make sure that my daughter can eat anything she would like it feels good knowing I can make that happen.
Making the kitchen a playground for my child has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. Once she was diagnosed with being anaphylactic to peanuts, I knew that as she grew it would be in both of our best interests to get her into loving cooking, baking and spending time in the kitchen learning to cook anything she wanted without fear of messing up or not being confident in the kitchen. My daughter loves to cook and bake, even more than being in the kitchen and cooking and baking she loves to share her final products. You can see the pride in her when she hands that delectable dessert over to someone or puts something she cooked on the table to eat and then the smile when whoever ate it compliments her. She doesn’t want to be a chef, and that is ok with me, I want her to just love the kitchen enough and be confident in there that she is ok with cooking at home rather than taking a chance eating out.
I have many passions besides just my garden (I won’t even start writing about that, because it would never end) and my kitchen. I love to read on many different topics, not all related to garden and kitchen. But somedays that just doesn’t work with my brain. Due to my ADHD and dyslexia sometimes, I can’t read a paragraph let alone a chapter. So, I work with what my body tells me is going to happen today, if it says no to reading, then I go head and put more time in the garden or kitchen. Either way I’m fine with it. But also, my superpowers will not stand in my way of doing what I love, I will read, write, focus on a conversation, I will be hyper focused sometimes and flighty at another time. I believe you are a constant work in progress, and you choose how you want to develop. My motto has always been not to judge a person by the way they live their life, or the choices they make, but by who they are, what they do in life (cause chaos or are such great energy), and what they give back to the Universe. The color of their skin, religion, gender, and preferences in the end do not matter, it was how they lived their life. I know plenty of bad in every color, religion, and sex so to judge just based on those things would be a disservice to the world. We may not align on the same views all the time and that is alright. Just be respectful because at the end of the day that is what you expect from the beings you encounter, and you never know who might save your life, or be your savior at some low time. I raise my daughter to judge people's actions, nothing else just who they are in this world.
I hope this will become your go-to site for all your needs in the kitchen and DIY projects! I’m always open to putting content out that people would like covered. Hopefully you find this site helpful in multiple ways and creates a great memory for you being able to provide a from scratch meal that comes from either your garden, farmers market, or both. I hope that your table is as loud with laughter and conversations as ours is while passing scrumptious food around to each other. So, from our homestead to your home, y’all come back now ya here!
