My name is Sarah Nap. This website is for all you moms like me that have found yourself dealing with food allergies.

I am homeschooling mama to four sweet blessings. We are what most people would call “granola.” We see a naturopath as our primary care physician and eat mostly organic foods. But enough about me, let me tell you a little bit about our journey to cooking free.

My oldest daughter Logan was sick all winter last year. Not just a little sick but really sick. We did our best to deal with the symptoms, ear infections, hearing loss, fungal issues, coughing, sneezing, and just plain yuck. We tried all the natural treatments and removed dairy for 2 weeks. Nothing worked so we finally resorted to antibiotics because I was due with my fourth baby in just two weeks. I had hoped that would do the trick. Next came a ruptured Achilles for my husband, four days before the birth of my son (two weeks late) and all the changes involved with these very life altering things. Logan was no longer really sick as we had made it out of cold and flu season. I thought maybe it had just been a few bad bugs.

Then in July as all the rest of lives began to settle down, I realized that I was wrong. She was sick again and her hearing was once again compromised. What were we going to do? We couldn’t go on like this. She needed to be well again. It was back to our amazing doctor for blood work. The call came the next week with the results. She prefaced it with, “Don’t be overwhelmed by the list I am about to read to you.” Logan had reactions to what felt like almost everything meaning, she had what Dr. Bizzy referred to as “leaky gut.” We decided to start with the highest reactions which were gluten, dairy, and eggs. How was I supposed to cook without these things?

The Lord had lovingly prepared me for this trial one year prior. My best friend has been gluten intolerant since we met but when she was nursing her daughter, she had to cut dairy, eggs, and soy. I had cooked for and with her multiple times while she was dealing with this. Normally that meant her pulling a little bit of our meal out before I added what she couldn’t eat. But a few times, I tried my hand at “free” cooking and baking.

Even with this, my brain was reeling at what lay ahead. I had to remove all the things she loved to eat. I gave myself a week and a half before we removed the offending foods. I started by looking up cookbooks and reading lots of reviews. I purchased a few, spoke with my friend, and then went by myself to Whole Foods. I needed to be there without any distractions. I felt pretty good about what I bought and thought I was ready to make the change. Little did I know that my brain was going to hurt for a month and a half. I had to think extra hard and rewrite all that I thought I knew about preparing food, nothing came easily.

Many times, I wanted to give up. I didn’t know what to make for lunch, didn’t have time to pack food for a road trip and could find nowhere to eat, gluten slipped in and coughing began, the cheese substitute that I thought I found turned out to have casein in it but I didn’t realize it for 3 months and many more mishaps that you don’t have time for. That is where this website comes in. I want you to have a resource. There will be tons of recipes, basic “how to’s”, weekly meal plans, book reviews, eating out suggestions, and many other things I learned on the fly.

You can also find me posting about our lives at www.napclan.com.