Oh, laud. Here goes my first post in our brand new venture. The title says it all as I ask myself this question nearly every day. The other days, people ask this of me. Their answer is usually, “OMG, I would die if I couldn’t have (insert food item here)! Do you starve?” Listen, you know the answer to that last question. I’m a curvy, fit girl who obviously enjoys food. But food doesn’t always like me.

It started back at birth, if we want to be honest. I was born lactose intolerant and my mom comments on how stinky goat milk was to feed me. (I still think it’s delicious.) I was told I grew out of the allergy but I never really did. I developed a tree nut allergy that worsened when my now husband came back from TDY in Hawaii  with chocolate covered macadamias. Three of those little buggers sent me to the hospital for epinephrine shots. Cue a year later, 2013, when the tissue lining of my abdomen gave out and my intestines tried to push their way out to see the world. Two months later, I became the walking epitome of an Awkward Yeti cartoon.  Bile duct explosion, emergency gall bladder removal, subsequent sepsis and drainage bag attachment. My stomach looks like a tiger even more than when I had my two giant babies! So no more dairy for me, though I still cheat and do grain fed butter and ghee and goat and sheep products. (I’ll explain those in another post). Because, let’s face it, butter is yum!

In late 2015, a gastroenterologist put me on a Paleo fix, pretty much for life, because food was fighting back. All kinds of GI issues and sensitivities to my favorite dishes were too much for my system. I’ve gradually added back rice and sweet potatoes but man, it can be limiting to not be able to eat grains/gluten, white potatoes, corn, dairy, nuts and tamarind. Indian and Mexican food can now kill me. Great. 🙁 Since then, it’s been a food adventure unlike anything I’ve experienced before, especially as we live overseas and I have to carry allergy cards in different languages and use Google translate to communicate to waitstaff and chefs if they can substitute or leave off an item when they cook. That doesn’t always go over well.

Long story short if you’re thinking tl;dr, I cook almost all my meals myself now and have gotten pretty darn good at it. I use lots of resources, including a cooking science book, to learn more about my menu choices. This blog will be chock full of recipes, YouTube how-tos, and guides for others out there like me who ask themselves every day: “WTF Can I Eat?!” Until then, enjoy this picture of a visit to Akihabara, Japan and an all you can eat wagyu beef yakiniku where we cooked our meat ourselves. Because I’m a cavewoman and could eat all the things!