Okay, so was I.  But just for a year.

(My mom: Alicia, do you want to be the person on the sidelines cheering or the person that everyone is cheering for?)

With all due respect, it was The Balanced Plate by Renee Loux that first introduced me to using coconut oil as a healthy fat in baked goods.  Some of her recipes for baked goods in this particular book are even marked as having low gluten content.  (My favorite is the Butternut Apple Coffee Cake – not GF.)

(Another aside: I sent Renee a love letter earlier this year and then asked her if she might be looking for an intern.  SHE WROTE ME BACK!  It was a very sweet letter but, unfortunately, she didn’t need my services.)

I had heard about gluten-free, vegan Babycakes NYC through the blog-o-twitterverse and was reminded what a cool world we live in.  Then I made a mental note to pick up the cookbook.   Luckily, I just happened to be at Omnivore Books on Food in San Francisco a few days before my birthday last month and they just happened to have Babycakes: Vegan, Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York’s Most Talked-About Bakery in stock.  So I bought it and then I read through the whole book that day.

But it wasn’t until this laid-back Sunday evening in an empty apartment that I tried to make anything.

I chose the strawberry shortcake recipe because I had spelt flour and not gluten-free all purpose flour.  I also had some aroma strawberries that I had purchased from Dirty Girl Produce and frozen during the same trip.  (We travel in an Airstream.)  I remembered reading a passage in the introductory chapter about following the instructions very very closely.  So I did.  And I was rewarded.

Late night version of Babycake's Strawberry Shortcake recipe

Well, I followed the recipe for the biscuit to the letter.  However, I took lots of liberty with the filling.  I thawed my precious jammy aromas and made a version of the filling that my mom uses for strawberry pie.  I just boiled the juice and added a bit of arrowroot to thicken.  I put the strawberries in a little jar, added the juice from half of a lemon and then poured the thickened juice over the berries.  Instant jam with whole unheated berries.

I opted out of the vanilla frosting addition.  I didn’t have any dry rice milk powder and I’m not big on frosting anyways.

It was absolutely delicious and heavenly and still plenty like dessert.  This is a serious piece of shortcake.  No compromise.  Zero.

I can’t imagine how much futzing it took to get this (and all of the other) recipes right and to know to turn the baking sheet precisely nine minutes into the sixteen minute total cooking time.  I would reward myself with totally cute uniforms and fun, bodacious PR too.

These spirit fingers are for you, Erin and Renee.   You lovely, healthy trendsetters, you!

P.S. Erin, may I please have your recipe for GF vegan doughnuts?  I need them for this.  Like, bad.

written by Derek Loux

Several weeks ago we took Sasha to Children’s Mercy Hospital for his “seating” clinic. Multiple professionals examined Sasha and consulted with one another regarding what type of wheelchair would be best for him. When the session ended they announced their recommendation …. A $25,000 Permobil K450! (permobli.com). After they rushed me to the sidelines for oxygen and a pep talk I began to recover from the sticker shock. This chair will enable Sasha to lower himself to ground level, exit the chair, combat crawl around, re-enter the chair, raise himself to any height in a range of 5ft, and be completely independent in his movement. A company brought out a demo chair last week for Sasha to test drive, and boy did he love it. It was so amazing to see this little 6 yr old boy who has never been able to decide his own movement, suddenly have independence and mobility. He caught on to the concept of driving quite quickly and it wasn’t long before he was telling us to follow him! Few things have made his eyes as bright as they were that day. As I’ve thought about the cost of this chair, I’m convinced that this is exactly the kind of thing God would do … Take a little boy from a hopeless situation where he would be sedated and tethered and forgotten in some cold institution, rescue him, give him a family, and then give him the hottest set of wheels on the block! Our Papa in heaven is so extravagant …. and He’s not on a budget! We are believing God for the full provision for Sasha’s chair. Our insurance will cover $5,000 of the cost, and Southgate church in St. Louis (one of the best churches on the planet!) took up a $6000 offering for the chair (Thank you Southgate!). This leaves $14,000 to go. I promise you, in the next two months I will be blogging about how the Lord provided for this …. He never fails! Check out the video of Sasha preparing for his “NASCAR” debut and look at how excited he is. If the Lord stirs your heart regarding this, pass it around to people you know who may want to get in on making this precious boy’s dreams come true. Blessings!

Derek & Renee Loux are Forerunner’s in the adoption and prayer movment. Would you consider going to their blog and give directly to them.  HELP THE LOUX family now. Go directly to their website.

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Renée Loux is a green marvel. If you hit the glorious sugar-sand beaches of south Kihei, on Maui, you’re not far from the solar-powered beach house she shares with Shep Gordon, who’s a marvel of a different sort (long-time manager of Alice Cooper, friend to the Dalai Lama, et al.). Renée was the raw chef on actor (and fellow eco-hero) Woody Harrelson’s veggie-powered bus in the 2003 feature documentary Go Further. She used to be chef/owner of an acclaimed raw restaurant on Maui’s north shore, and she still consults with restaurants and spas on how to go green. These days her main gigs are hosting “It’s Easy Being Green” on the Fine Living Channel and writing painstakingly researched, highly engaging books. Her latest is Easy Green Living (Rodale Press), which she calls “the ultimate, elemental guide to how to go green and stay sane.” We’re also big fans of The Balanced Plate, also from Rodale, a cookbook that’s as much about a green and healthy lifestyle as it is great recipes. Both are highly recommended. And check out her website, which is jam-packed with info.

This post is a sneak preview of Green Traveler Guides’ Hawaii, our e-guide to all things green in the Aloha State.