Know this, Cannelle et Vanille is one of the most beautiful food blogs out there. Not just visually, but….spiritually, too (Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan, too). You can feel the love and care and whimsy from the pages of her blog. And Aran Goyoaga, a Basque food stylist now based in the US…well, she’s become a bit of an e-soul sister. We connected via our blogs and because we both have hashimotos (thyroid disease). We ask each other if we’re ok from time to time.

Anyway I thought she’d have a thought or two to share on healthy eating… and could give us a gluten-free recipe.

Aran's gluten-free purple corn and banana muffins

Everyone meet Aran, Aran meet everyone:

How the auto-immune thing started for me:

But things changed for me when I became a mother. During the course of both pregnancies, I developed autoimmune conditions (Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and autoimmune inner ear disorder) that left me exhausted, depressed, tired and even experienced debilitating vertigo attacks. I could barely function and I was adamant to find a doctor that was willing to look beyond mere symptoms. And so I did.

This is what throws me off balance the most:

I’m still trying to figure it out, really. I know that diet is number one right now. Any little bit of gluten and it’s vertigo a couple of days later (just happened recently when I had something with hidden gluten in it). But also when I’m not creative or I feel tied down, then I go into downward spiral for a few days. I just don’t know how to control those things as easily.

Millet is great. Have you eaten millet? It’s a super grain.

It’s kind of like quinoa (high in protein, gluten-free, substitute for rice/couscous/flour), but is crunchier and is also:

* high in silica, which is great for bones

* soothing, especially for indigestion or morning sickness

* anti-fungal; helps ease Candida symptoms

* improves breath

This week I invited Melbourne acupuncturist and fertility specialist Natalie Kringoudis (visit her blog and her site The Pagoda Tree for her details) to share her love of the stuff. And a recipe.

But before I hand things over to her: a cheat sheet for you:
* Uses Millet can be used in porridges, cereal, soups and dense breads. It’s a great wheat-free substitution for couscous, as it has a similar consistency.

* Storing Look for yellow colored, raw millet in health food stores. Store in an airtight jar or glass container for 6-9 months.

* Preparation Rinse millet before cooking, and use one part millet to two parts liquid.

* Basic Millet
Prep Time: 2 minutes Cooking Time: 30 minutes Serves 4

Rinse 1 cup of millet in a grain strainer.  Place in 2 cups of water with a pinch of salt in  a pot with a tight fitting lid. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low.   Simmer 30 minutes.
More water may be added to make the millet a softer consistency.

*** I toast my millet  lightly  before cooking to give it a nutty flavor. No oil, just in a dry pan.

***An update. The generous reader “millet head” gave me this helpful advice regarding my issue with millet being a touch too crunchy (I boil the crap out of it and 45 min later it’s still snappy-of-mouth):

White French millets are impossibly resistant to softening, Isprout them instead.
If you are using the yellow millets, rinse, then soak in cold water overnight – and leave on your counter top with a gauze or muslin to keep any bugs out etc. Discard soaking water and cook with fresh water as usual. I like to add butter or ghee and sea salt once mushy ( consistency kinda like polenta).

Over to Nat:

Millet makes you fertile.

At my clinic, I specialise in fertility.

The Internet Chef recently posted a list of the top 30 health posts from the internet. They’re a great collation. Here’s my choice six snacks, plus some simple throw-together-from-the-pantry snack tricks I eat by. Enjoy!

* Tamari Pepitas

Toss some pumpkin seeds around a hot pan (no oil required; the oils from the nuts are enough to keep them from sticking). As they start to sizzle and pop a little, drizzle tamari over the the lot, stirring. It becomes a gooby mess pretty quickly, so remove from heat almost immediately.

* Frozen banana yoghurt

I buy bananas in bulk, peel them and put them in the freezer in a zip-lock bag. When I need a snack (I also eat this for breakfast) I pull one out, hack it into chunks and put in a cup. Then I pour some yoghurt over it and either mush with a fork or stab-mix in the cup. I then stick it back in the freezer. Within 5 minutes it’s the most sublime frozen snack ever. Sometimes I add chia seeds and cinnamon, or coconut water.

* Air Popped Popcorn (from my mum)

Put a small handful of popcorn in a brown paper lunch bag. Roll down top of lunch bag to close. Place in microwave for 2 minutes. I toss through some salt or dulce. No oil or butter required!! Use this no-fat trick for the popcorn recipes below.

Microwave potato chips by Nooschi

4 ingredients Granola bars- Kiss My Spatula

Everyone has got a little excited about kale. Every time I write about it I get stacks of emails. So I thought I’d post a great kale pesto recipe. Healthy as. And you can freeze it...which I’m radically into right now.

There’s a lot of recipes out there. I like this one.

1 bunch kale
2 Tbsp hemp oil
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
2 Tbsp fresh basil
1 lemon, juiced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp Celtic sea salt

Add the ingredients to a food processor and whip with an S-Blade until finely chopped.

This one for quinoa with walnut kale pesto from glutenfree girl also looks good.

This popped up in Shop Till You Drop this month, prompting an urge to share a recipe with you (below):

As it happens, I cooked a meal last night using ALMOST all the ingredients above. In rough terms, this is it:

I’ve mentioned kale before here. I call it kale. Foodie types with an Italian affection call it cavalo nero. It looks like a more rustic, crinkly version of spinach, and is ssuuuuuuuuuper nutritious. Actually, here’s a fact: Kale’s one of the most nutritious superfoods on the planet, packed with chlorophyll, calcium, iron & vitamin A. Et-a-cet-er-a.

On Saturday I had breakfast at Sopra (if you’ve never been, you must….the one at Danks St Waterloo is the most divine space in Sydney, I think). I skipped the breakfast bit and had the shaved brussel sprouts with kale and poached egg. That’s how much I love the stuff.