Anne: Well it’s another Monday night. Welcome to the show. Wow we really need to get that intro changed, because for one thing our telephone number has changed and so if you have questions for our guest. If you already know who it is, or if you don’t the correct number is 866Monday6. So, give us a call. You can either just leave a comment with our producer or you could talk live to our guest whom I will be introducing in just a few minutes. Again that number is 866Monday6. You can also e-mail your questions or comments to us at comments@Mondaynightradio.com. You can listen live via Skype. Just go right to our website and the links are there. That’s mondaynightradio.com, while you are there sign up for our newsletter. The quickest way to get to us is to pick up that phone and call 866Monday6. That’s 8666663296. You could also listen that way. So, if you are on your way home and you are in the car, and you have a Bluetooth headset or a speaker of course, you can call in to the toll free number and just listen. Ok, so before we get to our guest, and I have to tell you I am so excited about this guest, let me tell you about next week’s show so we can have that on the back burner for you. Let me ask you a question first. How much do you really understand about breast cancer? Sure you know that lots of women get it and it has something to do with pink. You may even have done a run, walk, or race for the cure, but do you know about nipple origami? Areola tattoos? Do you understand the nitty-gritty, down and dirty reality of dealing with breast cancer. Join our guests next week. Both of them are breast cancer survivors who are going to tell you what it is really like and how you can best support loved ones who are going through it. Yes, they will tell you about nipple origami and areola tattoos and much, much more. That’s next week on Monday Night Radio. This week on Monday Night Radio we are very fortunate to have with us Kelly Brozyna. I’m sorry I probably butchered that, so when I bring her on I will let her correct me. I’ve known Kelly for a few years, she’s a dear friend, but I still always butcher her last name. I’m sorry, Kelly. Kelly is the author of the incredible cookbook, “The Spunky Coconut”.
“The Spunky Coconut” cookbook is a cookbook that gives you recipes that are gluten free, casein free, sugar free, and yet not taste free. In fact, not only are they wonderful, delicious and even decadent recipes, but the are natural. They don’t have fillers or artificial sweeteners or anything like that. They are real honest to goodness, down home, yummy, natural, healthful recipes. So, even if you don’t need to eat gluten free or dairy free or sugar free, hey it’s really not a bad idea, but if you don’t need to you will want to. So, let me bring Kelly on. Kelly, are you there?

Kelly: Yes. Hi.

Anne: Hi, Kelly. I am so glad to have you here. I am so sorry to have messed up your last name.

Kelly: I am so glad to be here.

Anne: Kelly, please tell how you say your last name.

Kelly: Bro-zy-na.

Anne: Bro-zy-na. I keep saying Broyz-na. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.

Kelly: That’s ok.

Anne: As long as you can spell it, so you can search for the book on Amazon, that’s really the most important thing for us I think. Don’t you right now? Because we want everyone to…

Kelly: Do you want me to spell it?

Anne: You can if you want to. Sure, go ahead.

Kelly: It’s BROZYNA.

Anne: There you go. They can also find your book by searching for “The Spunky Coconut” on Amazon, right?

Kelly: Yes.

Anne: Ok. Now, before we go into the book and the recipes, would you tell everyone listening a little bit about how you came to be such an expert on working with foods that are gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, etc.?

Kelly: I first discovered that we needed to be on this diet about six years ago. I began studying with my nutritionist and naturopath back on the east coast. She is one of the best. She taught me everything she knows. I worked with her for a couple of years and with another girl who works with her. Years and years of practice…

Anne: Can you go a little bit into why you said you first became where you needed to eat that way? Do you mind sharing why?

Kelly: Sure. No not at all.

Anne: Let me tell our listeners that Kelly has done things with her family that I consider nothing short of miraculous. Kelly, as much as you are willing to share I think it’s wonderful, because first it’s a wonderful story. Second it shows everyone just how incredible a woman and mother you are. Third of all it really shows the healing power of food.

Kelly: It does. In fact, I started writing a book which was not a cookbook about nourishing my children back to health before I was even cooking the way that I am now. How it all started was our firstborn daughter, when she began eating solid foods, she began eating wheat, gluten and dairy. She began reacting both physically and emotionally. She stopped gaining weight. She stopped growing for a little over a year probably. The doctors weren’t really sure what to do. They suggested more milk and more wheat. She was throwing up. She was very sickly looking. We went through a period where we were in and out of the doctor’s office every few days. She became violent. She was clawing my face. It looked like a cat had scratched up my face. I would be bleeding and crying and she would laugh. It was very frightening the way that she was behaving and treating me as a 1.5 to 2 year old. That’s when I started going to my nutritionist for help dealing with her. She had us get a test which anyone can do. You don’t even need a referral from a physician. It’s from Enterolab. Zoe, my oldest, tested positive for gluten intolerance and dairy intolerance. Within a week she was acting differently. The violence stopped. Within a month, she had gained nearly five pounds. Another month went by, she gained another five pounds. She started growing. It was really, really impressive and amazing. The pediatrician at the time who wasn’t in contact with my nutritionist and my naturopath was just amazed. I remember in the beginning when I brought him the test from Enterolab he said, “Well I don’t know. But, the proof is in the pudding, we will see what happens.” Sure enough he was very impressed. Then, about the same time that Zoe was beginning to recover our second daughter who was a baby began having severe problems. I went on a very restricted diet when I was nursing her for a year and a half. That made a huge difference in how she slept. She didn’t sleep through the night until she was an older toddler, but the diet when I was nursing her really did help her get a little bit of peace. Then, when she began eating, it helped her more and more. She is now doing much better. I can be more specific, it’s up to you.

Anne: Well I…It’s up to you as well.

Kelly: Should I tell more about Ashley?

Anne: Yes, if you want to, if you are willing, because it’s an amazing story.

Kelly: Sure, sure. I’d love to. When Ashley was four months old, that is the second who I went on a restricted diet for my milk, when she was four months old she had a near death reaction to a DTAP vaccine. She had seizures for two hours and we didn’t think she was going to make it. She did survive. Her head expanded overnight. It increased in size 20 percent. They sent her to a very good hospital in Baltimore, Maryland to make sure she didn’t have hydrocephaly, which she didn’t. They weren’t sure exactly what to make of it. They called it a head growth spurt. She completely stopped developing from that four month reaction until she was one and maybe even later. It was about the time she was one when I finally said, “I think something is wrong here, because she is not developing.” When I say not developing, I mean from the time that she was four months to one she didn’t really move. She didn’t respond. She nursed, but she was no where near eating by the time she was one. In fact, she didn’t eat solid foods until she was two. I had to puree all of her food and spoon feed her until she was two years old. When she was eighteen months she was diagnosed with autism. At that time she was having a whole new onset of symptoms, all the classic autism symptoms like flapping her arms up and down like a bird, spinning, which was self-stimulating behavior. She would open and close the drawer in the kitchen for hours and hours and just watch it open and close, open and close. When she wasn’t spinning she was screaming, screaming, screaming. She didn’t respond. She didn’t make eye contact. All of this went on until I guess she was about three. At that point after much diet and nutrition and working DAN doctors (which stands for Defeat Autism Now) we were able to really help her recover significantly. As you know, very significantly, she has had so much blood work done, and all sorts of tests, urine tests that have shown all of the toxins that we have helped pull out of her from her reaction. She had a lot of aluminum. She had a lot of mercury that we pulled out. This is all documented through labs. Today she is doing so well. She talks. She makes eye contact. The diet alone, when she stopped having dairy she stopped flapping. She stopped spinning all day. She stopped screaming all day. So, just the diet alone before we began removing the metals and other toxins made a huge improvement in how she was doing.

Anne: I have seen Ashley many, many times. We occasionally still get to socialize, which is lovely when we get to see each other. The difference…The advances that Ashley has made, all attributable to you and your dedication, which is really what ultimately led to your writing the cookbook, right? As you said, a lot of this diet work really sort of is the foundation, because it is what she has on a day to day basis and your whole family as well. You developed these recipes using the very strict guidelines that you had of not being able to have any gluten, not having any dairy or casein, not having any refined sugar. But, perhaps under the watchful eye of yourself as the highest moral authority, which is you’re her mom. No one is more committed to curing her or helping her heal than you. You’ve done something that is just phenomenal. I also wanted to mention Enterolab, it’s funny that you mentioned that because our listeners probably I am going to guess have no idea what that is. Indeed I would not have had my own doctor with whom I am working ask me to test with Entero. Entero is an independent lab in Texas and you can FedEx them a sample. We are not going to go into detail about what those samples consist of, but you can collect them at home. They are able to tell if you have gluten sensitivity, a dairy sensitivity, soy sensitivity. They can tell if you are not digesting your food properly. They can run on one sample all of these amazing tests.

Kelly: They are great.

Anne: I’m glad you mentioned them. Absolutely you don’t need a doctor to do this. As it happened my doctor recommended it. I had come back. I’m having my hormones tested and my main doctor had run this whole battery of tests. One of them was the gluten, was I sensitive to gluten. I think it was a blood test. It came back saying I was not sensitive gluten. Then, I sent all of my labs to this specialist clinic up in Washington and the doctor there said, “Your gluten test came back as being negative for gluten sensitivity, but you have X, Y, and Z. I’ve never seen someone with that profile that was not sensitive to gluten. So, I want you to have the test done by Entero.” So, that is how I found out about them, and I am waiting for the results now.

Kelly: More and more doctors are using them. It’s great that you don’t need a referral in case you don’t have someone that you are working with. But, all of our medical doctors, nutritionists, and naturopaths are using Enterolab.

Anne: Well, I am excited to get those results back. It’s not expensive. If you are just testing for gluten, it is under $100. That’s really cheaper than going to the doctor unless you have good medical coverage which well that’s another show. You are listening to Monday Night Radio with Kelly, “The Spunky Coconut”. You can call in with your questions for Kelly at 866Monday6. You can send your questions over Twitter to @mondayradio. E-mail them to us at comments@mondaynightradio.com. Kelly, let’s talk about the recipes, the book, and gluten free food. First, I’d like to ask. The recipes in the book, they are wonderful. I’ve had the great privilege of having food that you have prepared with your own hands which is always a treat. But, a lot of them seem like riffs on old standards that it would never had occurred to me to try to do gluten free. They are so wonderful. As you know, I have experimented with some gluten free work myself that’s inspired by your cookbook. It turns out that it’s not that exotic. It’s not that difficult. In my experience having been led through your cookbook, it’s really just thinking slightly differently. I am wondering if you could talk a little bit about your method for adapting. I am not asking for any trade secrets, but for the people out there who have to do gluten free and have kids. The kids want to eat “normal food”. What is your advice for how to roll up your sleeves and get your hands in there without feeling like you have to learn a whole new repertoire?

Kelly: Well you know so many whole foods are just naturally gluten free. You think about smoothies and eggs if your child is not allergic to eggs, vegetables, meat if you are not vegetarian, but as far as baking there’s so many great blogs and websites and cookbooks that are really simple and easy to follow. I personally love as you may have guessed coconut flour, shredded coconut, coconut oil because the health benefits of coconut are just amazing. It’s so nice to work with. Coconut flour in particular is very high in protein and it’s nearly half fiber. You only need a little bit. What it does is it expands in liquid or whatever sort of moisture you put with it. It will absorb and expand. It really cuts down on total amount of flour that you need per recipe. It just creates this terrific light texture. Anyone that has had my baked goods can attest that they have great texture. I think that comes from the coconut flour.

Anne: Can you talk actually a minute about that, because there are so many conflicting messages out there about coconut. I can just hear people in the audience. I can feel some of them cringing because it sounds like it’s coconut and it’s really bad for you. It’s high in fat. It’s your cholesterol. It really got a bad rap for quite a while.

Kelly: I know.

Anne: Can you talk a little bit about that?

Kelly: Sure. I can recommend a video by Dr. Mercola. He talks about the myth of coconut oil, which I think is what you are referring to. The coconut flour is not high in fat. I don’t know why anyone would have a fear or a myth about the flour. But, there have been some myths about the coconut oil, because it is saturated fat. But, the thing about coconut oil, as Dr. Mercola explains, nearly half of that saturated fat is lauric acid. Lauric acid is only found in one other place, human milk. It is phenomenal for you. It is highly easily digestible. It converts to energy actually instead of being stored as fat in your body. It does not cause one to gain weight. In fact, Dr. Mercola and other specialists recommend coconut oil to people don’t want to gain weight people who are even trying to diet and lose weight because it is so easy to digest. It is so healthy and good for you and converts to energy. So, it’s actually completely a myth. It’s very good for you.

Anne: So, just to not put too fine a point on it, you are right that it was about the coconut oil, but that in general started giving coconut a bad rap. So, coconut flour and coconut butter, which are the things that you use in your baking occasionally.

Kelly: I use the oil.

Anne: Oil, sorry, oil. Well now so here is what I wanted to ask you. What is the difference between coconut oil and coconut butter? Coconut flour where does that come from that it doesn’t have the demonized aspect of coconut in it?

Kelly: When they remove the coconut oil, that’s where the flour comes from. That’s what they turn into the flour.

Anne: So, it’s like defatted coconut?

Kelly: I would agree with that statement. That sounds about right, yeah. You can read more about it. For instance, Tropical Traditions is a great company. On their website they explain how they make the flour, how they make the oil. It goes into more detail. My area of expertise is more baking with it and using it.

Anne: Ok. Sure. Fair enough. So, let’s talk about that. I think I sort of sidetracked you when I asked you to expound on the benefits of coconut.

Kelly: I hope I did a good enough job.

Anne: You did a great job, but I definitely want to get back to the recipes and the baking. So, you started to say that you use a lot of coconut in your baking and go on. Tell us more.

Kelly: Because of the way coconut flour absorbs liquid and expands, you actually don’t need much of it. I don’t think I have one recipe that calls for more than half of a cup of coconut flour.

Anne: Oh, wow.

Kelly: Yes. So, what I do I like to combine coconut flour with a little bit of say tapioca flour, maybe a quarter of a cup. Other things I add to it, shredded coconut sometimes I add. I do have recipes with grains also. So, I may use brown rice flour. It doesn’t ever reach the quantity of flour as in a traditional baked good. The same goes for the sweetener that I use. As you mentioned before, I use natural alternative to processed refined white sugar. There are some very good reasons for that. We all know the bad news about white processed sugar or high fructose corn syrup and things like that. What I like to do is combine stevia, which is an herb from Paraguay. I use the tincture, which is basically a method of extracting the sweetness from the herb by soaking it. The company I use soaks it in purified water. They add flavors. You can get it unflavored. It is one hundred times sweeter than refined sugar. So, it comes in this little tiny bottle. I don’t know if you’ve seen them. You probably have.

Anne: Sure.

Kelly: Those little tiny bottles will last me months and months and months. Since it is one hundred times sweeter than sugar I can use 20 drops. I can use a quarter of a teaspoon and have the same effect as if I added two cups of white sugar. So, what I like to do is…

Anne: Wow.

Kelly: Isn’t that amazing?

Anne: That is amazing.

Kelly: Then, I combine it with something like honey or applesauce or coconut sugar which is another natural sugar. I only need maybe a quarter of a cup of honey or coconut sugar or applesauce or a half a cup. It is a quarter or a third of the amount of sweetener as a traditional baked good would be. That’s really important to me in my family. Especially getting back to Ashley for a minute, she had so much trouble with Candida, which is a yeast overgrowth in the body. We did do some supplements to help her get rid of that, some natural supplements, herbs and garlic and things like that. Grapefruit seed extract, but it was very important not to keep feeding the yeast and the Candida. Sugar feeds it. That’s how it lives. That’s how it grows. So, it was really important to us to get off of the two cups of white sugar or one cup of white sugar.

Anne: Well this is actually going to dovetail beautifully. We have callers waiting to talk to you. Before we go to the callers, I want to remind everyone listening that you can call in to talk with Kelly or give her a comment at 866Monday6. I just love that number. It’s so cool and so great for us. You can send us a comment by Twitter to @mondayradio. E-mail us at comments@mondaynightradio.com. So, let’s go to the phones. Let’s go to Rob in the Bay area. Good evening, Rob, how are you?

Caller #1: Hello.

Anne: Hi. What’s your question for Kelly?

Caller #1: Well my question is this. Recently I had to make a gluten and dairy free meatloaf. I just removed the breadcrumbs and milk, but I am guessing it’s not so simple for a lot of recipes. So, how do you go about re-engineering a recipe?

Kelly: That’s an interesting question. For instance with meatloaf I found that almond flour was a great substitute for bread. That’s how I make it. I love to do meatloaf and meatballs that way. Substituting is tricky. It really does take a little bit of figuring out if you are not going off of someone else’s recipe or website. Now that I’ve been doing it for so long I have a formula in my mind of what I know works using the kinds of flours that I like to use and the kinds of substitutions that I use. I base all of my future recipes on what I have learned so far. Thank you for that question.

Anne: Thank you very much, Rob.

Caller #1: You’re welcome.

Anne: Now, let’s go to Gabe. He’s calling from Chicago. Gabe, you are on the air with Anne and Kelly. How are you tonight?

Caller #2: I’m great. How are you doing?

Anne: I’m very well thank you.

Kelly: Good, thanks.

Anne: Do you have a question for Kelly?

Caller #2: Yeah, I was wondering if there are any health benefits to eating gluten free if you don’t have a gluten allergy.

Kelly: I think so. Definitely because gluten is very sticky and binding, people who are gluten free are shall we say more regular. It’s a much cleaner diet, more easily digested. There’s a strong case to make that you perhaps absorb the nutrients from your food more easily on a gluten free diet. So, you have that better absorption and better digestion. I definitely think there could be benefits to being gluten free even if you don’t have to. In fact I know people who haven’t been tested and don’t seem to have a reaction to gluten and they chose the gluten free diet because they prefer the way it makes them feel and the energy that they have and for better overall health and fitness.

Caller #2: Interesting.

Anne: Ok, Gabe. Well thanks very much for the call, Gabe.

Kelly: Thanks.

Caller #2: Alright, well you’re welcome.

Anne: As a reminder, you are listening to Monday Night Radio with Kelly of “The Spunky Coconut”. She is I consider the queen of gluten free, dairy free, and refined sugar free recipes. She is an incredible baker. She has other things in her cookbook as well, but that is really what I think of her mostly as, just because I have had the pleasure of eating those recipes. Kelly, is it true? Are you working on another book?

Kelly: It’s true! Yes. In fact I haven’t really announced what the title of the next cookbook is, but since I saw on your website that you had mentioned that it was about desserts and it’s true. It is going to be a…

Anne: Oh no. I’m sorry.

Kelly: Oh it’s absolutely fine. It’s coming out very, very soon. I’m excited to share it here with you first. It’s a grain free baked goods and desserts. So everything is completely grain free.

Anne: Grain free.

Kelly: It’s no gluten like the first cookbook but also no rice and other gluten free grains.

Anne: Wow. So that’s the only thing I can think of that’s a dessert that is grain free is those decadent chocolate tortes. I can’t even think of another one at least that is a baked good. Can you give us some teasers?

Kelly: Sure. Well for instance the cake that you last had when we were together was for my next cookbook. It’s a chocolate cake and because there is no grain, there is mostly cocoa powder, there’s some coconut flour in it, a tiny bit of tapioca flour. I have a whole array of ice creams, pies. There’s an entire breakfast section which includes cinnamon rolls and bagels. Lots of yummy treats…

Anne: Wait a minute. Grain free bagels?

Kelly: Yes, and cinnamon rolls.

Anne: Wow. The mind boggles.

Kelly: They’re delicious. You don’t actually need grains to make baked goods. It just took a little recipe development and working. It took a little time, but yeah you don’t need them at all.

Anne: Wow.

Kelly: I don’t think you will miss them.

Anne: Well, as I said I’ve had your food. I’ve never missed anything when I’ve eaten your food, except for that kind of icky bloaty feeling I get from eating too much dairy and gluten maybe. Give us a call at 866Monday6 to talk to with our guest Kelly of “The Spunky Coconut”. That’s 866Monday6. Those of you in the chat room, we see you. We can certainly take your questions through the chat room as well. Just type them in. You can also send us a message on our Twitter feed at @mondayradio. You can e-mail us questions and comments at comments@mondaynightradio.com. Kelly, we’ve had a question come in through our Twitter feed. This person would like to know, they noticed on your cookbook it says casein free. I’ve been saying dairy free. Maybe that is my bad. Can you tell us what the difference is?

Kelly: Sure. Definitely. Casein is the protein in dairy, mostly cow dairy. This casein protein in dairy is almost identical to the gluten protein which is why we avoid it. It has been shown to have a very similar reaction in patients with autism. I am being sort of specific when I say casein, because I do sometimes use clarified butter, which is butter that has had the casein and the lactose removed. You can always substitute another type of fat or oil if you don’t use butter or as I say ghee which is clarified butter. That’s why the specific term of casein.

Anne: Interesting. So, the recipes…what percentage of the recipes in your current book “The Spunky Coconut” would you say have some dairy in them like clarified butter even though they are casein free?

Kelly: Not many.

Anne: Not many, but even though you say that is casein and lactose free. So really is what is left something that anyone typically would have a problem with?

Kelly: Most doctors do not see reactions in their patients when they use ghee because it has been clarified and the casein and the lactose have been removed. I’m sure that there are very rare cases where people don’t tolerate ghee. I haven’t personally met anyone that doesn’t tolerate ghee. But I know some people just have a personal preference not to use any dairy products whatsoever. That’s the only type of dairy product that I ever use. Like I said you can always substitute another fat or oil in place of it. I always use nut milk. That’s my preferred non dairy substitute. I make my own nut milk with nuts. I make cashew milk. I make almond milk. I have videos actually on my website showing you how to make those nut milks. They are so simple. I think people get scared off from making their own nut milk because it sounds like it might be a big deal. But, it’s really not. It’s so simple and so much healthier I think. There are a lot of health benefits to eating those kinds of live, whole, raw foods.

Anne: It does sound time consuming. I actually have a recipe for almond milk that I use and it’s called “Cheaters Almond Milk”. It’s easy. It’s so easy that I bet it’s even easier than the recipes that you were just talking about. Remind me after I tell you my “Cheaters Almond Milk” recipe to make sure you tell us what your website is so we can go see those videos. But, here’s my “Cheaters Almond Milk” recipe. You take a big jar of Marantha raw almond butter and you stick it in the fridge. Then, when you need almond milk, you take two tablespoons of the almond butter and you mix it with filtered water and viola you have raw almond milk.

Kelly: I’ve heard of people doing that. It’s a great option.

Anne: Well it’s a great option if you don’t go through a lot as we don’t but you want to have it available when you really need it. But, like I said that is cheater’s really. Yours is the real deal. Where can we get it?

Kelly: I don’t think…Oh sure on thespunkycoconut.com I have videos. Every time I put up a recipe if it includes nut milk in the recipe I link to the video in the recipe so that you can watch the video if you are interested in how to make your own nut milk. It literally takes seconds to make nut milk.

Anne: Really? Seconds?

Kelly: Yes, seconds. Would you like to know?

Anne: Yes! Tell us!

Kelly: Oh, sure. It’s so easy. Before you go to sleep, you soak a cup of either cashews or almonds. Those are my two favorites. You wake up in the morning the nuts have soaked overnight. You strain them. You put them in your blender. You fill the blender to the top cup line and you puree. Now if you are using almonds, you will want to strain the pulp. So, when you pour your pureed milk into your pitcher you want to use a cheesecloth or a nut milk bag and just squeeze out that wet almond pulp. If you are using cashews you don’t even do that.

Anne: So they just come out smooth? Oh, wow.

Kelly: Oh, yes. The cashews don’t even need straining.

Anne: That’s amazing.

Kelly: Oh, yeah. It’s so easy. If you have a blender you can make them.

Anne: So, I have to tell you that we have pulled up your website. I just noticed that you have a new graphic at the top. It is very pretty, very nice.

Kelly: Thank you.

Anne: There is an awesome testimonial at the top of your website now. So, if you don’t mind I am going to read that for our listeners. Do you mind?

Kelly: No. Thank you.

Anne: Ok. This is from the owner of Benefit Your Life. I assume .com. This is what she says, “Hey, Kelly. Your almond muffins are the best ever. If the whole world knew what they were missing out on, I predict they would go insanely crazy trying to get their hands on a copy of your cookbook. We started with ten in our store on Monday and we have only one left. I think I will live off of vanilla pudding and almond muffins for the rest of my life.” That is quite a testimonial. I have to say that I agree the cookbook is amazing. You can find it on Amazon. It is called “The Spunky Coconut”. Kelly’s website is thespunkycoconut.com. Kelly, would you tell us about that vanilla pudding and those almond muffins?

Kelly: Thanks. Yeah, the almond muffins are one of my favorite all time recipes. You can either make them with a little bit of grains which in this case would be brown rice flour. I think it calls for a half a cup of brown rice flour. The rest of that is almond flour. They are mostly almond, but the original recipe had a little brown rice flour. I also updated them to be grain free for people that don’t even want gluten free grains. In that case I have substituted buckwheat which often people think buckwheat is a grain, but it is not. It is actually a seed in the rhubarb family. It is grain free being a seed. So, I have two variations that are both equally good I think. They are delicious. I love those almond muffins. You can add cherries, strawberries, blueberries, or nuts, whatever suits you that day. The vanilla pudding that she is talking about is another great thing to have around. I like to keep it in the freezer in ice cube trays to pop into smoothies. It’s also great after it has been chilled in the fridge. You can put it on top of things. You can put things in it. Use it with nuts and seeds for granola. So it’s very versatile.

Anne: What’s that made of since it’s obviously dairy free?

Kelly: Yes. Everything I do is nut milk like cashew and almond and coconut. I like to combine coconut milk with nut milks so that everything doesn’t just taste entirely like coconut. So that has a coconut milk, vanilla, cashews that have been soaked. That’s what sort of gives it the texture is the cashews. A lot of what I do you’ll see in my recipes is very raw inspired. I like the concept of using nuts in place of dairy to give you the texture of pudding or yogurt or to thicken sauce and things like that.

Anne: That actually brings up a question. Maybe just a little bit out of your area, but maybe not just because it is something that I have experimented with and I found it frustrating as all get out. Making yogurt out of nut milks, have you had much success with that? Have you tried that?

Kelly: That’s my favorite thing to eat right now. I’ve been playing around with it. I’ve been using it. I’ve been doing it for I don’t know how many months now. But, I got started several months ago. A friend of mine recommended a place where I could pick up a yogurt maker at Tuesday Morning. I’m sure you know Tuesday Morning. They were having yogurt makers like 60% off. So, I raced over and bought one. I’ve been hooked ever since. I’ve come up with two yogurt recipes that I think are phenomenal. The first uses mostly cashew milk. Which as I said before is super easy. You don’t even need to strain cashews, you just blend. So, it’s cashew milk and a little bit of coconut milk, vanilla. The trick that I have developed, which you may have heard before, I heard people talking about using just their probiotic capsules that people like to take in the morning or whatever their vitamin regimen is. Just opening up those probiotic capsules and putting them into the nut milk when it comes down to the correct temperature. You keep the yogurt warm for ten to twelve hours and those good friendly bacteria munch and grow and voila after you refrigerate it you have this lovely dairy free probiotic yogurt. It’s just divine.

Anne: That is exactly what I was trying to do. It didn’t work well at all. Hopefully do you have a yogurt recipe up on your site?

Kelly: Yes. It is. They are on my website.

Anne: Yay! Ok, well I will definitely have to try that again. To remind everyone we have just about ten minutes left with Kelly. So, get your calls in. The number is 866Monday6. You can Twitter us at @mondayradio. E-mail us at comments@mondaynightradio.com. Let’s take another call. We have Jeff in Boulder. Hi, Jeff, good evening. How are you?

Caller #3: Good. How are you?

Anne: I’m well. Thank you. Do you have a question for Kelly?

Caller #3: Yeah, I wanted to try some gluten free foods, but I’m on a budget. What are some recommendations for cheap gluten free foods that I could try to get into this?

Kelly: You know, the great thing that’s going on right now is the cost of eating gluten free, I think is getting better. I think it is going down because more and more people are being aware. More and more people are being tested and finding that they have this problem. As I mentioned before, there are so many just whole foods that are naturally gluten free. Fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, but also even big stores. You mentioned you are in Boulder?

Caller #3: Yes.

Kelly: The Costco’s around here even have gluten free. They have crackers, chips, they even have flour blend. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Bob’s Red Mill gluten free flour.

Caller #3: No. I have not.

Anne: Oh yeah, I’ve heard of that and King Supers.

Kelly: Yeah and King Supers also. But, at Costco you can get a big blend of flour. You can get crackers and it’s in bulk. You can save a lot of money like that.

Caller #3: Thank you.

Anne: You are very welcome. Thank you for the call. I was going to say, but I guess I will take this off the air. One of the things about being in Boulder is there is (Kelly I think you might know about this place) it’s called Berry Best Smoothie. It’s on the corner of Arapaho and Folsom. They carry a whole line of gluten free products because the owner’s wife has Celiac disease. So they have to be really careful about gluten.

Kelly: I do as well.

Anne: You do as well. That brings up a question. Do you have a quick moment? You’re not a doctor obviously we know that, so this isn’t medical advice, but do you have a handle on the difference between Celiac disease versus gluten intolerant. There is something in there called sprue. I have no idea what that is. I know that as the little pieces of plastic from injection molded toys. Obviously that is not what Celiac sprue is. There are a lot of terms out there that are not synonymous but to people who are not that familiar with them, they are all kind of muddled together. Are you able to sort of quickly explain?

Kelly: I can tell you what I know. Like you said I am not a doctor, but I can tell you what I know. Celiac is a gene which I have. I know that people with the Celiac gene can get the sprue or the perforations in the intestines which is very life threatening. I’m not sure what the complete difference is between Celiac and being intolerant. I know that people who are intolerant often have trouble with malabsorption. They have reactions, digestion problems from gluten. I wouldn’t recommend any gluten to anyone even if they are intolerant. I have heard from time to time people say that they are gluten intolerant so they are on a low gluten diet. I would not recommend that at all. I think that if you are intolerant or Celiac the best thing to do is be gluten free all together, you know 100%. That’s pretty much the extent of my knowledge on that.

Anne: That makes perfect sense to me. In fact, you reminded me I recently met someone who said that they have to be gluten free mostly, but every once in a while they can have gluten. I said, “Well how do you know how much you can have and when you can have it?” “Well I have it until I start feeling bad.” I’m thinking well if you know it’s going to make you feel bad. If your body is telling you this doesn’t feel good, why would you eat it all?

Kelly: Some people can even be asymptomatic. Like myself, I am Celiac and I’ve been Celiac my entire life. But, there were times in my life where I thought I was fine. You can go for periods of time without any symptoms at all, and then end up in the hospital with a hole in your intestine and it is very bad. Good to know and avoid.

Anne: Right. That makes perfect sense. I want to talk about ghee. I’ll tell you why. I love the stuff. I don’t know if you know this about me, but I actually lived in an (?) for a while as a teen. That’s where I first became hooked on ghee. It’s the most incredible; the flavor of ghee is amazing. For those out there who don’t know or didn’t hear earlier ghee is clarified butter. I remember making it at the (?). You just basically would heat the butter, melt it over low heat and keep on letting the impurities come to the top until eventually you have a crystal clear yellow liquid which is left after you take out all of the impurities. Technically what I infer from what you said, those impurities are what contain the casein and the lactose.

Kelly: Right.

Anne: Somehow in the process you get rid of it. I have a couple of things I want to ask you. First of all, ghee has a unique flavor. Again, I love it. I have to wonder if in the recipes in which you use it, does it take a while to get used to that different, because it’s not a typical buttery flavor.

Kelly: I don’t use enough.

Anne: Ok.

Kelly: I don’t usually use enough that I think you would taste it.

Anne: Darn.

Kelly: It might have a very, very faint creamy flavor or very slightly buttery flavor. But, I don’t usually use enough to give a very strong flavor. I guess you could if you wanted to substitute some of the coconut oil in my recipes. You could substitute ghee and get more of that buttery ghee flavor. Definitely, but speaking of how to make ghee I don’t know if you know but I actually have a video also of making ghee on my site as well for people that are interested.

Anne: Do you have a YouTube channel? So if someone wanted to just go and look at all of your videos.

Kelly: Yes.

Anne: You have YouTube/spunkycoconut?

Kelly: Gosh. I don’t know what the link is. I have them all on my website. I have a label and it says videos. You can click on my videos. You can go to YouTube, or you can watch them on my website. They are pretty large. They are almost the same size as they are on YouTube on my website.

Anne: Ok.

Kelly: I do have probably seven or eight videos on YouTube which are linked to my website.

Anne: Ok. Someone who is going to look at yours website to look at the video will be able to figure out your YouTube channel from that as well if they want to favorite you on YouTube or let you have it.

Kelly: Yes.

Anne: Well that’s awesome. So, what I wanted to ask you then about ghee was we live in an area and I think many neighborhoods have Indian grocery stores, etc. You can buy ghee premade. Is there any reason not to do that as far as you know?

Kelly: No, as far as I know it is very nice to be able to buy it and not have to make it yourself. The reason I often make it myself is just to save money. The caller before about how to eat this way and save money and a lot of the things I do like making my own nut milk and making my own ghee are just for the purpose of saving money. It’s great to be able to walk into a store and buy ghee. I’ve never been to a health food store that didn’t have it. It’s great.

Anne: Ok, well we have just a couple of minutes left. I’m going give everyone all the links again and the information about your book and your website. While I am doing that, would you be willing to be thinking about a really fast easy recipe that you could give out over the air or at least point people to on your blog to leave them with one of your favorite recipes.

Kelly: Sure.

Anne: So, while Kelly is thinking about which of her many different recipes she wants to share with you or direct you to, her website is thespunkycoconut.com. You can and absolutely should buy her book on Amazon.com. Go to amazon.com and search for “The Spunky Coconut” and it will pull it right up. It’s got one of the highest ratings I have ever seen across many, many customer reviews up to well over four almost five stars which is really impressive. She does have a YouTube channel. We are not exactly sure what it is but you can get to it through her website if you want to go ahead and favorite that channel so you will always know as soon as she posts another one. I think that is about it. Our guest Kelly Brozyna, Kelly, do have a recipe ready that you have picked?

Kelly: Yes. If you go to my website, the very first recipe which I have up right now is a really simple chocolate chip muffin. It’s made very simply with almond butter, eggs, a little bit of coconut flour. You will see that it’s very simple. It takes just a few minutes to blend the ingredients together and put them in your muffin tray with paper liners. They puff up and they are very light and fluffy, really nice warm or even refrigerated.

Anne: They look wonderful. It is muffin season. We are heading into muffin season, so that is awesome. Kelly, thank you so much. This has been really, really wonderful.

Kelly: Thank you.

Anne: Will you come back if we ask you nicely?

Kelly: I would love to. Yes, it’s been great. I’ve really enjoyed it.

Anne: Well, we have to. It’s been very enlightening.

Kelly: Thank you.

Anne: Thank you so much. That is Kelly Brozyna. She is the spunky coconut. You can go to her website at thespunkycoconut.com. You can also find her on Twitter @spunkycoconut. Get her book “The Spunky Coconut” on Amazon, very, very well worth it. Remember next week, everything you didn’t know about having breast cancer from two survivors.

Kelly Brozyna’s Website

Kelly Brozyna’s book, “The Spunky Coconut Cookbook”

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