Tonight I made my first successful sugar free/gluten free/vegan muffins.

I have been trying to make something edible that is both sweet and within the limits of my diet for about 4 months and with the help of babycakes recipes by Erin McKenna I have succeeded!

Ingredients:

2 cups Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour

(but I used oat flour because I like oats)

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon xanthan gum

(though you don't necessarily need it. It just makes it stick better)

½ cup coconut oil

2/3 cup agave nectar

2/3 cup rice milk

(I used almond milk)

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon pure lemon extract

2/3 cup fresh blueberries

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt. Add the oil, agave nectar, rice milk, vanilla and lemon extract to the dry ingredients, and stir until the batter is smooth. Using a plastic spatula, gently fold in the blueberries just until they are evenly distributed throughout the batter.

Pour 1/3 cup batter into each prepared cup, almost filling it. Bake the muffins on the center rack for 22 minutes, rotating the tin 180 degrees after 15 minutes. The finished muffins will bounce back slightly when pressed, and a toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean.

Let the muffins stand in the tin for 15 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack and cool completely. Store the muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

They are really good!

I am awful at blogging consistently. I would say that I am going to try to get better but in all truth, I will probably retain about as much consistency as I have in the past. Anyway, I have been informed that I haven't blogged since February and am overdue.

This week I celebrated my birthday. I have a lot of mixed emotions about birthdays in general. I guess because I never feel quite different knowing that I'm a year older. This year is different. I am very glad to be leaving year 20. In a lot of ways, it was not a good one for me and I have yet to process everything that has happened with my health, the deaths I've experienced, and eruptions within my friendship relationships I wouldn't have predicted if you talked to me a year ago. I felt very exhausted and for a majority of 20 I was struggling to keep up with everything that was happening. This is not to say that this whole past year was awful, because it was not: it is merely to say that I will in no way miss being 20.

Out of these experiences, as often happens, I was able to make and keep some of the best friendships I've been blessed to experience. To you all, I would like to say thank you and that I predict you will be the best part of being 21.

Sarah, I think you may be the most loyal person I know. Thank you for being there every time I needed to laugh, act silly, vent, and have the types of conversations that really shape character.

Maria, thank you for being so considerate of my health. I have never had someone care for me after surgeries the way you did this year. It's the most humbly I've ever been served.

Jenni, I had never met anyone who understood me emotionally the way you do. To be understood on that level has been life changing for me. Thank you for being someone trustworthy that I can be vulnerable with when I need to most.

Ben, Ryan, and Conner, thank you for giving me a home when I didn't feel comfortable in my own.

Dan, thank you for being my friend even after seeing me at my worst and for being someone I'm not afraid will judge me.

Claire, thank you first for being someone I tell everything to. And second, for being absolutely nuts with me. Every time we would talk even if we started in the worst moods, we would end in fits of giggles that I miss now that you don't live in Waco.

Tonia, thank you for being consistent. Never at any point am I surprised by your kindness and joy since I have come to know your character. I have most loved being, as your mom puts it, the fizz to your coke.

Well, tomorrow/today since it's after midnight, is Friday. I made it through the week rather well. Thus far, I've turned in 2 essays, taken 3 quizzes, 1 major test, and turned in a painting. Tomorrow, thankfully, is my easy day. I am so glad for it. This weekend I need to do some major poetry reading and some really good research for another essay I have coming up.

Here are the good things that have happened this week:

1) I started a new painting that I really enjoy.

2) I learned that I like spaghetti squash which both fits with my diet and is cheap.

3) I had dinner with friends every night this week.

4) I used up the last of my groceries and get to go shopping tomorrow with recipe plans.

5) I FOUND OUT I GET TO GO TO EUROPE OVER SPRING BREAK!

6) I received letters from two great girls this week and from my dad.

7) Valentine's day was actually really fun!

8) I made an A on a Latin quiz. (This is a big accomplishment for me)

9) Tomorrow we get to start mentoring 1 on 1 at WAI.

10) I'm just still so glad my mom came to visit.

Well, thus far, I would call this new week successful. Today, I made it through all my classes and ended up having a great night. Isaac, Sarah, Conner, Jacob, Ben, Dan, Ryan, and myself all went out to eat for Valentine's Day at Olive Garden (my dinner was on Sarah. thanks friend!) and then Ben, Ryan, and Conner, surprised my roommates with me with a crafted arrangement of fruit and our own personalized cards. This was funny because my roommates' cards had pictures of their pets and mine had a tree. Which is great for me, because I really love trees. Plus, the tray that they brought the fruit on had rocks on it (which I like to collect).

On top of all this, I woke up to pink roses from Maria with a Valentine's day note. Sweet roommate? Yes.

I am very glad for the start of the new week for a lot of reasons. Tomorrow is Monday and once I get past it, I will have 2 quizzes down, 1 paper down and a much slower rest of the week (hopefully). Plus in my literature and media class, we get to watch Eat Pray Love, which I haven't seen yet. AND, then I get to go out to dinner with friends for Valentine's Day.

In addition, and probably the bigger reason, is because I have been down for no reason and I feel as though a fresh start will be good and that's what Monday will be.

Time with my mom today was great and very much needed. I was glad to hear that my sister did so well in her mock trial event and to see pictures from her birthday party this weekend. Plus, my mom got to see some of my paintings. Speaking of, I'm excited to start some new ones. I have a few sketches I want to get out; they're starting to keep me up at night so I need to prime my canvas and get to it. If they turn out well, I'll post some pictures. (Although I say I'll put pictures up a lot and it never seems to happen. I'll try to make it and exception to the norm)

All day today I had a looming desire to pack up my car and literally just drive away. I packed a bag at 730 this morning, got ready, put it in my car, and couldn't make myself do it. Which ended up being a good thing because today was a rather great day and I would have missed it. I think restlessness has to be a part of the human condition... or something along those lines, at least.

Tomorrow my mom is coming down which is really good because I have missed her and getting some quality time will be nice.

I have recently had to limit my diet to not include wheat, milk, meat, chocolate, caffeine, sugar, chocolate (this doesn't need to be listed separately except for the fact that i LOVE it), soy, and refined flours (there's a lot of weird stuff too like, honey and aspartame, but those are not really significant). I, at first, thought that this would be really hard and that people would get annoyed with me for not being able to eat without constantly asking, "hey what's in this?" but all of my friends have been especially great about it.

In particular, I eat with 3 other friends about once a week and I saw two of them looking up how make spaghetti squash today and I know the other one looked up what types of food I could eat before he made dinner last week. It's such a good feeling to know that you have friends who are as unselfish as these 3. I really can't even describe how special it made me feel to know that they cared that much. It was definitely unexpected and is still appreciated.

So, if any of you are reading this, thanks! You made my week immensely better.