If you follow my blog, you know that I sometimes feature recipes. I do that because one of the biggest challenges for those of us who came to an allergy diagnosis late in life is finding dishes that satisfy our taste buds while avoiding problematic foods.

Well, have I got a recipe for you! This one is so easy, it’s almost criminal. In fact, it’s practically a no-effort pie (especially if you buy a pre-made gluten free crust!)

What makes me laugh about this one is that I found this recipe on the back of a can of pumpkin. It comes to us courtesy of Farmer’s Market brand of organic canned pumpkin.

Pumpkin is a great addition to your winter diet. It’s naturally high in Vitamin A, has a smattering of Vitamin C and even delivers some calcium and some iron for your efforts. If you eat it certified organic, you are also avoiding pesticide residues while you help the environment.

I teamed this lovely pie filling with a home-made gluten free crust, made using Molly B’s Gluten-Free Ultimate Pie Crust Mix. I’ve never made my own gluten-free crust - or any flour crust for that matter …

My own journey to improved health has been a long one. At 24, I was diagnosed with arthritis. Knowing nothing else, I went down the road of conventional western medicine. (You can read about my discovery of arthritis in yesterday’s post.) But I was really worried about the drugs I was on and what it meant for me.

After reading everything I could find on arthritis and auto-immune diseases (of which allergies are another one), I started to make use of the most commonly cited natural strategies for each of them. After all, both of these conditions ran in my family.

I figured there had to be a pattern.

Vitamin C is known to be a mild anti-inflammatory. (As a tip for those with allergies, I have successfully used it to hold off an allergic reaction until I could get my hands on some antihistamine.) I’d never taken Vitamin C so I started and slowly increased my dosage. By the time I was consuming 3000 - 5000 mg of Vitamin C a day, I was able to come off the strong painkiller that I’d been taking.

I kept reading everything I could. I was a library science student at …

It annoys me no end that the main argument posed by doctors when discussing the merits of complementary or natural approaches to allergies will always center on the lack of scientific evidence. When the big bucks are in drugs (that can be patented) and when medical research is largely funded by pharmaceutical companies (who make big bucks off drugs), how are we ever going to get evidence that natural cures work?

It’s quite possible that the internet will be alternative medicine’s saving grace.

Millions of people search every year for information on their medical conditions or symptoms. While most conventional medical practitioners are against this growing trend (or want patients to stay strictly to websites that promote western medicine), this is not stopping the tsunami of search engine activity that has to do with our health.

I personally have benefited greatly from a willingness to root through online information - looking off the beaten track - to solve a health problem. In fact, over 25 years ago, had I not been willing to use myself as a guinea pig and trust that alternative medicine would work, I might be confined to a wheelchair today.

The short version of my story is this: I began …

So there you are: the whole family is up early and in their pj’s, sitting around the Christmas tree, opening gifts. And you start to sneeze.

It might not be that dramatic. It could be that you have been feeling a bit off since that lovely blue spruce made its home in your den. It might even be that you’ve had a slight runny nose - nothing serious - since you and your family put up the artificial tree.

If either of these scenarios sound familiar, you could be allergic to your tree. More accurately, you could be suffering with mold or dust allergies that have been stirred up by your tree.

If you have a lovely authentic tree, filling your home with the aromatic smells of the evergreen family, you could also have invited mold into your home. Real trees are often damp from their time outside in the rain, snow or cold. Then, you bring that lovely conifer into your nice warm home. As a result, any mold spores on the tree become active - and produce more mold spores. As those spores become airborne, you become miserable.

You might think you are completely safe with that picture-perfect artificial tree you …

Well, I have officially taste-tested Elise Bauer’s Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage recipe - and it’s really good!

Since I’m a bit of a tinkering type, I did change the recipe slightly to accommodate our family’s dietary needs and preferences - I added a bit more “butter” (in the form of mild and buttery tasting expeller-pressed coconut oil). Otherwise, I followed instructions to the letter and ended up with a lovely batch of red cabbage that my whole family enjoyed.

I contemplated using wine vinegar just briefly - I’m almost positive that my grandmother’s secret ingredient was wine vinegar. I’m sure that if I close my eyes, I can see it in her kitchen. Given her background, that makes more sense than my previous musings about apple cider vinegar. But, I decided to let the recipe stand on its own merits and stop tinkering after my one concession to our personal food intolerances.

It was a hit. Of a whole head of red cabbage, I had one small portion left. I think everyone had seconds, even the 2 year old!

The good thing for those with allergies is this is a simple and economical dish that can provide a warm accompaniment to …