Jen

Cat wrangler. G-free 4 life.

Gluten-free, Vegan, No-Mato Instant Pot Lasagna!

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I have a mild tomato allergy (I get itchy and rashy, but no anaphylaxis), so I just avoid them, even though it makes me sad. It’s better safe than sorry when dealing with so many allergies and sensitivities. This lasagna has been a long time coming. We’ve also used this sauce for pasta, manicotti, and pizza. It’s not a 1:1 marinara substitute, but for those of us who haven’t had marinara in years, it’s pretty tasty. The Sauce: Tomato-Free (No-Mato) Marinara Adapted from Unbound Wellness AIP Nomato Recipe. 2-3 tbsp olive oil 1 cup chopped carrots 1 cup chopped celery 1/3 cup beet powder (I buy Frontier Co-op brand) 1/2 cup chopped non-green bell peppers 1 cup water 1 tbsp salt 2 tsp basil 1 tsp ground thyme 1 tsp oregano 1 tbsp parsley 1/2 tsp garlic powder, or 1-2 fresh cloves 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, white vinegar, or lemon …

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Easiest moving day ever!

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We moved a couple miles down the road. We love Shoreline RV Park (they’ve renamed to Lighthouse Cove but all the signs still say Shoreline) but they now have a 30-days-in-1-day-out policy. Instead of moving two days in a row, we booked a week at a cute park nearby. We made it easy on ourselves by overlapping our reservations so we didn’t have to leave by checkout time, and could roll out whenever we wanted in the afternoon. So worth it! Since we were moving so close and the new spot is right on the bike trail, we didn’t even do our usual “truck Tetris” putting everything in the truck. We loaded all the plants in the wagon, strapped it to my bike, and I biked to the new spot while David drove the RV and cats. I got the better end of that deal. 🙂 It was only 2 …

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Tour Through Tree, Klamath, California

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This tree is centuries-old and a cheap ($5) tourist attraction worth seeing in the Klamath area. Small cars can drive right through the tree, but there’s no way our truck would’ve made it. So we just enjoyed hanging out in the shade of a tree that’s already outlived us 10 times over. Truthfully, it made us a little sad to see such an ancient living tree butchered like this. The tree still produces sap, constantly attempting to heal the damage. It continues to grow, with one branch in particular that resembled an entire new redwood. These trees are just incredible. When you visit the tour-through tree, do NOT bring your RV! The hill to get to the tree is steep, narrow, and there’s not much room to turn around when you get there. However, we had no problem taking our Ram 2500 up to the parking area next to the …

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Rainy Weekend and Snacky Sunday

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It was a rainy weekend in Crescent City, so I did a few things inside the RV while David took a few urgent repair calls. There was another Siete cooking class… I missed out because I was a little too exhausted this week. But look at these adorable gifts! I did make one part of the dish made in class: chorizo refried beans. Two cans of pinto beans blended with a packet of Siete chorizo seasoning. So good with chips! There were naps. I reorganized the cooking gadgets cupboard. We’ve grown a lot since the first time we did this: we love our 3-quart Instant Pot so much that we decided to get a 6-Quart with an air fryer lid. The air fryer broke recently, and we replaced it with an Instant Pot brand air fryer lid. Our two saucepans are in the top shelf behind the blender cups and …

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Adventures in Air Frying!

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Update, June 2021: our air fryer stopped working! We used it very regularly (at least once a week, usually 2-3 times a week) for 8 months. Then one day we were making fries (or chips, if you’re one of our English friends). In the middle of the cycle, it started smelling of ozone and just cut off, never to turn on again. We loved having an air fryer so we’re going to try again with a different model. But we can no longer recommend this MooSoo model referenced in this post. Stay tuned for a future update. We never use our RV oven because it’s terrible, as RV ovens tend to be. Since we cook everything in our Instant Pot or on the stove, we haven’t missed the oven too much, but we do miss being able to cook extra crispy foods (without lots of oil or heating up the …

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Where are we now? Traveling from Arizona to California

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Our plan was to spend the winter in Arizona, then head back to Northern California after tax season ended. In Arizona, we could visit my parents and David could work on snow birds’ RVs. Plus Arizona is nice in the winter (for about 2 months, anyway). In January, after a couple months in Goodyear, AZ, we decided to move closer to Quartzite for the rest of our stay. We booked a month at a small sleepy little park where David had worked a couple jobs. But the day we arrived, a very friendly orange tabby and self-appointed welcoming committee came up to our rig and taunted our cats. Even Lillian, an endlessly laid back and friendly cat, had reached her limit, growling through the screen door at him. After the first night, the cat tried to get into our rig, which caused a scary fight between our cats, and no …

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New favorite phone app for exploring nature!

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We’ve been loving the Seek app for identifying plants when we’re out exploring. The app uses your camera and image recognition technology to identify plants, animals, and fungi. It’s a fun addition to stopping and smelling the flowers. It “gameifies” being outside, by giving badges for discoveries and offering optional challenges. They’re cute features but the coolest part really is the identification of plants, animals, and fungi. Seek doesn’t store or transmit location data, and you don’t even need to create an account to use the app (but you can if you want to). The app is totally free from iNaturalist, which a collaboration between the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society. It’s available for iOS and Android, and it does require internet in order to access the iNaturalist database and use the app. We haven’t had luck using it for bugs or animals yet (except humans …

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Jen got a bike! (Updated May 2021)

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You may not believe this, but I’ve never really ridden a bike before. I had one when I was quite young, but didn’t get to ride it much before outgrowing it. Plus growing up with severe asthma meant I didn’t get to do a lot outside. David has been biking for a long time. When we moved to the Bay Area and realized driving every day is a nightmare, he got an e-bike to commute, and loved it. I never tried it out, because I’m much shorter than he is, with much lousier balance (due to a spinal cord injury). But it always looked fun! Since I didn’t really have anywhere to commute to, I stuck with my wheelchair (with a Freewheel, which I plan to post about here someday), though it’s a manual chair propelled by my own two hands. My speed was limited to how much energy I …

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Date Caramel: gluten-free, vegan, free of allergens (unless you’re allergic to dates, of course)

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We left Arizona last month. We’d planned to stay until the end of tax season, which was extended until mid-May, but by the end of March, we had to call it: it was too hot and we needed to leave early. We’ll be working our way back up to Crescent City, California, because we loved it so much last year. But we’re going slow this time: short hops and staying a week in each place. This gives us time to rest, work, and check out the local area. We had a nice week in Indio, California! We’ve passed through here many times with and without the RV, but never stayed a week. What a treat! Did you know they farm dates here? We stopped at a local market that advertised fresh produce. It was a cramped little convenience store with a bunch of produce— including beautiful juicy-looking dates! We got …

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