My Story

Welcome to Fork and Beans! I’m Cara and I truly could not be more excited that you are taking the time to check this place out. My hope in starting this blog was to create a site where people with dietary restrictions will not only feel normal, but find that eating without certain ingredients can still be good.  

All of my life, I have struggled with digestive problems.  I was always bloated as a kid and complained of stomach pains–I just thought it was normal to feel the way I did. Some days, the discomfort was so unbearable that all I could do was lie in the fetal position without moving for hours. The symptoms progressed as i got older:

• acid reflux
• throwing up acid
• bloating/gas
• constipation for days/diarrhea (attractive, right?)
• swollen joints
• brittle nails
• acne (not just any kind, but cystic acne)
• debilitating stomach pains
• headaches
• weakened immune system
• fatigue

Needless to say, I was miserable.  It took me a while to finally say enough is enough, but I am so grateful that I finally decided to go to the doctor in July 2011 and get tested. I was floored when I found out my allergy diagnosis:

• gluten (intolerance)
• milk
• and a list of 12 others…

When the doctor told me this, I was shocked. at that very moment, I watched everything that I had loved and learned up to this point in my life about food, cooking and baking fly out the window…

I grew up eating within the standard american diet food groups. I was the poster child for eating processed foods.

(This photo always gets to me. Even at 7 years old, I was already ashamed of showing my body).

McDonald’s knew me by name. So did Coke, Snickers, Doritos and donut shops.  I spent most of my childhood and upwards locked inside of my room, eating and watching tv as my life passed me by. My self-esteem deteriorated. My body and energy levels went with it.  I hid behind baggy clothing and was afraid of my femininity.

I shopped for clothes in the boys’ section and black or anything dark that resembled black was my favorite color.

I wanted nothing more than to lose weight but felt enslaved to food.  I was so unhappy with the way I looked yet felt utterly and completely helpless.

Over the course of a few years I began slowly transitioning out of my poor eating habits, small step by small step, and started to see some of the weight shed along with those bad habits.

At times I did it with an obsessive, crazy diet mentality (which as we all know, never actually lasts or truly changes the way we see food–it only produces a more perverted version of what we once knew).

***But then something magical happened***

In October 2010, I became a vegetarian.

Over the course of a year into vegetarianism (paired along with years of taking an internal excavation of my self),  I found a heaping spoonful of healing with my food issues. I learned to love ME.  I did,  however, refuse to let go of dairy (my way of holding on to what I thought I needed in desperation of not feeling deprived–obviously not 100% healed, of course–hey, no one’s perfect!)

 But despite the fact that eating more fruits and veggies and less processed food not only made me feel better about myself, my outlook on food and helped me to lose weight…

…I was still having stomach issues.

So getting the diagnosis, I knew that regardless of the difficulty of not eating dairy any more, 

I had to do it.

Wiping my tears, I pulled up my big girl panties, said good-bye to milk, eggs, wheat flours and all that I once understood about baking and accepted my new life.

I’m still growing in my skills, but I think I have found things that are not only edible but super enjoyable to make and eat. You won’t even know that you are missing the meat, gluten or dairy!

Come join me as I dabble in the world of gluten-less, vegan, and raw eating.  I hope you like what you find here!