**Our blog author, Jennifer Sacket, is a green-market booth owner, cooking teacher, and kids’ yoga teacher**

Several years ago, I embarked on a lifestyle change. I found out after years of battling with an upset stomach that I was gluten and lactose intolerant. I came home and emptied the cupboards of all goldfish crackers and practically everything else in the cupboard. It brought cries and protests from my two children. It meant that we had to find a new way of eating. This was about eight years ago and the marketplace was not that gluten-free friendly as it is now. The majority of the gluten free products tasted like cardboard at best. Gluten is a sticky substance that holds most baked goods together and gives them their elasticity. I decided to play around in the kitchen creating different snacks for the kiddos.

A couple of months ago, my partner went to the doctor and the doctor suggested that he go on the Paleo diet. The Paleo diet is a diet that relies mainly on animal protein and eliminates sugary foods and starches. I can’t say that it’s been easy, but I’ve seen the benefits of this diet. You can eat most leafy greens and lots of protein. There is a twist here. I am a sometimes vegan and a vegetarian. For me, I eliminate some of the animal proteins, but will occasionally add wild caught fish to a meal. We’ve come up with a lot of p