If you've followed my blog for a long time you no doubt remember my obsession with my first baby doll: Velvet Skin Baby Dreams by Ideal. I had a latent memory from childhood which would express itself at night when I was dreaming. I would dream I left my baby, who wore a pink gown with a little pointed hood, on the floor by the front door and went back to get her she was gone (I know, I was a great mother!). I would look and look for her but could never find her and then wake up and feel such a sense of loss. This was occurring when I was in my mid-30s but the doll in the memory was real, from my early childhood. In the dream I could perfectly recall our house in California as it was when I was a toddler, something I can't remember in my waking life. I kind of remembered the baby doll in my dream. I thought it must have been a cloth doll because I knew it had a fuzzy face. I asked my mom about it and she immediately became very defensive. It turns out, the doll had a flocked face. The flocking was peeling off and turning brown so when I wasn't looking she threw it away. Shortly after that my father died and we moved to Ohio to live with my grandparents. I think the sense of grief I had in my dreams and my compulsion to search for her was my brain trying to get back the memory of my California days when I was a happy little girl and didn't yet know the loss of a parent.  

My mother couldn't remember the name of my doll, so armed only with the information that she had a flocked face and hoping my memory of her pink gown with the pointed hood was accurate, I began searching online. It took months to find out her name and when I did I discovered she is a very rare doll. Apparently most of these dolls were thrown away when their flocking started to flake off. I made it my mission to find and repair as many of these babies as I can. Since then I no longer have the recurring dream.

As you can see from this doll's before and after photos, she gets pretty scary looking when she's been overly loved. For one thing, the original body fabric is a dark beige, so it looks dirty even when the doll is new. Ideal only produced this doll in 1975 and they significantly lowered the quality toward the end of the production. The first dolls had a flocked face and limbs and thick hair. By the time they discontinued the doll only the faces were flocked and the hair was thin and sparse. Even the better dolls have the low-quality hair so prevalent in the 1970s. It gets very frizzy with any kind of play.

This doll is one of the higher-quality early ones. I cleaned this doll, made her a new body using the old one as a pattern, gave her hair a boil treatment to straighten it and ran over the hair with a fabric shaver to trim the split ends. Her eyes were cloudy so I cleaned those with a cotton swab dipped in window cleaner. Her flocking is rubbed off her chin, cheeks, and the tip of her nose as well as in spots on her legs and arms. Despite all that she cleaned up well and looks much better. She's also much sturdier now and ready for gentle play. These dolls are really too delicate for rough play unless you want to have to re-flock them about every 6 months.

After many years of searching I acquired a mint-in-the-box Baby Dreams doll for myself. I used her original outfit to make a replica. As you can see, my restored Baby Dreams holds her own pretty well next to the mint one.  I don't think you'd even recognize her from her before photo!
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My mint doll is one of the later ones, not as high-quality, but still cute. She spends most of her time in her box anyway. I also use her original paperwork to make tags for my restored dolls.

I did the best I could with her hair. It never gets perfectly smooth. Of course you could re-root the doll or give her a wig. Whenever possible I try to retain the original hair because it's a very unusual pinkish-white blond that matches the flocking. Besides that, the lucky circumstance of the original hooded gown covers it very well.

I make copies of the original paperwork to use as tags. This doll has special eyes that open and close when you lie her down sideways and the paperwork explains that (I guess so people wouldn't be calling Ideal all the time complaining  the eyes were broken). It takes a little practice to learn to work them.

I had stretch jersey knit body fabric especially for doll-making so that's what I used for the replacement body. As a result my doll is a little more toned-looking than originally. I like the pale peach shade so much better than the original brown. I couldn't believe it when I got my mint doll and found out the body was always that dark and dingy looking!

I'm very pleased with this restoration! Right now this baby is reserved. If her adoption doesn't go through I will list her in my shops and update this post. You can link to all my shops from the Home page. I have many more restored dolls for sale on eBay, Etsy, Depop, Mercari, and Poshmark.

Etsy has been essentially begging sellers to make and sell face masks due to high demand. This is a perfect project for me because I have tubs full of mask-sized fabric and elastic scraps! Etsy is the only platform who has not banned the sale of face masks so it's a good opportunity make money and provide for others at the same time. I would never try to price gouge, but I also am not going to work for sweatshop wages; my daughter and I both sewed all day yesterday so my masks are fairly priced for us as well as buyers.

That said, I am painfully aware of all those out of work at the moment. I have also been having some trouble with my sewing machine. Therefore, I am providing a free PDF pattern to print at home as well as selling kits to make masks at a discounted price. Everything in the kit is pre-washed in hot water and pre-cut. All you have to do is sew it together. If you don't have a sewing machine you can buy our pre-made masks. As always, I am making no medical claims about these masks; I am simply following the CDC recommendation for us to all wear masks when we leave the house. If you are using your own fabric researchers recommend 100% cotton and natural fibers, tightly woven. They say you should avoid synthetics, particularly Spandex. If you have any old cotton dress shirts past their prime those would be ideal. Pre-wash all fabrics, including the reusable filter material, in hot water and tumble dry before cutting and sewing (this step has already been completed if you are using my mask kit).

Download the PDF file above to print at home. Please note, this is my exclusive pattern for your personal use or to make donations; it is NOT for resale. The pattern is scaled for adults and the finished mask will measure approximately 10 inches wide by 5 inches tall. You can print it at a reduced scale to make a smaller pattern for children. I prefer foldover or hair tie elastic because it can be cut and knotted to size and comes in fun patterns. These masks are designed to have a pocket for a removable filter. You can use a folded tissue for a disposable filter or a coffee filter. For a reusable filter hospitals recommend interfacing fabric or tightly woven flannel, such as shop towels from the hardware store. I am using interfacing.

I found during my personal use the interfacing is perfect to make the mask into a diffuser for essential oils. Just a couple drops of Thieves, Raven, or the "allergy trio" (peppermint, lemon, and lavender) makes for  much more pleasant experience in my opinion. You can order masks, mask kits, and essential oils from the links on my Home page.

Once you've cut out your mask pieces mark the triangles (which are called "notches") with chalk or a tiny clip. Start with the lining pieces. Stitch the notched long end, using a 1/4 inch seam allowance,  and leaving an opening between the notches as shown below. This is the opening of the filter pocket.

Sew wide gathering stitches between the notches marked along the upper and lower horizontal edges of each piece. Pull the threads to gather the pieces. This adds elasticity that will allow the mask to fit more snugly over the nose and chin.

With right sides together, place two 12 inch elastic pieces as indicated by the notches on one side of the mask, sandwiching the elastic between the main and lining fabrics as shown. Pin in place.

Sew the pieces together as shown on one side. Then repeat as above on the other side.

When your sides are joined, pin the top and bottom edges of the main and lining fabrics and stitch, being careful not to catch the elastic in the stitching.

Cut the corners and clip the curves, making sure you don't cut through the stitching.

Turn right-side-out through the filter pocket opening.

Adjust your mask to help it lie as flat as possible.

Iron your mask to help it look more professional.

Your finished mask should look like this.

If desired, use a few drops of your favorite essential oil on your reusable filter. The CDC recommends you do not touch your mask once you have placed it on your face. As soon as you return home remove your mask and wash it, along with the reusable filter if applicable, in hot water and tumble dry.

You can purchase my masks and mask kits from my Etsy shop and the essential oils from my Young Living shop. Both links are on the Home page.

If you’re in need of funds right now I want to recommend a class I just completed about selling on ThredUP. This course showed me how to maximize profits by sending stuff in from our closets and old store inventory that has been sitting in my other stores. This is just one bag that recently arrived; I’ve made over $150 so far. You can sign up at: https://kreithchelesacademy.teachable.com/?affcode=83024__muw7ipr

I believe in this teacher so much I signed up as an affiliate for her so I will make a commission if you order a course from my link (no extra cost to you). This class is how I got the information I shared in my last post about promoting my items and following sellers. It turns out you don't have to just accept ThredUP's low pricing or sit there hoping things will sell; there are  actions you can take to facilitate sales and save on fees. I really wish I'd taken this class before I sent in my first box; I actually lost money on that one! This is a long class; it's way more information than I can share for free, so I really hope you'll consider taking it. 

Kreithchele makes almost 100K per year just selling on ThredUP and teaches more classes on accounting, among other things. I'm already signed up for her next class! I've taken many courses online and this has been one of the clearest and easiest to follow. Best of luck on your ThredUP journey! And don't forget to sign up for ThredUP with my link for a $10 credit!

Hi there, everyone! I hope you're hanging in there during the Pandemic. We had a wake-up call a couple weeks ago when my brother-in-law (who works in sports) had contact with the first NBA player to test positive so he and my niece and nephews were told to self-isolate and the same day we heard our neighbors and friends had been exposed and were symptomatic awaiting testing. We hadn't been near any of these people recently but it really hit home that the reason we weren't hearing about cases in our area was a lack of testing, not a lack of the virus. Since our diabetic son is in the high risk category we locked down earlier than everyone else. It's a weird combination of extreme fear and boredom but thankfully nowadays we have technology to help us cope. We are learning about video-conferencing as our kids' lessons went online this week and this afternoon my son and nephew were face-timing using some filter that gave them giant Ron Swanson mustaches. I decided my readers might like a project to keep their minds off things, so I wrote this tutorial to show you how to make your own custom doll by re-painting an existing doll.

I'm using a Blythe doll such as those shown above as the base. I bought some Basaak and Tomy Blythes to customize but you can also buy just the blank face shell from online to paint. This method will work for pretty much any plastic or vinyl doll. You start by removing any existing paint and, in the case of Blythe, the shiny surface. 

Because Blythe faces have a shiny surface they won't take paint well. I use a three or four-sided nail buffer to sand off the shine. Then because I was re-sculpting this doll as well as re-painting I used rough sandpaper to sand off the lip paint. As I did so I re-shaped the lips some. Start the sanding process with the roughest surface and repeat using progressively finer sandpaper or nail buffers until you get to the smoothest one. If you don't need to sand the paint off, like if you're doing a Barbie face, you can remove the paint using Goof Off (not Goo Gone) or paint thinner. Make sure to wash the face with soap and water afterwards to remove all the paint thinner. 

My Blythe still had a tiny bit of shine and dust from sanding which I removed with alcohol. Since alcohol is in such short supply right now you can just use plain water or white vinegar.

When I was finished removing as much shine and paint as possible I continued sculpting the face some more.  Blythe has a hard plastic face but it's still soft enough I was able to mainly use a straight pin with the sandpaper and buffer to reshape the eyes, nose, and mouth. After sculpting I cleaned off the dust again with a damp cloth.

I use a combination of pigments on my custom dolls. I started with water-soluble oils and acrylics to countour the face. Then I moved on to pastels. I crush the pastels into powder and then apply them with dry or wet brushes, depending on how sharp an edge I want. You can use human eyeshadow and blush and any powdered makeup this way as well.

I just layer paint and powdered pigments, building up until I get the look I want. I let the layers dry in between and sometimes I also spray Mr. Super Clear matte spray in between the layers. Using varnish in between the layers allows light to shine through the pigments, making the paint more lifelike.

When I was happy with the finished face I applied Mr. Super Clear UV Cut Flat spray to the face. When that dried I applied gloss varnish to the lips because I wanted them to be shiny. 

I "tried out" wigs and hairstyles with the paint by just setting the eyes in the face and putting the pieces together like a puzzle. Then I just set the wig in place to see how I liked it. I ended up using a different wig in the end but this one was my second favorite. When your doll face is all finished and dry you can replace it on the body (if you removed it). I was already converting the Blythe eyes to sleep so I had the head off for that reason. It's just easier to keep the sanding dust out of the eyes and stuff if you remove the head. But a doll such as Barbie wouldn't have these issues. You can look back over my blog posts to see more tutorials on replacing doll eyelashes and eyes and other projects. I have a large number of nude dolls of all types available in my shops (link from the Home page), perfect to customize, as well as doll making supplies. It's a fun project while you're stuck at home and you can get an early start on your holiday gifts!

I don't have any Blythe dolls left in stock as mine are sold out so I hope to finish some more, as well as some Pullip dolls while on the break. I am having the opposite problem of so many people, as I am used to working from home alone and now the entire family is here. I'm working most often with one of the kids sitting next to me endlessly talking or asking for homework help and it's distracting! Dolls are fun to work on for me and it keeps me from worrying every time I sneeze or cough (it's allergy season here). I hope you're able to stay positive and busy as well.

Today I'm going to show you one of my least-favorite repairs in the hopes you will be able to fix your dolls yourself and not send them to me for this problem! While some cloth-body dolls have limbs that attach to the body using a channel and drawstring, most have vinyl limbs sewn to the body. Because play dolls tend to be carried by one arm or leg that particular limb will often tear away from the body. Today we have a doll named Ayla whose shoulder was almost completely torn away. In cases like these you should first determine whether you need to replace the entire body or if the one limb can be re-attached. Since Ayla is a play doll with a young mother and her body is made of logo-print cloth I decided to just re-attach the torn arm. The factory stitching is done with industrial machines and it is strong, whereas the re-attachment is hand-sewn. It is strong but for play I trust the factory stitching more. I also don't like to replace a logo body with a plain one. And, since right now I charge $50 plus return shipping for a total body replacement it is cheaper to just repair the problem area.

As I mentioned in my last post, you could just buy another doll of the same size and race from a thrift store or online and move the head to that body. In this case the owner might be too young to understand why the body looks different and this particular doll is an unusual size. So I repaired the limb. Start by finding material of the best possible match to your doll body. I found wide bias tape in an oyster shade was just the right color and size. I cleaned up the torn area, removing hanging threads. Then I poked a needle felting needle into all the holes I planned to sew to open them up a little more. You will need to use heavy-duty thread. I used hand quilting thread for this repair as it is very strong. If you're using bias tape, which I recommend as it's usually the easiest, line up the edge with the edge of the arm. Stitch through the vinyl using a whipstitch to attach it to the tape. You will need a metal thimble to help push the needle through the tiny holes.

A curved upholstery needle works best for this repair but all mine are lost right now so I'm just using a heavy-duty straight needle. If you get to a hole that's still too tight you can poke your needle felting tool into it again to widen it as shown below. The reason I hate this repair so much is I always manage to stab myself. Even with the thimble I stabbed my thumb today and had to wait for the bleeding to stop and I also stabbed myself in the stomach when my hand slipped. That's my own fault for sitting on the couch to do this instead of at a table. You have to push so hard on the needle at times that it will suddenly pop out and poke you unexpectedly.

Once you've attached the limb, open the bias tape and sew the folded edge to the doll's body, easing around any curves. I stitched over this two times to make sure it's sturdy enough for play, almost making a satin stitch.

Although this is a visible repair it's not terribly noticeable since the color is such a good match. The other shoulder doesn't have any logo print so that helps the new one blend in.

Ayla, as you can see, enjoys a full life. She had glitter on her head, highlighter-painted finger and toenails, makeup on her body, chocolate stuck in her mouth where her mother has been feeding her, and general dirt all over. I spot cleaned her cloth body (you could also remove the head and stuffing and run the body through the washing machine) and scrubbed her vinyl with Thieves Foaming Hand Soap (purchase from my Young Living link on the Home page) and a toothbrush.

Ayla is taking a nap while she dries after her bath. As soon as she's dry she will be ready to head home. I know her mother will be happy to see her! Of course you may send me any kind of doll repair, but now you know how to do this one yourself! You can use the Repair Form below to get an estimate for your doll repair and find out how to send your doll to my hospital.

Well, here we are again. My husband used someone else's office while on a business trip to Raleigh. A few days later he was sick and he found out the guy whose office he used was also out sick. Our youngest caught it and has been home from school again. And now today I am sneezing and coughing and achy and my eyes are running, so I'm pretty sure that despite all the Zicam and cod liver oil and all my other immunity supplements I am catching it. I've been cleaning the house daily too. The trouble is the weather, I think. Last week we had a little snow. Then three days later the temperature was 71 degrees. It's been raining like crazy and we've killed several mosquitoes in the house. Germs thrive just as well as mosquitoes in this kind of weather. We really just need a long period of below-freezing temperatures to kill everything off and we aren't getting it. So, chicken soup to the rescue. This is my Chicken and "Dumpling" keto soup recipe with a carnivore option for those who are continuing World Carnivore Month.

2 cups cooked chicken, shredded
64 ounces chicken bone broth
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 quart water
3 tsp salt
2 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp black pepper
1 cup sour cream
8 ounces cream cheese, diced

Mix chicken broth and water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add onion and garlic and spices and cook until the onion is transparent and soft, about 15 minutes. Lower heat to medium-low. Add the chicken and sour cream and stir until the mixture is smooth, thick, and bubbly. Taste the soup and add any additional seasoning you desire. If you want a thinner soup you can add more water at this time. Add the cubes of cream cheese. Cook on low until the cream cheese is warm but not melted. These are the "dumplings".  Serve, making sure each person has a mix of chicken and dumplings.

If you want a carnivore option of course you can leave out the onion and garlic and even the spices if you're a purist. In the case of trying to boost immunity I think it's a good idea to leave these in, as all have medicinal properties. This is just the ultimate comfort food, exactly what I want when I'm sick, and easy enough to make even for someone who isn't feeling well. I almost always have cooked chicken in the freezer to use for quick suppers and I usually have homemade bone broth as well as canned bone broth. Today I used a mixture of homemade and store-bought. Here's to chicken soup, and here's hoping we will soon all be well.

Pretty often my doll hospital patients are sent to me so I can repair just one of multiple issues. In the case of the doll above, I replaced the eyes but did not address anything else beyond cleaning the doll. This doll was found in the street by her new owner. Her eyes were broken and she had road rash. I replaced the doll's eyes and cleaned her. When I took the head off to repair the eyes I removed the stuffing and ran the body through the clothes washer. I cleaned the head and body vinyl with my go-to Young Living Thieves Foaming Hand Soap and a Mr. Clean Eraser. However, while these methods helped, they didn't remove all the tar from the road or scrapes and scars on the vinyl. These things could be repaired, of course. I could sew a new body for the doll. I could fill in the scrapes in the vinyl and sand and re-paint the face and limbs. At that point, however, my customer would be around $100 into the doll in repair costs, far more than the doll is worth. She isn't a sentimental doll really; she didn't belong to the owner or her children. So, what do you do when you have a doll you want to repair without spending a lot of money? Here are some tips.

First of all, think of how you could dress your doll. It may seem obvious but you can camouflage a multitude of damages with clothing, and many people don't think of that. If your doll has a stained body consider pants, long dresses, and tights. Damage to the arms can be hidden under long sleeves. Scraped or scuffed hair paint or a damaged wig disappear under a hat or large hair bow. In this case I used a long sleeved, full-length dress with a wide lace collar to hide the marks on the body and limbs. I made a large tulle headband like a turban to hide the damage to the head. When you see the doll now she looks sweet and well-loved and you don't notice the marks. In the end, this doll's owner decided to go with a different outfit, so this outfit is for sale in my shops. It will fit 12-14 inch baby dolls, such as Bitty Baby.

Maybe you really want a new-looking doll and clothing doesn't hide enough of the damage. Especially if your doll is a beloved toy and still in use, you might need a sturdier body for safety's sake. In that case, consider buying a parts doll. Modern play dolls aren't that expensive for the most part. If your doll has damaged eyes it's often cheaper to buy the same doll, maybe with a damaged body but intact head, and move the new head onto your doll than it is to pay someone to replace the eyes. Likewise, if your doll needs a new body it's often less expensive to find the same doll on eBay or elsewhere online and move the head to a better body. You can often even find your same doll in new condition for less than the sum of several repairs. That's not usually an option for my clients, since the dolls I get are generally very high in sentimental value, but most people don't object to replacing certain parts of their doll. In the case of a baby doll like this moving the head to a new body or replacing the head is a matter of cutting the zip tie in the neck, placing the head in the hole, and threading a new zip tie or drawstring into the casing. It's something almost anyone can manage. You can often find baby dolls like this one for just a few dollars at thrift stores. If you find a doll of the same size and race you can use the body even if it's not the exact same doll.

Of course I am always happy to have a new patient in my hospital, but I wanted you to know you have options beyond paying for lots of repairs.  I hope you find these tips useful! I'm having a rough week and I always feel better if I try to help someone else. Focusing on the needs of others truly does distract me from my own problems!

I stopped the Carnivore Challenge this week due to an alarming amount of hair loss. To be clear, the Carnivore Challenge is not the same thing as World Carnivore Month; it's my weight loss coach's, Dr. Wade's,  combination of fasting and carnivore. My immune system seems really weak and my fingernails are breaking off really low, so if you've followed me for a long time you know the likely culprit: my recurrent vitamin D deficiency. I stopped taking my D3 supplement because it tears up my stomach even when I take it with food and during fasting I can't tolerate it at all. I've kept up my cod liver oil supplement on non-fasting days but it seems like it wasn't enough. Dr. Wade says the hair loss is a reaction to the large change in my eating habits and temporary, so hopefully in a few months I'll see it thickening back up. I'm pushing more fish into my diet, however, to try to boost my vitamin D levels in a natural way. Many Scandinavians lack the gene to make vitamin D from sunlight and given my history it appears I am one of them. The theory is the lack of sunlight in Scandinavia and reliance on fish in the diet prevented the development of that gene. So you'll be seeing more seafood recipes from me in the future!

Here in town we have a great Asian restaurant called the Rice Bowl. My favorite thing on the menu is an appetizer called "Kane Cream Cheese" (my daughter tells me kane means crab in Japanese). They take imitation crab sticks (surimi) and stuff them with cream cheese. Then they dip them in tempura batter and deep fry them. They are topped with spicy mayo and sliced like a sushi roll to eat easily with chopsticks. Obviously, these are delicious and lower carb than much Asian fare but certainly not keto or carnivore. My version is a "dirty" carnivore option because the surimi does contain a tiny bit of sugar. If you want a totally clean option you can substitute real crab meat.

48 ounces flake style surimi, drained
1 TBSP bacon grease
2-8 ounce packets cream cheese, diced into bite sized pieces
1 stick salted butter, melted
6 ounces (about 2 cups) Pork Panko or plain pork rind crumbs
1 recipe Spicy Mayo, see below

Spicy Mayo
1/4 cup chipotle lime mayonnaise (we prefer Better Body Foods)
2 TBSP plain mayonnaise
2 TBSP sugar-free ketchup
1 tsp Lakanto caramel-flavored monkfruit syrup

Create the Spicy Mayo by whisking all the ingredients together until smooth. Set aside. Create the panko topping by stirring together the pork rind crumbs and melted butter until they form a paste. Set aside. Melt the bacon grease in a skillet. Add the surimi and fry on medium-high, stirring occasionally, until warmed through and beginning to brown. Add HALF the pork panko mixture to the surimi, stirring to coat. Lower heat and dot the cream cheese over the surimi. Push the cream cheese bits into the surimi just a bit. Don't allow them to break apart. Heat without stirring until the cream cheese just begins to melt. Turn off the heat. Spread the remaining pork panko evenly over the surimi. Drizzle with the spicy mayo. Serve warm (although it's also delicious cold if you have leftovers).

This recipe really hit the spot for me! My daughter, a crab and surimi freak, also loves it. I don't know about everyone else, but I consider this a win. It's sweet and salty and a little bit spicy with a crunch reminiscent of tempura-fried sushi. Dr. Wade says no amount of supplementation can stop the hair loss from body shock. However, after 20 years of dealing with this deficiency I know as soon as I see possible signs of low D I need to act fast to avoid going on the prescription version. It took two years of weekly supplementation with 50,000 to 100,000 IU of prescription vitamin D3 just to get me to the minimum acceptable blood levels. Because vitamin D is fat soluble I should be seeing it released into my bloodstream as my fat cells empty out (before this debacle I lost 12 pounds in 2 weeks on the Carnivore Challenge) and I don't want to be taking so much more as that happens. I do need to keep it from getting too low though, because I will get to the point I can't function. It's a delicate balance, and a pernicious problem, but I guess we all have our crosses to bear and I'm thankful mine isn't worse. I might also just be worn out. Sometimes running my business and parenting when my husband is away just takes all the stuffing out of me, and last week I was sick to boot. Today everyone let me sleep in without interruption and I slept past 11 am! It felt great to be able to recharge, although now I'm kind of panicking because so much of the day has passed and I have so much to do! I'm still adding the 15 listings a day to my Poshmark boutique and I hope you'll check out all the new stuff (link to Poshmark from the Home page).

As always, some of the links in this post are affiliate links. There is no cost to you but I may get a small payment if you click on them. This helps keep my content free for you and helps me avoid cluttering up my site with pop-up ads.

Well, World Carnivore Month is a little more than halfway through; there are just 12 more days. So far I've lost 12 pounds and I started  week late! I also drank some wine this weekend and immediately noticed how much worse I felt. It gave me mouth sores. So, I will be evaluating whether to adhere to this diet into the future. Food allergies that develop and worsen in adulthood run in my family and it's looking like wine is becoming a problem for me, as heartbreaking as that is! I have personally felt a lot better than usual sticking to the carnivore diet for the past couple weeks. Tonight's recipe was created as an appeasement to my children and husband who have been lamenting the lack of pizza in our diet. Usually we use low carb tortillas or fathead dough for pizza crust but the low carb tortillas contain wheat, which gives me mouth sores as well as makes me break out in hives, and they spike our diabetic son's sugar. The fathead dough uses almond flour so it's not allowed on carnivore. I made it once with pork rind flour and it tasted good but fell apart so it was very hard to eat. I heard about sausage crust pizza and found it's not only delicious and fits my diet but it's almost as easy as using the store bought tortillas!

  Ingredients:
2 pounds Sausage
1/2 Recipe Alfredo Sauce from my last post
1/2 pounds frozen pepper and onion stirfry blend (omit for carnivore diet), thawed and drained
1 TBSP bacon grease
1/4 pound thinly sliced roast beef such as lunchmeat, cut into ribbons
2 cups shredded or thinly sliced cheese of your choice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Press the sausage in a thin, even layer into at least a 13 x 9 baking pan with sides. Do NOT use a pizza pan; the sausage produces a great deal of grease that could cause a fire if it runs into your oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, keeping the oven on, and set aside to cool. Once the crust has cooled pour off the grease and pat the crust dry with a paper towel. Make the Alfredo sauce according to the directions in my last post. Melt the bacon grease and stir fry the onions, peppers, and beef until the flavors mingle and the edges begin to crisp up. Top the sausage crust with the Alfredo sauce. Layer the beef and pepper and onions evenly over the crust. Top with the cheese of your choice. Traditionally, a Philly cheesesteak uses either Provolone or American cheese, or both. My husband doesn't like Provolone and I don't like American so we just use mozzarella. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the cheese is melted and golden. Slice and serve.
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This was really good and I think it will become part of our regular rotation. If you let the pizza cool for a while you can pick it up and eat it like regular pizza. I was worried the sausage flavor might overpower the pizza but it didn't. It was delicious and I didn't really even notice the sausage. You could substitute ground chicken or turkey if you wanted a milder flavor. When you are pouring off the grease you might want someone to help you hold the sausage crust so it doesn't flip out of the pan and create a giant grease stain on your shirt after you twist yourself into a pretzel trying to catch it with your shoulder, not that I would know anything about that! Of course if you are strictly adhering to Carnivore Month you would leave out the onions and peppers. Since I'm the only one in the family doing it I just picked off mine and gave them to my husband. I can no longer tolerate peppers so this is what I usually do anyway if a recipe contains them. I used a stoneware pan that keeps most food from sticking but you could also line your pan with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Thank goodness it's a holiday weekend because the kids brought home some virus from school and everyone except my husband woke up sick this morning. We spent the day in front of the fire binge watching Parks and Rec, one of our favorite series. I have a ton of stuff to ship but it's going to wait until tomorrow when I hope I will feel better. If you follow my Instagram or Facebook pages you know besides the Carnivore challenge I am also participating in Poshmark's Love It Or List It Daily Challenge. Each day I list 15 new items. All these new listings are resulting in lots of sales! I hit the Goodwill bins as well as my other thrift stores and IKEA to stock up specifically for this month so I have all kinds of exciting new products, both new and restored. You can shop my Poshmark boutique as well as my other stores from the link on the Home page. I'm praying I get well before my husband leaves for his business trip and also that he doesn't catch this bug. He was just appointed to an important new job and he has much to do. I don't cook while he's away (if I'm able I usually try to fast the entire time) so there won't be new recipes until next weekend at the earliest. I hope you enjoy your holiday!