ABOUT ME

I’m Sarah, the girl behind my sleepy kitchen. I’m an American living in East London with my husband Gary and our two troublesome cats, Ziggy Stardust & Tui. This blog chronicles my forays in gluten free and whole foods cooking, which I’ve been using as a tool to recover from Chronic Fatigue (CFS/ME) since early 2011. Though mainly featuring gluten free recipes, my sleepy kitchen also includes information I’ve accumulated on how to beat fatigue and live a healthier life.

Gary is a furniture & product designer, but he’s also an amazing cook. He’s always teaching me skills he picked up while working at the restaurants Fifteen & Jamie’s Italian, and a lot of the recipes on this blog wouldn’t exist without his creativity.

Even though I have now embraced gluten free living, the idea of a wheat-free existence used to terrify me. To give you some perspective on my wheat addiction: my favourite food in the entire world were plain Cheerios (yes, even above chocolate), I had made friends with “the bread man” who sells the most amazing sour dough bread at Broadway Market, and my beer of choice was called “In Heat Wheat.” Now that I’ve discovered gluten free oats and corn cakes, I have managed to embrace GF living most of the time – but I still do have days when all I want to do is eat a bowl of cereal or order a pizza!

Over the years, Gary and I honed our cooking skills and now we make virtually all of our meals from scratch. I’ve somehow evolved from a bread loving, picky vegetarian to gluten free foodie who eats her fair share of veggies and meat; eating good food is a priority for me, and just because a meal doesn’t have gluten doesn’t mean it can’t taste amazing!

Aside from cooking, things that make me happy are sewing & knitting, gardening and dreaming about my future farm, taking naps with my cats, reading in the bath (a few faves: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Book Thief, The Cider House Rules, & The Poisonwood Bible), learning about homesteading, and walking along the canals in London while listening to This American Life.

I’m trained as a textile designer and Montessori teacher, though I’ve taken a break from teaching while I am getting over CFS. I now work part-time as receptionist at a complementary health care clinic in Hackney, where I’ve been lucky to befriend the amazing and supportive people who work there.

Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any topics that you would like to see in future posts! Leave any recipe comments or Q’s in the original post, and I’ll get back to you there. Otherwise, send me an email at sarah.humph[at]gmail.com