Through the blessing of the internet, I’ve met many inspiring and sincere friends. Sarah Schatz, from Heart of Cooking, is one of those! She’s a sweetheart who loves to share her passion for God, creativity and wholesome food. Through her website, Heart of Cooking, she offers nourishing menu planners for those who are on limited diets. I’ve seen Sarah’s sample menu planner (available for free, by request on her website). And after I submitted two recipes for it, Sarah gave me a complimentary copy of her brand new Thanksgiving Limited Diet Menu Planner.
Her menu planners are fantastic. They feature creative and delicious entree and side dish options using whole foods, Nourishing-Traditions style food preparations, and allergen-free ingredients. I would recommend her planners to anyone. Even though I’ve received complimentary menu planners from Sarah, my comments come from my heart. I would not be so excited about her planners if I didn’t think they were worthy.
Sarah just released the Thanksgiving Limited Diet Menu Planner. I’m excited to share with you that Sarah is allowing me to host a giveaway of this menu planner! I’ll explain more about that after I share our interview. You’ll see my questions for Sarah as the bold titles, and her answers following each question in italic text. But first, let me tell you why I wanted to interview Sarah.
I’ve corresponded with Sarah many times via twitter, email, or in comments at her blog or mine. She’s a regular participant in the Tuesday Twister. I love the fact that she’s doing what she loves – caring for her family, cooking delicious and healthy food, and founding a business that fills a real need. I browsed her website and looked at what she’s doing (providing limited diet menu planners and local personal chef service). I wanted to know more about what she does and offers. So I asked Sarah if I could interview her and she said yes. Here are the questions I asked her (bold titles) and the inspiring answers she gave (italic text).
1. Who is Sarah Schatz? What’s your story? How did you get started with allergen-free, healthy cooking?
I am a passionate person who loves God, creativity, dancing, art, children, traveling, learning, growing and making beautiful and wholesome food. My life has usually been about living against the norm, where I took risks and followed my heart. It has also been about searching for and discovering happiness and peace within my heart.
In a nutshell, I’ve had digestive, skin and other health problems since childhood. I’ve been overweight a few times and I’ve also dealt with depression and emotional ups and downs most of my life. When I was eighteen, I was diagnosed with food allergies, but during the next several years, I went back and forth between following my diet and eating foods that I was allergic to.
At the same time, I’ve always had a passion for cooking and making art (soulseedart.com is my website). I first learned to cook from my mom who made lots of food by hand including pasta and candies. Because of my food allergies, I learned to cook with limited ingredients. In 2005, I took a job as the head cook of a spiritual retreat center where many people came with food restrictions. After a short while, people started requesting for me to cook for them. I found out about being a personal chef and a few months later launched Sarah’s Heart of Cooking.
It wasn’t until my son was born in 2007 that I started getting serious about my own food allergies. This was mostly due to my son’s colic and my discovery that my depression was linked to the food I ate. From there I realized how much people need help with menu planning for limited diets. I also wanted to start working from home. So, working with Dawud Miracle, I updated my website and re-launched it the day after Election Day, 2008, to include menu planners for people with limited diets.
2. What types of menu planners do you have available? How does a subscription work?
Right now, the following menu planners are available for a meat and seafood diet. These menu planners also have some vegetarian entrees.
- Wheat-free and Gluten-free Menu Planner
- Gluten-free and Casein-free Menu Planner
- Dairy-free Menu Planner
- Wheat/Gluten-free, Dairy-free and Soy-free Menu Planner
- Nightshade, Wheat/Gluten-free, Dairy-free and Soy-Free Menu Planner
I also have the following menu planner for people who follow a seafood and vegetarian diet:
When people sign up for a menu planner, they immediately receive their first menu planner in their email as a PDF document. For the next three weeks, they will receive a menu planner on the same day they subscribed, totaling four menu planners.
Right now I have a month’s worth of recipes for each diet but I hope to have additional months for purchase as I continue to work on the menu planners.
3. What is your most popular menu planner?
So far, the Gluten-Free Menu Planner is in the lead, with the Gluten and Dairy Free Menu Planner at a close second. The Gluten, Dairy and Soy Free Menu Planner is also very popular. The least popular so far is the Seafood/Vegetarian Menu Planner.
4. You work for local clients, too. What do you do for them? What does a typical work day look like for you?
Yes, I’ve been a personal chef since 2006 when I started my business. There are many personal chefs but few who specialize in limited diets and whole foods like I do. Many of my clients have food allergies or food restrictions due to health problems. I also have many clients who simply want to eat healthy food and limit their intake of refined flours and sugars.
Prior to the cook day, I create a menu based on my client’s diet, likes and dislikes. They okay it or ask me to change a thing or two.
Then the day of the cook day, I first go to the grocery store where I buy everything fresh. I then drive to the client’s home, cook all the meals and then package them in specific portion sizes to the client’s wishes. Depending upon the size of the family, some items will be frozen so that they stay fresh for longer.
A typical meal plan is 4 entrees and 4 sides at 4 servings each. I also will bake one dessert or baked good during a cook day if a client would like this. Depending upon the meal plan, I am in the client’s home between 4 and 6 hours. (It used to take me a lot longer!)
5. What’s your best advice for someone who is just starting out with healthy, allergen-free cooking?
When someone first learns that they have to limit their diet, it can feel overwhelming, especially if it is more than one food that they have to eliminate.
My first advice is to take things slow and don’t expect yourself to change everything over immediately. Take one day at a time, finding replacements for things you used to eat but can no longer enjoy.
It can feel like a real bummer, but if you can, try to be in the mindset that you’re on an adventure. There are so many foods available to us that most people don’t know about. There are also many recipes that can make incredible foods with very limited ingredients.
I find that making a list of all the foods I CAN eat helps a tremendous amount. I have a master list that I’ve created over the years that I can fill out and see what is left after I take away the things that I can’t eat. This way, I focus on the positive and what I can create with these ingredients.
Lastly, but probably most important: think whole foods. Even though Coke and potato chips are gluten free, doesn’t mean they are good for you. The same thing goes for very refined gluten-free flours. Try to stick with whole and healthy foods such as vegetables, fruits, organic and grass-fed meat, whole grains and flours, unrefined sweeteners such as honey, nuts, seeds and other whole food ingredients.
6. Anything else you’d like to share about Heart of Cooking and your menu planning?
The only thing I would add is that I love what I do and am very grateful to have found work that I feel so passionate about. I ultimately feel like this is what I am supposed to be doing with my life.
I am also very passionate about giving people what they want and am very open to comments and ideas people have. Many of the menu planners I’ve created and planning to create are based on requests from people. So if you have a specific need, please don’t hesitate to ask!
You can find Sarah on the internet at Heart of Cooking, and Soul Seed Art. She just released her Thanksgiving Menu Planner and so it is time to talk about the giveaway… 
Giveaway! Thanksgiving Menu Planner for Limited Diets
Sarah’s Thanksgiving Limited Diet Menu Planner is jam-packed with allergen-free menus! And to be honest, even those who don’t have allergies or limited diets would love many of the dishes (like a vanilla cream version of my chocolate coconut cream frosting)!
How to Enter the Giveaway
There are 9 possible entries – wow!
- Take a peek at the Thanksgiving Limited Diet Menu Planner – then come back here and leave a comment telling us what you think about it and why you’d like to win it.
- Twitter about this giveaway. Link to this post (http://bit.ly/1wDYor) and mention me @WardehHarmon so I can track it.
- Follow Sarah on twitter: @heartofcooking. Follow me on twitter: @WardehHarmon.
- Share a link to this giveaway post on Facebook. (http://gnowfglins.com/2009/11/16/giveaway-thanksgiving-menu-planner)
- Follow me on Facebook: WardehHarmon.
- Send an email to a friend about this giveaway. Give them the URL to this post. (http://gnowfglins.com/2009/11/16/giveaway-thanksgiving-menu-planner)
- Subscribe to the FREE GNOWFGLINS Newsletter.
- Subscribe to Sarah’s blog via email or blog reader.
- Blog about this giveaway. Refer your readers to this post. (http://gnowfglins.com/2009/11/16/giveaway-thanksgiving-menu-planner)
As you complete each item, come back here and leave a comment letting me know. You can also leave one comment saying everything you did.
Who Will Win?
One blessed reader will win a FREE copy of Heart of Cooking’s Thanksgiving Menu Planner.
Giveaway Dates
Because Thanksgiving is just around the corner, this is going to be a fast giveaway. 
It begins now (Monday morning, the 16th) and ends at midnight PST on Tuesday (the 17th). I’ll announce the winner on Wednesday the 18th of November. Have fun!
Note: As an affilliate for Sarah’s Heart of Cooking Menu Planners, I will earn a commission should you choose to purchase any of her products. I only recommend products or services that I would personally purchase myself – so you can rest assured that I wholeheartedly believe in what I endorse. Thank you for reading my sincere disclaimer.
About Wardeh
Take the guesswork out of what to fix, what to buy and what to prepare. This week:
Class materials compiled into easy downloads: 
I just checked out her site and I love the looks of the Thanksgiving food. I just signed up for the free week of menu planning. My husband is dairy-free, so I’m excited for new cooking ideas.
i’d love to win the menuplanner so i could make grain-free pecan pie! yum!
.-= emily´s last blog post… Romantic Dinner for Two (and a baby!): Duck Confit with Buttercup Squash Pancakes =-.
oh, and i am now following both you and sarahon twitter!
.-= emily´s last blog post… Romantic Dinner for Two (and a baby!): Duck Confit with Buttercup Squash Pancakes =-.
I highly admire Sarah and have enjoyed reading her blog this last year. Her recipes and passion for healthy food shines through her writing and always inspires me.
I would love to win the menu planner! I think I have been smelling that pecan pie in my dreams! Pecan pie is my sons favorite pie and we need to eat grain free and gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free, and sugar-free.
I twittered, but didn’t mention you Wardeh! I’m new to twitter and I don’t know what I’m doing yet. How do I do that?
I’m now following both of you on twitter.
Thank you for sharing great recipes and I enjoyed reading about Sarah in your interview.
Blessings, Debbie
.-= Debbie´s last blog post… Mom…what can I have for breakfast? =-.
Debbie – To mention me on twitter, just include this text in your message: @WardehHarmon . That’s it!
The menu planner has a lot of yummy looking recipes. I’d love to have them.
I follow you on facebook.
I subscribe to your newsletter.
I subscribed to Heart of Cooking via e-mail.
Thanks Wardeh for the Twitter lesson… I got it right on my 3rd try!
.-= Debbie´s last blog post… Mom…what can I have for breakfast? =-.
I have been noticing Sarah’s Tuesday Twister contributions. It is wonderful what she is doing to help others. I always find it interesting to hear the story behind it all, also.
I blogged and facebooked. (is that a word, facebooked?)
Anyway,
Thanks,
Tiffany
I follow your blog. Susan
It looks like an excellent book As I can use all the help I can get to feed the children in my family child care healthy. Susan
I read your newsletter. Susan
Hello! I would love this menu planner for two reasons. Number one, my friend has recently been told she has to eat gluten, dairy, yeast, and nut free and she is feeling like this will be the worst holiday season ever! I want to share these recipes with her so she can enjoy the food she cooks too!
Secondly, I have decided to eliminate my consumption of refined flours and sugars, so I am dying for some dessert ideas that I can make for Thanksgiving!
I signed up for your newsletter too! Thanks!
Hi Wardeh,
The recipes look fantastic. I’d love to get a free copy of this menu planner. I’m always looking for new, healthy, traditionally prepared, whole foods recipes!
I already follow you on Facebook and Twitter, and get you newsletter.
I now follow Sarah on Twitter and follow her blog.
I tweeted about the giveaway and posted about it on Facebook too.
-Sara
I would love to get the menu planner. I wish I would have know about these things about 15 years ago when I was dealing so much with allergies etc.
What a wealth of information is out there now. Thanks for doing such a great job helping and informing us.
Blessings
Karen
I’d love to have this menu planner for several reasons, my primary one being that it gives me more ideas for foods the whole family can eat. (We have a picky grown daughter & her husband who eat with us.) Second – and almost as important – is that many of our friends are on various limited diets, and we LOVE to entertain! This will come in handy with upcoming parties.
.-= Bernadette Cooper´s last blog post… To Stick, or Not To Stick? =-.
Hi, Wardeh:
Great giveaway—and of course I’d love to win it!
I’ve completed the first 8 entries on your list. I wanted to say, also, that you did a fabulous job interviewing Sarah and getting to the “heart” of what she does! Thank you for sharing it all! I really enjoyed reading it and getting to know her a bit through your Q&A.
Love,
Sonya
.-= Sonya Hemmings´s last blog post… A Tale of Two Cakes =-.
Oops! I guess I didn’t really say “why” I’d like to win the Thanksgiving planner! When I took a look at it and saw all that it contains, I was astounded! I know it would be an incredible resource and inspiration for putting together a fabulous feast for my family—food allergies or not!
Love,
Sonya
.-= Sonya Hemmings´s last blog post… A Tale of Two Cakes =-.
I just went on Sarah’s website and read about her planner. It looks incredible! We are blessed to have no allergies that we know of, but we are very interested in eating healthy and this menu definitely fits the bill. I would love to win the planner!
I also just subscribed to Sarah’s blog. It’s beautiful and looks very helpful.
Commented, Twittered, already following you, now following Sarah, Facebooked & added you there, e-mailed, blogged, & formerly subscribed! And after all this I’ll probably wind up buying some as gifts!
.-= Bernadette Cooper´s last blog post… To Stick, or Not To Stick? =-.
Commented, Twittered, already following you, now following Sarah, Facebooked & added you there, e-mailed, blogged, & formerly subscribed! And after all this I’ll probably wind up buying some as gifts!
.-= Bernadette Cooper´s last blog post… Thanksgiving Giveaway =-.
I would like this menu planner because I have almost all of the diet restrictions that the menu planner is designed around! I’m just starting out with my new diet restrictions, and this menu planner would be really helpful.
1. I checked out the menu plan and it looks wonderful. I would love to be able to prepare a few items that are wheat and gluten free and these look perfect.
I also am:
2. a subscriber to your newsletter
3. now following you
4. following Sarah on Twitter
5. following you on Facebook
6. forwarded this to 10 friends
7. subscribing to Sarah’s blog
Thanks for all your interesting blogs, I love your site!
7. mentioned this giveaway on Facebook
What a blessing this, being ill so much of the time my creativity is zilch in this area, while I do very much want to eat for my health and do what I can..I have added her blog to my yahoo and am greatful Wardeh for this opportunity to win, I cannot eat any kind of fish, and would like to learn to eat dairy and gluten free. Thank you..Mona
I posted the giveaway on Facebook & Twitter. I follow you on Facebook!
I’m following Sarah on Twitter & subscribed her feed.
I sent an email to a friend about the giveaway.
I would love to win the menu so I can try the healthy green bean casserole. This is a family staple and I would love to serve it without feeling guilty!
Thanks for the offer!
Michele – Actually, Sarah is sharing her green bean casserole recipe in the upcoming Gallery of Thanksgiving Sides. Go to her website, then click on “Blog” and you’ll see it.
The green bean casserole looks very interesting, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make one without dairy,gluten,corn, or eggs! Also have been searching for an egg free pumpkin pie, would love to try it!! It’s my four year old son’s birthday and he loves pumpkin pie but with all the allergies wasn’t sure how to make one!!THANK YOU!
1.So glad I discovered Sarah’s site via you Wardeh. She’s put a tremendous amount of thought and work into this plus all her other menu plans. With my hubby and his celiac’s I do pretty good figuring out a meal / meals for the past 6 yrs. But I know of several others that would greatly benefit from Sarah’s site. her Thanksgiving planner, etc…one family in particular who now is cooking 100% gluten / caisien free for the whole family since 4 out of their 5 kids have celiac’s and the 5th both.
2. I twittered!
3. Following Sarah on Twitter and I already follow you!
4.I facebooked twice -the giveaway and Sarah’s blog on my personal facebook and my blogs facebook.
5. Just sent facebook request to you.
6.Emailed my sister your link about the giveaway so she can pass it on to ones she knows in her area in Northern MN. that would find it of interest and Sarah’s site of interest.
7.I subscribe to your newsletter already.
8.Subscribed both reader / email for Sarah’s blog.
9. Blogged it!
.-= Pamela @ Seeds of Nutrition´s last blog post… Sweet Fellowship! =-.
Would love to have the planner as this is the first year we’ve been completely gf and I haven’t cooked an entire gf holiday meal…and with this big family, planning is 1/2 the battle. Now, if someone else planned for me…
Looks wonderful and whoever does get it will certainly be blessed I’m sure!
.-= Tamara (AK)´s last blog post… Weekly Contemplation =-.
#2 completed!
.-= Tamara (AK)´s last blog post… Weekly Contemplation =-.
#3 completed!
.-= Tamara (AK)´s last blog post… Weekly Contemplation =-.
# 4 completed!
.-= Tamara (AK)´s last blog post… Weekly Contemplation =-.
# 5 check!
# 7 check!
.-= Tamara (AK)´s last blog post… Weekly Contemplation =-.
# 8 completed!
.-= Tamara (AK)´s last blog post… Weekly Contemplation =-.
And, #9 completed! *whew*
.-= Tamara (AK)´s last blog post… GF Thanksgiving Menu Planner Giveaway =-.
Sarah’s website and menu planner is a dream come true for our family. We are currently not eating dairy, gluten, eggs, peanuts, and soy! Who would’ve guessed someone could accomodate all those allergens with such yummy-looking dishes! I looked at the menu planner, shared the link w/ others and have also signed up for the newsletter & Sarah’s blog.
Thanks!
The giveaway is closed. I’ll be announcing the winner shortly… Thank you to everyone who entered!