AIP Kitchen Tour – March 2015

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AIP Kitchen tour is a monthly feature where we profile someone who eats AIP and has agreed to share their kitchen setup with the community, in hopes that they can further inspire us to get our kitchens organized and set up for success! We’ve heard reports of people who are able to make AIP work in college dorms and small city apartments to large households with family members who eat otherwise, and everything in between. Through these interviews, we hope to share how they make it happen across a variety of budgets and living situations, and give the community a wealth of inspiration. 

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Name: Charlotte Dupont

Location: Portland, Oregon

AI Disease: Hashimoto’s 

How long have you been eating AIP? 10 months 

Have you successfully reintroduced any foods? White rice, peas, green beans, ocassional nightshade spices—honestly though, I feel best when I eat AIP, especially because not all of my symptoms have gone away yet. I am still healing and thus am continuning to eat AIP. 

How has AIP changed your life? AIP has been a breath of life for me. I used to deal with chronic fatigue, brain fog, ADHD, mood issues, cystic acne and joint pain that signicantly impacted my quality of life. Since going AIP, all of those issues have resolved themselves. While I still deal with the occasional breakout, AIP has allowed me to rediscover what it means to live vibrantly. 

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this is where the magic happens—it is small but the layout works very well.

Size of your kitchen: 100 square feet

My favorite thing about my kitchen: The gorgeous light and the counter space. 

My least favorite thing about my kitchen: The lack of storage space and the small refrigerator and freezer. The minimal storage space meant that I had to put some of my favorite kitchen appliances like my food processor, ice cream maker and blender in storage. The small refrigerator and freezer means that I can only buy so much food and there isn’t an option to store a lot of frozen meat in the freezer. We’ve ajusted, though, and now this isn’t a problem for us.

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I keep my spices in a basket in one of my drawers. Because we don’t have a ton of storage space, I have minimized my spice box to the bare essentials. Spices I can’t live with out include: garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, tumeric and cinnamon. 

Cheap gadgets or little tools that you have found make AIP easier? My favorite small kitchen gadget is definitely just a basic vegetable peeler. I eat tons of sweet potatoes, yuca root and beets, so a peeler is totally necessary for peeling root veggies. 

If someone was just starting to invest in some useful, but more expensive kitchen tools, which one would you tell them to buy first? My boyfriend and I are currently living in a long-term AirBnB rental because we are in a total transition phase of life. We are living very minimally right now and I wasn’t able to bring all of my favorite kitchen luxuries with me to Portland. My three most-used, can’t-live-without kitchen tools are: my 10.25″ Le Creuset cast iron skillet, 9-quart Le Creuset dutch oven and my Lodge cast iron baking sheet. I often joke that if my house was burning down, these would be the items I would grab first. 

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We don’t have a microwave so I store my weekly bone broth soup in my dutch oven. When I want a bowl, I simply take it out and warm it up. This makes for fewer dishes and containers to clean up!

Are there any tricks that you have learned to make AIP work in your space? Keep is simple! When all else fails: meat, veggies, something fermented and some healthy fats. 

How do you deal with food for family members that is not AIP? I am very lucky to have the support of my boyfriend on the AIP; since the beginning, he has eaten AIP with me. I cook, so he happily eats the yummy food I make. He has lost quite a bit of weight so we have recently added in more white rice, white potatoes and grass-fed kefir. Sometimes he also has a bit of granola because he loves it. We keep everything in the house gluten-free and store it in the same places as the other food. I don’t feel any particular urge to eat it, so it’s not a huge temptation. 

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Fresh herbs are a huge part of every meal for me. I love basil, parsley, cilantro, oregano, tarragon, rosemary and mint. I store them on my counter top in a fresh jar of water. This keeps them fresh for a week or so. 

What are your favorite meals to batch cook? I love batch cooking and have gotten really good at it. A typical batch cooking day includes a roasted whole chicken over veggies, roasted sweet potatoes, coconut yoghurt, bone broth, ferments, tuna salad, salad dressing and kombucha

What are you favorite AIP and Paleo Cookbooks? I love The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook, He Won’t Know It’s Paleo, The Alternative Autoimmune Cookbook and Make It Paleo 2

Any tips for those just embarking and are just setting up their kitchen: Invest in some good-quality pieces in the beginning. As mentioned above, I would definitely suggest a cast iron skillet, a Dutch oven and a quality cast iron baking sheet. Those are items I use day in and day out. I imagine that I will have them for the rest of my life. 

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My three kitchen essentials—cast iron skillet, Dutch oven, cast iron baking sheet. 

If you would like to follow more of Charlotte’s recipes and adventures, check out her blog at It’s Me, Charlotte!

Would you like to be featured on the blog for AIP Kitchen Tour? We feature members of the community who are willing to share the real spaces where they cook as well as their stories of transitioning to this lifestyle. If you are interested, drop us a line using the contact form!

About Mickey Trescott

Mickey Trescott is a co-founder here at Autoimmune Wellness and a co-teacher of AIP Certified Coach. After recovering from her own struggle with both Celiac and Hashimoto’s disease, adrenal fatigue, and multiple vitamin deficiencies, Mickey started to write about her experience to share with others and help them realize they are not alone in their struggles. She has a Master's degree in Human Nutrition and Functional Nutrition, and is the author of three best-selling books--The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook, The Autoimmune Wellness Handbook, and The Nutrient-Dense Kitchen. You can watch her AIP cooking demos by following her on Instagram.

7 comments

  • Kate says

    I love your kitchen Charlotte and it’s good to hear you’re enjoying the Lodge baking sheet – that one is definitely on my to-buy list!

  • Marcie says

    Love your kitchen tour, Charlotte!

    How do you make your coconut milk yogurt?

  • Amanda says

    WOW Charlotte, what a gorgeous kitchen!! I love everything about it especially the natural light! Beautiful thanks so much for sharing

  • Olivia says

    LOVED your interview, Charlotte! Your kitchen is so dreamy….I totally want a white kitchen of my own someday 😉 I also love how you make the minimalistic kitchen lifestyle work for you.

  • Christa says

    WHAT?! Cast-iron baking sheet? Why have I never heard of such a thing! Almost all of my cookware is now cast iron, but I didn’t realize they made baking sheets as well….definitely switching my gross aluminum ones over.

  • Tiffany says

    What? ! A cast iron baking sheet?! That’s so cool! I never thought to use one solely for baking. You have a beautiful kitchen, Charlotte! I love keeping herbs on my counter, too! It’s so handy and reminds me to use them up!

  • Lois says

    Charlotte, I was not able to pull up your blog. I would love to see some of your recipes.

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