About Us

Hi! I’m Katrina, home schooling mother of 3 amazing daughters. I’m an artist, singer, songwriter, musician, health and fitness enthusiast. I love the sun and being outside.

I love people, I love my family, Jesus, my favorite color is red and I love, love, love chocolate!  Welcome to I Can’t Eat What.com. My husband, Chad (super web tech creative guy, musician and best dad ever!), created this website for us to inspire and encourage you on your life with gluten allergies.

We share our recipes, health and resource blogs and meal plans to be your springboard toward knowledge and insight in the world of gluten free living. For us, and many others, gluten isn’t our only sensitivity. There are actually 19 other cross reactive foods that bother gluten sensitive individuals.

Our vision for this site is to give you a hand in finding your way with this diet.

Here’s how it all started: In 2002 I found myself sitting across from a naturopathic physician, with my test results in his hands. Since the birth of our first child, 19 months earlier, I had struggled with:

  • severe insomnia

  • itching from head to toe

  • heart palpitations

  • mood swings

  • gas

  • major GI distress

I was getting weaker and weaker. I knew that traditional medicine wasn’t a good place for me to start because of my reactions to prescription meds in the past. The naturopathic doctor ordered an adrenal stress test and a stool test.

The results showed that I had extremely elevated cortisol, and gluten, dairy, soy and egg intolerance.  Since I had been diagnosed with IBS 10 years earlier and chose to alter my diet to control the symptoms, I was already using less wheat and dairy. However, this new dietary restriction was mind blowing. I went home and stared at the food in my cupboards and cried, not knowing what to eat or where to start. I needed to be Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free and Egg Free!

They were in everything!!! I felt like I was going to starve! I cried for weeks trying to figure out what to do, what to eat. I needed to find Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free and Egg Free Recipes. One problem being that I was a vegetarian,  I was already eating a lot of dairy, eggs and soy. How was I going to get enough protein with these new restrictions? Rice, beans, soy and nuts were my main stay.

Still, I had intense fatigue after every meal. When a nutritionist told me that I needed to eat meat and get off beans for a while, I thought she was crazy, but I had to try something.  I bought some chicken and had my husband cook it because I couldn’t stand to touch it.

With every bite I asked God to help me to like it…if I was on the right track.

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Within days I could feel the fatigue lifting from my body; I had energy!

Instead of laying down after every meal, I could continue living; it was truly amazing and life changing. I’m not against being vegetarian, it just didn’t work for me at the time.

Fast forward 12 years and I’ve had time to get well acquainted with my health needs. I have found that not only am I sensitive to gluten, dairy, soy and eggs, but also all grains, and sugar. I never stopped having stomach aches and itching until I eliminated those foods. Now I’m eating mostly vegan, and have found that I can digest legumes again. I haven’t forced my family to stop eating fish and meat on occasion, so I’m mindful of purchasing humanely raised fish, poultry and beef. The meat industry is very upsetting to me, but I do find that I haven’t felt completely satiated on a total vegan diet. Maybe it’s the way to go for us in the future, but we are still finding our way with our health and wellness. It’s a process to pay attention to what our bodies need. We have found incredible improvements from altering our diets and will continue on this journey and are open to how our bodies adjust and not what someone tells us is best for the majority. Health is way too specific and individual to follow a fad.

Since our girls are also sensitive to gluten and dairy, I’ve spent a lot of time learning how to cook great tasting allergy free food. It isn’t cheap, but I think of it as an investment for our your future. Keeping that in mind really helps to stay sane when shopping. Even with lots of gluten free options on the shelves, a lot of them are over-processed and full of sugar! My goal is to eat for wellness and keep meals as simple as possible.  So, here we are to encourage you on your journey.

Be blessed as you learn a new way of eating to gain energy, longevity and healing.

Meet The Team

Katrina Nixon

Chef Master

Allergies Gluten Dairy Soy Grain Eggs Sugar

The Actress

Food Tester

Allergies Gluten Dairy

The Dragon Fly

Little Chef

Allergies Gluten Dairy

The Dancer

Food Tester

AllergiesAllergies Gluten Dairy


Katrina’s Art
About Katrina

Katrina was born in Flint, Michigan in 1971. Her family moved to Celo Community, in the mountains of North Carolina, when she was 8. Celo is home to many accompished artists that inspired and encouraged her love for art. Katrina’s passions were being outside, making art and singing. Today those remain her deepest passions. She studied art in high school, winning several local and state awards, and then went on to study drawing, painting and graphic design at UNC-G and Winthrop University. Katrina has shown her work at Art One in Gastonia, NC and Greenrice Designs in Charlotte, NC. Katrina specializes in drawing and painting. She loves working with people and doing custom commissions. She is a mother of three girls who are an inspiration to her work. She spends most of her time home schooling her children and is currently making art for a local interior designer. She loves abstract art, asian art and vintage figurative art like that of Alphonse Mucha. Katrina’s work shares themes that many can relate to. She loves deeply and enjoys wholeheartedly the people and experiences in her life. She enjoys expressing her heart in her work. “Out of the overflow of the heart a man speaks.” Matthew 12:34. That is what Katrina is doing in her work, speaking from the overflow of her heart.

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