Dairy Free...need ideas

[The Girls' Mom]

My dd has some pretty bad allergy/asthma issues. We are going to try to go dairy free for a while to see if she improves. I'm also trying to move us toward whole food/high veggie and fruit diet.

 

My problem. The poor child LOVES dairy. She could live on cheese and pasta alone. She HATES most veggies, but will choke them down when forced ;). As a family we've consumed huge amounts of dairy products...and we'll have to rethink our whole meal base I guess.

 

So....does a commercial bread exist that doesn't have dairy, is whole grain and contains no HFCS? :lol: Yeah, I think I'm dreaming there...I'll probably just bake my own.

 

Another question...what is a good spread she can use instead of butter? I really, really want to stay away from margerine and other garbage. Don't really want to go soy either.

 

For breakfast she had oatmeal with cranberries, and for lunch eggs and ham, with some fresh pineapple on the side.

[wapiti]

In the past week, there have been two or three dairy-free/allergy threads - check those.

 

For spreads, I used Earth's Balance spread that is both dairy- and soy-free. This is the only butter-like spread that I know of that is free of both. (note that they make several versions, and only one is free of both.) I think someone recommended coconut oil (solid at room temp) but not sure if they meant as a spread. For shortening, I use Spectrum.

[Lisa in Jax]

In my experience, we crave the things that are WORST for us, so it's not too surprising that she loves dairy.

 

DS is gluten- and dairy-free (and corn syrup free), and Earth Balance is the one we use. They also make one that's olive oil based, but that one has soy.

 

For bread, as you said, why not just make your own? We make our own gluten- and dairy-free bread -- 2 loaves a week, and freeze it after slicing. Our gfcf bread is tasty. If we could use whole wheat, it would be specTACular. :)

 

There is some really good stuff out there now for dairy-allergic people. Cheese is still hard to find, but the milk alternatives (especially for baking) are easy. Try coconut milk or hemp milk when cooking or baking.

 

"Follow Your Heart" vegan cream cheese is good (it makes AWESOME mock cream cheese icing for cakes, when you use Earth Balance, confectioner's sugar with it).

 

Try some coconut milk ice cream. It's rich and wonderful.

 

Watch for hidden dairy, too. In the back of "Living Without" magazine (which is for those with food allergies), there's a tear-out sheet with a list of ingredients that mean hidden dairy. The magazine also has substitution ideas and lots of recipes. :)

 

HIH,

 

Lisa

[Lorax]

This is a very good website for ideas...

 

http://vegkitchen.com/

 

Her cookbook called The Vegetarian Family Cookbook is one of my favorites and 95% dairy free. If you eat meat you can substitute your choice for the meat alternative very easily.

 

If you have a Whole Foods in the area, most of their breads are dairy free and they have many dairy free products.

 

Nutritional yeast is my dairy allergic daughter's choice of cheese substitute.

 

Mac-n-cheese sauce

 

1/4 c. nutritional yeast

1/4 flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1 c. water

2 T Earth Balance

 

You just heat it until it thickens and put it over cooked noodles. (Make sure you stir constantly or you'll get lumps just like gravy.)

 

There are about 101 versions of this around. :-)

[joannqn]

Oroweat has whole wheat hamburger and hot dog buns that are dairy free and say they are free of HFCS right on they bag. They also have sandwich bread that is dairy free and free of HFCS. There is only one sandwich bread that is dairy free so you have to check them carefully; the one that is dairy free has a brown label. English muffins are all made with dairy or on machinery that processes dairy so it will depend on how sensitive you are. You can also make english muffins easily. I follow the directions at the link. Bagels are pretty easy to find dairy free; Safeway's generic are.

 

 

I second the suggest to search for the other threads. Here's one of them where I gave a bunch of recipes that we use. We were also a very high dairy/cheese consuming family but have gotten used to not having it.

[The Girls' Mom]

Thank you, I've pulled up some of the old threads too.

 

We are grasping at straws. She's SO tired all the time, and has horrible dark circles under her eyes. I'm going to have to hunt down a doc soon (we just moved to the area) but the last thing I want is for them to put her on a ton of meds trying to cure her symptoms...when diet changes may cure her.

[Hen]

Ezekiel bread does not have dairy. It takes a bit to get used to, I'd try it first for her toasted with some peanut butter on it, it's pretty good that way. Once she is used to that, have it as a sandwich.

 

I have noticed that if I buy it at Trader Joes where it is not refrigerated, it goes bad quickly, but if I buy it at the whole foods type store where they refrigerate it, it lasts a long time.

 

I'm dealing with this too, I think I am allergic to diary and I love cheese and breads. I'm suspecting wheat is a prob too, so now I am wondering what I will eat?! I loooove bread and I looove bagels with cream cheese. sigh.

 

to mix things up, you can get dairy free tortillas to make wraps with.

 

good luck.

[Kim in Appalachia]

it's hard! All 3 of my boys could not tolerate dairy as babies, which meant I could have no dairy (because I was nursing). Our whole diet had to change. I don't think anyone realizes how much dairy there is in everything until they are trying to cut it out.

 

I learned to read every label. I learned the what things were diary (casien is milk protein). Bread drove me crazy. I would be able to buy a certain bread for a time and then the recipe would change (and they don't tell you!). You just have to read. And going out to eat becomes almost impossible. Did you know that a lot of french fries are made with dairy?

 

Anyway, it is doable. You learn. You try lots of new recipes. You discover that you can tolerate soy milk in baked goods. :001_smile:

 

At first we ate a lot more meat. But I learned to get creative.

 

If you have a high end grocery store around you (ie Whole Foods ) you can get soy yogurt and soy icecream. You can find lots more things made without dairy.

 

Your child will also survive. My girls survived years of living in a dairy free household. I will say there was much rejoicing when the youngest was over his milk issues and we had icecream in the house again.

[joannqn]

I agree with Kim. It is hard at first, but I can say that you get used to it if you embrace it and look for alternatives. The first time I went dairy free, I never got over craving milk. However, when I was able to return to drinking it, I found it disgusting for a while. I had to learn to like it again.

[lighthouseacademy]

I love Ezekiel Bread. I buy it at Trader Joes... I always check the stickers to buy the one with the furthest pull date and then immediately refrigerate it or freeze it (I always have one loaf in the fridge and the rest in the freezer). As for cheese and pasta, cheezy sauce is good on pasta. I like to dress it up with curry powder etc. The Un-Cheese cookbook is good. Dark circles, tired, etc are typical intolerance signs. Hang in there. I love almond milk for substitution in baking and cooking. I also really like Almondaise as a base for dressings like creamy Italian or Caesar. There is a youtube video with the how to as well as the recipe on it.

[The Girls' Mom]

Oh...I have to share.

 

I found a bread recipe on one of the Vegan sites recommended in another thread. I have tried FOREVER to bake a good, soft whole wheat sandwich bread, and have always FAILED. But I made this today and it came out absolutely PERFECT!

 

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=12628.0