Are you looking for dairy free diet ideas? If you’re new to the blog – my daughter is strictly breastfed and we found out three weeks ago she is allergic to dairy. I gave up dairy in my own diet to make her feel better!
Since I eliminated dairy from my diet, we have noticed a huge change in our baby’s sleeping patterns and overall temperament. Aside from the fact she is teething, she is sleeping 2-3 hour increments again at night. She has not had diarrhea and is experiencing less gas. Annabelle is quite the giggly, smiley Princess.
We went to the doctor this week and learned Annabelle’s diaper didn’t contain any signs of allergy. That doesn’t mean she is not allergic to dairy anymore… it means that since I’ve cut dairy out of my diet, the allergy is no longer present in her stool.
This is wonderful news in the sense that I don’t need to try a soy-free diet as well! We are going to recheck her diaper in a few weeks and then reintroduce dairy in a few months.
Dairy Free Diet Tips
Right now I am pretty happy with what I’ve been eating. I don’t miss cheese as much as I thought I would. I eat three meals, plus lots of snacks in between, because I seem to always be hungry the past few weeks. With that being said, eating the same thing every day might get old quickly. I am looking for some new ideas!
Here is what’s been on my plate the past few weeks:
Breakfast
Eggs (scrambled or fried) with avocado and sriracha/salsa and toast
Lender Bagels – Everything or Cinnamon Raisin with Earth Balance Butter
Coffee with Silk Soy French Vanilla Creamer
Lunch
Ham, pickles, mustard, lettuce on Italian bread
Grilled chicken with lettuce and reduced fat mayo wrapped in a tortilla
Grocery store sushi – California rolls or vegetable rolls
Dinner
Shrimp tacos with cabbage, lime juice, salsa, jasmine rice, orange and yellow peppers, and guacamole
Grilled chicken, sautéed squash (or other veggie), rice
Dairy free cheese on a tortilla with salsa and avocado
Dairy Free Snacks
Carrots or Pita Chips with Hummus
Tortilla Chips and Salsa
Bananas with peanut butter
Plums, Raspberries, Strawberries… lots of fruit
Almonds, cashews, or walnuts
I would love if any of my readers who follow a dairy-free diet would share their recipes or favorite meals.
NOTE: I don’t do well with whole grain anything – most green veggies – and red meat. I have tummy troubles. Also, I despise coconut and a lot of dairy free recipes call for coconut oil/milk, so I am turned off by tons of tasty looking recipes!
I’m dairy free too right now since Blaire has reflux and it was suggested by her pediatrician to cut out dairy and eggs. I find almond milk to be a good substitute in cooking and baking. The flavor isn’t strong at all. I found out that Oreos are dairy free which was a dangerous discovery. Intend to eat a. Lot of fruits, veggies, and lean meats. My go-to for breakfast is oatmeal to ensure a good milk supply. Nature valley oat and honey bars and Lara bars are good as well. For dinner I make BBQ shredded chicken and serve it over baked sweet potatoes, salads in general. Godairyfree.com and paleo and vegan websites have been helpful to me!
I’ve been dairy free for 10 years when I was diagnosed with an allergy to cow’s milk and all of its by-products. I wrote this post ( http://wp.me/p2448I-W4 ) a while back that might be beneficial to you as you’re adjusting to this new culinary lifestyle. Looking through your list, a couple of things jump out to me:
1. Read labels on EVERYTHING, milk and milk products are in more items than you might think. Proteins and by-products (i.e. whey, casein, etc.) are added to lots of different food items. For example, French fries at McDonald’s contain milk powder. Who would have thought!?
2. Bread …. again, read the label.
3. Grocery story sushi …. read the label. Nearly every variety of sushi available at my local large grocery contains some type of milk product. It’s depressing because I love sushi, but normally end up buying a spring/shrimp roll or chicken dumplings.
4. One thing I really miss as a non-dairy-eater is CHEESE. I’ve tried all of the dairy-free varieties and none of them taste right or have the right texture and most of them don’t melt either. However, I do eat MANCHEGO. It’s made from sheep’s milk and is real cheese and really good. It’s mild enough to use on anything and everything — omelets, homemade pizza, salad, pasta, etc. Another warning about “dairy free cheese,” read labels carefully here too because there are several brands that advertise to be dairy-free but contain whey or casein. RED FLAG ALERT!!!
5. I hate coconut too. I only drink Silk Lite original soymilk. I also use Silk’s plain creamer. For butter, I use Earth Balance. For sour cream and cream cheese, I use Tofutti.
6. For baking, I use Crisco “butter flavored” sticks. They make INCREDIBLE cookies!!!!
Feel free to email me anytime with questions. I love talking about non-dairy foods and recipes. 🙂
Nicole @ Three 31
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I agree with one of the commenters above, it’s very important to check labels on everything because it can include whey, casein, lactose, all sorts of different names for milk. Here’s some of the things that I eat on a daily basis being egg, wheat, gluten, rye, peanut, and dairy free.
Breakfast-Fruit, fruit smoothies with soy yogurt or soy milk and I add a vitamin/protein mix that I found at Sam’s club, my only other option is kix or rice chex with soy milk. I’ve tried pretty much every dairy free milk out there and my favorite is Lite Silk.
Lunch-Always leftovers from the night before. My husband always makes an extra amount for me because I have no easy options. Lately he’s been making me bread so I can have lunch meat sandwiches. Oscar meyer bologna is fine, as well as some lunch meats, hebrew national hot dogs, and some sausages.
Dinner-Shrimp scampi, lots of different stir frys with rice, spaghetti with meat sauce (we use Prego), tacos (ortega taco seasoning, some others have whey), tostadas, mac and cheese (I use earth balance, soy milk, and teese cheese that comes in little saugsage roll looking things). We do a ton of things with chicken, pepperoni chicken with ends up tasting like chicken parm, broiled chicken with all different kinds of sauces and mushrooms, roasted chicken, chicken and rice. Any kind of fish or seafood also goes well with rice. We’ve also made pork al pastor in the crock pot which is amazing.
Snacks-making your own trail mix is easy, I like combining pumpkin seeds, almonds, raisins, and dairy free chocolate chips, non-buttered microwave popcorn, earth balance bagged popcorn in the chip aisle (they have “butter” and “chedder”), rice cakes with sunflower seed butter, some chips are fine like regular lays, pretty much any chocolate candy will have some kind of milk but you can find dairy free chocolate bars, I also am partial to skittles and starburst. I’ve also made s’mores, chocolate covered strawberries and bananas, and rice krispie treats. I haven’t found any dairy free ice cream that is good but if you buy it, I find it best to blend it into a milkshake with ice and soy milk. You get the flavor of ice cream without having to eat the stuff right from the tub which is gross.
I hope this helps 🙂
I’ve only been dairy free for a year and a half but once you get the hang of it, it doesn’t seem so hard. I also will say that most things that have a coconut base will just end up tasting like coconut so I would skip all of those. I also substitute anything that requires milk with the same amount of soy milk and I’ve also done it with almond milk as well. Baking is a little more tricky but at this point we substitute everything for something else and depending on the mix it will come out well.
My best friend had this same problem with her daughter. She switched her diet to the Paleo diet. It was a bit of change but all together worked out for the entire family.
I eat dairy-free out of preference, not necessity. The Paleo diet is dairy -free and every where these days with a million and one recipes on Pinterest. I was vegan and plan to go back to it fully once I’m done breastfeeding. One of my favorite, easy staples for fast, easy food is Amy’s Meals. You can find soups, crackers, frozen meals, pizza, etc at almost any grocery store. Lots of (labeled) dairy-free options and pretty tasty too.
I prefer to cook with plain almond milk and drink vanilla almond milk in my coffee. I agree that Daiya is a decent cheese substitute, too.
My favorite cooking blog is Oh She Glows. It’s vegan, but throw some chicken in any of the recipes if you’re so inclined.
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