This summer we realized that Little Man had a bowel problem. We weren't sure what exactly it was but after talking to some friends, we decided to go gluten free and dairy free. After just 1 day of this new diet, he improved 100%. It's hard to argue with that! After weeks on this new diet, we decided to add back in dairy. Day one we had no issues, day two was terrible. Right back to square one. So we went back on the diet. Mr. M and I were really hoping that dairy would be the only problem and that gluten would not. Gluten seemed so overwhelming, but we thought dairy would be easy! He loves both almond milk and coconut milk. We found coconut milk ice cream! He has never liked cheese all that much. So after a few weeks back on the diet, we added back in gluten and he was fine! We were so happy! So now we had our answer, his bowel issues were totally fixed, and life was good! Until the weather started to cool down.
You see, for breakfast, he could have cereal with his coconut or almond milk, toast, oatmeal, eggs, there are many options. I did run into an issue with pancakes since most pancake mixes have dairy in them, but I found one that didn't. For lunch he has homemade bread with peanut butter and homemade jelly, or meat and mayo, coconut yogurt, homemade applesauce, fruits and veggies. Over the summer for dinner we would grill a meat and then have steamed or grilled veggies, a salad (with dairy free dressing), and maybe rice or cut up fruit. Then as the weather started getting cooler, I got out the recipe book and started looking through all our usual fall recipes. Almost every single recipe has some sort of dairy in it. Then I started reading labels at stores...I can't believe some of the things that have dairy in it that I would have never guessed! I mean, you know to stay away from things like cheese, milk, ice cream, yogurt, anything you buy in the dairy section! But then I find that there is dairy in chicken broth, in pretty much every snack food, all soups, and many other things that I just didn't know had dairy! Even croutons have dairy in them!!! I find myself still having to shop in the gluten free area since many of their items are also dairy free.
I don't even know how to cook for my family now. I really want to just stick my head in the sand! But I won't. Little Man deserves to eat without issues. And dairy free isn't going to hurt the rest of us...although I think it's against some kind of code being from Wisconsin and all!!
So, now I am on the search, for good, dairy free recipes for dinner! I already found one for pumpkin pie and whipped cream!! So Thanksgiving should be great!
2 comments:
How is the dairy free life going now, several months later? Is he still eating dairy free, is it getting any easier to cook that way?
Cooking with a dietary restriction can be so confusing - it's like when somebody says, "Don't think about purple elephants!" As soon as you have to plan a dairy-free menu, all you can think of is cheese frittata, creme brulee and yogurt parfait cups!
It's actually getting a lot easier now that we are leaning more towards clean eating! We don't really buy any processed foods anymore so don't have to worry about that! I did make the mistake of giving him the kefir smoothies I was making and that did not go well! So now I make him an almond milk smoothie and then make the kefir for the rest of us. The biggest thing he misses is yogurt but now we have ALL stopped eating that. We like the full of sugar yoplait and none of us should be eating it. We have not liked plain or greek yogurt, so we just don't eat it at all. Maybe you can teach me how to make my own and we can figure out how to make it to our tastes!
I'm also gonna start making my own ice cream in my vitamix soon so I can make it with coconut or almond or rice milk!
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