Dairy Free & Gluten Free

As I said in my last post, I've altered my diet, eliminating Gluten and Dairy to try and help my health issues. My stomach issues along with severe migraines had gotten really awful. The dairy free stuff I have had a couple of months to adjust to, but I am still exploring what gluten free products actually taste good. I have established a shelf in my cabinet specifically for GF/DF stuff that I've forbade my children from touching without permission. Without going gluten free, I was able to find many of my normal products that were dairy free. Adding in the gluten free aspect, I am finding it more challenging to find... da-da-duuuummmmm... Junk food - that actually tastes good.

Eliminating Reese's Cups at first was the most difficult thing I've ever done! I know that sounds ridiculous, but Reese's Cups are my favorite food on the planet. I've probably spent thousands of dollars over the course of my lifetime on Reese's cups. I love them that much. I've had ONE since November. Within hours of consuming it, I had a splitting migraine headache. Lesson learned - My body doesn't like them even if my mouth craves their tasty-chocolatey-peanutbuttery goodness. If I could hire Reese's to make me a Reese's Cup with no dairy, I would! Other peanut butter cups pale in comparison to the real thing. It's depressing.

Reese's puffs cereal, has been something I've been enjoying. It isn't listed as GF/DF, but doesn't list anything with gluten or dairy as an ingredient. It gives me the Reese's flavor without the actual Reese's Cups. It may have cross contamination with wheat though at this point my whole house is a cross contamination risk. My family still eats gluten and there is just no way to eliminate cross contamination at this point. I'd have to either move all my cooking for myself upstairs to our other kitchen, then I'd have to stop my 14 year old from taking food up there (he lives in the upstairs "apartment"). So I cheat a bit with the Reese's Puffs for now.

Oreo's are dairy free. Which was nice when I was still eating Gluten. The Glutino brand Chocolate Vanilla Creme cookies are decent, but are almost too chocolatey. They aren't quite the right texture. Dipped in Pacific Foods Hazelnut Milk makes them work for me. They need to make a "double-stuf" version of these because really, the chocolate cookie is just a carrier for the cream for me!

Van's has a "Lots of Everything" crackers are really good dipped in Hummus, dressing, salsa, or even crumbled into Chili. They are Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Corn Free, Soy Free, GMO free. Their ingredients: Oats, Brown Rice, Millet, Quinoa, Amaranth, Non-GMO expeller pressed canola and/or sunflower oil, potato starch, brown sugar, rice flour, sesame seeds, salt, yeast extract, poppy seeds, dried onion, dried garlic, sunflower Lecithin, Caraway seeds. They are delicious.

Rice Crispies for cereal is always good as are Rice or Corn Chex. Cereal is very important to me.

Other things that have become commonplace in my diet these days: Avocado (on everything from a sandwich spread to guacomole, to a veggie dip), Hummus, Fruit, Greens (Collards, Spinach, Swiss Chard), Baby Carrots, Celery, Nuts, Bananas, Citrus fruits, etc. I've been really pushing myself to explore real foods as well as finding substitutes for the junk foods I loved up until they began giving me migraines.

However, I have had to find some dairy substitutes to at least let me alter some of my comfort food recipes. I think for now, I have mastered being Dairy free. I hope to do a similar post on what has worked for me in the Gluten Free arena as well soon. But right now I have too much still to try out. Right now, I am still here: http://youtu.be/k9QbC41oQRo

For now, I give you - What works for this crazy mom - the dairy free version:

I have not found a Yogurt Substitute that I like yet, but I am still trying. Almond, Coconut, Soy... None of them have that Greek Yogurt texture I really like. If you like Yoplait or other non-greek yogurts, then the substitutes will work. I am pondering "squeezing" some of the plain soy yogurt in cheese cloth to see if I can get a thicker texture. It's just too thin for my purposes!

MimicCreme is my favorite Heavy Cream Substitute. I use it to make Cream of Broccoli Soup, Potato Soup, Chocolate Truffles (made with Trader Joe's Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips and also Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips), and Mashed Potatoes. Any recipe that calls for cream, evaporated milk, or milk can use MimicCreme instead. It is made from Cashew Cream and comes in sweetened and unsweetened varieties. Both are tasty. They also have a wonderful Hazelnut Biscotti Coffee Creamer that is delicious in my morning coffee. I was so happy to find it at my health food store the other day when I went. I really wanted to try it before I bought a case of it online.

Pacific Foods Hazelnut milk is my drinking milk substitute of choice. I use it on Cereal, to dip my cookies, or just to drink. It is pretty thick tasting, more like whole milk than skim. It is slightly sweet, but not overly so. The chocolate version tastes a bit like drinking Nutella. It makes a more milky coffee creamer, but I don't use it for that unless I have to.

I like the Tofutti brand "american cheese", but it has kind of a crumbly texture. The flavor is right though, which is what matters to me. It does okay on a grilled cheese sandwich made with Udi's Gluten Free Sandwich Bread and tastes just fine on a ham sandwich.

Tofutti also has a "Better than..." line that I like. Their Sour Supreme better than sour cream is pretty darn close to the real thing. The Better Than Cream Cheese is quite tasty as well, though it doesn't make a great NY cheese cake. They also have a Ricotta that is pretty passable in Pastas and such. I haven't tried it in Lasagna yet, but I did use it as an ingredient in a quiche.

I love the Galaxy Nutritional Foods Vegan Chive and Garlic Cream Cheese Alternative. It is just tasty. It's good on sandwiches, bagels, spread on toast. I also used it in my no-dary-broccoli cheese soup and in a quiche.

Daiya has some completely Soy Free, Dairy Free, Gluten Free imitation Cheese shreds that "melt and stretch". These are the best that I've found, though I wouldn't call them cheese, they do taste pretty good. They have Pepper Jack, Cheddar, and Mozzarella varieties. I've used these in Cream Soups as pizza toppings, taco filling, etc. The mozzarella kind of melts a bit slimy which sounds gross, but works as a pizza topping with other veggies and meats. The cheddar works quite well in cream soups.

There are probably more products I could list, but these are the big ones that I have been using. It really makes a huge difference in the variety of my diet to be able to find dairy substitutes that work for me. I'll end this post with my Dairy Free Broccoli Cheese Soup recipe that I've adjust and altered quite a bit. The "Cream Sauce" makes a good pasta topping as well. If you switch the cheddar shreds with the mozzarella and add some of the Tofutti Ricotta, it makes a tasty Alfredo sauce.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp grape seed or olive oil
1 small onion chopped
2 stalks of celery chopped
3 carrots chopped
1 teaspoon of Kosher Salt
1 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon of minced garlic
2-3 cups fresh broccoli chopped to small size.
About 2 cups Vegetable broth, Chicken Broth, or Water

Cream Sauce
1 container of unsweetened MimicCreme
4 tbsp Corn Starch
1 Package of Daiyo Cheddar shreds
1 package Vegan Chive and Garlic Cream Cheese

Heat grape seed oil in a large pot. Add onion, celery, carrots, salt and pepper. Sauté until tender. Add Broccoli, garlic and Broth and steam until tender. In a separate pot, prepare cream sauce. Heat Mimic Creme and Corn Starch until it thickens stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add cheese, stirring until melted. I have had to use an immersion blender to get the Daiyo Cheddar shreds to combine completely. Add the cream sauce to the broccoli and other vegetables and stir to combine. Stir on low heat until the flavors are combined.