[Mommy&Will]

Can't type much now b/c ds just woke....

But I need suggestions for cooking without dairy. Can I substitute rice milk in place of mild in most recipes? We can't do soy - ds has as much problems with that it seems as cow's milk.

And how do I cut out cheese in my family? We are trying to cut down.... any suggestions? Pizza without mozzarella would be a tragedy around here...

Thanks!

 

[robugmum]

I've used rice milk in place of soy for baking and had mixed results. (my favourite milk substitute for drinking is almond milk; its also my favourite cheese sub.) I'd just try it out in lots of different things. keep in mind though, that rice milk is not a good source of protein. As for pizza, my absolute favourite is a good, Italian thin crust with good fresh tomato sauce, anchovies, capers and olive oil. I think its called a Marinara pizza. Its very common in authentic Italian pizza joints. Another good, cheeseless pizza is topped with same tomato sauce and lots of yummy roasted veggies. Most non dairy cheeses don't really work that well for melting. Is it the protein or the lactose that your son reacts to? I'm asking because many cheese substitutes contain casein (a milk protein).Good luck!

 

[Mommy&Will]

Quote:

Originally Posted by robugmum Is it the protein or the lactose that your son reacts to? I'm asking because many cheese substitutes contain casein (a milk protein).Good luck!

I'm not really sure. I just know that anything dairy causes problems - milk, cheese, yogurt.... hmmm. How do I figure out if its the protein or the lactose?

 

[robugmum]

What kind of reaction does he get? My son and I both react to dairy with stomach pain, gassiness and diarrhea. These types of reactions are likely to be from lactose. If your son gets rashes, swelling or other types of reactions its more likely a protein allergy. That said, please don't take this as medical advice. Its just my own, very limited, understanding.

 

[Mommy&Will]

He gets diaper rash and also rashes around his face. But he also gets rashes around his face when he eats really acidic foods like tomatoes.

Ds #2 seems he may be headed down the same path. He was very gassy and seemed to be in pain, pooped every 10 minutes (I know newborns poop all the time, but it seemed excessive) for the first few days home. Once I quit the dairy, he seems a lot better. I don't know. It may be coincidence - he may have just been getting use to being outside the womb, but the poor thing was not happy for a few days.

He's like a new baby now that I quit dairy.

 

[thoesly]

Rice milk, almond milk, oat milk, etc, etc, etc should all work as substitutes. I'll second the vote for almond milk for drinking -- it really is good. You can buy them or make them -- really easy.

As for cheeses, there are no good substitutes -- we tried them all, and they all resulted in my children spitting them out and wiping off their tongues!

I did get this suggestion for pizza off one of my GFCF listservs: Try mayonaisse. It doesn't alter the taste of the pizza (especially if you just drizzle it on), and it makes it look right, which is often the most important part of a food for kids. Can't tell you how it works, though -- we also can't have mayo here, along with a bunch of other things.

Good luck,

Tara

 

[Erin Pavlina]

I use rice milk instead of cow's milk in all my recipes. Works well.

For cheese I use Vegan Gourmet Cheese Alternative. It melts and tastes great. But it is soy based so won't work for you guys.

Pizza tastes great without cheese, though. The first 5 or 6 years I was vegan I never used vegan cheese, just skipped it. It was no problem.

 

[robugmum]

Mommy&Will, it sounds like he is probably reacting to the protein, that makes sense, since a large percentage of kids who react to milk protein also react to soy. Going dairy free is tough, but its gets easier all the time.

 

[PikkuMyy]

We make pizza with a cornmeal crust - we paint it with olive oil, let that soak in, and then put home-made pesto on top with olive slices on that. It's a little harder than regular pizza but tastes great!

We also make it with marinara and meat substitute (Yves' ground round) with various veggies. Yummy!

You'll get over the cheese. We also use the Vegan Gourmet Cheese - it's really good! It really does melt if you do it right and has no casein. But most good dairy substitutes (such as toffuti's better than cream cheese and better than sour cream) are made with soy.

I would suggest getting some vegan cookbooks and finding new recipies for your repertoire that don't have any type of dairy or dairy substitute to begin with. One amazing one is Vegan Mediterranean - which has all naturally-vegan recipies from countries all around the Mediterranean, so that they all taste great and have not been altered from the original.

 

[lolabelle]

A good place to search is vegsource.com . Check out the dairy-free or not milk forum and also marilu.com.

We like Rice Slice cheese sub. They also have rice shreds. We used to use a lot more of it than we do now, but it was nice to have in the weaning process. If your children aren't used to cheese, I wouldn't bother...they really are of no nutritional value. We really like Amy's no cheese roasted veggie pizza. I haven't made my own, but the above sound really good.

For people going dairy free, it is important to eliminate soy products for awhile because it mimicks dairy in the body.

 

[Emmama]

I thought going vegan was going to be hard (I was a cheese fanatic!!!) but it really isn't. Maybe you could get Annie's vegan pizza just to see how your family does. It has a tomato crust, carmelized onions, artichoke hearts and roasted peppers

!

The book Garden of Vegan is great and it has a recipe for faux parmesan cheese. You use it the same way you would out of the shaker. It doesn't have the "look" of cheese, but it tastes pretty close.

I love rice milk (the kids gulp it down AND ask for seconds), have not tried almond milk, but will soon.

Good luck! There is no substitute that looks/tastes/melts the same way as the real stuff, but if your family can climb over that hurdle, there are some yummy substitutes out there, in their own right.