Dairy-Free Living: Day 6

Quitting dairy has honestly been a lot easier than I expected.

When the nutritionist first announced that it was time for me, like my mother and younger brother, to quit dairy, my brain went insane. What about cheese? Ice cream? Yogurt?

Luckily, baking was not an issue. My mother and brother have been dairy-free for the past couple months, so I have grown accustomed to baking without dairy. Two of my favorite milk and butter substitutes, as you may have noticed in the past few recipes, are coconut milk and Earth Balance, respectively. You can also substitute almond milk for cow's milk in recipes where you want a blander, less sweet, taste.

What brand of coconut milk you buy doesn't really matter, but make sure you buy unsweetened coconut milk to use in baking. Sweetened coconut milk will cause your cakes, brownies, etc, to be far sweeter than most can tolerate.

Many people substitute soy milk for cow's milk, but my mother and brother are also soy intolerant, and so it's coconut milk all the way. Personally, I think coconut milk tastes better anyway.

What about eating? Well, you can put coconut or almond milk in your cereal, you can bake with it, that's great. Milk problem solved. What about yogurt?

My nutritionist showed me a product called Amande, a cultured almond milk yogurt I was rather skeptical about.

Post work-out the next day, I had a staring match with my cherry amande. It looked like yogurt. It smelled like yogurt. But would it taste like yogurt?

"Okay, almond milk yogurt," I said. "You and I better get along real well." Mom looked up from her book, and smiled bemusedly. I took a small bite of the yogurt. "Wow. I actually like it better than regular yogurt," I told Mom, who nodded but refused to taste.

Amande comes in a variety of flavors, and so far, all of them have been yogurt-y and tasteful. I strongly recommend it.

Another dairy-free substitute my nutritionist pointed out was Daiya, a vegan, soy-free cheese that theoretically melts. I haven't tried it yet, but the nutritionist assured me that it tastes like cheese. We'll see.

So I conclude my first Dairy-Free Living blog post. I'll be back - I can't leave you hanging on the meltability (I know that's not a word, but it should be) of Daiya cheese.

Happy Dairy-Free Living!