Un-Dairy (Allergy-free Eating - Post #5)

I think one of the hardest things about our allergy situation was imagining a world with no dairy.  I grew up drinking milk, and I LOVE milk.  My kids were milk babies (once they were off the breast, of course).  And, well, cheese was a staple ingredient in many of our favorite meals - homemade pizza, lasagna, pasta with sauce and shredded parm, macaroni and cheese, tacos, enchiladas -- everything I could think of that I cooked often had cheese in it!  Wow.  This was going to be tough.

The first thing we did was target milk.  Milk for drinking and for on cereal (GFV of course!) and oats (GF certified, of course!).  We tried: coconut, almond, hemp, rice, and soy.  Here is what stuck:

Rice milk - kids use it on their cereal and in their oatmeal (I think because it has the least distinct flavor of all and it looks like skim milk).
Almond milk - we bake with it, and SJ drinks it in her bottle.  SJ was pretty flexible, and I wanted to use non-soy (for all of the unproven potential consequences of too much soy) but something that was more than just carbs.
Soy milk - Vanilla soy in my chai, thank-you-very-much.

So, yes, we always have 3 kinds of milk on hand.  Costco helps us out a bit by selling these:

So what about cheese, say you?  UGH.  We have no such luck with cheese.  I have tried a variety of things such as Dai ya shreds, but nothing that doesn't come from animals really tastes decent.

I do want to caution you about some non-dairy products which actually contain casein.  We also have casein allergies (as do many people with dairy intolerances - casein is milk protein.  I liken it to people being allergic to wheat AND gluten).  So always read the labels.  If they are marked Vegan, they won't have casein, because it is an animal-derived ingredient.

I can stand the flavor / texture of a little soy cheese on my salads, and on pizza it's "okay", but I'd honestly rather eat pizza cheese-less at this point. 

One thing I will say that I like surprisingly is this:

I will have to be honest in saying that I'm not sure if I like it because it is actually good, or if I'm just finally desparate enough.  Either way. 

I think I will have to dedicate an entire TWO posts to un-dairy.  I still have butter, yogurt, and ice cream left to cover!  More soon....