day 25 of 30 days

Back on track.  well mostly.  yesterday I ate leftover green bean casserole.  I swear that is my guilty pleasure.  It is so much better days after.  I make it totally different.  there is sour cream, garlic and cheddar cheese added.  oh yumminess.  I digress.  The rest of the day was dairy free.  for dinner we had turkey enchiladas.  this is the recipe: enchiladas.  i used mayo instead of sour cream.  regular mayo.  they were still delish.  i also blended the tomatoes to make them more saucy.  the two I ate did not have cheese on top.  the rest of them enjoyed their cheesy metltiness.  Today is Sunday.  chicken wings!!!  I am making coleslaw.  In my coffee today I am enjoying this

enjoy the happiness!!!!

day 24 of 30 day

So there was cheating during Thanksgiving not only with myself but the girls.  After last night though, I said no more.  there was not even that much of cheating.  Even a little bit sent the girls and I into emotional craziness.  Even the baby.  She normally sleeps with no problems.  Last night she was just a cranky, crying mess.  The husband had to take her for a walk at 9:30 at night. We are a bunch of cranky, short tempered, emotional messes.  It is behavior I have not seen in months. my poor husband.  Anyway, I said no more.  We will not cheat.  not even at Christmas.  We will deal with gluten free deserts that I make.  We will bring our own food when we go on vacation.  When we eat at people's houses when we get invited over I will tell them is you want us, this is what we can't have.  really it is five ingredients. (wheat,malt,barley, modified food starch, and regular pasta)  IF that is getting used in anything , then we will decline and visit before or after or just bring our own dinner.  This has been enough that I never want to have it happen again.  Even my husband noticed.  I said "I cant even let them cheat for two days."  He said "yup"   So it will be not so fun in this house for a few days,  There will be crankiness.  However, there are goodies we will enjoy to help.  I will make gluten free cookies later.  pumpkin chocolate chip.  I will make gluten free spritz cookies that they can make.  They will play outside to run off the energy and wear them out.  We have learned our lesson.  Next year for Thanksgiving the girls and I will eat completely gluten free.  I will make gluten free stuffing,  I will make deserts we can enjoy.  I will make regular stuffing for the hubby.  We know what happens when we don't stick with it and have proved once again we need to be gluten free.  Hopefully, it only takes a couple days to fix it.  I won't be surprised if it takes a week or so though.  Gluten is slow acting with its bad effects at times.  We will muster through.  Pomegranates and coffee will help tremendously

day 21 of 30 days

There is nothing new and exciting.  still trucking along.  still feeling really good.  I found a recipe for dairy free ranch which makes me oh so happy.  We have wings every Sunday and I have to have ransh or bleu cheese with them.  so I have been cheating.  well no longer need to.  here is the recipe: dairy free ranch.  I get so excited when I get to have things that I want and not have to cheat.  Ultimately I would love bleu cheese but that is just not possible.  I also would love sour cream on my tacos but again, impossible.  I have gotten used to it.  I don't miss any of it.  except the ranch dressing for my wings.  Soon that wont be an issue either as I will be going mostly vegetarian.  but I am not ready yet for that.  I LOVE CHICKEN WINGS.  I will do some other challenges first.  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  Tomorrow I will cheat on some things.  I will still be gluten free.  I can live without stuffing but some things I am eating will have dairy.   Actually it is only two things, I think.  so it won't be so bad.  :)  It is one reason I am glad we are doing Thanksgiving here.  I have control over what ingredients go in what.  No worries to my husband.  I am not making anything gluten free except the pumpkin pie.  Everything else is normal. (Ye,s you get your normal stuffing)I will just choose not to eat and purposely make somethings that are already gluten free without having to change anything.  Cranberry sauce and turkey are gluten free.  This year I also will not be stuffed on bread items so I wont be so full that I want to explode.  :)

Day 18 of 30 days

so still going.  a hiccup here and there. for instance, I got gluten free mac and cheese for the kids.  I figured I would make it with goat's milk and eat it myself.  I forget cheese has dairy.  Eh, no biggie.  move on.  I went to the store yesterday and could not find one single thing of goat's milk anywhere.   seriously.  Is everybody reading my blogs and taking all the goat's milk?  I mean I know I am all that but realize it is all about me.  (OK it isn't and I am not but if you are new to reading me, I usually have tones of sarcasm.) I went to every grocery store in town. ( and where I live there are four options.  I went to three.   I am pretty Save a Lot does not carry goat's milk)  I will only buy the refrigerated kind.  I have my own mental issues with milk in a box on the shelf.  It makes me wonder what they do to milk to make it be able to sit on a shelf for months and not go bad.  It is not something I want to put in my body.  I compare it to the baby food meat.  meat should go bad after a few days.  It should not be able to sit in a jar for months.  Needless to say none of my children have ever eaten it.  I did do the happy dance when I went to the organic section at Kroger.  I saw this :

something chocolate that is dairy free!!!! oh my the happiness!!!!  I may, just may, see if I can freeze it and hoard it like the apocalypse. there is this too:

Yup, I am in my happy place.  :)

day 14 of 30 days

Been a few days but there has not been much exciting or new things to post.  Last night we had roast, broccoli and baked potatoes and of course on Sunday we had wings.  earth balance butter substitutes nicely for any butter.    The roast is always yummy and so easy to make.  I have noticed something with popcorn.  You have to read the labels.  Even when you think there is no dairy , there is.  Butter flavor does mean it has dairy in it.  So I found this:

very good stuff.  

day 10 of 30 days of dairy free living

I have an new obsession....goat cheese.  Oh my yumminess.  It needs to be used very sparingly because it is pricey.  but it seriously is so good.  Seriously.  I also am blessed that nobody else will eat it so I don't have to worry about it disappearing  without my knowledge.  today for lunch I had a grilled chicken, avocado, cheese sandwich.  i used my gluten free bread.  It is OK.  It serves its purpose when I am in the mood for a sandwich.  Last night the chicken and dumplings were DELICIOUS!!!  I will be making them again.  I will double the recipe and make the dumplings smaller.   tonight we had one of our favorites...white chicken chili.  With the cooler weather I am making warm yummy comfort foods.

recipe since people always want it:
white chicken chili-I suggest cutting the spices down or your mouth will be on fire.  I use 1/2 the cumin and only 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper.  I threw a little goat cheese in because I cant have the sour cream or jack cheese.

day 8/9 of dairy free

So I totally changed what I was making for dinner the other night because somebody posted a picture on Facebook of their avocado Swiss cheeseburger.  So I made avocado feta cheeseburgers.  Well I found out the hard way that the Feta cheese I got was not dairy free.  It was still delicious but I paid for it with bloated gassiness the next day.  SO yes, lesson learned.  study cheese before shopping.  Some Feta is made from goat's milk.  I even saw goat cheese made with some cow's milk.  That annoys me as much as when I see labels saying "made with whole grain" yet when you look at the ingredients it says "enriched flour"  So we move on and buy just goat cheese next time, which I did today.  This will be used for me and me only.  I will be stingy with my cheese.  I also attempted to make chicken and dumplings last night.  Big FAIL.  some recipes you just can't make substitutions with so I trying again tonight but making it this way:
chicken and dumplings recipe- this Bisquick will be treated like it is gold.  Half the size. more expensive.  Any recipe calling for milk uses goat's milk instead for substitution.  soy, almond, or coconut just don't make good substitutions usually. But tonight it will be enjoyed and snuggles with the hubby and crochet needles after.  oh happiness.

The kids have been begging for pumpkin chocolate cookies for weeks.  So they were made.  they were delicious!!!!

pumpkin chocolate chip cookies-  goat's milk was used instead and I made some just for me without the chocolate chips.  I can die happy now.

Day 7 of 30 days

So my dear friend. Dana put a recipe for dessert in my comments yesterday and oh I will be trying it.   I also will delight in giving it to the baby who loves ice cream but really don't want her to have it so she will delight in eating it as well.   It has been a week.  It has been life changing.  It is something I am so thankful I have decided to do.   When I was fifteen after getting my tonsils taken out I was diagnosed with asthma.  It was the year of missing lots of school and losing weight.  (Mind you I did not need to  I went from 135 to 110 in about a month)  I had the pleasant experience of a long needle inserted into my tonsils to drain them only to be told after they need to be taken out.  To which I thought, since I could not speak "DUH, I knew this and have for awhile since ending up in the hospital for not eating because I could not swallow and on antibiotics."  SO they came out and do to all the drainage into my lungs I became asthmatic and would usually need the inhaler seasonally after that.  Usually winter time.  However, a few years ago I gave up drinking milk and for the past three years have not needed it once. Every year I get a prescription and every year it sits on my shelf and gets expired.  I think my asthma is only associated with dairy intake.  I will no longer get an inhaler.  I believe I no longer have asthma.  I will get one if I decide to consume milk again because I become homeless and move to a field of cows.    Here is the inhaler I got last year when I was pregnant with Charlotte.

still in the box.  needs to be thrown out because it is expired and never used once.

SO here is information that links asthma to dairy:

asthma and dairy  very interesting.  This also could be why my eldest has the sinus problem she does so I have removed milk from her diet completely and see how that goes.  I will go more extreme with her if it does not improve.  that poor child.  She seems to be the guinea pig for diet changes with the children.  

day 6 of 30 days

I don't miss cheese.  Weird because I thought I would.  I also don't miss ice cream.  If I crave ice cream, I will get this, not necessarily this type because of the chocolate:

OR I can just make my own  coconut milk ice cream  YUMMY YUMMY!!!!!  I can also make my own cottage cheese dairy free cottage cheese.  that may seem unappetizing but it is about a change of mindset.  I will let you know how it is after I make it.  I made chicken marsala for dinner.  I was told it was delicious and to make it again.  So I will.  Tonight I am making the chicken and dumplings.    Coconut Milk and Almond Milk are wonderful. Here are the benefits:

Coconut milk benefits

almond milk benefits

day 5 of 30 days

I made the dairy free creamer.  It serves its purpose but not the same.  I think next time I will put less pumpkin in it.   I also think it will be better with almond milk instead of soy.  It will give it a nice sweet and nutty taste.  Tonight I am making chicken and dumplings that are gluten and dairy free....provided I have chicken broth.  I have not even looked.  I feel good.  I am less bloated.  the scale is going down.  Now there are studies on soy.  SOme good, some bad.  Some studies say it leads to breast cancer.

http://www.naturalnews.com/022224.html
http://breastcancer.about.com/od/riskfactorsindetail/a/soy_bc_diet.htm
http://www.vegan-nutritionista.com/soy-controversy.html

So yeah.  I can't make a good conclusion from what I have tried to find on the internet.  If any of you have good studies that prove either way than please feel free to share.  In my opinion. there is controversy for a reason and with that I will not consume soy in great amounts.    I am ok with some here and there.  I will use tofu and soy milk but almond milk and coconut milk are great alternatives and there are not controversies with those two products.

day 4 of 30 days

This dairy free challenge is way easier than the gluten free one.  I even made a stop at Dairy Queen yesterday for my daughter after her gymnastics meet and resisted getting a yummy blizzard.  Then I totally thought how cool would it be to be able to go to a dairy free ice cream chain and get dairy free desserts.  I probably would make millions.  Lactose intolerant people I am sure would love blizzards and sundaes without having to deal with the consequences or taking medication before eating it.  I am sure the vegans would love a sweet treat like that every now and again.  But my life is insane enough at the moment.  So here is something that our family is currently enjoying for desserts.  It is my favorite and cures any sweet craving I am having.

                                                                      pumpkin smoothie 

Oh yes it is yummy.  I don't do the whip cream and instead of milk I use coconut or almond milk.  It is heavenly!!!  and it is cheap to make.   I usually need to add more milk and more ice because i like like a milk shake.  you can add a little more sugar to make it sweeter.

I also found this recipe for creamers pumpkin spice creamer-scan down to the bottom

peppermint mocha creamer

So yes I still get to relish in the holiday creamers that I look forward to every year and not get to miss out and pass by the creamer aisle and sigh.  I also get to save money because I am making my own.  There are controversies on soy.  That will be a blog for tomorrow.

day 3 of 30 days of dairy free living

It is day 3 and the scale is already back to being my friend again.  It is because I am not eating cheese and chocolate on a daily basis.  We had tacos for dinner last night.  Do you know how hard it is to have tacos with no sour cream?  It was almost torture.  But I consoled myself with my homemade salsa and guacamole.  All was well.  Probably wondering how I had them without cheese either.  Well I use this as an  alternative:

Is it the same? no, of course not but it does help with needing something if it needs cheese.  I have to have cheese on my tacos and sometimes I want a tuna melt.  of course this has casein which has a milk protein and soon I will not be using this at all.  So I was not totally dairy free.  It is a learning process.  This is what happens when you assume something is dairy free and you don't read the labels to find out for sure.  To be truly dairy free the ingredients casein and whey also need to be stayed away from.   What threw me off on this was the label on the front saying lactose free.  lactose free does not mean dairy free.  So once I get to the grocery store again I will be buying goat cheese or even possibly making my own.  

dairy free cheese recipe

So we move on.  we continue on the course.

Day 2 of 30 days Dairy Free

Made it the first day.  First day is always easy.  It is after a few days that cravings kick in. I will conquer though. So I am posting links today as to where I get my information:

resaons not to drink milk 

6 reasons
That is just a couple.  Let me preface to say I am staying away from cow's milk.  Goats milk is another story.  That has been proven to be a safe alternative.  I plan to never allow Charlotte to even have cow's milk but will start her on goat's milk once she is done nursing.  She is allowed to nurse until she is two or she decides she wants to stop before then.  So since she gets milk from me then there is no need for me to introduce any other milk to her.   She has had some things with dairy in it that i have cooked but I will soon be cooking with goat's milk so it wont be an issue.

Goats milk benefits


Pretty soon, next shopping trip, I will be buying goat's milk.  I may be sneaky and put it in an milk gallon and see if they notice and then tell them.  (except my husband.  I won't do that to him.)

I can also testify that early puberty does happen and is not the norm in our family in any generations.  My ten year old started puberty when she was 9.  Not fully done, that one big thing still needs to happen but seriously  physically developing but not emotionally ready for it.  Nine year olds should not be getting breasts, curves, have to use deoderant, and have to shave their underarms.  not to mention the hormonal emotional changes.  that is the one I could really do without.  At none they are not ready and I believe a lot of this has happened because of dairy intake.  Does it happen to all? no.  but it does happen more often these days then it used to.

New 30 day Journey DAY 1

SO Today I have decided to start dairy free living.  Challenging myself to do this for 30 days.  I do better when I set goals like this instead of saying  "I am now dairy Free."  My type A personality will not allow me to want to fail once I start a challenge.  SO I have noticed there is dairy in  practically everything.  If it is not milk it is whey. SO this will prove challenging but only for a few days to a week as I read labels.  I will miss cheese the most but I found alternatives that will do for now.  I also am happy to day I found butter not made from dairy.  I was thinking "How on earth am I going to eat a baked potato with no butter?"   Well I get to have this :

One thing I will not miss is milk.  I have done extensive research on milk and frankly it is gross what they do to the cows to produce it.  I will just start with we are the only animal on the planet that drinks milk from another animal.  All animals drink milk until  they are ready for regular food and then they stop.  Milk from cows is also in its natural state designed to grow a 2000 pound cow.  I am not trying to become a 2000 pound cow yet for years we have been ingrained that milk is good for us and we need the calcium.  Yes, we need calcium but there are other places to get it.    Please do not take this that I am judging you if you drink milk.  My kids and husband do.  My kids, however, are only allowed to use it in their cereal.  This will be changing but lets face it, milk is cheap and alternatives are more expensive.   There are also many health benefits when getting off dairy that I can personally testify to.   This will be a blog for tomorrow.  I will also be listing dairy free recipes that I will be making and dairy free alternatives that I will be using.  Here is one I will be making this week for when I crave something sweet, which is usually chocolate and every stinking chocolate bar that I have seen contains dairy of some sort.   raw chocolate chip cookies recipe.  these are good.  not exactly the same but good.

the end and yet the journey continues

The blog is late due to busyness and unwell people in this house due to colds and teething.  So we made it 30 days.  Not a whole lot of glitches.  It was a great learning process and to the point of habit now that we don't even think twice about what we can and can not eat.  There is still some label reading but for the most part we know what we can and can not eat.  One glitch was this past Sunday.  It was wing day.  The hubby made them and without thinking used a little regular flour to thicken up the sauce.  The kids had already started eating them so I said it probably was not enough to even matter,  Well, for me and Abby it was.  Both our stomachs just did not feel right come later that evening and Monday morning.  I not so bad but Abby was in misery,  SO lesson learned.  NO CHEATING.  Janessa and Hannah were fine but they have other issues with it so we are not going back.   The next 30 day journey will begin soon.  I just need to go grocery shopping to make it happen.