Gluten Free and More (Living Without)

Let's talk about magazines and recipe sites. I don't have many dairy-free friends, but between those few as well as the handful of gluten-free/Crohn's, I've got a decent circle of people who are all looking for safe foods. Vegan foods are usually a win for all of us, but I was on the hunt for a good magazine or monthly mailing resource. My one friend subscribes to Gluten Free and More (previously known as Living Without) and told me they offer a lot of recipes that are usually free of other top allergens or offer substitutes. I checked them out, and ended up subscribing for 2 years (they had a great deal going).

I am very happy with this decision. First of all, of the 3 magazines I've received (1 every 2 months), easily half of the recipes are naturally dairy-free, and the remaining recipes have dairy subs. I have yet to see a recipe that did not have a dairy-free option, and most other top allergens are accommodated as well (some more so than others). The other thing I really like is that most of the dairy subs are very easy, like milk and butter alternatives. When it comes to cheese, yogurt, etc some recipes are very helpful with specific suggestions while a handful just say "alternative" which can be disappointing as there are some alternatives that will work better than others, especially when it comes to cooking and baking. A lot of recipes offer a shopping list though, so while a specific alternative that is known to work may not be provided in the recipe itself, you have an idea of possible alternatives to explore. Overall, it has been quite helpful and inspiring.

The other great benefit is that by subscribing you get online access to their entire archive, so you are not only limited to your magazine information. The site is not super easy to navigate for dairy-free, as their focus certainly seems to be gluten-free, but again the recipes all seem to either be dairy-free or easily adapted. I have yet to find a recipe I could not use. Definitely worth a shot, and I would say to check it out. They've got a free mailing list and you can access a good portion of the current magazine without an account. If you are interested in subscribing, you can save some cash by choosing online only. So for a resource whose focus is not dairy-free, they are still very helpful.

Let's Talk Ice Cream

I've been taking a stab at this dairy-free lifestyle for a while now. Everyone has a different reason for making this decision, and for me it was due to allergies. I've had a progressive lactose-intolerance that has been getting worse over time (which logically makes sense: mammals are not meant to imbibe milk after a certain age so most humans do develop some level of intolerance and it does get worse over time as we get farther in years from our milk drinking age). As that has started to affect me more and more, I started moving away from dairy and noticed other health issues arising when I did partake, which lead to an allergy diagnosis. Now, minus milk, I love dairy. Butter is the best, cheese is my favorite snack, and oh man do I love ice cream. So this decision has been forced on me more so than a personal decision; I was alright cutting back but removing dairy entirely was like a slap in the face. Since this happened later in life, I'm well aware of how things should taste and feel, so I am pickier than others for sure. Sometimes I'll make the concession with cheese or butter, limiting my quantities, taking a combo of allergy medicine and lactaid, and paying the price for my decisions. But ice cream...who eats 1 Tbsp of ice cream? So I've been searching for some good replacements.

Cado ice cream had become my hands down favorite. Made with avocado, the texture is perfectly creamy. I am actually inspired to attempt my own at home. The flavors are good too, but very limited. Seriously. There are 3 flavors. The chocolate is divine, and so rich that you really don't need or want a whole lot, which is great because these pints are a tad pricier than others. The mint chip was alright, it would probably be great if I enjoyed peppermint, but I don't. The other flavor, which I have yet to try, is lemon. I also expect great things, but I crave other flavors so have been searching.

So Delicious offers a few varieties. I have only tried their coconut milk and cashew milk varieties. I have no problem with the tastes of either. My issues are more of a texture thing (I'm a very textural eater). The coconut milk ice cream is hard like a sorbet, which is not an initial issue, I just find it to be gumy as it softens up. Generally speaking, this is a problem I have with coconut milk across the board: soups, smoothies, ice cream...there are very few applications where I do not find the texture becoming gummy. I'm sure over time you get used to it, but I'm stubborn so moved on to cashew. This actually isn't bad in terms of texture, just much more similar to a frozen custard so it's a thicker, richer ice cream. Pretty good overall, but I still found avocado to have a texture closer to what I craved.

I've also given Ben & Jerry's almond milk ice cream a try. It's honestly somewhere in between the coconut and cashew milk versions. Admittedly, I started out with chocolate fudge brownie so there was a fair amount going on in that pint. However, texturally I found this to be very pleasing and a happy medium between coconut and cashew. Still not as great as avocado, but definitely a closer and more easily available option. The only real hang up here is that the almond flavor is very strong. Even with all that chocolate going on, the almond came through strong. It wasn't bad, but I can see it being something I won't want all the time.

While shopping around a couple weeks ago I came across Nana Creme. I'm not the biggest banana fan honestly, but I like it in things. I always include banana in my smoothies, am a fan of banana bread, and even like it in a fruit salad. I'm just not a fan of bananas on their own. So, I figured a banana based ice cream would probably be fine, especially as I went with Brownie (which was on clearance at my local Jewel, so bonus!). This was just not for me. The banana flavor was overpowering and I barely noticed the chocolate. My roommate tried it too and he thought the banana flavor was too artificial, like the banana runts. So this brand is a hard pass for me.

My most recent excursion was originally to search for Talenti sorbetto, which someone had posted on the Deliciously Dairy Free Facebook group. Talenti makes a delicious gelato, so I really wanted to try their sorbetto. Unfortunately my local Jewel did not carry the sorbetto, but I did find Sorbabes which is a vegan sorbetto. I grabbed the coffee almond flavor and it was delicious and creamy, very similar to the Hagan Daz coffee ice cream. This might actually replace Cado as my favorite...time will tell!

Now to try out some whipped creams. My boyfriend got me a dispenser for Christmas, and so far I have only tried making a coconut whipped cream. This tasted alright, but I found I had to remove my dispenser about 15-30 minutes prior to when I wanted whipped cream as it got too thick in the refrigerator. This week will be full of some experiments....check back in to see which recipe is the winner!

Naturally Dairy Free Recipe List

Going dairy-free is not exactly easy, especially if you are used to having lots of dairy in your life. I personally love cheese, cream, pretty much anything that isn't straight up milk, and I certainly don't want to give up the flavors and textures that I love. I also live with a big dairy lover, and I get a lot of resistance to trying out the substitutes. Some of it is just stubbornness or being afraid flavors will change too much, some of it is general distaste of what the substitute is or consists of. As I'm sure you have and will continue to read, some substitutes just aren't for me or just aren't for certain applications.

I will also say that trying to redo your favorite recipes with subs just will not live up to your standards, at least not right away. You are looking for that dairy taste and feel, and it will never be the same (close, but not the same). There is definitely some wisdom to the idea of going cold turkey before trying out the subs. This concept is applied to all kinds of life changes including various diets. It is often easier to cut it all out and then when you have that down and under control, you can start adding it back in (or in this case, start using subs). Part of this is that you have gotten used to living without, so you won't be searching for that dairy-heavy feel. The other part is the distance from dairy will make the changes in taste and texture of the subs easier to manage and adjust to.

I have decided to start looking for and creating more recipes that are 100% dairy-free naturally, meaning the recipe just does not call for any dairy or subs. Since I had a hard time tracking down recipes like this, I decided to keep the list on my blog to help some of you out. In the future I may start collection recipes utilizing subs as well, but I will keep them separate. So feel free to heck out my list via the link or using the "My Favorite Recipes" tab above.

Recommendations?

Being new-ish to dairy-free, I reached out to friends to get their tried and true recommendations for dairy subs and where to find them. Below is a summary of their answers:

Stores
Woodmans
Jewel (St. Charles, IL)
Target
Trader Joe's
Whole Foods
Fruitful Yield

Cheese
nutritional yeast (sauces, mac & cheese)
Chao
Treeline (very expensive though)

Ice Cream
Ben & Jerry's dairy-free

Milk
almond milk

Sour Cream
soy premade (found at Jewel in STC)

Cream Cheese
soy premade (found at Jewel in STC)

Butter
Fleischmann's unsalted margarine
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter light

Also, some things I was warned against:
soy shredded cheese (apparently tastes like sawdust)