A Dairy Free Week

It's always been a love hate relationship I have with milk, I may not have indulged myself often however when I did I would feel a little itchy. I never noticed this problem with other dairy products such as cheese or butter it was simply if I decided to have too much milk in a milkshake or with baileys as i was mote to do! So over the years I just steered clear of masses of milk, meaning no cereals or large glasses and on rare occasion enjoying it while numbing the itchy after effects with anti-histimines. And to me that seemed fine... until recently. Out of the blue my body decided that after a milk shake in a restaurant it should attack me with severe stomach cramps and a very upset tummy. Originally I decided to put it down to perhaps something I ate yet wary that dairy was the culprit. However my weekly major milk intake (a flavoured milk drink to wash down some rather spicy chicken with) soon too began upsetting my tummy and I decided that some action needed to be taken.

So for the past few weeks I've cut down majorly on the dairy, there have been no milk drinks or cheese but I didn't cut it out in its entirety. My tummy certainly seems a little better so I've decided to take this testing to the next level with Going Dairy Free for a Whole Week! I'm lucky that dairy didn't make up a huge portion of my diet so I have minimal changes to make, however I am already missing cheese I have to admit. Yet there are so many little things I hadn't really considered that were made with dairy ingredients but at the moment I am simply thankful that ordinary sliced bread isn't one of them.

To help make this adjustment easier I did a good bit of research on the Internet about what dairy substitutes worked best for others and ways to incorporate them into my life that would cause the least ruckus possible. I've also made a meal plan for all my food this week (which really is no harm all things considered) and on Sunday did a nice baking and freezing sessions so I shall have fresh muffins and scones all week! (And yes I made them both with soya milk :) )

At the moment the only things I really needed to buy were some dairy free butter, Pure is the brand I've selected to use here in Ireland. There are currently two types of milk substitutes in my fridge, the more common and easy to obtain Alpyro soya milk and the more expensive Dream rice milk. I can be a picky eater and have a bit of a sweet tooth I think so I had assumed that choosing the sweeter milk option would be an easier transission for me. What a shock when I found that the sweetened soya milk is almost too sweet for my liking and the rice milk pretty much drinkable from the glass! For my baking this week I used the soya milk (unsweetened this time) since I needed to make buttermilk for my muffin recipe and I'll have to see if I can do the same trick with the rice milk. However right now things are looking rather optimistic... I had assumed these alternatives would taste icky and take a lot of getting used to but instead I'm pleasantly surprised.

So far this seems a fun adventure and wouldn't it be nice if it not only got rid of my upset tummy but helped clear up my eczema ridden skin and constant sneezing?