AIBU to find two weeks lactose free shopping surprisingly difficult?

[DarthPaula]

What are you supposed to eat if you’re lactose free?? Everything has milk in it!!

I have to go lactose free for two weeks, trying to do an online shop now but everything contains milk! Even kievs and Yorkshire pudding!!! I don’t know what you’re meant to actually eat!

YABU - there are loads of lactose free foods, they even do lactose free cheese these days. One of my DC has a food allergy, it’s far easier to cook from scratch using whole foods. Just replace milk in recipes with dairy free alternatives.

A sudden change is always difficult.

Lactose free milk and dairy products exist, as do vegan alternatives, though.

It’s pretty easy.

Its not going to be easy if your buy a lot of pre made stuff.

ie ditch pre made chicken Kiev, make homemade chicken schnitzel ( just flour, egg and breadcrumbs at home)

if your lactose free instead of dairy free then it’s really easy to buy lactose free milk that tastes exactly like normal milk

Hopefully it's not against rules to post a screen shot....

Apologies if it is, maybe this will give you a few ideas, there's a few others if you Google too...

You can get lactose free milk, cheese, yogurts etc: https://www.arlafoods.co.uk/brands/lactofree/products/

Lactose free is much easier than dairy free (I had one lactose intolerant baby and one CMPI baby, so I'm well versed in dealing with both).

Can you make your own Yorkshire puddings with lactose/dairy free milk?

Milk is the major ingredient so its not surprising that they contain lactose. Its like being surprised that a ready made omelette contains egg.

Cooking from scratch is the key. My ds is dairy free and it’s pretty straightforward.

As others have said, cooking from scratch is easiest.
But you can generally find dairy free Yorkshire puddings and chicken Kiev's in the freezer from bit of the freezer. Expensive though.

Lactose free is easy once you get the hang of it, and know which products replace your usual. Why dont you post what you'd normally eat in a week and we can help you make them lactose free, ie, chicken Kiev, would sausages or a chicken burger without the garlic butter be an OK alternative?

I somewhat agree. When you are new to a change like that it makes planning meals and shopping a lot harder. I found that when diagnosed with cealiac disease as I can't eat gluten.

Eating homemade meals is the key but if you aren't used to that it takes planning. And even then you have to check all the labels of ingredients just incase.

Intolerant but not allergic
heres our weekly meal list

Pasta and sauce is DF. Just don’t bother with cheese for the next fortnight.

Stir fry, egg noodles and sweet chilli sauce.

sausages (read ingredients) and home made mash. Substitute milk & margerine in the mash with full fat mayo. Not low fat mayo.

I dont bother with battered chicken things but my daughter gets Sainsbury’s chicken nuggets for an orange dinner and she finds milk free ones. McCain oven chips don’t tend to have milk. Heinz beans are DF.

breaded fish rarely contains milk but battered does tend to. I Always check those. Birds Eye fish fingers are fine at the moment.

salmon risotto made with olive oil

free from Tesco korma sauce with chicken and veggies.

shakshuka (or however you spell it)
salad dressing: we buy pizza express house light.

Fruit is not a pudding…. But
Betty Crocker cake mix doesn’t need milk
Betty Crocker choc fudge icing heated up makes lovely choc sauce for ice cream. DF ice cream seems to have disappeared from shelves recently tho.
Iceland golden syrup puddings aren’t made with milk. Single portions.

oat milk barista style is quite nice in coffee. I dont like soya milk much. Skimmed milk in tea is where we compromise.

aldi Jaffa cakes don’t have milk in at the moment. Own brand Bourbon creams also often made without milk.

Pretty much a week’s worth of dinners there I think.

i resented every supermarket shop at the start, but I figured the only skill I needed was reading. I was taught to cook by my mum and lots of ready steady cook programmes, but you can see a busy working family reliance on packets in the list here.

oh and for ‘takeaway’ night we get slimming world microwave meals. King prawn linguine or a Thai duck Singapore noodle thing. Must admit though when I do make them from scratch they taste much nicer.

Shop the free from ranges, and lots of naturally lactose free food - fruit veg meat fish
DH is dairy free and coeliac (gluten free) and DD is coeliac, it just takes a bit more time checking ingredients

It’s always hard at the start.

and yes, so so much processed stuff has dairy in it. It’s actually one of the reasons I eat a reasonably healthy diet despite being lazy so and so.

Dairy allergic and lactose intolerant most of my life and believe me it is a walk in the park these days compared to the 90's where soya milk and the like wasn't really a think. Cornflakes with orange juice was a particular delight.

It just means you can't automatically rely on convenience foods.

Go down the free from aisle in tesco/Asda as they do great alternatives and learn to read ingredients.

A lot of sunflower spreads are dairy free, flora and lurpack now do plant butter, alpro do soya cream/yoghurt/lactose free milks

Meal plan and shop accordingly. For example
Bolognase either without cheese or use vegan cheese
Sausage and mash made with lactose free milk and butter, same goes for Yorkshire puds
Vegan pizza is a thing, or make your own
Stir fry meat and veg with egg noodles

It is very easy.

You don’t have to ditch the Kiev, just make it with flora. Or you can buy pre made dairy free garlic butter.

o/p it is hard at first as you won’t know where to look or which products are safe. For supermarkets we find Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Co-op are best for their “free from” ranges, although we are gluten free as well so others may have better if it’s just dairy.

Chinese/japanese/korean/asian cuisine is always a good choice as these are naturally dairy free.

but generally we just substitute flora or almond milk for most stuff. Years down the line we know which chicken nuggets or whatever product are dairy free and only need a quick check to make sure the ingredients haven’t changed. It’ll get easier.

if it’s just lactose rather than dairy you can buy drops/tablets that inactivate the lactose.

Meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, and carbs (pasta, rice, couscous...) don't contain any dairy. That's the basis of the human diet so you should be alright.

Kievs and Yorkshire puddings both very easy to make without any dairy.

Buy raw ingredients but not milk. You can make dairy free kievs and Yorkshire puddings using olive oil instead of butter for the former and milk alternative for the latter. I can post recipes if you want easy versions

Grana Padana cheese is lactose free and a great alternative to parmesan. Ocado do a great lactose free range, including lactose free mozzarella for pizzas

Do you need dairy free or is lactose free dairy ok?

I like the Lactofree products. They do lactose free dairy milk, cheese and cream.

Ginger biscuits and bourbons are often lactose free.

For a quick and easy alternative to kievs cut raw chicken thigh into bite sized pieces, dip into cornflour, then shallow fry until golden and cooked through, meanwhile make a garlic dipping sauce of a crush garlic clove, chopped parsley, olive oil and a little salt.

serve with mash but use dairy free spread rather than butter and dairy free milk

I’m lactose free. I cook most things from scratch so I guess that’s why I don’t have issues.
Some brands and supermarkets unknown for having fewer ingredients. M&S is one of them. They’re unlikely to add lactose Willy nilly to things.

I watched an Instagram reel a mother in the supermarket picking up food and pointing out the lactose in the most unlikely foods. I was gobsmacked.

I'd cook from scratch or live on fish and rice for a fortnight personally.

Maybe stop buying ultra processed crap and cook your own Yorkshire puddings etc. you can buy lactose free milk, soya milk, oat milk etc etc.

It's easier than in the past, because there are free-from ranges, and most people believe in allergies now (not everyone does, and tbf some people lie about having allergies, meaning those who do have them are treated as liars/fusspots).