Lactose intolerant and miserable.

[lilmissneurotic]

Just that really, I was really only just starting to find my feet with cooking and now most of the things I could cook and now of the menu.

To make matters worse when I was having reactions to all things dairy I thought it was my cooking, I thought I was giving us food poisoning (even though my husband never reacted I thought he was just being nice and not mentioning the stomach pains.)

It means I'm a very nervous cook and don't have the chuck everything in a pot and hope for the best instinct. I can't rely on packets or ready meals anymore as most have evil in them so need some nice simple meals I can put together.

My husband will eat anything (he's disabled and can't stand for long so he can't help with the cooking) and really likes anything spicy. I like most things as long as it doesn't have chilli powder in it, bit weird about defrosting and then cooking it either has to be cooked from frozen or cooked from the fridge as I obsess to much about it, it smells funny, looks funny, I once grabbed a plate from my husband crying saying don't eat it we'll die. I need to work up to this but slowly. (No DC just yet.)

So lovely mumsnetters any ideas on simple dairy free meals (or alternatives I can use in place of dairy.) Or even a good cookbook or two that I could try, get paid on Tuesday so want to try have some kind of meal plan in place for the food shop.

I'm lactose intolerant and find plenty of things to cook. Grilled foods with vegetables or salads, casseroles, stir fries, tomato-based sauces for pasta, omelettes, baked potatoes, risottos, roast dinners, soups...., all sorts. If I really need to make something which would normally involve milk I use Alpro soya milk. But that's not very often. I can tolerate parmesan and it's quite strong tasting, so use a little of that if something needs a cheese flavour. There are lactose free cheddar type cheeses but I don't think they taste all that great.

I have a dairy free child. CMT and lactose for him.

Just think about what you like eating and you can often adjust.
Don't chuck the recipe books - just adapt.
You can replace milk with a non-dairy milk.
Puds are more of a pain but I use a stork baking product in a gold wrapper that's good for cakes/pastry/crumbles etc.

Roast dinners (mind the gravy) are do-able. And we use oat milk that makes decent Yorkshire puds.

We find ourselves eating more Chinese foods like sweet and sour, lemon chicken.

In fact we eat a lot of chicken and lots of fish. Potatoes/veg/pasta are dairy free. We even make pizzas.

Google and you'll find ways around.

And there's loads of stuff you can have just check label. For example some jaffa cakes are dairy free as are most chocolate bourbons.
It gets easier.

The only thing I failed to make is lasagne. That was grim.

DH is lactose intolerant and I just use Lactofree milk yogurt and cheese instead of normal, and soya products.

Thanks for the quick replies, going to experiment with the milk alternatives this week.

I think I mainly over-whelmed because just as I was starting to find my feet cooking wise I got throw a curve ball and it dented my confidence a bit.

Start easy, perhaps fish with potato wedges and peas or a salad?
Chicken wraps
Pasta with a tomato and basil sauce, perhaps with chunks of chicken breast?
Jacket pots etc.
Sausage casserole etc.

Let your confidence build up then you'll feel more confident to experiment.
It's only restrictive if you let it be.

And there's a lovely dairy free ice cream called Swedish glaice and a cheesecake that's tastes pretty good.

I find eating out a pain but it's improving. We have a few usual haunts who know us well now and we feel safe to eat there.

you can get lactase pills in Holland and Barratt which mean you can eat dairy.. if you're interested :-)

I didn't have much luck with the lactase pills, ok on the day but the next day gave me a really sore stomach.

Lots of good ideas though, going to work on a 2 week rotation for the next wee while, theory is if I can go a month or two without thinking I'm poisoning us I can start to branch out.

Thanks again.

Is the fear of poisoning down to inexperience, a bad experience or are you generally quite anxious?

My daughters DP is lactose intolerant, so have had to change a few things, but not many. I do now have a store of Swedish Glace ice cream in the freezer now for emergencies :) I have looked at an article which is interesting, but haven't tried to see if its true about a2 milk - has anyone tried it ?
link to website a2milk.co.uk

I'm very anxious cogito (although getting better) and often struggle to think logically.

I honestly thought that the stomach cramps and bowel issues were from food poisoning as it only happened after eating when all along it was my lactose intolerance that was causing the issues. It started off with just stomach pains which I thought my husband couldn't feel because he's on some pretty strong painkillers.

Written down it makes no sense at all but it's quite deep rooted now so need to take baby steps.

Might you benefit from hunting down cookery classes locally? Somewhere you can learn not only a few dairy free dishes but maybe get a better idea of good food hygiene practices.

I did a food hygiene course at the recommendation of my counselor, which helped me look at fresh differently, after badgering my teacher she helped me by telling what meat looked like when it was really really off. It's just the defrosted stuff that's the stumbling block right now.

Have a plan for the week though so will see how it goes.

Tuesday. Roast pork and roast veg.
Wednesday. Leftover pork with sweet and sour sauce and rice.
Thursday. Sausage,mash,yorkshire pud.
Friday. Spag bol.
Saturday. Leftover spag bol on a pizza base with LF cheese.
Sunday. Chicken wraps+ rice
Monday. Going out for dinner.

Thanks for all the help though, was too busy concentrating on what I couldn't have instead of what I could have.

agoodbook - a2 milk still has lactose in. All milk, from all animals has lactose in, unless lactase has been added to remove the lactose.

My DS is was diagnosed as lactose intolerant about 10 months ago and he eats most of what we eat with a few easy changes.

He uses Lactosefree milk and cheese (although the soft cheese gave him pains) and I use soya milk in sauces, yorkshire puddings, etc. He uses Vitalite diary free spread which can also be used instead of butter for baking and actually makes cakes really moist. It is nicer than the soya spread and cheaper.

He also has sedish glace and Sainsbury's have a dairy free sorbet/ice cream type thing with raspberry and it's really nice.

It hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be and although he hasn't gained much weight he no longer spends an hour after a meal in the toilet and only suffers pains when he has eaten something he shouldn't - he's 18 and sometimes won't be told no to eat something.

Your meal plan looks good and you will hopefully notice a difference quite quickly.

I'm lactose intolerant and don't find it dim difficult cooking at home. Harder out as English people like to hide cream in things!

If you like other cuisines a lot of Moroccan stuff and Indian stuff is all lactose free, as is Thai.

If you want to do traditional English cooking or a nice melty cheese lasagna or something you can sub in lactose free substitutions. Plant based milk, sky milk, lacto free cow milk, goats cheese, lacto free cheese, coconut ice cream etc

Try the various milks and see what works for you.

If it's lactose (not CMP) then you can get lactofree milk from any main supermarket. It's had the lactase enzyme added so is pre-digested. Hard cheese is also fine, and yoghurt (natural, properly made stuff).

If you can't tolerate any dairy, then it's cmp. Soya stuff tastes okish but it's easier just to avoid milk altogether where possible.

Bronya what is cmp? I can't tolerate any dairy at all not even in tiny amounts. Although I'm lucking in that the holland and Barrett tablets mostly work for me. They have been a god send for eating out.

DD2 is lactose intolerant. We use the lacto free milk and cheese. I understand they now do a mature lacto free cheese, but we haven't tried that yet.

Yoghurt has always caused issues for us, but the bacteria used to make fromage frais is different, and DD2 can eat this fine. We are lucky as DD2 can have a small amount of normal dairy now, but we tend to stick to the lactose free at home, then we don't need to be as strict outside.

Cow's milk protein. If you were intolerant to that, then the lactase tablets wouldn't work.

Ah ok thank you.
To the op, it does seem daunting at first but over time you get used to it. You get used to using subtitutes and seeing what works best in different recipes. The dairy free ranges out now are brilliant compared to when I was small. I brought myself a dairy free advent calendar a couple years ago just because I could and I'd never had one before :)

Well the roast pork was really nice but now the cooker is broke >.<

Just won't switch on at all so the plan is out while I try and pick up another.

You can still enjoy everything you like really.
You only use soya, rice, almond, hazelnut, hemp, oat, coconut, flax milk.
rice, oats, soya cream.
there are coconut, soya, rice yogurts...
cream cheese alternatives
hard cheese alternatives...ice cream...chocolates, biscuits...absolutely everything you could wish for :)
check Holland & Barret and local health food shops...also, you will find some of these products in supermarkets. (free from section)

As for recipes...here are some...
www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/vegan-mac-n-cheese/
www.plantshift.com/blog/pizza-on-toast-within-10-minutes-recipe
www.pbs.org/food/recipes/vegan-tiramisu/?print=1&p=19693
recipes.answers.com/article/290859/the-best-vegan-milkshake-recipes-from-around-the-web
yumuniverse.com/gluten-free-dairy-free-vegetable-lasagna/