To ask you what your dairy free store cupboard essentials are?

[Littleonesgettingbigger]

Dd2 is on a dairy free trial, I am struggling with what to feed her. Lunch used to be bits like cheese, crackers and grapes. What are your healthy store cupboard/fridge/freezer essentials to put together quick meals? So far I have baked beans, alpro soya yogurts, fruit pots, ham, fruit and not much else!

You can get vegan "cheese" and dairy free crackers...

I have tried the vegan cheese and she spat it out!

Tinned chickpeas. Just put a handful out instead of cheese cubes or chuck in a salad.

She likes crackers though but I am stuck at what to give with them now instead of cheese

DD aged 1 is also on dairy free, she has an egg, lentil, bean, peanut and pea allergy so it is a challenge. There's dairy free cheese spread and cheese slices made from coconut oil that actually does taste cheesy - I got these from Tesco. She also likes cocktail sausages and jacket potatoes with sunflower spread on it. Carrot sticks and raisins are also good - I also bought some dairy free chocolate raisins yesterday too.

She loves all kinds of fruit luckily and Anna's Swedish ginger biscuits are also good for a snack. I tend to make a vegan banana bread which lasts for a few days and is nice toasted with sunflower spread on it.

DD can't have them, but you can also have things like falafels or baked beans on toast or other deli meats - unfortunately sliced chicken seems to often have pea powder in it which rules it out for her.

Would be interested to see other people's ideas, as it's new to us too....

I do a lot of cooking for my vegan sister, although I note your DD eats meat so it may not be of much help.

Lunch could include dairy free crackers, houmous, fruit, roasted veg, salad, baked beans, potato

General store cupboard - tinned tomatoes, lots of herbs/spices/garlic/chilli, some dairy free treats like Nakd bars, dairy free chocolate all bought in the Free From aisle. Olives, vegetable oil for vegan cakes, quinoa, cous cous, wholewheat pasta & rice.

Fridge - she likes coconut milk in porridge & drinks, 'Pure' dairy free spread

Its worth trying different sorts of vegan cheese.

Some are minging, some less so.

At the moment I have milk (almond, and a chocolate oat). Alpro yogurts. Violife cheese slices
Sheese cream cheese sweet chilli, garlic and herbs.

None of these are particularly healthy, but they are simple direct substitutes.

Make sure your crackers dont have milk in btw...

How about slices of boiled egg on the crackers?

How old is your dd?

As we were told not to give nut milks/ rice milks etc as our child is under five... Soya only, apparently.

My nephew was milk free for ages (can now tolerate small amounts but not loads or it comes flying out the other end).
Definitely check crackers, breads etc as some will have milk powder in them.
My girls like dipping things for lunches so i make humous (various flavours) and they have salsa (just chopped tomatoes and some red onion) with carrot sticks, pitta strips, cucumber etc.
Boiled eggs is a great suggestion, i keep them pre boiled in the fridge for snacks (me not the girls, they don't really like them). Or sometimes i will do the girls scrambled eggs on toast for lunch as it takes 5 mins.
Will she eat soups? Mine won't yet (they are 2.5) unless they are stealing mine but you could try a few different kinds.
Oh and they like roasted chickpeas. I realise i sound like a bit of a hippy but they won't bloody eat sandwiches so i give them snacky things for lunches.
Celery with peanut butter (or other nut free butter like sunflower seed etc) and raisins as a snack.
Rice cakes with PB/Jam or humous on them (or chocolate spread if they have been good).

Crackers with dairy free pate, sliced or mashed avocado, houmous, dips etc. Merchant Gourmet flavoured puy lentils in a sachet are delicious (but I've no idea what their salt content is).

I'll second pasta and rice - very easy to make dairy free sauces/accompaniments to both. Lots of things you can do with potatoes, minus dairy. Does she like mushrooms? Garlic mushrooms on toast is quick and tasty.

No good for a lunchbox but we get the booja booja hunky punky chocolate ice cream. It's raw and just has cocoa, cashew nuts and agave syrup in it. Totally delicious and better than the real thing.... I say that as I was a die hard Ben and jerries girl...

Violife cheese slices, "mozzarella blocks" and spreads are the only ones I like - these are the coconut ones

Nakd bars

Hummus (homemade or bought)

Avocados (on toast or crackers)

Nut butters - crunchy almond and hazelnut are my favourites.

Yeast pates - the mushroom one is nice and kind of "cheesy" in its own way - that makes it sound horrid, but it's not.

Also I've just bought the book 'artisan vegan cheese' from amazon. Not tried any of the recipes yet but it gets loads of good reviews x

Bourbons

Cheese and crackers isn't lunch

Holland and Barrett usually has lots of great stuff in the fridges including vegan cheeses and yogurts. It's worth a look in.

Small frittatas or quiches made in muffin tins - I use oatly cream and different veg or fish.

We are having lunch as dd starts nursery at 12:30. She has ham, a breadbun, walkers stars, apple slices and carrot batons. She refuses diary. Other lunches are toasted teacakes, scrambled eggs minus the milk, toast or soup. Occasionally we may have fish cakes but she likes to make them herself.

Some vegan cheese is HIDEOUS I don't blame her.

Try violife, its in Tesco. Don't use tesco free from cheese. Again its hideous..

I literally use everything I did before but a different version, cows milk is coconut milk, butter is Pure spread, cheese is violife, yoghurt is Coyo etc etc

Alpro custard and cream for puds.

Houmous fills in that gap where you fancy something creamy on toast or crackers just nicely.

M&S have started selling jars of coconut caramel. Have purchased a jar, but not tried it, yet.

Your DD has the right idea with vegan"cheese". It's vile. The safest bet is, apart from a few items where there are good substitutes which require little in the way of additives to make them taste good, to stick to foods that are naturally dairy free, in their own right.

hoot whats wrong with cheese and crackers for lunch?

We had a smoked salmon on crackers for lunch yesterday. How is it that much different from a sandwich? So they are smaller, you just have more of them.

Wow some amazing ideas thank you

If you skim off the coconut cream from the top of a can of coconut milk and whisk for ten minutes it's supposed to turn out like whipped cream. Supposed to be very nice in hot chocolate. I haven't got around to trying it yet though!

Almond milk makes an amazing hot chocolate (Just almond milk, cocoa and sweetner of choice), I bet she thinks it's got milk in it!

My son loved almond butter sandwiches, almond milk (unsweetened) for cereal/ porridge/ hot chocolate. The latter is fortified too, I like the alpro and almond breeze versions.

I think almond is pretty high in calcium?!

OP many children who have issues with cows milk will have issues with soya - similar proteins.

Id maybe consider it when you buy soya as alternatives.

Dd is 18 months