Help new to no dairy

[NewBallsPlease00]

Having to ditch the dairy whilst BF my son, and I'm struggling for inspiration especially breakfasts
I don't eat bread so toast etc out anyway
Any got any great example menus I can be inspired by
I love cheese and cappuccino and chocolate & keep being fixed in replacing them which is resulting in some revolting and expensive trials!

When I went dairy free, I used vanilla rice milk instead of milk. I didn't like soy milk, tried several brands which ended all in the bin. Goat milk didn't even make it to the bin, I had a taste of my coffee with it and spat directly.

So is it just bread or cereals completely you don't eat? Have a look at the thousands Paleo Diet blogs and website or take a paleo cookbook from the library. Paleo dieters eat no cereals and no milk, so you might find many ideas there.

When I cook my weekly pumpkin and carrot soup, I really enjoy a the leftover cup in the morning. It has a sweet taste and I love it cold straight from the fridge. Otherwise, you could have smoked salmon, crepes, fruit salad or invest in a nice blender and create the most amazing smoothies with coconut milk. More o less dense and really yummy.

Eggs are another great idea for breakfast. Omelette, boiled, meringues , you have endless options.
If you like cheese, ricotta is perfect with some jam, or mixed with berries. With mascarpone you can create amazing tiramisu, and I like thin slices of very fresh mozzarella with sugar.

We like oat milk here and still use it even though DD can have dairy these days.

OP I had to ditch it while BF too. Cereals are fine with oat milk. Eggs/omlettes. Almond milk isn't bad in coffee.

Alpro do a creamy yoghurt (mind you I haven't seen it recently and have had to settle for their ordinary yoghurt) which is nice.

Booja Booja chocolates were my luxury when DF.

Many mediterranean type dishes are dairy free and you can adapt most things (unless cheese based).

The best DF cheese substitute I found was called Sheese - my local independent health food shop stocks it, www.buteisland.com. The strong cheddar was the best flavour imo. I used to cut it into quarters and freeze it otherwise it grew mould at an astonishing rate in the fridge once opened.

Vegusto is more expensive and supposed to be better but I didn't like it.
vegusto.co.uk

In reality, nothing tastes like proper cheese though .

We used pure sunflower spread which is good in baking.

This book is probably the nicest DF book I have.
www.theintolerantgourmet.com/my-books/

Once you get into the swing of it you will be fine, you can adapt most of your favourite recipes if you plan ahead a bit.

I did it for 2 years 10 months and DD had an epipen for dairy for 8 years ...... even though we can now eat it neither of us seek it out (apart from cheese for me). If I eat too much dairy I now get an upset tummy!

If you normally eat dairy just try for alternative milks - coconut milk and oat milk are my favourites but everyone has their personal fav. Obviously coconut milk tastes like coconut but I love it for porridge and with cereal. The other plant milks are more neutral. Try them and see which you like.

Mmmmmm, breakfast: bacon, mushroom and spinach, or smoked salmon and scrambled eggs (microwave, jus a dash of water, 45sec on medium per egg).

My skin always looks sooo much better when i cut out dairy, enjoy.

I put use almond milk for everything now, tea, porridge, batter, curries, cakes.
There's dairy free spreads & soya spreads too which I've also used for baking.

Have not found a good vegan cheese yet, got one from Holland & Barrett & it was disgusting.

Alpro do dairy free custard, Genius have dairy free ready rolled pastry.

Buzzfeed have a good vegan cheese article with cashew "cheese"

A lot of Indian recipes are vegan. Lasagne I make without white sauce, mashed potato with almond milk & dairy free spread. Hot chocolate with almond milk is amazing.

It's oat milk in our household for daily use.
Chocolate is workable. Dark chocolate (check though) from brands like Divine. M&S dark.Swiss mountain bar is fine. And After Eights.
Chocolate bourbon biccies and Oeros can help a chocolate fix.

The only things I find tricky is a decent lasagne/moussaka/profiteroles.
Otherwise it's just adapting recipes.
Lots of dairyfree spreads. For baking I use Stork in the gold wrapper (not tub) .

It's getting easier eating out as new regs were brought in for restaurants.

If you live in / near a big city go to a kosher shop. We don't eat dairy within 3 hours of meat so have lots of dairy free options. Look for things labelled "parve" or "parev". Some of its a bit grim, but there's a brand called Tofutti which does nice ice cream and cream cheese alternatives. There also will be a good selection of confectionary, cereal and baby foods once you need / want them.

Brilliant thank you all very much!
I have used almond milk in smoothies before but didn't like it for cereal, will try coconut though that sounds good!
I don't have loads anyway but it's the cheese and poncy coffees I'll miss most, fruit tea and black decaf Nespresso it is now!
Feeling inspired and going to pop to a giant Sainsburys tomorrow to get a few bits!
This sounds thick but is mozerella, mascarpone and ricotta not dairy??

Of the different brands of coconut milk Koko is the best IMO, especially for tea/coffee. I often use oat milk, especially for porridge and cereal, but it's not great for coffee.

Swedish Glace ice-cream is pretty good if you're looking for dessert-y things.

DH likes Koko Coconut milk (come in natural & chocolate in big cartons, plus those and strawberry in little one), he also likes Alpro almond milk. Available in Sainsburys. Hazelnut milk makes a pretty great latte. Alpro do one, but the Ecomil is nicer I think. Ecomil also do a fab quinoa milk that makes amazing porridge.

If you are craving dairy free chocolate that isn't dark chocolate, you could try Moo bars (again, available in Sainsburys) or Ombar Coco Mylk (mylk chocolate made with coconut milk, health food shops and amazon). Conscoius chocolate makes some nice chocolate made with coconut oil so it's quite soft, I like the one with rose oil in it (love potion I think it's called).

Coyo coconut yogurts are nice, especially the vanilla one (chocolate one has stevia in it). (Health food shops and waitrose). They do ice cream too, but it's a bit hard and icy, the snowconut line you get in waitrose is better. DH really like some things called smooves I get in Sainsburys- basically a little coconut milk ice cream that come sin little triangular carton, they coe in plain and mango.

Marks and Spencer carry a line of coconut things called Hey Boo. They do a coconut caramel (like a dulce de leche) and coconut jam (bit like condensed milk). I mention those and the ice creams as witht he right non-dairy milk you could make a pretty kick ass coffee or iced coffee for yourself. they are also great on pancakes- genius do nice dairy free pancakes (also gluten free). I think all genius stuff is dairy free as well as gluten free (some coeliacs cross react to milk). the lemon cupcakes are pretty nice.

A lot of Sainsburys freefrom range is dairy free as well as gluten free now.

And if you don't have a great health food shop near you, these people are really good. They deliver orders over £29 for free. When we lived in the far north we'd order from them every week, then when we moved we ended up buying a flat 3 minutes from one of their shops. as Christmas approaches, they'll have lotso dairy free treats- from mince pies to puddings, even advent calendars. (although to be fair, the supermarkets have caught up with a lot of that in the last few years, but a lot of the realfoods things are better).

Tofutti cream cheese and ice cream are amazing. I use the cream cheese in mashed potato instead of milk and butter. I also use it when making lasagna. It's my bechamel sauce replacement.

This sounds thick but is mozerella, mascarpone and ricotta not dairy??

In sure they are. Maybe not cows' milk but still from sheep or buffalo or something.

Marscapone is almost always cows milk (I think), ricotta can be buffalo, goat, sheep or cow and proper mozzarella is from buffalo.

We avoided it all as we had an epipen involved and didn't think it was worth the risk.

If you are feeling deprived and slightly flush with cash buy something from here

boojabooja.com

Hotel Chocolat do DF chocolate too.

Depends whether you can chance 'traces' of it really, if you can you can buy more in the supermarket. I used to make truffles with Kinnerton dark chocolate, crushed raspberries and soy cream - not bad and cheaper than Booja Booja which are about 85p each!

Thanks all couldn't get to big Sainsburys today so made do with medium asda who'd run out of koko coconut stuff as it was on offer so trying a range of the milk versions, yogurt and also custard ?? I'm going to be huge aren't I?