So, I cut out dairy. I missed milk on my oatmeal and cream for my coffee. But was dedicated to the experiment, so stuck with it for a few weeks. And then, miraculously, my skin seemed clearer. Coincidence? Well, I threw caution to the wind last week when we went to Walla Walla. Cream in my coffee? Check. Cheese pizza, cheese enchiladas and melted cheese on my scrambled eggs? Yup. Cream based soup (Potato Leek - yummo!). Uh huh. Major skin eruption? Sadly, yes. After four days of having a dairy orgy, I had a small papule on my right cheek, two closed comedones (one on either side of my nose) and an angry, red papule on my chin. Curses! So, I decided to stop the damn dairy again. That was eight days ago and my skin is totally clear again.
With my totally non-scientific experiment proving that dairy makes me break out, I am abandoning all dairy products from here on out. But what the hell am I going to eat? I can't live without cereal with milk and coffee with cream in the morning, so I have started exploring dairy alternatives. Some have been lovely and some have been downright offensive.
I'll focus on milk, cream and butter today - you know, the essentials. Tomorrow, I will move on to cheese and yogurt.
So let's dive right in, shall we?
Milk
Aaron likes soy milk, so I tried that first. He gets vanilla soy milk in variety of brands from Safeway. I tried his soy milk and I wasn't too impressed. So, I tried almond milk. Mmmm. I tried Safeway's house brand (not too bad), Silk original almond milk (ok) and Blue Diamond Almond Breeze almond milk, which is my favorite so far.
I get original flavor because it is not as sweet as the vanilla flavor. It's great on cold and hot cereal and not too bad to have a glass of it as a snack, although, I prefer chocolate almond milk if I'm going to drink it straight. (I have tried Silk chocolate almond milk and it is delicious.)
Next, I tried Trader Joe's brand of unsweetened coconut milk to see if it would be better than almond milk. Oh, gag! It was awful. It was thick like glue on my cereal and it tasted like paste. I ended up dumping it out into the sink (yes, I probably could have cooked with it, but I am lazy.) I don't know if the vanilla or sweetened version would better, but I think I'll just stick with almond milk for now.
Ok, so the milk situation is solved.
Cream
I started out with Nestle Carnation Coffee-Mate creamers that come in little individual serving containers. Unfortunately, they tasted like plastic and then I realized that the creamer has some milk derivative ingredients in it. Fail. Then, since we already had almond milk and soy milk, I decided to try both in my coffee. Yuck. Neither one was thick enough and just made the coffee look and taste watered down. Aaron's vanilla soy milk added a strange sweet flavor that I didn't care for because I don't put my sugar in my coffee. I'm looking for the creamy taste of Half & Half. Next, I tried soy creamer from Trader Joe's (their house brand). It was horrible. It had a strange smell and didn't seem creamy enough. I poured it down the sink.
When we were in Walla Walla at the Marcus Whitman hotel, they had Pacific Natural Foods Plain Soy Blenders and so I tried that in coffee. It was actually not too bad. I checked around, though, and I can only find it by the case on Amazon. Uh, that's kind of an investment for something I think I kind of like.
So, I decided to go to Whole Foods and see what they had to offer. I saw So Delicious Original Coconut Milk creamer.
It was on sale for $2, so I threw it in the cart. And, then the clouds parted and the angels sang! It tastes pretty damn good! It's not as good as regular cream, but it doesn't smell weird, it doesn't separate, it's rich and creamy in texture and flavor, it's not sweet and it turns the coffee the correct color.
Judges, we have a winner!
Butter
The butter substitute was a slam dunk right off the bat. I got Earth Balance Whipped Buttery Spread and I love it.
They have it at Safeway and Whole Foods. It's good on toast, waffles, and vegetables. I even sauteed some potatoes in it and it was delicious. I think it might be slightly saltier than regular butter, but I don't mind that. It reminds me of this margarine that I had in Sweden called Latta that I loved. (Apparently, judging by the website that I found, they have Latta in Denmark, too.)
With milk, cream and butter sorted out, I am feeling pretty good. Tomorrow, I will post some more on my other forays into dairy-free freedom.
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