Giving up dairy...

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-15-2004
Giving up dairy...
17
Thu, 09-22-2005 - 12:44pm
I decided to do a little experiment next week and try giving up dairy. This is going to be tough as I am practically addicted to cottage cheese as a side dish and using cottage cheese to make my protein pudding. I'm still going to try to keep the starchy carbs to a minimum as my body seems to hang onto those like crazy. Anybody have any tips or suggestions for getting through a dairy free week?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Thu, 09-22-2005 - 12:50pm

If you absolutely love it, try going to Whole Foods or Trader Joes if you have one near you.






iVillage Member
Registered: 03-15-2004
Thu, 09-22-2005 - 1:12pm

I make it with sugar free pudding mix, fat free cottage cheese, and skim milk.

You can bet I'll be grocery shopping this weekend. :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 09-22-2005 - 1:27pm
you could probably make the same thing as your chocolate cottage cheese dessert but use tofu instead of cottage cheese, it would be similar to this recipe for chocolate pudding:

  • 1 12.3 oz. package lite silken tofu (firm or extra-firm)
  • 2/3 c. unbleached cane sugar
  • 1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • pinch of salt

for a side dish instead of cottage cheese, try cucumbers or other veggie sticks dipped in tahini. tahini is creamy like dairy and has protein and fat that will help satisfy you the way the protein and fat in cottage cheese does. likewise, hummus or other bean dips will give you creaminess + fat + protein like cottage cheese. there are also soy-based things you can eat (like soy yogurt), but i don't want to suggest that you just replace all your dairy with soy. some soy is definitely good for you, but i don't think it's a good habit to start relying on it to replace all dairy.


any other dairy you eat regularly that you need suggestions for?


the hardest thing about giving up dairy is that you may crave it. one week isn't long enough for those cravings to go away. but there are plenty of non-dairy foods you can eat that will be as yummy and as healthy as dairy, you just have to convince yourself to eat them instead. good luck!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 09-22-2005 - 1:29pm
there actually is no non-dairy version of cottage cheese. it's one of the few things i've never seen a non-dairy version of. but depending on how you would have eaten the cottage cheese, there are non-dairy replacements that i think would work well.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 09-22-2005 - 1:32pm
also, if you want a replacement for dairy margarine or butter, there are a number of hydrogenated oil based non-dairy margarines, but i think the healthiest non-dairy margarine is (non-hydrogenated) earth balance. you can use it as a spread or to cook with in any way you would have used butter.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Thu, 09-22-2005 - 2:32pm
One thing with Earth Balance is it doesn't prevent sticking when you're baking.





iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Thu, 09-22-2005 - 2:49pm
Can you use banana and protein powder?





iVillage Member
Registered: 03-15-2004
Thu, 09-22-2005 - 3:52pm

Thanks, Jen. :)

The big thing I'm concerned about is cottage cheese. I'm not even a huge fan of it - I eat it for the protein and it's also convenient and easy (low-carb too).

I'm not too worried about craving it because I'm not terribly attached to it. I'll have milk in my protein shake, but can replace it with soy milk. We put cheese on things sometimes, but I've way back on cheese that to leave it out entirely isn't going to be a big deal. Thanks for the tofu recipe. I've got a "Garden of Vegan" cookbook and I may pull that puppy out this weekend and start paging through it.

I'll see how I do next week and go from there.

One more things - do eggs count as dairy?

Avatar for soleilune
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 09-22-2005 - 4:34pm
Fleischmann's makes a pareve (it like being kosher) margarine which is vegan. It cheaper than buying Earth Balance but in my opinion Earth Balance is worth the extra cost.
Soleilune
Avatar for soleilune
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 09-22-2005 - 4:51pm

There's plenty of great non-dairy sources of protein. As Jen said you don't want to really too heavily on soy, but there is a good variety of soy/tofu-based dairy substitutes (but again none for cottage cheese). Toffutti makes both 'cream cheese' and 'sour cream'. I get pretty good vegan cheese (mozza and nacho) made by Earth Island. I use soy protein in a number of things and as you may have noticed I eat tons o' hummus. Red Star nutritional yeast can add protein, but you wouldn't likely use enough to get much protein from it. Nuts and nut butters are excellent sources of protein if you get grain or legumes in at some point as well. Don't worry about the fat too much though as its good fat. I sprinkle hemp seed, flax or nutritional yeast on just about everything as well. As mentioned above tofu works well as a replacement for many dairy products in cooking & baking. Don't forget about rice and almond milk. They're not as good as protein sources but give you an option other than just soy. Also there is hemp protein powder and hemp 'butter' (I haven't tried them yet but will eventually).

No, eggs aren't dairy, but if you want to kick them too, at least in your baking, mashed ripe banana or a flax/water mixture (1 T. flax:3 T. water = 1 egg) are excellent, if not superior replacements.

Good luck.

Soleilune

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