How I am coping with not eating dairy.

Those who know me know that the bottom of my food pyramid is actually dairy. When I was living abroad at one time, my diet consisted of just blue cheese + grapes and muesli + milk for a whole year cause I didn’t have anyone to nag me.

I love everything dairy – real butter, full cream milk, whipping cream, whipped cream, clotted cream, all cheeses, ice cream, yogurt, as long as it’s dairy I will love it.

Often times, I tried to substitute milk in recipes with whipping cream because I crave for that milky aroma. When it works, it works like a dream but when it doesn’t…it’s really quite horrid. So, please, do not use whipping cream to make custard and do not pour it into tea. Sorry I have digressed.

Then I started breastfeeding Liam. He would puke after every feed, more often than not, projectile style. At first, I suspected it’s the chillies I had been eating, so I cut that out of my diet.

Still he was vomitting. It was always accompanied by a pained expression on his face, stretched-out back and he would also throw his arms and legs out a lot, all signs of pain :(

I think I kind of suspected dairy as the main culprit but I didn’t want to believe it. As a matter of fact, I had been eating an unusual amount of dairy shortly after giving birth to him.

A slice of red velvet cake almost daily, milk with my tea everyday, hot cocoa with whipped cream several times a week and the worst of it all, I was spraying whipped cream into my mouth multiple times a day because I LOVE IT.

Yeap, this scene in Mad Men was me. I hear you Betty Draper.

So yeah, it’s time to cut dairy out.

I mean I could always use soy milk and coconut milk to replace cow’s milk. Heck I’ve even used coconut cream as a substitute for whipped cream and as for butter…I’m using this amazing brand of margarine called Nuttelex. I swear it tastes better than our regular Lurpak!

Why Nuttelex? All the other cheaper local margarines have some kind of dairy derivatives in them. Nasty stuff.

I can’t believe it’s not butter.

Anyway, I could find replacements for most dairy except for ice cream. I thought of sorbet, but it’s just not the same is it?

I really, really missed ice cream :(

Then I remembered this appliance that I bought on a whim from a group buy site that’s been sitting collecting dusts in our cabinet.

It’s the Yonana! FYI, the one I got is an OEM model, but am pretty certain it’s the same exact machine.

The Yonana.

I’ve had it for more than a year but only took it out to play recently. All that was needed were two frozen bananas and some frozen strawberries. Thaw the fruits for about 5 minutes.

Then, put them through the machine. It came out slightly mushy at first…

And then the magic happened.

Perfectly cold, soft-serve ice cream minus the sugar, dairy and additives. The best damn soft-serve ice cream I have ever had!

So I think I can finally believe myself when I say I could do this dairy-free diet for a year more. Who knows, I might even stop eating dairy then.

Hmmmm, maybe not.

p/s: You can check out all my recipes with dairy here.