What Do You Use To Replace Dairy?

[AndreaB]

Let me start out with the fact that we are not intolerant to dairy, although some forms of it bother my daughter. I have not had her go through allergy testing but I am mildly allergic. Milk is easy enough to replace. My problem is with butter. I do have a recipe for butter that uses coconut oil which is ok. We are doing away with everything but butter at this point. I also have a recipe for cashew cheese if anyone is interested. Yogurt would be another one that couldn't be replaced for us.

What do you all use for dairy replacement. It seems there are lots of recipes which call for butter, especially baking. Would coconut oil work or overpower everything.

1. Milk replacements?

2. Butter replacements?

3. Yogurt replacements?

4. Cheese replacements?

5. Ice Cream replacements?

6. Any other dairy product replacement?

Since it is slow on the weekeds, I'll post what I substitute later.

[Lister]

for icecream

Soy icecream- i feel is very good, but you have to becarefull because sometimes its made with umm i forgot but it can contain gluten

for milk

Almond breeze milk- stuff is soo good available in 3 diffrent flavors, the vanilla is best for cereal and the chocolate for drinking, the regular i can only stand for cooking it is a little to almondy to drink

sorry did not see the soy part until i posted i guess that wont work for you

[queenofhearts]

Let me start out with the fact that we are not intolerant to dairy, although some forms of it bother my daughter. I have not had her go through allergy testing but I am mildly allergic. Milk is easy enough to replace. My problem is with butter. I do have a recipe for butter that uses coconut oil which is ok. We are doing away with everything but butter at this point. I also have a recipe for cashew cheese if anyone is interested. Yogurt would be another one that couldn't be replaced for us.

What do you all use for dairy replacement. It seems there are lots of recipes which call for butter, especially baking. Would coconut oil work or overpower everything.

1. Milk replacements?

2. Butter replacements?

3. Yogurt replacements?

4. Cheese replacements?

5. Ice Cream replacements?

6. Any other dairy product replacement?

Since it is slow on the weekeds, I'll post what I substitute later.

I have heard that some folks who cannot tolerate butter can eat ghee-- this is butterfat with the milk solids removed. It is available at Indian groceries, or you can make your own by heating butter & skimming off the milk solids that separate from the fat. This might work if you are not severely intolerant.

Leah

[Green12]

I would also be interested in hearing from mothers, or parents, who are raising a dairy free child, and what resources there might be out there for information regarding this.

Andrea,

The only thing I can think of is Rice products to substitute for the ice cream and the milk.

[Satori]

Let me start out with the fact that we are not intolerant to dairy, although some forms of it bother my daughter. I have not had her go through allergy testing but I am mildly allergic. Milk is easy enough to replace. My problem is with butter. I do have a recipe for butter that uses coconut oil which is ok. We are doing away with everything but butter at this point. I also have a recipe for cashew cheese if anyone is interested. Yogurt would be another one that couldn't be replaced for us.

What do you all use for dairy replacement. It seems there are lots of recipes which call for butter, especially baking. Would coconut oil work or overpower everything.

1. Milk replacements?

2. Butter replacements?

3. Yogurt replacements?

4. Cheese replacements?

5. Ice Cream replacements?

6. Any other dairy product replacement?

Since it is slow on the weekeds, I'll post what I substitute later.

Were soy and dairy free and you really just have to change the way you think about eating/cooking. For milk it depends on what its going to be used for. For cereal we use rice milk or Dari-Free, for baking I find coconut milk works good and really bumps up the calories which I need since my dd doesn't gain very easily. For butter I haven't found any dairy/soy free butters but do allow dd to eat Blue Bonnet Light in the tubs which is dairy free but does contain soy oil which she seems ok with. If I need it for baking I use either Fleshmens Light (I hear this is being discontinued), Nucoa (don't care for the taste) or Spectrum shortening. There are no yogurts or cheese that's dairy and soy free that I know of. For ice cream we just get sorbets which is basically sugar, water and fruit.

[AndreaB]

Thank you Satori,

I was wondering how the Spectrum shortening would do. I hadn't thought of using coconut milk for baking...sounds good.

[tarnalberry]

1. Milk replacements? Almond Breeze or Unsweetened Silk

2. Butter replacements? Oil - Olive or Canola, Earth Balance only if creaming w/ sugar

3. Yogurt replacements? Soy yogurt or one of the milk replacements

4. Cheese replacements? Don't use them

5. Ice Cream replacements? Soy Delicious, Sorbets, homemade stuff

6. Any other dairy product replacement? raw ranch (made w/ cashews)

[Satori]

Thank you Satori,

I was wondering how the Spectrum shortening would do. I hadn't thought of using coconut milk for baking...sounds good.

I've subbed the Spectrum for butter without a problem, I just usually add a bit of artificial butter flavoring to get that butter flavor.

[lorka150]

1. Milk replacements?

2. Butter replacements?

3. Yogurt replacements?

4. Cheese replacements?

5. Ice Cream replacements?

6. Any other dairy product replacement?

can you have soy lethicin? if so, i suggest almond breeze for milk, earth balance for butter (or coconut oil/butter as you suggested), homemade yogurt, anything from the Uncheese Cookbook for cheese, homemade ice cream.

[shai76]

1. Milk replacements? Westsoy Rice milk

2. Butter replacements? We use olive oil and canola oil in cooking/baking.

3. Yogurt replacements? Don't do yogurt.

4. Cheese replacements? I never ever found a good substitute for cheese. We just don't do it.

5. Ice Cream replacements? I have a icecream maker. We use Rice Milk or Koolaid, or homemade fruit smoothies in it for sorbet.

6. Any other dairy product replacement? Vitamins for calcium and stuff.

Here's a fruit smoothis recipe I like a lot:

1 banana

1/2 cup frozen berries

4 TBSP orange/pineapple juice concentrate

1 cup water or Rice Milk

Blender all until smooth.

[AndreaB]

can you have soy lethicin? if so, i suggest almond breeze for milk, earth balance for butter (or coconut oil/butter as you suggested), homemade yogurt, anything from the Uncheese Cookbook for cheese, homemade ice cream.

My husband and I are soy intolerant and the kids both are 1 point below an intolerance. We have chosen to have the whole family soy free.

[lorka150]

okay, then almond breeze is a no go

however, if you are a cheese fan, the cookbook is incredibly great.

[AndreaB]

Shai,

We love smoothies! Especially my oldest son. Thank you for the other ideas. Do you have a particular childrens calcium supplement that you like? I have a supplement for me which is chewable but doesn't say anything about children. I think I'll try and get ahold of the company.

We have a champion juicer that we use to make sorbets and now baby food. We used to do our own nut butters but they weren't turning out as good. I'll have to try it again. Don't do sorbet that often as I like banana the best since it is closer in texture to ice cream. I was mildly allergic to bananas a few months ago and am just starting to have them about once a week again.

We also have an ice cream maker (I think we still have it ) which we haven't used forever since we weren't eating dairy. If we still have it I'll have to experiment with it.

okay, then almond breeze is a no go

however, if you are a cheese fan, the cookbook is incredibly great.

It's a bummer about Almond Breeze...I liked that one too.

I'll check out the cookbook, thank you.

[shai76]

My son and I both take a toddlers chewable vitamin. It's the only vitamin I found that I am not allergic to.

Not sure of the name of it right now. I crush it up and mix it with applesauce for him at breakfast. For me I mix it with my smoothie are breakfast.

[lonewolf]

1. Milk replacements?

I use Fred Meyer (you should have this in SW WA, right?) brand of rice milk and Almond Breeze. I am intolerant to soy, but the small amount of soy lecithin doesn't bother me. Even the FAAN says that most people with soy allergies/intolerance can handle it.

2. Butter replacements?

Coconut oil, olive oil, Spectrum shortening

3. Yogurt replacements?

I can get away with goat yogurt, which I have about 2-3 times a year. I would love to try coconut yogurt, but it looks pretty complicated to make.

4. Cheese replacements?

I do small amounts of sheep romano and raw goat cheddar once in a while. There are NO dairy-free, soy-free cheese replacements that are edible.

5. Ice Cream replacements?

Rice Dream (check labels and their website-not all are gluten-free), Whole Fruit sorbet and Sharon's Sorbet from Trader Joe's. The Sharon's coconut sorbet is the best. It also has soy lecithin in it, but it has never bothered me.

[KayJay]

Would rice milk be okay to give a one year old instead of formula, milk or soy milk? I am weaning my daughter in a month she will be one and I don't know what to give her at that point.

[VydorScope]

When I went dairy free for a while I used Vance's Dari-Free to replace milk in things like coffee, cearal, etc. I aslo use it to make homemade ice cream which worked well. Probably would work well in cooking, but I just used fruit juice as a 1:1 replacement (esply OJ!) and it always seemed to work well.

Yogurt/Chesse I just skipped because I do not like soy at all. Rice and almound milk never worked well for me.

[TCA]

I made homemade rice milk a while back that was decent. Here's what I did

1/3 c. cooked rice

1 c. water

dash salt

1 tsp. sugar

I blended it until smooth. this was pretty thick, but you could play around with it. I think I may try it again and add some vanilla.

Crisco has a butter flavor for baking, but it has soybean oil.

[eKatherine]

There are two kinds of coconut oil. The purified kind is flavorless, and a good substitute for butter in baking. I get it at Walmart - LouAna brand. Virgin coconut oil has coconut flavor, so you can't use it for everything.

You can give a child rice milk, but it is a beverage, not a food with a similar nutritional profile to milk.

[shai76]

Would rice milk be okay to give a one year old instead of formula, milk or soy milk? I am weaning my daughter in a month she will be one and I don't know what to give her at that point.

As long as the one year old is getting their daily requirements of fat and protein from solids enhanced rice milk is okay to give them. My son saw a nutritionist at children's hospital when he was switching from hypoallergenic formula to rice milk, and she went over his diet with me. I kept a record of what he ate every day for a week, how many calories, fat, carbs, and protein it all added up to, and compared it to charts of how much a child his age should be getting. It turned out perfect, and he has gained weight nicely. He is in the 30th percentile for weight and 15th for height. He actually gained weight better when I took him off the Alimentum, I think the broken down dairy proteins were still causing him some problems.

If your child is eating solids well, like meat and oils, then it's perfectly fine to give him/her rice milk.

Lots of perfectly healthy children in the world do not drink cow milk and are as healthy as can be. I've found that kids who don't drink cows milk seem to not get as sick often, and when they do they don't get as sick. My son is two and has been sick once or twice, but it didn't last long.

[lorka150]

AndreaB-

Just so you know, I got mine from ebay for very cheap (I think about $5!). If you want to seek that out

[skbird]

For ice cream, coconut milk is great (if you make your own ice cream). I like to take 2 cups coconut milk, one ripe banana, blend in blender, add 1 tsp vanilla, and stevia/agave nectar/sugar to sweeten. Then pour in the ice cream maker. Good creamy stuff.

Also, you can make almond milk by putting almonds in a blender and adding hot water (careful - this can make a hot mess if you fill it more than a third or half way) and whir. Add vanilla and/or sweetener for taste.

I have made pumpkin pies with coconut milk instead of evaporated. Delicious! Also makes wonderful hot chocolate.

Stephanie

[CarlaB]

I use Ghee that I get from Wild Oats for when I really want real butter -- like on popcorn. I use coconut oil for almost everything else, even baking. I buy both refined, which is relatively tasteless, and unrefined. I actually think it adds a good flavor to the baked goods with either product. I use olive oil and safflower oil for cooking.

I don't substitute for the other things, I just change what I'm having ... Instead of coffee with cream, now I have tea, for example.

I eat Haagen Dazs chocolate sorbet from Wild Oats if I really want ice cream.

[Green12]

I use Ghee that I get from Wild Oats for when I really want real butter -- like on popcorn. I use coconut oil for almost everything else, even baking. I buy both refined, which is relatively tasteless, and unrefined. I actually think it adds a good flavor to the baked goods with either product. I use olive oil and safflower oil for cooking.

Ghee is on the list of things to avoid when going dairy free

[tarnalberry]

Ghee is on the list of things to avoid when going dairy free

Ghee is a debateable item - much like oats. In theory, since ghee is clarified, all the proteins have been removed, and all that's left is the fat, which will not bother someone who is casein or lactose intolerant. (Almost no one has a true fat allergy or intolerance, which is not to say that everyone handles fat equally well in a diet.) But it's an imperfect mechanical separation process (nothing like distillation ), so it remains debateable.