Being DF

Week three. Yes it's been three weeks since I started the no milk, no butter life (no cheese or cream either) And I haven't even blogged any of it. Naughty me. Oh well here it is, the trials of being DF

I guess having a food allergy is like being Introverted, you are more comfortable eating at home (read you EAT at home) and aren't comfortable eating out.

Our culture just doesn't cater for people with allergies, and finally I've got to see this from both sides of the fence - the cook and the intolerant.

So what is it actually like? I think it's quite fun and challenging, I mean for me one breakfast is not the same as the next, vegan pancakes to porridge, egg to smoothie -frankly that's just because I can't quite face the idea of having cereal and rice milk, maybe next week.

You get to try all sorts of things like Hot chocolate rice milk, and DF chocolate. You get quite good at reading labels, and refusing food (which is quite an art believe me)

The first week was pretty hard, I couldn't help thinking of cream cheese, and dairy full puddings, it didn't help that two days after I started we got give lots of yummy food, half of it had dairy in it -funny how these things happen. I have to admit I cheated once or twice, I just got so fed up with being restricted. 

The second week was easier, I didn't feel like I was missing out, I found ways of getting round stuff. I started drinking tea again (coffee and rice milk don't mix) In fact I got up to drinking 4 cups a day - which is no recommended by the way.  But it is fun trying all the different flavours, I've found some favourites -like strawberry tea. And the nice thing is most people have it.

So here I am at week three, feeling as though I could actually live like this (until the next cheesecake drifts past) I don't miss milk, I don't miss butter, cheese (non fancy stuff) doesn't get to me anymore.  I can eat a white sauce made up with water and not bat an eyelid... don't ask about the amount of flavourings though.  It's funny how quickly your taste buds adapt.

The only thing I don't like about it as that I'm eating a lot more gluten, cause that's easy to whip up. Oh well I have another week to play with, and then comes the biggest test of all - finding a balance

Alternative Cooking

Lately the famous 'THM diet' has taken our community by storm...
It's a primarily weight loss diet, in which you separate your carbs from your fats, eat mainly carbs at one meal, then mainly fats at another. It's also sugar free and has limited gluten.

Attracted by the sugar free idea, Mum and I looked into it. Not that we need to lose weight, but both of us have several allergies, that this 'plan' could accommodate.  Anyway a couple of 'E' meals and 'S' meals later, I decided that it wasn't so much for me, I had a lot of air in my stomach, and would always be burping. Mum burps a lot when she is reacting to something, so I tried to find out what was wrong. Turns out that I might have been a bit extremist with my eating, after eating a few wheat crackers when I wasn't mean to, my tummy stopped complaining.
Now this isn't a THM critic report, I like many of the ideas in it, and I'm sure it works for many people, it just doesn't work for me.

Anyway one of the things I learnt from it was how to cook without flour, by grinding up coconut flakes and rolled oats. So I began experimenting, next thing I was making almond milk and substituting constantly. We also have a Vegan staying at our place at the moment which is also stretching my cooking skills, but I'm loving it, I would never have found out how delicious cauliflower sauce is, or how scrumptious vegan pancakes are. It's so liberating going into the kitchen and being able to make delicious vegan food without even realising it!

Vegan Pancakes              
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup flour (use coconut or nut flour for GF)
2 tsp Baking p.
1 tsp Guar-gum (probably optional, it basically thickens)
1 banana, or any amount of fruit
cinnamon (optional)
vanilla
3 tspns sugar (or nativa)
1 tspn salt
1 Tbls margarine (optional)
Rice milk (or any nut milk, or regular milk)

Mix dry ingredients together, then add the wet ones. This mixture is meant to be quite thick, but you may need more liquid. Cook in a pan like regular pancakes.


This recipe is pretty flexible as you can see, I mean, I added my leftover smoothie the other day and it tasted really good. Also I've found if you add an egg or two it makes the thinnest, fastest cooking pancakes ever. This also tastes really good with whipped coconut cream and cooked apple.  It's also really filling, you only need three before you're stuffed -and I don't get full easily.

P.S I'm going to try DF soon, which will be an adventure for this white-sauce loving girl, I'll try post some of my recipes.
-Tiffany