Dairy free in the kitchen

My husband has been back to work now for a week. With the company he works for he can be home anywhere from 5 to 8pm and sometimes though not many even later. I remember one time before he deployed he came home after 10pm. Anyway, due to his work eating out is not as easy as it was before he went back to work. It has made me cook a lot more at home then ever before. It is more then that though, I now spend a minimum of an hour at the grocery store most of the time I am reading labels, of some of our old staples then standing their in the store trying to figure out how to make my husband's favorite foods into something our son can eat. This is not easy. I wish that there was an app that you could just scan the barcode of and it would flash green for its dairy free, yellow if it is used on shared lines or in a place that has dairy and red for it has dairy in it. To bad i am not in anyway techie enough to do this.

This past week I have made a number of dairy free meals some keepers some tweaks and some never again. So far my greatest success has been the chocolate pudding.

Using nothing but 1/4c sugar, 1/2c dark chocolate Hersey's cocoa powder and 1 box of silken tofu. All you have to do is put it in a blender and then let it sit in the fridge. Everyone loved this, my daughter a picky 2 year old, my son the dairy allergy child, myself, my mom and my dad. The only one who did not like it was my even pickier husband. After a quick consult with my vegetarian best friend, I figured out that the "sour" taste he was having was due to his not liking of dark chocolate. He is willing to try it again but with a "milk" chocolate substituted for the dark. I like dark chocolate, so if you do to then you should really try this delicious dairy free dessert.

I know think I am going to post some of my more fun meals once a week. Maybe tasty Tuesdays or something like that.

Orlando FARE Walk ~ 2014

The FARE Walk at the Blue Jacket Park in Central Florida was today. It was very exciting some Teams had team shirts. Next Year we will have one for our team Wes' Wheyless Wonders. We ended up in 6th place, but raised money for a good cause. Here are some pictures from today.

It was a good time and I am glad that we were able to join in. After the Walk we went to Mellow Mushroom, and my son had his first ever piece of pizza. Vegan crust with Vegan Diaya Cheese. I have to admitt it was very good. He also had a kids meal that he SHARED with his non food allergy sister for the first time. They had the kids pretzel with sliced apples. What about cross contamination you ask.

At Mellow Mushroom they have written in their menu that they have a trained staff that will change their aprons, gloves, wash hand, and use a different oven and table to prepare, cook and serve from. So their is no fear of cross contamination.

Needless to say it was a perfect way to end our adventure out with the Central Florida FARE Walk.

Drinks A'hoy ~ Dairy Free Adult Drink List.

Hope everyone is being safe this 5th of May. For many this day is the day that it is okay to go nutty and drink till you black out. Sadly, it falls on a Monday this year so the party doesn't get to go all night long. I have searched the internet for a list of dairy free drinks for this day, and when my son is older I am sure he will apprecate the effort.

Though I couldn't find anything that says dairy free I was able to find a vegan friendly liquor, beer, wine guide. It is called Barnivore: your vegan wine, beer, and liquor guide. You can view their site here.

Happy Drinking everyone, as always if you are not sure ask.

Restaurant Food List ~ Mellow Mushroom

Today we tackle our favorite food to eat when your too tired to cook. That is right Pizza! But wait, how can we get pizza when we are to tired to cook it ourselves. The answer is Mellow Mushroom. Not only can you do dairy free their but they also have an amazing allergen sorting system that you can view here. This is a great tool if you have multiple food allergies.

Mellow Mushroom has been around a lot longer then you would think but I will admit I never knew they had a menu for the dairy free using Daiya Foods Cheeses.  As with all restaurants you still need to let the servers know that you have a dairy allergy even if you order the dairy free version of their food.

So here is the list of foods that Mellow Mushroom says is dairy free

• Tossed Salad
• Kids PB&J
• Kids Organic Apple
• Anchovies
• Andouille Sausage
• Applewood Smoked Bacon
• BBQ Chicken
• BBQ Tofu
• Buffalo Chicken
• Chicken Menu
• Crumbled Italian Sausage
• Curry Chicken
• Ground Beef
• Ham
• Herb Vinaigrette Chicken
• Jerk Chicken
• Jerk Shrimp
• Marinated Tempeh
• Pepperoni
• Salami
• Sausage Links
• Shrimp
• Steak
• Teriyaki Chicken
• Tofu
• VEGAN CHEESE
• Alfalfa Sprouts
• Artichoke Hearts
• Avocado
• Banana Peppers
• Black Olives
• Broccoli
• Caramelized Onions
• Caramelized Pecans
• Chives
• Cucumbers
• Dried Cherries
• Fresh Basil
• Garlic
• Green Olives
• Green Peppers
• Iceberg Lettuce
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Kalamata Olives
• Mushrooms
• Onions
• Pepperoncini
• Pineapple
• Roasted Red Peppers
• Roasted Red Potatoes
• Roma Tomatoes
• Sun Dried Tomatoes
• Baked Pizza Crust
• Bavarian Sauerkraut
• Black Truffle Oil
• French Bread
• Multi Grain Bread
• Pretzel Bread
• Wheat Pullman Bread
• Bruschetta Tomato Topping
• Gluten Free Crust
• Italian Seasoning
• Olive Oil
• Romaine Lettuce
• Salad Mix
• Spinach
• Spring Mix
• BBQ Sauce
• Hot Sauce Swirl
• Jerk Sauce
• Mayo
• Red Sauce
• Sweet Chili Glaze
• Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
• Herb Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
• Esperanza Salad Dressing
• Honey Mustard Salad Dressing

Now some of these items are pretty obvious that they don't have dairy in it, but being a pizza based restaurant it is important to list all items that you can in fact put on your pizza. So instead of using orange to say the full meals it is going to be used to highlight the important aspects of the pizza you need to make sure you ask for. 

If you have a place you would like me to try to find the information for let me know in the comments.
Now, enjoy some pizza!

O'Soy ~ Oh No!!

I was so happy when I saw at my local Winn-Dixie that they had a yogurt that was soy, dairy free and "vegan". Since my son loves creamy foods and now that he can't have them I picked up a set and couldn't wait to give it to him.

O' Soy is from Stonyfield company.

He loved it. I was happy, then he started having a bad reaction to it. I called the company number on their website which said they were open M-F 8-6pm, to see if there was any possibility of cross contamination since they make a lot of whole milk yogurts as well. 

The phone's computer said that no one was their due to them all being in training. So I wrote an email and waited I received an email about 4 hours later. This is what I received, remember I wanted to know about cross contamination.

Hello,

Thanks for reaching out with your question. Our O'Soy organic soy yogurt is
a lactose-free, non-dairy source of calcium and protein. It's great for
those who want a delicious way to enjoy the nutritional benefits of soy,
and one 6-oz serving of O’Soy provides 7g of soy protein. Additionally,
we're happy to say that O'Soy is certified vegan.

We hope this is helpful, please don’t hesitate to give us a shout if you
have any other questions. Thanks again for getting in touch.

Sincerely,

The folks at Stonyfield

Please note that this is what it says on the package of yogurt, hence why I purchased it to begin with. So I tried again.

Thank you for telling me what your package says, but as I originally asked I wanted to know about the possibility of cross contamination with dairy products. 

I wrote that email a few days ago. Considering that they responded the 1st time only 4 hours later and it was more then 4 hours till 5pm on a Thursday, and it is now Saturday. I take this as they do not want to answer in fear of ruining their "Vegan" status.

*Please note that the last statement is only my opinion and is not in anyway related to the company.*

So please be careful if you or your child is really allergic to dairy, in my own opinion I would not chance this product.