Update on Being Dairy Free {and a Super Cute Baby Video}

For those of you not friends with me on Facebook, you may not know but we're trialing a month of me going 100% dairy free (okay maybe not 100% since I decided to keep butter--but it's BUTTER!). Storie has a very significant (read: horrific) diaper rash plus some other rashy spots. My DNP feels we need to at least consider the possibility of a dairy connection. I'd rather believe this particular problem only happens to my nieces and nephews. Since every family has been affected except us to this point, it stands to reason that this is a very probable event. We're only 4 days in but given how much we LOVE cheese around here and how much cooking we do, this has thrown quite the kink in our world.

So far I've tried my Salted Caramel Sauce with Coconut Milk Beverage, it came out a bit thin. I expected this as the recipe calls for heavy cream. It's what I had on hand. Next time I will try the canned coconut milk that is just coconut milk. I've read it is thicker. It tastes pretty good but has the consistency of honey.

I also made some of the one ingredient ice cream. I just happen to have a freezer full of bananas that haven't been made into banana bread. It's good. I like it. I also like that it's healthy. Of course, I added my home made Chocolate Syrup and the Salted Caramel Sauce. Yum.

I've found that almond milk makes a decent latte with the chocolate syrup but the coconut milk is better with my salted caramel sauce--maybe because that's what I used to make it? I must say, neither of them compare at all to my half and half, but it's all for a good cause. Besides, I do have some baby weight to loose and half and half may get in the way of that. Probably so.

Today the girls got up too early. We all have colds. I worked yesterday. I've been reading/listening to Give Them Grace. I thought making girls who wake their mama up too early pancakes sounded very graceful. I found more grace was required than I initially thought. Grumpy mama+grumpy girls+figuring out no dairy eventually brought us all happily to the breakfast table. We adapted America's Test Kitchen's Blueberry Pancake recipe. From what I read (quickly see previously mentioned grumpiness), lemon juice plus soy milk or apple cider vinegar plus almond milk are good alternatives to the lemon juice and milk called for in the recipe. I had the apple cider vinegar and almond milk so that is what I used. I was very happy with it. I did not loose any of the fluffiness and they had good flavor.

Bit by bit, we are figuring this out. This face below is a fantastic reason to make any changes necessary.