My decision to go dairy free has been no different. It's easy to say, "Cow - I only want you for your meat." It's not so easy to pick up dinner on you way home from working late when your go-to meals are pizza (hello, cheese!) and bucket o' chicken with a side of mashed potatoes (butter and milk).
For the record, when this happened two weeks ago, I picked up Little Caesar's - only thinking of filling my belly and not my latest diet experiment.
However, I've been able to manage fairly well with only the slightest of caution thrown to the wind. Here's a sample of what I've been eating.
Breakfast
Long gone are the days of overnight oats and cereal. Wait. There were never days of overnight oats and cereal. Breakfast is an egg with ham or a pancake for one (made with almond milk.)
Lunch
I felt inspired this week, and I made Taco-Spiced Lentils served over brown rice with golden baby tomatoes, avocado and cilantro. The lentils were made like the Indian-spiced variety except with homemade taco seasoning. Very good though it's true that some cheese or sour cream would have tasted pretty good.
Snacks
Nothing Earth-shattering - chocolate (my dairy downfall), vegetables with hummus and the random salad. The one thing I discovered-slash-realized is that a lot of salad dressings have dairy and the ones that do are my favorites. Ranch? Dairy. Blue cheese? More of the same. I had my salad with Greek dressing, which, sadly, had a scary ingredient list.
Dinner
I've been rather uninspired to cook lately (lentils aside). I seriously couldn't plan a menu for the life of me last week, and everything has been a hodge podge of crap. This week, we went out to "celebrate" the first day of school and had pasta at my in-laws. I did manage to make chicken burgers and calzones (no cheese for me). Riveting, I know.
Dessert
Fruit bars. My saving grace. Oh, and vegan cookies from a downtown bakery - not really saving (at least calorie-wise) but delicious all the same.
Those ice bars are awesome. I love the lime ones..yummy. I applaud you for going dairy-free. I don't think I could do it...cheese is my bestie.
ReplyDeleteI've been making my own vegan pizzas and they're yummy. A couple of options. 1) grab a premade cooked dough or flatbread 2) some grocery stores sell premade dough that you only have to roll out and bake. 3) make it yourself. Then, get some crushed tomatoes blend your own with fresh tomatoes. Add your veggies of choice. I like peppers, tomatoes, pineapple, onion, and chopped greens such as spinach or kale. Then get some nutritional yeast and cover the pizza with a think layer and add some spices. Cook until done to your preferences and enjoy. It sounds like a lot, but if you've got the dough precooked, it takes all of 5 minutes to chop the toppings. Oh, and for something different, I like coconut milk and hot sauce instead of tomato sauce. YUM!
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