If you’re new here and aren’t sure why I am sharing about eating dairy and wheat free, go ahead and check out some of my previous, recent posts. I’ll spare you the backstory this time.
Firstly, there is one ingredient I will be mentioning in this post that is not truly dairy-free, and that is ghee. While ghee is free of casein and lactose, it is not dairy-free. I continue to use ghee because I have had no issues with it and enjoy it in place of butter or olive oil.
BREAKFAST
I am someone who wakes up in the morning starving. I need a larger, filling meal to keep me going until lunchtime. Also, I currently am still working on this aspect of my diet. I may have eaten my lunch I took to work before 9am. Yikes!
Most days, I will “cook up” some pre-cooked chicken sausage on the stove top and eat it along with two eggs or with cast-iron cooked diced potatoes (sweet or Yukon). I’ve found some great chicken sausage at Whole Foods (the Applegate brand) as well as Aldi’s Never Any! brand. I’m a fan of cooking diced potatoes for breakfast because it doesn’t take much time to dice up some potatoes, toss them in ghee with my favorite savory spices, put the skillet in the oven, and set a timer. It’s something I can walk away from and I know I’m going to love the end result. I typically get this started and move on to other getting-ready tasks such as fixing my hair for the day.
SNACK
I know there are some die-hard snack-haters out there. To those such haters I say there is no shame in my game! I love a good snack, especially when the ingredients are on point.
I also feel no shame in bringing baby food packets to work or wherever for some easy, on-the-go nutrition. They are sold incredibly decently-priced at Aldi, so I tend to stock up pretty well. My go-to tends to be plain old banana puree.
LUNCH
Lunch has looked different almost every day lately, but I tend to come back to my staples, which are: a protein (typically leftover chicken sausage, tofu, or rotisserie chicken), a diced potato (sweet or Yukon), some cauliflower rice, and a good sauce or dressing. I’m a fan of low-sodium Tamari and Tessemae’s creamy ranch. I am a big fan of just throwing something together for lunch that is simple and with flavors that it’d be uncommon for you to tire of.
DINNER
Dinner, lately, is where I really am living my best life. I am grateful and blessed to have a lot of evenings at home lately, but when ministry life is busy and action-packed, I don’t have such a privilege. I’ve made a few different things for dinner lately. Last night’s dinner was just a good skillet of ground beef, garlic and onion, bell pepper and jalapeño. It was filling, too! I couldn’t dare finish my serving. It was delicious and of course, well-spiced. Dinner is the time where I get to be most creative. I appreciate this a lot, since the kitchen really is my playground. I spend most evenings dirtying up dishes and cleaning them.
STAPLES
Some staples that I am keeping on-hand these days include:
- Frozen cauliflower rice. I had already stocked up on this for a while since I had the good intention to start Whole30 in the new year. It’s easy to whip up, versatile, and nutritious. At first I missed the texture of rice, but after a few meals of swapping rice out for cauliflower rice, I’m content with it.
- Nutpods Creamer. I use the French Vanilla flavor and I love to froth it in my mug before pouring in coffee, honey, vanilla extract, and a little dash of cinnamon. However, I used some leftover coconut cream this morning with my coffee and I found that it was just as delicious.
- Enjoy Life chocolate chips. They are certainly a pricier baking staple (in my humble opinion) but worth it, and I’ve found I cut costs by buying two at a time through Amazon Prime. They give me hope that once I figure out this coconut flour thing, I’ll be able to bake as well as I have in the past.
- Non-dairy milk. This probably came as no shocker to see. I’ve recently had a variety of different alternatives to milk in my fridge. As someone who had been consuming raw milk since July, I was disappointed but not unprepared to make the transition back to dairy alternatives. I enjoy almond, coconut, and oat milk. I have found coconut milk to have the strongest flavor, almond to be the most neutral, and oat milk to be my current favorite.
- Avocados. I have to be honest, I’m THE worst at making sure I eat my avocados when they are ripe because we all know, avocados are notorious for being unripe for an eternity, perfect for eating for five minutes, and then being yucky immediately after the tiny window of ripeness. However, I have found myself eating more avocado in order to try to stay fuller longer. Thank you, healthy fats.
- Ghee. Aldi sells ghee, which is a huge selling point for me. What isn’t, however, is its price. Call me old-fashioned but $6.50 for a cooking fat is a little pricy. All that aside, I use ghee to fill the hole that the absence of grass-fed butter has left in my life. I highly recommend it to anyone.
- Coconut flour. One of these days I am going to figure this stuff out! I have had a couple just terrible baking fails lately trying to make the switch from conventional all-purpose flour to coconut flour and man, there is a learning curve. As someone who wants nothing more than a reason to pull out my KitchenAid mixer, I remain hopeful that this will be a beloved staple in my dairy and wheat-free cooking space.
That’s what’s been working for me lately! Well, except that last staple. We’ll get there. I’m on the right track here and I’m beyond satisfied with the absence of weird symptoms (ex: chest pain) that I was experiencing before making these changes.
Now that diet is essentially figured out, y’all pray for me because I just saw that my endoscopy insurance claim went through and I’m about to get some bills I’d really rather not have. C’mon, tax return!
SARAH HARPER 