I have 2 in my family with milk allergy, one child and my Darling Hubby. I am new to this allergy (rescent diagnosis, tho DH has shown issues before so we have suspected it and laid off the dairy prior to diagnosis, thus able to have found milk alternatives).
I am a very busy mother during the traditional school year (full time student during traditional school season along with kid/family activities) but am off this summer and am a temp SAHM with the kids. I would like to prepare some meals for the freezer for when I return to school and used to LOVE making casseroles for this reason, but almost all caseroles have cheese &/or milk (cream-of-soups) in them. I can use milk substitutes just fine (rice, cocunut, soy, etc) but am in need of cheese & "cream-of-x" free recipies as the milk-free cheeses I have tried and have access to are not good (I live rural: nearest "bigger-city" is almost an hr; even wal-mart is a good 35 minutes).
ANY help or suggestions for food-prepping in advance with these situations would be greatly appreciated. I am especially looking for tried and true recipies (please note I do not have easy access to unusual items but could find them if necessary),
My family is full of healthy eaters and we are open to trying new things or suggestions of traditional dairy-free recipies. THANK YOU!
THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!
You can make tomato based casseroles too. Make or use jared sauce then mix in pasta of choice.
Make Beef stew and freeze some
You could also make several kids of soup and freeze, many do not have any dairy.
Don't know if you've googled, but there are probaby tons of recipe sites, and even some support sites to help you out. Google is your friend :)
I have no sugggestions for you but am so excited you asked this question! My son has a milk allergy and I was wondering the same thing.
We are relatively new to this allergy as well. I struggle more with the hidden dairy in foods (lactate in breads, meats, french fries, etc) than modifying my existing recipes. I have not found any cheese substitutes that are any good, so we just skip them. I have found a god cream cheese substitute...Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese, I can find it at grocery stores here, but not at Walmart. I use rice milk in a lot of things....works great for pancakes and waffles. But there are things that it just doesn't work for...I HATE it in mashed potatoes. I am learning that often times I can add chicken broth (swanson brand is milk free, other brands have lactate) and it will work. If I need something creamier, I add some flour.
Chicken pot pies are dairy free and can be made ahead of time.
THis recipe is good, even without the swiss cheese...http://allrecipes.com/recipe/brown-rice-and-black-bean-ca...
Shephard's pie is another good one. We like it with cheese, but it tastes ok without.
Beef stew
Lots of soups
Could you consider using beef or vegetable stock in lieu of the "cream of" in your casseroles?
We make a zucchini casserole with the following , blanched zucchini, sauted onion, plum tomato, bacon crumbles, veg stock and brown rice, all in an oven safe pyrex to bake.
You could try beef, chicken or veg enchiladas- cook the filling, wrap in tortillas, line a pyrex baking tray with black or refried beans and rice, top with salsa, rotel whatever, put enchiladas over top, more sauce and bake.
Heres another one for you, take pasta of your choice, top with protein of your choice, add an olive tapenade, olives, tomatoes, onions, salt pepper, worstechire.
You can lean indian if you'd like, a bed of rice, lentils, onions, tomatoes, top with chick peas, spinach, onions, protein of your choice, spice with garamasala, or if you can't get that, curry, cumin, onion, garlic, cinnamon, salt, pepper, and cayene. bake.
These dishes will all be a little looser than a casserole because you don't have the traditional egg/ cheese/ milk as a binder. They will hold up well to freezing however, and can be prepped in advance and eaten in a pinch.
chili seems like another good choice.
how about a bunch of sausage and pepper and onions sauted, then baked into corn bread with some corn nibblets?
If you want to go in the asian direction, you can get some noodles, broccoli, snow peas, red peppers, minced carrot and cabbage, protien of your choice, cook with sesame oil, top with teriyaki or soy or plum sauce or hot and spicy sauce or duck sauce.
Enjoy.
F. B.
Greater Tots in Old Town Keller is a non-profit that helps people with allergies learn what they can cook. They might be a great resource for you!
In cooking terms, a bechamel sauce or white sauce is made from butter and flour and milk. Butter is melted, flour added and stirred, milk added to make a creamy sauce. However, when the same basic technique is followed, except that chicken stock is added instead of milk, the sauce is called a veloute (pronounced vell-ooh-TAY). In fact, that was how the sauce was made originally, (couple hundred years ago in France), because chicken stock was cheap and available, but cream and milk were expensive and only for the wealthy.
So, all this to say: you can make a dairy-free veloute sauce (I can't figure out how to put the accent on the final "e" in this box). Instead of butter for the roux, you can use coconut oil, or dairy-free margarine, or vegetable oil. Smart Balance makes one "buttery-spread" type that is dairy- and lactose-free, it's called Smart Balance Light, Original with Flax. It lasts a long time and you could pick up several the next time you're in a major grocery store. Read the labels carefully, there's only one Smart Balance that says non-dairy, lactose-free in small red letters on the back.
Anyway, use equal parts of your dairy-free shortening and flour. Melt the shortening, then add the flour and stir for about 3 minutes over medium heat. Then add chicken stock. (About 1/3 cup each shortening and flour, and about 2 cups stock for a basic recipe. Now you can add sauteed chopped mushrooms or celery or asparagus, or chopped cooked chicken, or anything else to make a cream-of-x soup base.
An important note: chicken stock is much richer than chicken broth. A broth is made from just meat, while a stock is made from bones. You can make a wonderful chicken stock this way: Get some chicken backs and necks from the meat department, or save a couple of picked-over chicken carcasses from a roast. You don't need to remove all the meat. Place all the bones on a rimmed cookie sheet or shallow roasting pan that has been lined with non-stick foil. Roast the bones in a 400 degree oven until they are a beautiful mahogany color. Then dump the entire thing into a large pot (except the foil, of course, but all the bones, any meat that fell off, any charred bits). Cover with cold water and let it simmer away for a couple hours. Strain all the solids out into a sieve or cheesecloth-lined colander and return the liquid to the cleaned pot. Simmer until it's reduced by at least a third. Taste to see how rich it's tasting, and simmer longer if desired. I reduce mine by about half, but I start with several pounds of necks, backs and wings, and about 12 quarts of water. Then cool and freeze the stock in quart-size ziplock freezer bags. Freeze them lying down flat so they'll not take up much room in the freezer later. It is time consuming, but not much work, as you just throw bones in the oven and dump them in a pot and let them simmer unattended. Your veloute sauce will taste really rich and wonderful and you won't miss the dairy.
I hope this made sense!
