My dairy-free journey – Part 2

So in My dairy-free journey – Part 1, I talked about how I hit an area of confusion when it came to some labelling I noticed. I said I would talk about it further in my next post, so this post is just on that.

Just like in this link discussion, which will take you to Allergy Insight, it is shown how people cannot come to same agreement.
I doubt coming to the same  agreement will happen in my lifetime. But I would like to see it happen.

‘Dairy free’ is what I have known for years, as a label. I have known and trusted this term even before becoming dairy-free myself.

A new labelling I have come across is ‘milk free.’
I don’t know how long this has started being labelled on ‘Free From’ products, but I have only become recently aware of it, being dairy-free this time round. I am very cautious about this labelling and I have every reason to.

I wrote to two companies; one a well known supermarket and the other a manufacturer of a product I recently bought, but was hesitant to use, regardless it was suitable for vegans and because I just turned something else down at my mum’s that seamt ok looking at ingredients, but didn’t have faith in it, when it came to the pastry.

Supermarket’s reply to me was short. They did not answer all my questions because they did not answer a question I had on a particular product, in addition to their labelling. All they said was, “… products that are milk free are not always completely dairy free.

Our free from range is filled with dairy free and many other free from products, so always be sure to double check the ingredients.”

Where as the manufacturer of a couple of products I wanted to query, they were more helpful. They said “Milk-free and dairy-free do mean the same thing however this may differ on our packaging depending on what version is being used…

Whilst our chicken pies do not contain any dairy, they are produced at the same site as our quiche which does, which is why we do not make a dairy or milk free claim on them.

Our pastry is produced on a different line and as a result, is safe to be labelled milk free.

If any milk containing ingredients are used in our products then this will be clearly labelled in our ingredients deck…”

Now armed with the answers from both places I contacted, from this, for me, I know my choices. But you can see why there is still confusion about labelling on food products?
For me, as I don’t have an allergy with milk that it can harm me, I can relax. But can someone with a serious milk allergy relax with these replies?

 

© Elizabeth Fisher and My Wellbeing and Learning Journey.

Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to My Wellbeing and Learning Journey with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. (But Guest Posts that feature on my blog are not allowed at all to be duplicated, as that is their copyright.)

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Tomato and broccoli quiche (dairy-free)

Here’s the recipe I found I don’t know where from and I adapted to make it dairy-free, to suit me.
This is my first dairy-free baking.

Ingredients:

110g broccoli cut into florettes
2 tomatoes cut into 12 slices
110g of dairy-free cheese – cheddar flavour
4 large eggs (or 5 medium eggs as I had on hand)
100mls of unsweetened soya milk
1 tbsp grated onion
Salt and pepper
Ready shortcrust pastry (or make your own)

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C.

Blanch the broccoli florettes in boiling water for 2 minutes then plunge into cold water and drain. (Sit florettes on kitchen paper, until being used.)

Grease a 20cm by 24cm dish, or 20cm round dish as I used. So you may find you will not need all the amount of ingredients, if using 20cm round dish.

Unroll pastry and place in your dish, pressing into the edges and trim off excess pastry with a knife.
Bake your pastry first using the ‘bake blind’ method.

After your pastry has been ‘baked blind’, put 3/4 of the cheese in the base of the pastry case.

Pat tomato slices dry and lay over the cheese, followed by the broccoli.
Top with cheese.

Whisk together the egg, soya milk, onion, salt and pepper and pour over the ingredients.

Bake on the middle shelf if the oven for 40-45 minutes, or 35-40 minutes if using a 20cm round dish.

Quiche will rise during cooking, but will settle down when out of the oven.

This was my quiche, in the two photos below.

 

Tomato and broccoli dairy-free quiche

 

© Elizabeth Fisher and My Wellbeing and Learning Journey.

Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to My Wellbeing and Learning Journey with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. (But Guest Posts that feature on my blog are not allowed at all to be duplicated, as that is their copyright.)

My dairy-free journey – Part 1

Since early June, I have reduced my dairy intake.
I started cutting out milk and yogurt, using soya alternatives instead.
I also cut out, butter/margarine, ice-cream and dairy chocolate. Again, I used dairy-free alternatives to these.

From 20th July I became totally dairy-free and my challenge is to keep it that way.

I decided to cut dairy out of my life, because from reducing it in the past before, I have found the phlegm problem I can get at times at the back of my throat, to be nil. So I am completely cutting out dairy, for curiosity. This is going to continue way into next year and it will be more likely when my hayfever symptoms have finished, before I re-evaluate what I am going to do by then; whether I continue dairy free, or reduce it.

I hope you enjoy following me on this journey and I know there are a few of you that are dairy-free and have been doing it for much longer than me. I will look forward to your advice, or just chat on the topic.

I find eating in is much easier, than eating out. This is because:

• I feel have more choice in what I want to eat.
• I feel limited to food choices, or no choice when eating out.
• I feel in control, knowing what is exactly in my food.

I only eat chicken for my meat, which is not often. Rest of the time, it’s either vegetarian, or vegan meals, or fish.
Now I am going dairy-free, I am aware that it has to be vegan food I concentrate on from now on, to make sure there are no traces of dairy in my diet, if I have any food from the supermarket ready-made, or if eating out. Otherwise, it’s cook my own meals from scratch.

Do you find eating in, is much better than eating out?

Although I generally have lots of foods I can trust, I did hit an area of confusion at one point. This involved with a new labelling I had not seen before, on the front of the box. I don’t know how long this labeling has been going on for, but it left me wondering if a couple of things I had from this section, possibly had dairy of some kind.
Emails to query on this, have been sent to a couple of places.
I will talk about that later in the next post.

 

© Elizabeth Fisher and My Wellbeing and Learning Journey.

Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to My Wellbeing and Learning Journey with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. (But Guest Posts that feature on my blog are not allowed at all to be duplicated, as that is their copyright.)

My dairy-free journey and other posts – your views please

5th February 2016, was my first blog post and at that point in it’s first few months I would not have thought would I still be blogging now. But I have and I have many loyal readers and friends who have followed.
This blog was a refreshing change to my old blog I used to write and still is. Many of you have seen me grown. I started off with very difficult blog content in the early years. But it had to be difficult, for it to get better, as I approached difficult things from my past, to help me heal for my future.
My blog became therapeutic for me, as well as helping others along the way to not feel alone. I also felt not alone as  blog followers chatted with me here, sharing their experiences, or understanding.

In the years I have been blogging I have an idea, what you my readers like to read here, due to you commenting in posts and also how you like certain posts laid out. I much appreciate that and I hope you feel I took those onboard, as I continue to write.

I am going on a new journey of making dairy free more permanent. Since early June, I reduced my dairy more than previous before. From 20th July I became totally dairy-free and my challenge is to keep it that way.

I was going to chat about my dairy-free journey at times when writing chit-chat posts. But I think with recent events on the topic I have had, that this would be best in a topic on its own. Would you like me keeping this as a separate post of its own? 

On the subject of dairy-free. There will be a book review airing tomorrow, that I use.

Are there other posts you would like to see?

Thank you in advance.

 

© Elizabeth Fisher and My Wellbeing and Learning Journey.

Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to My Wellbeing and Learning Journey with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. (But Guest Posts that feature on my blog are not allowed at all to be duplicated, as that is their copyright.)

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