In Search of the Lean Six Life

Smarter, not harder. Preferrably A LOT smarter.

Tag Archives: dairy-free


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This Is Not the Post You Were Looking For

You were looking for the post on dietary habits and sustainability.

Instead, this is a post on me giving up on coconut milk yogurt.

It wasn’t hard to make. But in the several batches I made, I never felt like it was, well, cultured enough.

Normally the bacteria eat the sugar in cow’s milk.  Coconut milk is low in sugar, so I added maple syrup to give the little guys sugar to eat. But adding extra sugar – even “natural” start like maple syrup – feels wrong to me.

Then the results were never as yogurt-y as it seemed they should be. Even after 24 hours of incubating.

And I never found a store bought coconut milk yogurt that tasted good either, so….back to cow’s milk yogurt (and sinus congestion) for me.


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Nothing to See Here, Move Along

Yes, I’m eating dairy again. No, the world didn’t end. It’s just once more congested. Of course correlation does not prove causation… But I’m still cutting back on dairy even if I’m not removing it all together.

Future post to follow on diet choices and sustainability, i.e., when drinking milk makes more sense than the alternatives, sinus congestion be damned.

In other news, I think I’m going to open a restaurant, called Free. With a purely allergen free menu.  We will serve, water, air, and lettuce.

Last but definitely not least, I made a thing! Tentatively calling it “Chili Pie with Corn Free Corn Bread.” My first experiment using plantains as a corn / cornmeal substitute.

Chili Pie with Corn-Free Bread

Chili Pie with Corn-Free Bread

I haven’t found the perfect recipe to use as a starting point for a plantain “Corn Free Corn Bread” so I’m just making this up… probably needs a few more revisions before sharing the results. Which is to say, I enjoyed it but the less adventurous folks in my house did not think it a viable substitute for Jiffy Mix.


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Facing Food Myths

Dairy Free: Day Thirteen

I have made it this far, but I’m disappointed. I’m sorry to say it, but that’s the honest truth.

I expected something amazing. Like when I cut grains and legumes from my diet, I could tell the difference almost immediately.  Beginning with the immediate disappearance of the stomach upset and digestive issues that I’d always assumed were natural. (Wait, burping and heartburn don’t have to be daily torture?)  Continuing with obtaining a healthy weight and staying there effortlessly. (Even if I’m still not happy with my “healthy weight”, but that’s another story.) 

But deep down inside, I always believed I wasn’t doing all I could. I realize now I’ve harbored a cherished myth that if I could just eat perfectly, all my health complaints ever would go away. Whatever “perfectly” means.  When I was a teen, my mom would go through health food diet fads with pamphlets and articles and flyers and cookbooks all about how diseases could be cured and prevented, vision would revert to 20/20, acne cleared up, minimal body fat and best of all no menstrual period (typed like a chick, eh?) – all just from eating the perfect diet. (I.e., whichever diet made them money!) I thought I got so close with the “paleo” diet, and closer still when I cut further back on processed and natural sugar. But I just couldn’t let go of the dairy.

And now I have, and it’s still not enough. 

Oh don’t get me wrong. I can breathe – and that’s very important! In fact, I was able to stop taking my antihistamine / pseudoephedrine cocktail two days after I cut dairy out. 

But so many dairy-free food bloggers tout the amazing effects they experienced removing the milk products, I had hoped for… well… more!

Friday night, after 15 days, I will reintroduce dairy as dramatically as possible. Pizza with mozzarella and pepperoni on an Against the Grain crust (which is made largely from cheese).

Against The Grain Gourmet - Grain Free Pizza Crust

Against The Grain Gourmet – Grain Free Pizza Crust

A brief shout-out to Against The Grain Gourmet for offering a pizza crust, in addition to their selection of frozen pizzas!

If this dairy allergy of mine isn’t psychosomatic, symptoms should come flooding back in a wave of Immunoglobulin E. We’ll see if there’s anything besides the sinus congestion that I didn’t even realize was missing until it is reintroduced!


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DIY Cultured Foods – Tip

“How do you tell if your cultured food product is bad?”

“It’s as off-color as my jokes.”

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Not Good! Off color culture

This, folks, is not the color coconut milk yogurt is supposed to be.

I made a double batch this time – four cans of coconut milk, in two mason jars. I’m using a heating pad in a cooler to culture the bacteria between 108 and 112 for about 24 hours.

Both jars were fine this morning, with eight hours incubation time to go. I have no clue what happened to this jar. The other is thankfully ok!  Although I will be inspecting it extra carefully as I spoon it into containers for this coming work week.


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The Quest

Congratulations to me!

I have survived a week of dairy free eating. Unless of course there was hidden dairy products in some processed food I consumed. But guess what? Grain-free, legume-free, and dairy-free really limits your processed food choices.

Plus, I found a workable substitute for my beloved daily Quest bar: behold, the Almond Butter Power Bar!

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Homemade Energy Bars

(How do food bloggers take such good photos? Topic for later I guess.)

The original recipe started with peanut butter, but I substituted almond butter to avoid the legumes. I think next version, I will use sunflower seed butter, to cut down on the overall amount of nuts, since sometimes I feel bloaty after eating too many nuts (almonds in particular).

These bars lack the gooey texture of the Quest bars, but the texture is pleasant in its own right – it has almost a granola bar crumbly thing going on.

Better yet, they aren’t overwhelmingly sweet like many paleo “energy bars” which are date-based.

Recipe to follow after I try one more round of tweaks. Because that’s what I do. Tinker with things.


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Dairy Free Dining Out

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BJ's Brewhouse Gluten & Allergen Flyer

A shout-out to BJ’s Brewhouse for having a thorough gluten / allergen identification flyer for their patrons.  Although I’m now thoroughly depressed about the sheer number of items with dairy. And finding something which was wheat free and dairy free and, you know, tasty was challenging.

Make sure you ask for the flyer in the restaurant – the one on the website appears out of date, and doesn’t match up with the actual menu.

If you’re wondering – I went with the Thai Chicken Salad, sans wontons.

Dining out dairy free, achievement unlocked!