Delicious Dairy-free Substitutes to Try

Why Dairy-free?

When my second daughter was born, all was well. She was the happiest baby. We had about two months of baby perfection, and then she developed eczema. My pediatrician advised cutting dairy, eggs, and soy. My baby would improve a little bit but still flare up after breastfeeding. After a month or two of this, she broke out in hives one day and we were referred to the allergist. The testing confirmed that she is allergic to dairy and peanut. 

A restricted diet avoiding dairy and peanut is much easier than dairy, egg and soy. It's still been a challenge to come up with meals and replacements for my dairy-saturated life. For my pregnancy, I didn't cook much and our main meals were grilled cheese, quesadillas and Mac n cheese. I ate a lot of dairy instead of eating meat every day. I snacked on yogurt or cheese, I had cereal as a snack, and almost all of the foods I make for my toddler feature cheese. 

All the changes were really difficult emotionally, especially when I also had to avoid eggs (no butter, no mayonnaise, what's the point of living?). Finding substitutes helped because it meant that I didn't have to change my entire food profile, just adjust it a little bit. 

The Best Dairy-free Substitutes 

For coffee creamer, I've tried a lot of different products. My favorite one so far is Silk Oat Yeah oatmeal cookie. I love it because it tastes the most like real creamer. I don't need to use very much of it, so it lasts a long time. 

They're telling the truth-- the foam is amazing. I don't know how they get it so creamy.

For butter, I've tried Earth Balance and Smart Balance. Both are good. 

For yogurt, I like Kite Hill almond milk yogurt. But just this week I saw a ton of dairy-free yogurt at Target, including Activia (also almond-based). I've tried the vanilla cinnamon flavor and it's delicious. 

This container is about four servings for me. 

For ice cream, I love the So Delicious flavors made with cashew milk, especially Snickerdoodle. The oat milk ice cream tastes too much like plants. 

For baking, almond milk works best. 

For cereal, I like Chobani plain oat milk. 

For chocolate, why bother trying to substitute? But, sometimes we make chocolate pudding as a treat and eat it with banana, granola, and So Delicious coconut whipped cream. It's pretty tasty. 

With these substitutions it's been so much easier to eliminate dairy. I'd love to hear other ideas.