I'm not sure if I've mentioned this or not (I must re-read some of my previous posts!), but we are currently dairy free. We being me and Emma. We discovered in the first few weeks of Emma's life that she has a not-so-uncommon allergy to dairy. This isn't to be confused with lactose intolerant. Apparently some babies have an allergy to milk protien. I didn't even know something like that existed! She doesn't break out in hives, and there are not tell tell signs, well, I didn't know there were. For the first 6 weeks of her life she was incredibly gassy, spit up alot, and just seemed miserable most of the time, specifically when she was sleeping or shortly after eating. After speaking with the doctor we ruled out Colic and he suggested cutting out dairy form my diet since we were breastfeeding. Three weeks later we had a mostly-happy-accept-for-teething-pains baby. She spit up less and I found we were giving her gas relief meds alot less too. We have since been dairy free - that includes cheese, milk, coffee creamer, chocolate, and well, just about EVERYTHING! Really. Read the ingredients of everything you eat. It most likely contains milk. My diet is very limited. I eat my staple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, pretzles, fruit, and the occasional trail mix bar or graham crackers that I discovered are completely dairy free. I use Almond milk for coffee and cereal, and now for baking! I've found a dairy free chocolate bar, but since it's over $3.00 a bar that is a rare treat. We've been going strong for 6+ months now and I can't complain a whole lot because I'm pretty sure my 40+lb weight loss since giving birth has something to do with my lack-of-dairy diet.
On to the heart of the matter....Emma is eating solids! We skipped the puree scene all together and I'm so glad we did (that's another topic for a another post!). I want to give Emma some variety, especially for breakfast, but let's face it, breakfast and dairy go hand in hand. Then I discovered
this recipe for a dairy free blueberry muffin. Would it be tasty? I was willing to try! I didn't follow this recipe exactly. I made quite a few modifications and I plan to make another batch tonight with even more modifications. I was a little skeptical, but I can now say that these muffins are delicious. Emma agrees, and so does my husband who isn't particularly (if at all) dairy free.
My {Pear & Strawberry} Dairy-Free Muffins
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup Splenda Sugar Mix
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup of apple sauce (in place of oil)
1 egg (you could substitute 1 banana mashed...I'll try this tonight!)
1/3 cup almond milk (coconut milk might be nice too)
1 cup berries (fresh or frozen) (in this case, I used extra pear and strawberries I had sitting in the fridge)
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Line muffin pan (12 count) with paper cups or spray with Pam
Mix dry ingredients.
Mix wet ingredients separately and then whisk into dry ingredients.
Fold in berries/fruit
Bake 20-25 minutes, until golden on top.
I didn't use the "topping" mix listed in the
a dairy free blueberry muffin recipe. This cut out unnecessary sugars and colories. This muffin was so yummy and light! Tonight, if Emma goes to sleep easily, I think I might experiment yet again...this time with diced apples, a touch of cinnamon and vanilla. My mouth is watering already...
Dairy free eating isn't so bad...It's actually quite yummy when you experiement a little. I might just opt for mostly-dairy-free even after I'm done breastfeeding. Stay thin in the kitchen, right!?
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