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severely lactose intolerant husband.
Hey guys!
So I'm a newlywed and my husband is extremely lactose intolerant. We lived together for a year and a half before tying the knot, so it isn't a new issue, but since the wedding is over we finally have more money to spend on groceries. I'm extremely tired of eating the same things (rice, a veggie, and meat) but I am completely stumped as to what I should make because I can't use cheese. (yes, I know there is soy cheese but that stuff is so awful that even HE doesn't like it) Any & all suggestions would be wonderful.
Thanks in advance
-Abby G
Re: severely lactose intolerant husband.
my DH is LI as well. he swears by lactaid. has your DH tried it? works wonders.
why not try stir fry? pasta? i mean the list is endless.....
I'm mildly lactose intolerant and my brother is about as severe as can be and we both use lactaid and have been for the past 14-16 years (he was diagnosed first) and I have never had a problem! The other option is, you can make the meals without the dairy and then add the dairy in for you. I do that sometimes for us. There are simply nights where I dont feel like taking a pill so I will leave the cheese off for me and then put it on for my husbands portion.
There is also lactose free cheese, yogurt, ice cream, cottage cheese, milk, etc. The lactore free cheese is by sargento (I think its mostly string cheese, but you can make mozzarella sticks, shread the string cheese to melt), and the rest is by the lactaid brand and they're quite delicious and i have no problems digesting them! And DH says he tastes no difference between the lactaid milk and regular milk (some say it can be a big sweeter but I dont think he notices it) and you can easily thicken it to make a creamy sauce!
At sea, heading to Lisbon, Portugal
well you can do various potato dishes...just not mashed so there's an option instead of rice...or you can do orzo or pasta.
All sandwiches/salads are a possibility, just putting cheese on yours if that's what you like
Mexican food still works...any non-dairy based soups works, spaghetti should still be good, sloppy joes, chili...I don't think cheese is used much in Korean/Chinese/Japanese/Thai dishes so maybe one of those cook books might inspire you.
I wish the pills worked for him, but they don't. He can only have soy products. No "lactose free" milk or cheese has seemed to work. And all of the soy stuff just has such a nasty aftertaste. I don't mind not eating the cheese- I just wish I knew more things I could cook!
Has he tried to take more than one? My brother used to have to do that in the beginning. You are allowed to take more than one at a time. Also, has he been tested for lactose intolerance? Cause if pills dont work, he may actually be allergic. I had a friend whose brother was the same way and he found out he was actually allergic, not intolerant.
At sea, heading to Lisbon, Portugal
If he is only able to eat soy products, it sounds like he is allergic, not lactose intolerant. They're two very different things. A person allergic to milk is technically allergic to the casein and whey, in addition to the lactose.
I'm allergic to milk and do 90% of the cooking in my house. I rarely feel like there is something I can't make. You can usually substitute water or soy/almond milk for any type of milk and have it come out fine. I prefer the Blue Diamond almond milk. It works great in recipes (baking and cooking). For butter, there is a margarine called Fleishmann's unsalted margarine (only the unsalted one though!) that has absolutely no milk products in it. I use this for cooking and baking as well with no problems. And for any recipe with cheese, it's usually easy to just leave it out. I'm not a fan of the soy or non-dairy cheeses either, though I did find one that is sort of ok. Daiya cheese. I can buy it at Whole Foods. I only use it occasionally. My husband loves cheese and puts it on everything, so I'll sometimes make the same dinner, but in two pans (like for something baked with cheese on top) or he'll add shredded cheese on after it's on his dish. He uses my "butter" with no complaints and doesn't taste any difference when I use almond or soy milk instead of regular milk. Almond milk also makes amazing mashed potatoes!
Check out my blog.. everything is dairy free. Also feel free to PM me (or page me on the Nest Book Club board, where I am a regular... I don't come over here very often) if you have any questions or would like some advice on a recipe. I've been allergic to all milk products since birth so I'm kinda an expert
I sympathize with you ladies! My fiance has a dairy allergy that progressed from lactose intolerance to allergy after puberty so he (and I) are still relatively new to the dairy-free "scene". After my FH and I moved in together and I started cooking for the two of us - it was a major shock (particularly coming from a French family - where everything comes with a generous helping of cheese, butter and cream). I'll give you all the advice I have and hopefully this will make getting started easier.
#1: Planning a meal is already difficult - and using substitutions in a recipe is even harder. You will need some basics - basically dairy-free margarine and a milk alternative (I prefer almond milk unless I'm making thai or indian food, where I use coconut milk). Dairy-free margarine replaces butter exactly so no conversions necessary! There are some handy websites that will list all the items you can find in a grocery store that are dairy free but I know that the Nucoa brand and Smart Balance light (with flaxseed oil) are both dairy free. Almond milk can replace milk in recipes - my exceptions are when a recipe specifically calls for whole milk or cream.
#2: When starting off - I tended to look at pretty much every recipe on foodnetwork, allrecipes, ect. Skip the ones that require cream. Just don't go there yet**. I do not follow recipes since I tend to find it too restraining so I'm pretty creative when it comes to coming up with an idea or replacing/removing ingredients. For example, I was craving some lovely ricotta stuffed pasta shells smothered in a delicious marinara sauce - so my solution was replace the ricotta with meat! I made my meatball recipe in a large bowl and placed a big scoop of meatball mix into each shell and baked my shells in a separate pan so I could put cover them with cheese instead of filling them. Asian food tends to be an easy hit since recipes usually won't require milk ingredients but you can cook pretty much anything while making some substitutions or cutting ingredients that aren't necessary.
**about cream...some recipes want you to process silken tofu to replace cream and some say just use coconut cream. I feel like coconut cream has a really distinct flavor that would be too hard to ignore in some recipes so it's definitely something that can be discouraging. Thankfully - the only recipes that cream is pretty much a "must" is a 'cream of _____' soup.
#3: There are some things that basically just need to be homemade so they can be dairy free. I'm pretty busy so I don't go signing up for homemade pasta but somethings are definitely worth the time! My go to weeknight meal if I have absolutely no time is pesto anything. Buying a jar of pesto from the grocery store is pretty much out of the question since they ALL contain cheese. So I make it myself. I buy a ton of basil, mince up a load of garlic, and purchase some sort of nut (walnut, cashew, pine nut - your choice!) and throw it in the food processor with a splash of olive oil. Then I pack it up in an empty jar, throw it in the fridge and it is ready for me whenever I need it! You can throw it in/on pretty much anything - you just have to dilute it a bit with some extra olive oil. I often throw it in pasta or put it on top of fish (with a splash of lemon!) or jazz up some chicken...endless possibilities
#4: Here are some recipe ideas that will get you started at the very least. You can message me if you want approximate know hows on the recipe. I'm always trying to cook new things (tried making some banh mi the other day!) and I really think experimenting is the best way to go. They do have "milk allergy cookbooks" that might be worth a try if you really want a base of recipes that specifically come milk free.
Moroccan Meatballs over Couscous. Pretty much any type of meatball or meatloaf is my FH's favorite.
Pretty much any type of pasta that includes any ingredients under the sun - his favorite is sausage, spinach, and sundried tomatoes over orecchiette pasta
Curries - thai or indian. You can buy simmer sauces for Thai curry as a shortcut or purchase the pasta (or make your own) to mix with coconut milk. Indian curry premixes usually include milk or cream so this requires a trip to an asian market which should have the mix (sans-dairy) or purchase the ground spices to mix with coconut cream.
Homemade pizzas! You can even put cheese on yours
Jambalaya, gumbo, beans, rice & sausage - pretty much anything similar to this.
Greek is limited due to the pastry and feta cheese in everything but I make a mean greek pork and love stuffing pita bread with pretty much anything and it's a nice change from the usual flavors.
"Winter food" seems to always have more options, IMO (particularly with my slow cooker!). I love making hearty meals (minestrone, beef stew, tortilla soup, beef stroganoff, shepard's pie).
#5: You can make mashed potatoes! My Mum is also a major chef and had this handy trick passed down to her. Basically, you are going to roast a whole garlic bulb in aluminum foil until it is soft. Boil your potatoes, but keep the water you boiled the potatoes in. Mash your potatoes, and while they are still hot, quickly mix one whole egg in. Then put in your desired amount of garlic and add your reserved water until you get it to a consistency you like. Your mashed potatoes should come out a nice color, super fluffy, and tasty! So don't let this limit your options
BTW my FH is also very very against soy cheese or cheese alternatives. I've heard the Daiya cheese is okay when severe lactose intolerants get a hankering for a cheese-like substance but FH would prefer no cheese rather than a semi-cheese like substance. He only recently came around to almond milk/coconut milk ice cream so he is pretty picky about the alternatives out there. Let me know if you need any more meal ideas
Regular yogurt and frozen yogurt (but NOT Greek yogurt or Greek frozen yogurt) are ok for people with milk allergies. My husband (who isn't allergic at all) eats frozen yogurt now because it's just easier to have only frozen yogurt in the house (instead of froyo and ice cream) and he said the taste really isn't that much different.
@smellmh: My FH cannot have any lactose, whey, casein, ect. (the list goes on and on) as his throat will literally close on him. Even goat milk isn't okay!
So his only options are sorbet or milk alternative ice cream. I don't care for the taste of the milk alternative ice cream but FH has been coming around to it and he has a couple favorite brands/flavors now. It is all just personal taste at that point. So usually I'll have my own ice cream and he has his or we compromise on sorbet. But that's just us and how we deal with his allergy. There is a small hope that he will become less sensitive to milk product - although as we get older it seems he is becoming increasingly more sensitive
I do know that there are some allergies that are a bit more flexible but unfortunately my FH is not among that group
I have a very severe allergy as well. I was in the hospital for almost a year about 10 years ago after having "real" butter, due to a mix up at a factory (they put real butter in the dairy-free butter labels). Even the slightest bit of whey, lactose, especially casein makes me sick for days.
That being said... have your FH ask his doctor about the frozen yogurt and regular yogurt. The process that the yogurt goes through eliminates the "bad" things for us. I don't recall the entire explanation, but it is what I have been told my entire life and I am able to eat both products with no side effects. Greek yogurt on the other hand, is not okay because the process to make it is much longer than regular yogurt, which apparently results in an extremely high whey and casein content. Have him ask his doctor. I've had general practitioners and specialists tell me this. I have been severely allergic to all milk by-products since birth and I'm now 28.
@smellmh: I will definitely check then! I'm glad the allergy is gaining more awareness - and hopefully frozen yogurt works! Then our freezer would not be packed with a billion ice cream options
Thanks for the tip!
-Tracy
You're welcome. It's definitely worth looking into for him. I know how gross most of those alternate options can be (though I had coconut ice cream a year or so ago and it was really good. too bad it was about $6 for a tiny container of it though! the frozen yogurt is always the same price as the regular ice cream!).
Also, this website has been very helpful for me. http://www.godairyfree.org/dairy-free-grocery-shopping-guide/dairy-ingredient-list-2 There are a couple things on there that I was always told by doctors to avoid because they contained milk (in particular, lactic acid.. we were always told anything with "lac" in the word is 100% milk. But in truth, it's not). This has really opened up some options for me on what I can eat!
Hi there! I just wanted to share that I was diagnosed as lactose intolerant at age 2 and the Lactaid pills always worked, as I got older I started having to take 2 or 3, and then within the last year or so even those didn't work
After eating "lactose free" ice cream and having SEVERE chest pains / throat closing .. the whole bit ... I started researching..
Long story short, I asked my mom what my symptoms were from lactose intolerance and she replied with stomach pains / gassy ... not at all what I have now.
So, I think I "grew out" of my lactose intolerance, but into an allergy - and it sounds like that is what has happened with him. The throat closing, chest pains (almost like BAD heartburn) is an allergic reaction - NOT lactose intolerance.
I really like the almond milk - both chocolate and vanilla. I usually get the unsweetened vanilla and then put some Truvia in it
As far as cooking, I use water for mashed potatoes and it seems to work just fine
I've also used the almond milk in baking and didn't notice anything different!