Cooking help for dairy allergies

Over the last couple of years, I have known that I have an allergy to milk and peanuts.  It has been interesting to observe others as they try to prepare dishes that don't involve these ingredients.  Peanuts are obviously a pretty easy thing to steer clear from (don't put peanuts in a dish and don't eat anything with peanut butter).  Milk, on the other hand, is apparently a little more tricky.  I'm not upset nor do I hold any ill will toward those who struggle to know what foods include milk; it is just simply interesting to observe.  There have been times when I have told people that I am allergic to milk, but then they will ask me if it is ok for me to have cheese or sour cream.  It's odd to me but it does take a bit to get used to ingredients that are usually used but no longer can.  I have compiled a list of things that should not be included in food that I consume if I want to have a happier stomach and nose.

Dairy ingredients
Cow's milk
Cheese
Sour cream
Butter
Ice cream
Milk chocolate (including syrup and hot chocolate mixes)
Yogurt
Ranch dressing (and any other creamy dressing)
Creamer
Whipped cream
Cream cheese
Cream of anything soup
Anything with the word "cream" in it
Anything in the dairy aisle :)

There are many foods that typically include these ingredients, and they are not usually noticed by someone not used to dairy-free cooking.

Foods typically including dairy:
Cornbread/rolls/biscuits
Pancakes
Waffles
Most cookies and cakes
Mashed potatoes
Green bean casserole (and many other casseroles)
Pumpkin pie
Pasta with cream sauce (or gravy with cream sauce)
Vegetables with butter

Suggestions for cooking for someone with a dairy allergy
1. Cocoa.  Using cocoa usually is a good substitute for chocolate, so looking for dessert recipes that use cocoa instead is a good bet.
2. Non-dairy margarine.  I generally have a tub of milk-free margarin on hand because I love it and tastes just like the real thing to me.  I will use it in any recipe that calls for margarine.
3. Non-dairy sour cream.  This stuff is pretty expensive but I use it when I am making something that absolutely calls for it- such as my cauliflower mashed potatoes.
4. Chicken broth. I make many soups, pasta sauces, and other casseroles with a chicken broth base instead of creamed soups.
5. Goat's milk cheese, such as feta.  I don't tend to like these kinds of cheeses, but they are out there in case someone wants to make a greek salad or something.
6. Brownies!  I feel as though brownies are about the safest baked dessert.  I don't think I've seen a brownie recipe with milk in it... including those already made at the store.
7. Put the cheese on the side- or on part of the meal.  A lot of times recipes simply call for cheese on top.  In that case, you can have cheese on most of the dish and just leave it off a portion of the dish.

All in all, there are many things that I can still eat as I have learned how to make substitutions.  There are a lot of meals we simply have stopped making, but we are still able to get a pretty good variety in our food.

So... thoughts?  Anything you were surprised about or hadn't thought of already?  Or is none of this surprising to those of you who read my blog?

Running update

Mmmk, Pam suggested that I blog about running.  Well, she suggested many things, but running is the easiest one to blog about and I feel like I should go to sleep really soon, so running it is.

I'm kind of lazy.  I'm thinking about doing another half in April, and one in May, but those are sooo long away.  It's difficult to figure out what I should be doing in the meantime.  My typical training pre-race includes about 10 weeks of training, but obviously April is further than 10 weeks away.  I ran 5 miles on Saturday at just under a 9 min/mile pace which I was happy about though.

I also was planning to run this afternoon.  In fact, I still have my running clothes on since I never went.  I was literally walking out the door when Jake got home... but then it was way more fun to hang out with my husband than it was to go running.  I left my running clothes on thinking that it might motivate me to go at some point.  Instead I just put a blanket on to cover my cold legs/feet and didn't go at all.  Haha.

I just ordered a couple new pairs of running shoes the end of last week because I'm currently wearing what used to be my running shoes as my every-day shoes AND my running shoes.  No bueno.  I've been saving up money from babysitting to go toward my shoes, and I thought I was going to have enough after babysitting on Friday, so I ordered them on Thursday night.  Then I got a call on Friday morning that the woman had to cancel since her kiddo was sick.  So, now I've ordered a couple of pairs of shoes that I technically don't have the money for yet.  Hopefully I will by the end of the week since I'm working like 52 bazillion hours. (ok, technically it's about 53 hours if everything goes through like it should).  Then I need to save up for my race(s), contact lenses, dentist visits, blah, blah.  Ok, I should go to sleep now.  G'night!

Ummmmmmmm

So, I haven't blogged in a while.  In fact, my blogs have become more and more scarce.  I feel like I don't even know what to write about anymore.  Are there any of you out there that still read my blog?  If so, what would you like to hear about?  I suppose I could write a blog about Amy's wedding that we attended this weekend (which was lovely).

Thoughts?

Grossness

2 years ago (our first summer in this apartment), we had some MAJOR issues with spiders.  I wrote about it once here.  I remember that was our first summer and we got up to about 7 spiders/bugs we were killing each day.  It was really gross.  Well, there was one point when I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen in an apartment and I remember telling Jake that I wanted to move.  I was really distraught but was convinced that we were moving at the end of our lease.

We didn't move, but instead were very proactive the next summer, asking the terminex dude to come and spray both inside and outside of our apartment at the beginning of the summer.  It really helped and we definitely did not have as many spiders last summer.

This summer has been awful again.  We have a hard time getting the terminex people to come and to follow our directions, but they finally came.  It got a lot a better.

But this afternoon, I saw it.  The same kind of spider that made me say that we were moving.  I saw it when I was lifting up a shoe and I screamed bloody murder.  Jake got mad at me startling him until he saw the spider.  Luckily he was able to trap it and kill it before it ducked under the desk.  I couldn't even look at it again.

So, SO gross and HUGE (I'm pretty sure the legs are the same length of a daddy long leg, but thicker, and the body is much thicker than a daddy long leg too).  I'm trying to remind myself that we will very likely be moved out of this apartment before summer starts next year, so it's going to be ok.  But if I see another one of those spiders, I'm going to trap it in a jar and bring it to the office staff and see how they like it.  How 'bout them apples?

Advice

Remember this post?  Maybe you do, since it was only two blog posts ago.  But then again, it was over a month ago.

I went for a run outside this past Saturday and looked at the timer on my watch.  It still read 51:14.  Do you remember what that time was?  It was from my last race, as mentioned above.  I hadn't run outside in over a month.  That's pathetic.

So now I'm trying to plan my next race.  I'm seriously considering the Denver Rock & Roll Marathon:  seriously considering whether I want to do another full marathon or just the half.  But remember that I hadn't run outside in over a month, which really means that I haven't run over 3 miles at a time in over a month.  Lazy pants= me. (And I will surely be out of shape for the Bix @ six run next week!)

Thoughts on whether I should do another full or a half?  I won't have Jake with me this time for training, but he could always ride his bike while I ran?  I also have a friend running the full and a friend running the half.

What do you think??  Should I be crazy yet again??

Lost

Drama, drama, drama.

I have been having a rough week with remembering things.  The teenager that I am paired up with for camp has a hard time remembering things (obviously), and I'm not really that good at on my own (ok, I'm horrible).  I need to be able to remind him of things so that we don't have random accidents (whether that be bathroom, sunburn, missed medications, etc.).  We have had a few mishaps along the way, but not too bad.

Then yesterday I lost my sunglasses at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  I'm pretty sure I know where I left them- and I went back but they weren't there.  That stunk.

Then today we had problems remembering a water bottle.  Then I found out that the kid I am supposed to be with from 3-5p who hasn't been at camp yet was there today, so I was with her today.  She was physically VERY exhausting.  She's a tough kid- but I think I am really going to learn a lot from her (even though she doesn't have any words except sign language for "more.")  I was drained.

Once the day was over I realized that I had lost my cell phone.  I traced my steps, but wasn't able to find it.  I was afraid I had left it somewhere in Boulder and I really didn't want to have to drive back there.

I was so sick of losing things and being tired (I've been working quite a bit between the two jobs), and about lost it.  We came home and I decided I needed a break and was going to stay home from life group.  Then Jake's phone rang... and it was my phone!  Hurray.  We met the person who found my phone, came home with eggrolls and ate macaroni for dinner.  It was fantastic.  We also watched Tangled which I had been very excited to watch since obtaining the movie.   :)

Then tonight I looked on the 3point5 website (a heavily discounted website for retail workers) and found out that the UA sunglasses I had been wanting were finally replenished on the website.  NEW sunglasses for me!  Hurray.  I will definitely not be taking these new ones around with me daily because they are way too nice and expensive to lose at camp.

I think I'm going to go to bed pretty soon too.  I'm pooped.  And I'm sick of losing things.

Bolder Boulder

I haven't blogged in a really long time.  In over two months, in fact.  Oh well.

So today I ran the Boulder Boulder.  It is a fascinating race.  I've never run a 10k before and it weirded me out with all the different ages of people.  There are over 50,000 that participated in it this year, so when you are searching for results you have to look up a specific age and gender if you are just browsing.

I decided to look up 10 year old girls.  There was one girl that beat me.  I felt a little embarrassed by that, but then I looked at 10 year old boys.  You've got to be kidding me.  The fastest 10 year old boy finished 88th overall.  That's 88th out of over 50,000 people.  He ran it at a 5:47 min/mile pace.  That's seriously incredible.  That kid is going to have a cross-country scholarship when he gets to be college age...sheesh.

Anyway, it was a fun day.  I smashed my goal time of finishing in 54 min; finished in 51:14.  Boom baby.  Maybe I should train a bit better for the next race and I could keep doing even better.  Anyway, during a time when I feel very chaotic not knowing where I'm going to be in 6 months and where I will be working next week, it felt good to be able to control my final race time.  Very good.

Here I am pleased with my time. :)