Doctor soon

I am going to the allergist Thursday for the first time in a year! I'm excited, and a little nervous to explore problems more. I always say every time you go to the doctor is like dating a new person - you have high hopes that things will work out this time and it'll all make sense, but you're usually left confused about something else in the end and just have a new problem to tackle.
I will write about Mexico and the food there later!

food and traveling

I went to NYC about a week or so ago and I found it hard to eat. Many places my mom took me made me sick and didn't have many dairy-free options. Also, I don't eat red meat and most seafood, so factor that in too. Basically I don't like meat that much, besides bacon and some ways of cooking chicken, and I can't eat dairy, so that significantly reduces the amount of things I can eat.

The whole trip I was hungry. When I got home, I went to my favorite diner and had french toast, hash browns, and eggs. It was so good. Hunger will drive you crazy.

Christmas was ok on the food front. I ate a good amount of ham and dressing. Ham biscuits are pretty much the greatest ever. I got a whole bag of Hershey's candy in my stocking, which is bad, because all their chocolates have milk in them. Even the dark. And I hate dark chocolate anyway.

I will be going to Mexico on a vacation in the near future and I am hoping that eating won't be took difficult there due to their obsession with cheese in so many foods.

The allergy I'm most irritated over for this trip though is my salt water and sweat allergy. No ocean, no swimming unless it's in a pool. No getting too hot. At least my friends are understanding. I just wish I could snorkel. Fish are totally gorgeous! Knowing me, I'll probably risk it once and will be like 'oh I'll be fine' and end up being a speckled spectacle.

Thanksgiving success

Thanksgiving was better food-wise than I expected. Everyone cooked with almond milk and best life butter.

I had:

• ham
• turkey
• scalloped potatoes made with manchego and pecorino cheese (both from sheep's milk)
• sweet potatoes
• dressing
• pound cake
  
• lemon chess pie
• chocolate cake (made by my mom's cook who made it dairy-free)

I had way too much left over and brought it in to work and had a second Thanksgiving for all my friends. Here are some pictures of the food. You can see my scalloped potatoes at the bottom right with the regular cheese kind on their left.

The pound cake (far left) was apparently a little difficult to make dairy-free. I think she had to make a second or third to get it to do right. We also had to cook the lemon chess pie (far right) longer than usual.

Dairy-free chocolate fondue

I meant to post this a while back but forgot so I should now! I made dairy-free fondue last month and it was great!

ingredients:

• Silk soy creamer
• Ghirardelli semi-sweet baking chocolate chips (chocolate without dairy!!)
• powdered sugar
• vanilla extract
• amaretto

First I put 1/2 cup of Silk creamer in the pot. I had a fondue pot so it heated up very quickly (don't let it burn!). Then add in the chocolate chips (I used a whole 12-oz bag, and it was enough for 6 people or so). Stir continuously. After the chocolate chips are melted, pour in a capful of vanilla extract. Then add in a few teaspoons of powdered sugar at a time to sweeten up the chocolate. Keep adding sugar to taste. Then mix in a little bit of amaretto, (slightly more than a splash) to add some flavor and also sweeten.

Get any dippers you like and go to town! I like to use bananas, rice krispy treats, and marshmallows.

Thanksgiving!

Here comes the event the dairy-free girl has been dreading all year!!!

My mom and I had a talk about what we would do. I told her the foods I wanted, and we talked about how to make them dairy-free. Mainly we have to make sure people use fake butter and almond milk instead of regular stuff. I am hopeful that this will be good!

I have been doing better at learning what I can and can't eat. Ranch is ok, because I don't eat a lot. Cheese is a huge NO regardless. Milk chocolate is ok in small amounts, as are cookies or donuts. Wonka has come out with some amazing amazing new candies recently....two of my favs (only one dairy-free, but I can't resist the other)
Fruit Marvels (I've only had the white grape, and it is amazing)

Scrumdiddlyumptious bar....SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!!!

That is all for now...I need to either get work done or go to sleep!! Grad school is wearing me out big time...

dear diary, I suck

I've been eating lots of milk chocolate and strawberry whoppers (malted MILK...didn't know that until today). So I've had a headache all day...ugh.

In good news I found that using two types of sheep cheese - one was manchego, like the closest sheep cheese could get to a mainstream cow milk cheese, and the other was an aged cheese similar to parmesan - I can make a version of scalloped potatoes that is rather good, so there is hope for thanksgiving. The cheese is just way more expensive (of course). Now I just have to make sure that this cheese is actually safe, and not what caused the headache, since I ate it the same days I was eating the chocolate and whoppers.

In bad news, my headache makes me not want to study for my midterm tomorrow!! UGH!

Here's hoping some chicken soup can help...

more failure with dairy!

Success: I went to Melting Pot again with some girlfriends for Ladies' Night and I was fine the next day, because I ate less cheese, and less of the chocolate (which was dark and not milk).

Fail: Last night at the bar, I had a Klondike bar (real ice cream). I blame the two people who came in really late. I was ready to leave; all I had left was trash and floors. Then this guy walks in who I've seen before, and a girl comes and joins him. He came in at 12:45 and we close at 1am. She came in at 12:50. They were in the service industry so they should have known better. And even if they'f gotten drinks and left in like 15 minutes I wouldn't have been but so upset. But they got their drinks and sat there until 1:25. I ended up doing my trash and floors in front of them around 1:10, and by 1:20 my manager had enticed me to go get a Klondike bar from the freezer. So I went and got one, and apparently that made them realize they needed to leave by the time my manager and I were both just sitting there eating ice cream and staring at them. I didn't eat all the ice cream, but I did eat a good amount of it. As a result, I slept in way late today with a bad headache, and I still have it a little even after taking some tylenol.

Fail the day before: My boyfriend wanted mashed potatoes and since I made them at his house they were with real milk and not my almond milk - which is amazing and I recommend to everyone (I get original unsweetened, for cooking, baking, and eating with cereal). So I ate about a 1/4 cup of milk in my portion of mashed potatoes...which apparently was too much because I had a headache all day yesterday. Granted, after all that's been going on recently (my money drama and his week-long kidney stone) I've certainly been rather stressed, and that probably contributed.

Lesson: don't eat things you know you shouldn't eat, and stress is not good for you.