Hidden Dairy

I’d like to report that my first 24 hours of veganism were right on track, easy-peasy lemon-squeezy. That would be a lie. A horrible lie. Why?

Hidden dairy.

It’s everywhere! Maybe it’s naive of me to have not paid attention to what products contain dairy in the past but I’ve discover in just the last day that so many foods I consume on a regular basis have dairy.

I think one reason I didn’t think about hidden dairy when deciding to go vegan is because I’ve never liked milk. I saw this as one less hurdle to cross. I love cheese but please don’t make me drink a glass of milk - yuck! Of course, my parents were of the mindset that healthy children grow by drinking cow’s milk but in order for me to drink it, it needed to be loaded up with chocolate syrup/powder. I don’t think drinking milk was very “healthy” for me as a kid.

Remember how I am trying to ease into vegan eating by using a 7,6,5,4...etc. method? Yesterday, as I said in my last post, I had pizza for lunch. Check one for dairy. Then I got to thinking about the granola bar I had for breakfast… it had caramel chips with… dun dun dun… milk as a main ingredient. Okay, check another one for dairy. In the evening, I went to make dinner and figured I’d use up some tikka masala that had been sitting the cupboard for months over lentils. But wait, the masala sauce has yogurt as a main ingredient… and the naan I wanted to have on the side was made with milk…. ARGH!

Yesterday, I put four out of seven strikes in the dairy/eggs allotment box. How am I going to get through the rest of the week?! Well, by continuing to eat dairy. After dairy strike number 4, I took a few minutes to go around my kitchen and evaluate what has dairy/eggs in it. A lot things. There’s a lot of cheese in the fridge, sitting next to 11 eggs. A cookie mix to be made. A whole other package of naan bread…. Although I’m feeling a little discouraged, I also know that it would wasteful to throw these things out. Thus, I’ve decided to not be so hard on myself this week. I’m going to continue to eat these things this week and plan to not buy any replacements during my weekly grocery trip.

That being said, I’m on my last traditional granola bar so I decided to try out Angela’s recipe for Classic Glo Bars this morning! The recipe contained several items I didn’t have on hand - brown rice syrup, hemp, shredded coconut, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds… which prompted a trip to my local food co-op to peruse the bulk food section. I also ended up FINALLY buying a co-op membership, after having lived in this city for a year and a half. Mostly, I’ve been hesitant to get a membership because two other grocery stores in town also have pretty thorough bulk foods sections. However, many to trips all three of these stores has finally led me to conclude that the co-op does indeed have the best selection. You can even buy spices and oils in bulk! I love bulk foods because they allow you to keep prices down by only buying what you need. Which is exactly what I did!

The Glo Bars turned out really well! The recipe was very easy and took about 15 minutes to make. You don’t even have to put them in the oven - just mix the brown rice syrup and peanut butter over medium heat, pour onto the dry ingredients, press the mixture into a pan, and put in the freezer to firm up. Voila! Glo bars for days.

Now I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new blender aka my Christmas present to myself. Amazon.com says its out for delivery - I’m ready to make some smoothies!