Getting Started

When you first get the diagnosis of a food allergy, your first reaction is, "What is he going to eat?" If you're not used to cooking, this can be a bit intimidating, but if you're a seasoned cook, things really aren't that difficult. Simple substitutions can allow you to continue to use your favorite recipes.
Fleishmann's Unsalted Sticks. These margarin sticks are dairy-free, and work very well as a replacement for regular margarine or butter. You can use them in equal measurements called for in recipes with excellent results. Fleishmann's Light in the tubs also works really well, especially for "buttering" bread. The only thing about the tub margarine, is when you use it in baking, it doesn't perform as well as stick margarine.

Rice milk can be used in place of milk in recipes. I prefer Rice Dream Enriched Original because it has just as much calcium as regular milk, and it has a much milder flavor than soy milk. I use it in everything and it always gives me good results.

Replacing cheese doesn't work so well. Dairy-free cheeses just flat out do not melt. So in our case, we just don't buy it, and steer clear of recipes that require cheese. Dairy-free cheeses aren't always dairy-free either. Most contain caesin or caesinate, which are milk proteins, and therefore can cause an allergic reaction. We have found one brand of completely dairy-free cheese, and I can't recall the name. I drove 45 miles to a store that stocked it, only for it to go bad because my son didn't like it.

These substitutions usually yield great results. Many times people have eaten something and are shocked when I tell them that it's dairy-free! They just assume that dairy-free foods aren't going to be good. Luckily, that doesn't have to be the case!