Cheese & Dairy
I hit the Irish Jackpot last week I won Gaby’s Give Away for Kerrygold products.
It was St. Paddy’s Day last week, and I guess I had the luck of the Irish on my side because there was:
Cheese galore
And an amazing cookbook. It’s a beautiful, hardcover, book with great photos and recipes inside.
I was seriously blown away by the generosity of Kerrygold’s “prize pack”. They overnight, refrigerated shipped everything to me in California. I have won a fair number of give aways over the past couple years blogging and have hosted at least 75 give aways for my readers on my own site, and this give away was definitely top shelf.
Thanks, Gaby and Kerrygold!
With all that cheese, I think I can make some Vegan Fajitas with Sweet Ginger Lime Dipping Sauce. Obviously they won’t be vegan if I add cheese with dairy, but you could always add vegan cheeze, too.
These fajitas use mushrooms. But feel free to use tofu. I just recently had ‘shroom cravings so am all about them lately.From my last post about my rainy day coffee meetup with Amber, and cookies vs. cookie dough, it seems most of you love your cookie dough. If we all love cookie dough so much, why do we even bother baking the cookies? Because lots of you said you do enjoy the baked cookies, too. Not just dough.
Questions:
1. Do you like cheese?
I loved cheese before I stopped eating it about 7-8 years ago. I used to eat any and all types of cheese.
I’m pretty sure Triscuits + Cheese + Wine was dinner at least twice a week in my early 20s. And honestly, those were great “dinners” and memories.
2. If you don’t like or eat cheese, why not?
For most of my life, I have eaten a largely plant-based diet. Vegetarian, vegan, or pescatarian. I dislike labels and since we are all on our own journey, and life ebbs, flows, evolves, and changes, we ought to be present and aware of what will work for us as life and our needs and desires change.
Growing up, even as a small child, I never liked or ate red meat or pork. I ate very limited amounts of poultry and did enjoy fish. However, I have food allergies, including anaphalactic reactions to shellfish that came on out of no where when I was 24.
Around that time I also felt like dairy was also a culprit and I eliminated dairy, including cheese, from my diet.
However, in recent years, it seems that dairy in trace/smaller amounts such as in butterscotch chips or in white chocolate in desserts or in cream in coffee, I don’t seem to have any issues or reactions. I haven’t tried eating cheese though.
No issues with the butterscotch chips in No Bake GF Peanut Butter Marshmallow Bars with Chocolate Frosting
Maybe in small amounts, my body is ok with dairy?
3. If you’re dairy free or vegan, do you miss cheese? Do you miss dairy? Would you miss dairy if you were to give it up?
Many people say they could never go vegan because they’d miss dairy, cheese, yogurt, and such. I’ve said before I really don’t miss cheese or dairy (aside from the traces that I have in recipes). Until I open my refrigerator and see all the cheese I just won.
Or walk around my neighborhood and see people drinking wine and eating cheese. I guess perhaps I miss the memories.
I know we don’t “need” dairy. I did a post on it. Dairy FAQ’s, Calcium, Myths, Recipes. But I do think I “need” white chocolate in my life.
I love nutritional yeast for all it’s cheezy vegan-ness. I have a nooch recipes post with about 15 cheezy recipe ideas but let’s face it, cheeze is not cheese.
Do you eat cheese? Or dairy? Would you miss it if you didn’t eat it?
I very occasionally eat yogurt and cheese…but if it’s unfermented (milk, ice cream, etc), it will give me a stomach ache!
I never thought I could give up dairy. After reading the China Study I did and about 2 months later the thought of eating cheese or any dairy turned my stomach. It has been almost 3 years and I don’t ever see myself going back. Just the smell of dairy makes my stomach feel funny. Strange how your body changes and is more sensitive to things.
i just gave up cheese in january, and aside from a few slip-ups (nachos are my favorite food EVER! ugh!) I have pretty much stuck to it My body has felt TONS better in doing so, and after my few slip-ups I noticed I was feeling icky, gassy and bloated. Obviously the no-cheese is working so I’m sticking to it. :)
I have a funky diet now, pretty much vegan with fish. I went off dairy since I determined that was the cause of my gassy, bloated cramping stomach, and I can tell when I eat it now. Supposedly I am slightly intolerant to casein, but I find I feel the best just not eating it. Yes, I do miss cheese, but I find other things to supplement my craving. Sorbet=Ice cream, hummus=sour cream, almond milk=skim milk, TJ chocolate=chocolate, and the list goes on. It’s not a perfect science for me, but I usually can find something that will fix the craving. Thanks to Averie I have used the PB cups which REALLY do it for me, and so many other recipes she has posted.
Congrats on your win–what a very generous haul!
It’ll be really interesting to see how you feel with some cheese: since it seems like you have good memories associated with it, and a positive attitude about it, I bet you’ll be fine.
I actually really dislike cheese and butter–and pretty much always have–there’s something really unpleasant to me in the taste and smell. When I lived in HI and was around goats, I enjoyed goat cheese, though, so maybe it’s just something about the cow…
I absolutely adore cheese. I could give up all other dairy no problem … but not cheese!!
So will Scott and Skylar be eating a lot of cheese in the next while? :-)
Congrats on the cheese! I know you’ll put it to good use, even if you have to freeze a lot of it.
I avoid dairy for the most part, because I generally look and feel better with keeping it (mostly) out of my diet. That being said, I definitely enjoy some every now and then. It’s all about staying flexible and continuously curious about works for us at any given time. For example:
One thing I’ve observed is that like another commenter said above, trace amounts, like what’s in some dark chocolates, don’t seem to bother me.
So I’ll continue to monitor the situation and let things evolve.
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omgosh! i am totally jealous! that cheese would be eaten in like a week at my house!! i love it!
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your blog sure does rank high in bing for some keyphrases,thats how i got here and i must say it deserves the rankings.really liked this post.
Britney is a raging moron who doesn’t understand how lucky she is to have made it this far with no talent