The "Other" Milk

Hello Friends,

2015 has started with many healthy changes in our family and I'm excited to share them with you all.  The first being the Whole 30 cleanse that my husband and I did together.  He needed to make some changes to lower his cholesterol and just feel better all over, so we decided to try the Whole 30.  We didn't know what we were in for, but it has landed us on the right track of a healthier and happier life and home.  One of the things we had to abstain from on the Whole 30 was dairy (butter, cheese, and milk) of all kinds, which was exceedingly difficult for us both.  My husband loves cheese and I love cream in my coffee.  I, however, found myself not hating black coffee; something I was not expecting to tolerate.  Since not consuming dairy we both feel so much healthier.  I know that He has some sort of milk/dairy intolerance (me not so much), but I wanted to take this journey with him in solidarity.  So, in our quest to find a good dairy alternative, I've been shopping at our local Whole Foods Market because they are kind and generous to sample me (at no charge) whatever of new milk types that are out there; and believe me, there are a lot! I have tried various types of rice milk, almond milk, coconut milk and most recently today I tried flax milk.  Flax milk wasn't even on my radar, but I took one sip of the Good Karma Flax Milk (original) and was amazed how smooth, creamy and slightly and delightfully nutty it tasted! I can tolerate to drink this milk alone; not something I can do with almond milk or coconut milk.  The other reason I'm really excited about this milk is that my son, who has a nut allergy, can drink this milk too.  Flax is a seed and therefore safe for individuals who may be allergic to other nut based non-dairy beverages.  

I hope to get my boys on board the "non dairy" train by making this process of tasting different non-dairy alternatives a "master chef of sorts" experiment.  Since my kindergartener already loves to critique foods, I think he'll eat up this food experiment.  Just writing this blog post, I"m getting excited to print up a scoring sheet and some sort of a flavor profile sheet that will allow us to analyze and score the different flavors of the beverages we test, and then choose the one we all like best.   

I hope you follow us on our journey of tasting different non-dairy milks and let me know if you start your own taste testing journey as well.   

Signing off for now,

Dietitian Momma