Recipes and Foods For The Milk Free

Beans are beans so I generally try to just buy the cheapest can as possible, especially since I can’t seem to keep any leftovers unless I freeze them. I  just figured out I could freeze leftover refried beans, previously I just threw them away because I didn’t like the look of them the next day. I’m not a picky eater when it comes to taste but texture and appearance can do me in at times!

We used this Kroger brand of vegetarian refried beans as a side dish for enchiladas one night. I almost always buy the vegetarian version of refried beans (the others use beef broth), not because we don’t eat meat but because I figure we get enough meat products and I am tried to eat beans so there is really no reason to eat beef as well. Especially, since they taste the same.

I also use refried beans to make bean burritos and I use them in tostadas. What do you use refried beans in?

My mom made this for me the last time she was done and I fell in love with it! Especially, the yellow squash which I now can’t seem to get enough of. She also bought the shrimp which meant that we got to use the entire bag instead of the quarter of a bag I probably would have used to save money. Mmmmm! You have got to try this. Not only is it tasty but it is very healthy as well and would probably feed four people.

Dairy Free Fish Recipes : Shrimp Stir Fry

1 bag of shrimp

2 yellow squash chopped

1/2 cabbage chopped

1/2 red pepper chopped

1/2 green pepper chopped

1/2 medium onion chopped

4 mushrooms chopped

wax beans, as many as you want

Add small amount of oil to pan and heat on high. Add shrimp. Salt and pepper shrimp. Add one box chicken stock and bring to a boil. Boil shrimp in broth for ten minutes. Drain broth into seperate container and reserve for another meal.

Add 2 tablespoons of butter to the pan. Salt and pepper butter. Throw in all of the veggies and garlic to taste.

Add 1/8 to 1/4 cup of soy sauce and cook a little longer.

Enjoy!

You have to be careful when shopping for dairy free sides such as rice, as these mixes sometimes contain dairy products. While I make most of our rice mixes myself since it is cheaper, I do sometimes buy rice for mixes we do not use as often. I only make Spanish rice when we make enchiladas and I was happy to find this dairy free and great tasting Spanish rice mix!

Even better, it is the kroger brand of Spanish rice mix so it doesn’t cost as much as a name brand which is always good as we try to save money. This rice mix was also really easy to make and I did not even have to really think about it as I made the enchiladas and refried beans!

There are many times when I use a dairy free breakfast recipe for  meal other than breakfast. I like breakfast for lunch and breakfast for dinner. Though sometimes the hubby and I have breakfast for lunch because we didn’t get up and cook in time for breakfast. I came up with this dish with leftovers from the night before. Cuz you gotta spice up the leftovers sometimes you know?

Dairy Free Breakfast Recipe : Mix a Stuff

1 potato chopped

1/2 medium onion chopped

2 mushrooms chopped

1/2  cup of cooked hominy

3 eggs

Directions:

Fry the potato in a small amount of oil. Add onion and mushroom towards the end. Push to outside edge and scramble eggs in the center. Throw in hominy and mix everything together. Heat until hominy is warm then serve!

We eat a great deal of peppers. I enjoy them in many different dishes and the hubby likes the flavor they give many foods. I also love fresh peppers from the farmers market but am not able to eat them all at once. Several weeks ago my mom brought me about ten green and red peppers from the farmers market. Needless to say there was no way the hubby and I were going to be able to eat all of those so I had pull up some OAMC thoughts from the back of my head.

Since our freezer is so much smaller I cannot freeze as many meals as I used to. Instead of putting the peppers in a meal I just froze them instead. Unfortunately I will not be able to eat them fresh now but they will still be really good cooked in any other recipe!

OAMC Peppers

Cut peppers into strips

Place in a single layer on a cookie sheet.

Place in freezer for an hour

Transfer to a freezer bag until ready to use!

Finding delicious dairy free desserts is not always that easy, especially when you are having a serious sugar attack.  This is one of my favorite desserts. I make it with pears and a slightly different version make with apples.  And it has to be pretty healthy don’t you think? I mean it is mostly fruit right? Fruit under all of that brown sugar and buttery goodness.

Dairy Free Desserts : Cinnamon Butter Pears

2 Pears

1 cup softened dairy free margarine

cinnamon

brown sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut the pears in half. Lay a dollop of butter on top of each side. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon and brown sugar. Cook for 45 minutes or until desired softness is reached.

The cooking time and temperature may vary based on your preferences.

I like dairy free fish recipes. Some I like more than others. I do know I like fresh water fish the least. And I cannot stand catfish. And fried fish is my least favorite way to eat fish. Unless its fried in a fish pattie but that’s not really the same.

I would love to eat mahi mahi or salmon or tilapia all the time but I cannot afford it so I generally purchase whatever is cheapest when I’m at the store, if there isn’t any frozen fish then I buy canned salmon or tuna. One of the recipes I make are fish patties. These are good because I can freeze them and then heat them up in the oven for my lunches.

Dairy Free Fish Recipes : Fish Patties

1 fish of any kind, or one can of salmon, or two cans of tuna

1/2-1 cup of dried bread crumbs

1 tblsp mustard

1/8 cup chopped carrots

1/8 cup chopped onion

1/8 cup chopped celery

2 tbsp italian dressing

Mix all this together adding more bread crumbs if it is too wet or more italian dressing if it is too dry. Place a small amount of oil in a pan and heat. Fry the fish patties until they are browned. To freeze: Spread them out on a cookie sheet and flash freeze for an hour then throw in a freezer bag. To reheat: Put patties on a pan and place in oven. Turn oven to 400 degrees and when it heats up the fish should be good to eat!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because of all the great food! (and family, I do love family!) Over the last several years I have come up with enough dairy free Thanksgiving recipes that I do not feel deprived when it comes to being able to eat my favorite dishes.

Our dairy free Thanksgiving dinner consists of turkey (of course!), my grandmother’s dressing recipe, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, and yeast rolls. Sure feels like I missed something in that list! I will be getting the food together over the next several weeks and preparing what I can before the big day. I love Thanksgiving but I do not want to spend the entire day trying to get ten dishes done at one time. Especially since there is just going to be the two of us for the holiday. Yep, I’m going to cook a meal for ten and there will only be two of us. I do love some leftovers!

I had two photo shoots in the last two weeks and just kept transferring everything from my memory cards to my computer. I realized this morning that I had completely bogged my computer down as I tried to have photoshop, websites, and email open all at the same time. So I transferred all of my images to my external drive so that I could finish the photos I was working on.

And here I am after a long day of photoshop, article writing, photo album creating, house cleaning and dinner making trying to work on my dairy free recipes blog.

And the pictures for my dairy free recipes blog are on my external drive. Which is in the dining room. Which is two whole rooms away. Virtually, the other end of the house. And I’m tired.

So I apologize. No dairy free recipes tonight but I will try to get you some tomorrow!