Dear Dairy

so I really have not done much in the past few days towards my holiday life - what a surprise! But.... a new resolution: to try dairy-free for a couple of weeks to see if it makes my symptoms of irritable bowel a bit less noticeable. My lovely sister-in-law has been doing it successfully for months and months now, and is quite evangelical about it. No bloated belly, or stomach pains and cramps? Sounds like my kind of cup of tea.... and when better to try it then when I'm 'on' a 'holiday'.
So first I trialled some rice milk, seeing as soy milk tastes like old sour cheese. My conclusions surprised me: it is pale and watery, and in your cup of tea or coffee appears not to be there, but the taste is subtle and not bad, and your drink or food retains it's flavour, rather than being drowned out by gross gross soy gross-ness... For the first few days I have had it in my hot drinks, and on my muesli(yes, my muesli has those yoghurt-covered raisins in it), and the transition has been smooth. My first challenge however, came when I was out at the mall and needed my traditional shopping boost of poorly made burnt coffee covered in lukewarm foam. Well, I realised I would have to face up to my soy demon, but chose a chai rather than coffee, hoping that the sugary spicey flavour would hide the other. And it did! It was warm, yummy, sweet and did the trick: another hurdle conquered!
Next under the looking glass was the main meals - breakfast and lunch were largely do-able thanks to hummus spreads and olivani, but dinner is when I have to feed my husband something that he will actually like... First night I cooked some easy pasta with a thick tomato sauce, soft-boiled a couple of eggs and then made us up separate dishes, his with ham and cheese layered with the egg on top of the pasta, mine with huge portions of tomato and avocado and cucumber over the egg over the pasta. It was veeerrrry tasty and satisfying, and the rich creamy avocado filled in the cheese gap admirably.
Night two we had my parents over for dinner, and josh cooked the meats etc so it was easy: tender marinated pork chops and chunky sausages served with sweet corn and sizzling buttered potatos, with a salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber and of course avocado again... success! Unfortunately I let That Man loose on the dessert as well, and he concocted some heavenly crushed/upside-down/macaroon/custard pots that tasted like refined gold. Full of milk however, my portion probably contained at least half a cup. But it tasted goooood!
Tonight I was determined to 'do gooder', and since we were both feeling very sunned and sleepy, we made separate basic dinners: He had good ole' toasted sandwiches and I heated up the left over pasta with sundried tomatoes and, yes, dollops of avocado with cucumber and lettuce on top. My sister and man were coming for dessert, so I relented a little and made ye olde one-egg chocolate cake with wholegrain flour, and although I did end up using regular skim cow milk - 1/2 cup for the whole cake - I did replace the butter with olivani, and it worked perfectly! Light and grainy and chocolaty. Seeing as the Baking Frenzy was upon me I also baked some fruit salad muffins, and managed to make them completely dairy free, and they taste delicious. So I feel encouraged about my stand against The Bloat, and will see if I can have an entirely dairy-free day tomorrow... not sure how this programme will stand up to the rigours of normal life when I have no Man available to help with the kids, and less time to cook for myself!