Milk free?

So... while dealing with a few digestive issues, my doc has suggested I go lactose/dairy free for a couple of weeks. At first I thought, okay no big deal, that's a good idea to try and see if it makes a difference... then it struck me.

No. Milk.

No milk... in my TEA.

AGH!

So, I'm kind of a tea-snob. I'm not ashamed, I like what I like the way I like it. And that's tea. Tea with milk in it. Not all teas. Herbal teas require no milk (actually, that's kind of gross - no milk in chamomile, green or peppermint tea). Black teas require no sweetening (unless it's chai, then it's okay to put honey or agave in it, but NOT sugar). And I hate, HATE, the taste of soy. Ugh. What am I going to do!?



I turned to my fb friends, many of whom are lactose free, and put it out there: what lactose/dairy free products do you like? The consensus was to try almond milk, specifically the vanilla flavour. I'm thinking -  vanilla flavour isn't too offensive and should go alright with most teas that I drink on a regular basis (most of my fave teas are flavoured). So I got some, put it in my Earl Grey Creme tea this morning... and here's the thing: It's sweet.

SWEET. Vanilla, on it's own... isn't sweet. So aside from the fact that my tea now tastes, well... nutty... it's also sweet. I think I'll be drinking exclusively Chai for the next couple of weeks.

But now here's my second concern - it's also means no cheese! Oh no! No cheese?! Apparently there's some cheese options out there, so I'm going to see what's what... but they're also SO expensive! Okay, maybe I'm just cheap, but still... I hate paying more than $3 for milk and $5 is about my limit for cheese... looks like things are going to be a bit different over the next couple of weeks... and now I'm just hoping it's not permanent.

Lots of my friends have told me that this is great for baking (which is good), but since no dairy means no eggs... I don't know how much baking I'll be doing anyway right now. At least, not much for me to be eating.

I'm also keeping a food diary. Which for some reason is REALLY hard! I can hardly remember TO eat sometimes, let alone to eat and then write it all down. What a pain. Just thinking about all this craziness makes me want tea... but that means almond milk... I wonder if I have any peppermint hanging around?

Tea.