Being Veg/Vegan With Food Sensitivities

I've been veg on and off since I was 16. My body does best when it's meat free. Unfortunately I've got several food sensitivities which really limit my choices.

Dairy Free. Dairy is the devil. I never was a big milk drinker but I loved cheese. When I developed lactose intolerance I was still able to handle cheese in small amounts. Now with the birth of my second child I have been unable to eat it without him getting gassy and uncomfortable (via breast milk). I also woke up one day and realized our consumption of dairy meant some poor baby calf was going without his mama's precious milk, and he'd have to drink formula. I'm not an anti-formula/pro-breastfeeding Nazi, but when it comes to my own sweet babies, I nurse them exclusively and wouldn't dare give them formula. You'd have to have me on a slab in the morgue before I'd give my babies formula, because I love nursing them. I can't imagine some burly farmer man squishing me into a machine and sending my precious breast milk off to another species to drink, while making my babies drink chemicals. How is that fit for other species of animal? No thanks, my family doesn't want to be part of that cycle.

Wheat Free. Again, my son cannot tolerate wheat through my breast milk so I've been trying to find alternatives. He seems to tolerate kamut pretty well so I suspect I will be eating quite a bit of that.

Soy Free. Soy scares the bejeebus outta me. No one can come to a reasonable explanation or decision as to the safety of soy, and with the ridiculous infiltration of GMOs into virtually every soy plant out there, you can't even determine whether it's safe to consume or not! (Damn you Monsanto!)

Bean Free. Trust me, this is not a taste issue. I love beans and lentils. Black beans in tacos, kidney beans in chili, lentils in soup... But my body doesn't. I have leaky gut syndrome and the beans make my body do evil, unpleasant things to me. Booooo...

So that leaves me with eggs, fruit and veggies. Yay.

I already make this vegan nacho cheese (http://veganyumminess.com/vegan-nacho-cheese/) as a cheese substitute and put it on everything. I also buy Daiya (sooooo expensive) if I'm making a pizza or something. And thank God for coconut milk and almond milk or I'm not sure I'd survive.

So can anyone suggest some things I can use to add variety or supplement my diet? I'm getting pretty sick of my routine meals.


HeartBeat -- my 4yo daughter
SoulBuddy -- my 4mo son
Superhero -- my awesome husband

 

How about corn (corn pasta) or brown rice or potatoes? You can make a lot of dishes with those .

Also, I don't know where you got your cheese, maybe it was from some local farmer or something, but in factory farming, that poor baby calf that comes from a dairy cow doesn't end up drinking formula, it ends up as veal .
So good for you for saying no to that!

 

Yea, use corn, rice, potatoes. They dont make you gassy, rice is the only grain that wont cause gas. Eat peanuts. Eat eggs. Use as much dairy as tolerable, and supplement with lactaid or just by lactaid products. Also, consider the fact that you might not use these products anymore if your sensitive about the calf getting milk from his momma.
You'll probly be ok if you eat lots of corn, rice, and potatoes.. and supplementing with some of that vegan protein powder, probably costs a ton. I'd say corn, rice potatoes, nuts/seeds. Rice or almond milk, multivitamin and calcium.
Hmmmm.... Maybe you could throw an oyster, mussel or shrimp in there once in awhile if your ok with fudging the vegan, vegetarian diet a bit. I would say sea food is less cruel to animals then eggs and milk. Especially mussels, shrimp and oysters.. There pretty low in the food chain, only thing lower than them is seaweed and algae.

 

Hopefully you're not dead-set against soy products because there's plenty of non-GMO soy products out there, especially at any whole foods store. I can't name any brands off the top of my head, but most of the stuff I buy is non-GMO. Soy just adds a lot of variety to any vegetarian/vegan diet.