Quitting Dairy - Any Good Recipe Ideas??

That's great !
Most of the soy (and corn) in the US in genetically engineered !
Scary ! It should be labebled. See OCA.com !
Eat soy in small amts --- and organic !
Notmilk.com is the website that got me !
Jennifer has it right...Almond milk, rice milk and coconut milk !
We make wild blueberry/banana smoothies with almond milk.
See catchahealthyhabitcafe.com's website --- dairy and wheat free !!
The menu will give you some ideas--- and the food is wonderful !

Soy is a phytoESTROGEN, so I refrain from using soy as much as possible....since it's already in everything! We use rice milk, almond milk, oat milk, etc. We also use rice cheese for sandwiches.

Oh! I have a friend (whose son is autistic and gluten free - GF) who makes THE best vegan donuts....ever. And she ships them....since I noticed you are in Michigan. I never want regular donuts again and I feel great after eating them. Her site should be up next week:
http://www.heyshugr.com/

Here's a dairy free mac and cheese recipe:
Serves 2

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

4 oz. elbow macaroni
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 T. Flour
2 T. vegetable broth powder
1 cup dairy-free soymilk (use one that has a thickening agent added, like Silk)
2 T. Water
1 T. Tahini (also called sesame paste)
Salt, to taste
Preparation:

1. Boil about 3 cups of water in a small stockpot. Add elbow macaroni and cook until al dente, about 7 minutes. Drain in a colander and set aside.

2. Combine nutritional yeast, flour and vegetable broth powder in a small saucepan, mixing together until combined. Add soymilk, water and tahini, and turn on heat to medium-low, mixing until all the powder is dissolved and the sauce is smooth. Heat until just thickened and warm, about 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat and add salt to taste.

3. Add cooked macaroni to sauce pan, coating pasta well. Divide mixture into two bowls and serve warm.

Here's another idea:
http://www.food.com/recipe/tofu-creamy-pasta-sauce-163358

And yet, another:
The trick with baking gluten-free pasta is to not over-boil it first- keep it al dente. It continues to cook in the sauce.

12 oz. dry gluten-free penne, spirals or macaroni pasta - Tinkyada is excellent
3 tablespoons light olive oil
3 tablespoons sweet rice flour
2 1/2 cups unsweetened plain hemp milk or other plain non-dairy milk
2 cups shredded non-dairy gluten-free cheese
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 to 1 teaspoon gluten-free honey mustard
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup Best Gluten-Free "Bread" Crumbs - for topping
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon paprika and/or dried basil
Halved grape or cherry tomatoes, optional

Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil and pre-cook the gluten-free penne just until it is al dente - tender, but still quite firm to the bite. Drain the pasta in a colander and rinse it quickly under cold water. Set aside.

In a saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat, and stir in the rice flour (I like to use a whisk to do this). Cook and stir the flour for about 10 seconds, then slowly add in the almond milk, whisking to blend the flour paste and almond milk.

Bring the mixture to a bubble (it will thicken as it heats) then reduce the heat to low. Add the shredded vegan cheese, sea salt, mustard, nutmeg, and stir. Continue stirring the sauce until the cheese melts, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a 6-cup baking dish, combine the cooked penne with the hot cheese sauce. Sprinkle the top of the casserole with gluten-free bread crumbs and paprika. Add tomatoes and dried basil, if desired.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes, until heated through and bubbling.

Serves 4.

I keep a plant based recipe blog: martasrecipes.blogspot.com

Most everything is dairy free.

I am not fond of vegan cheese either at least the processed kind. I have a few homemade cheeses and cheese sauces on there if u r interested.

I don't know how your family feels about ethnic foods, but Thai, Indian, African, Asian, and middle eastern foods tend to be dairy free already. And I'd you are not sure about spices, just substitute with one you know you like instead.

Google is a great tool for finding recipes!

Best wishes!

We have had to go dairy free in this house too. I was shocked to learn dairy (Lactic acid) is in almost everything, lunch meat, some french fries, etc. So I am adjusting to reading the label on everything. My husband has been avoiding soy milk. Since soy is added to everything, he is concerned about over doing soy. So he uses rice milk. We still haven't found a good cheese substitute. The other big one he has been missing is ice cream. The rice and soy versions are extremely expensive, so we tried making out own. We made rice milk ice cream last week that they whole family seemed to enjoy. I used three cups of rice milk and boiled it with vanilla bean and scraped the vanilla seed into it.Beat a cup of sugar with two eggs. Added a pinch of salt and added the hot mixture to the egg mixture. We also added a teaspoon of vanilla. Put it in our ice cream maker and when it was almost completely frozen we added crushed oreos. It was a decent substitute. Next we are going to try and make our own version of the Haagen Daas Mango Sorbet.

look up pimento cashew cheese sauce. Its easy to make and substitutes great for sandwiches, mexican food, pizza, lasagna....
I'm with you on the store bought non dairy cheese, but home made is better than you might think
There are so many versions on the internet for cashew cheese.

I recommend the book "Clean" by Dr Junger. It has a great recipe section in the back and its all dairy free. We use lots of light coconut milk - I like Trader Joe's the best. I use it in my kids' oatmeal, I make ice cream and yogurt out of it, I simmer salmon in it sometimes.... the list goes on. We also sub almond milk for a lot of things. We make a lot of smoothies for an easy lunch. Almond or coconut milk, frozen fruit of choice, protein powder and I throw in their fiber and probiotics as well. I use the jarred coconut oil for cooking instead of butter. Works great. I buy a lot of deli chickens for an easy night and keep lots of frozen fish around for when I need a quick lunch or dinner. We mostly just eat meat, fruits and veggies and a little bit of rice or potatoes sometimes.

Check out "Alleergy Proof Recipes for Kids" by Leslie Hammond and Lynne Marie Rominger. Every recipe I've tried has been great!

Check out 5dollardinners.com -- a lot of the recipes there are dairy free! (and affordable!)

Once my mom called and asked the company about using soy milk in cooking instead of cow's milk. They said it works just the same in recipies as cow's milk. They said the only thing you can't use it for is to make Jello Pudding. They have no idea why it doesn't work but it doesn't. There's no reason you could not use Almond milk or other non-dairy milk in any recipie. We have used it in Mac n Cheese and have it turn out.
We have to be careful what types of dairy we eat. Straight milk we can not have.