5 ordinary products you would never believe contain dairy

I am one of the 2.5 million people in Canada with a food allergy.  Mine happens to  be milk and milk products.  And before you ask, I am not lactose intolerant, I am allergic, there is a difference.  I can not have any milk product or by product, whether they include lactose or not.  If I do, I get a full range of symptoms that include more than intestinal issues.  I won't go into the details.  Thankfully my allergy is not overly severe, but it is bad enough that I read every label as often as possible to avoid the symptoms.

Over the years I have discovered that you just don't know what you will find dairy products in, so I have put together this brief list of products that always seem to surprise people when I turn them down. There are of course many other strange products that contain dairy, but these are a few that have been served to me most often in an attempt to make a meal safe for me to eat.

I have listed them in no particular order.

1. Luncheon meat.  Well really processed meat of many kinds.  This includes most deli items, sausages, breaded cutlets and even some canned seafood.  The saddest for me is when I am celebrating Christmas or Thanksgiving somewhere and the host has used a pre-basted turkey, or a pressed ham, unfortunately I can not eat either *but cheat a little...you know I can't be rude and refuse all the food offered*  Thankfully there are a few companies processing and packaging more natural meats with less preservatives and by products.

2. Margarine.  That 'great' butter substitute contains whey, which is a dairy by product and will unfortunately will still trigger a dairy allergy.  Many super kind people would bake for me using margarine thinking it was safer than butter, and because my allergy is not as severe as some I would still sample their baking, but it would still trigger an allergic reaction.  There are a few companies putting out a vegan margarine which has a nice taste and is completely safe as allergies go.  I personally bake using a vegetable shortening but use a vegan margarine on toast.



3. Chips.  I know what you are thinking, 'oh good, those nacho cheese chips I love so much actually have some real ingredients in them'.  Well they do have dairy, but so so some brands of salt and vinegar, all dressed, ketchup and even some hint of lime taco chips.  Always read the labels.




4. Bread.  Many store bought breads have some dairy or modified milk ingredients in it.  I find this food one of the hardest to avoid, not only because I love bread, but because it is often the 'safest' item served at a meal.  Without being able to check every label in a restaurant or a friend's house, plain dry bread will most likely contain less dairy than a pasta sauce or salad dressing.  When possible choose a rye bread, as it has been my experience that they have little or no dairy in them.  This of course varies from recipe to recipe and brand to brand.  I have some great bread recipes that I make at home that are dairy free that I will share on this blog at a different time.

5. "Non-Dairy" alternatives. Many dairy alternatives still contain a milk by-product called casein, which does not have lactose, so is safe for those who are lactose intolerant but is not safe for those with a milk allergy.  This includes some 'cheeses', frozen dessert products and whipped dessert toppings such as Cool Whip. Just make sure you read all of the labels, or look for products that are labeled vegan as they will definitely be safe for all levels of dairy allergies.

Now, listing all of these things that you should be careful with a dairy allergy (and these are just some of the 'sneaky' ones) always makes me sad, like I am missing out on so many yummy (if not unhealthy) foods that I thought I would list one food that you would expect to find dairy but does not, Oreo Cookies!! To the best of my knowledge of food labels, Oreo cookies are dairy free! So bring on the Oreos!!

Over the next while I will post some recipes, great alternatives and 'work arounds' that I have used to cook well dairy free.  I will also share some of the online resources that I have found helpful as I have been working towards having a dairy free life.
Stay tuned.

Why I removed Facebook from my smart phone

I love Facebook, or at least I did 4 months ago.  Now I am not so sure.  Let me explain.  When I was living in a city where I had a job, a church community and a group of really good friends that I saw on a regular basis I loved Facebook.  It was a way to connect with people that I didn't get to see very often.  I loved to snoop on what my friends where doing and to post superficial status updates about what I was watching, cooking or baking.  I felt like Facebook was a good add on to the community I had in real life.  I could ignore the overly dramatic 'vague-booking' statuses or the fear mongering news reports.  I could block the game request and unfollow the few people whose status updates I found annoying without unfriending them (don't judge, we all do it).  It was great when it was just the icing on the caking, not the cake itself.

Now that I have moved to a new city where I do not have a strong 'in-person' community yet I find that my feelings for Facebook have changed.  I find that the same type of superficial status updates that I enjoyed before now make me sad, they leave me craving 'real' contact.  At this point I would give almost anything to be able to call up a friend and meet for coffee or a glass of wine, that snooping on people who are engaging in those type of activities is hard.  Listening to people complain on Facebook about their spouses, children, neighbours, jobs or salaries is frustrating.  And being bombarded with 'end of days' media posts makes me feel ill, like I've eaten too much icing.

Now here is my problem.  I still want to stay connected with many of the people on Facebook and I know, from experience that real community can be had through social media and I love it when it works well.  I just can't have it be my only community.  I know that having Facebook in my pocket, on my phone, wherever I go is not helping me create community, it is keeping me locked in a community I can only access online.  It is too easy to sit in the church foyer after a service on Sunday checking my Facebook instead of engaging with the people around me.  It is even easier to go to the park with my son and sit on my phone scrolling through statuses instead of trying to start a conversation with another mother at the park (realistically the other parents will be on their phones too, and there is no judgment here...I've done it many times) and the same goes on the bus, commuter train or in a coffee shop.

So here is what I am going to try to see if it helps me.  I am pushing myself out of my comfort zone and removing Facebook from my phone.  I am going to see if not having Facebook so readily accessible will help me engage a bit more with the world around me, at least when I am out in public. I believe you can not create community without engaging, so this is my experiment.  I am not leaving Facebook altogether, as I still see the value in it, I am just not taking it with me wherever I go.  I will check and update Facebook at home, at a computer.  It does feel a bit strange, as I am still at this point keeping Instagram on my phone, as well as Twitter but at this moment I do not check those nearly as much as I check Facebook.  I love and appreciate all those on my Facebook, and still look forward to keeping in touch.

 I'll keep you all posted on how this works out for me.

Pictures as promised!

Ok everyone, I am sorry that it has taken me so long to upload some photos from the themed wedding we attended in August.
First let me say that it was a beautiful wedding and the bride looked stunning!
Secondly, it was rather neat to see all of the themed outfits.  There were a lot of men in suspenders and bow ties including my handsome husband. And a lot of pretty ladies in 'flowy' dresses.

So I decided not to post some of the 'test hair' that I did leading up to the wedding but just the final product.

 Here is what I ended up looking like

My handsome husband (don't mind the patch work ceiling...I'll post about that one day too)

The lighting at the dance was crazy, but I wanted to show that my hair totally flopped after an hour of dancing

A little added geekiness, the bride and groom are huge Legend of Zelda fans and got these wonderful items as wedding gifts.  I also love LoZ so I jumped at the chance to snap a photo with the Master Sword

One more picture of my cutie

And this photo sums it all up

Blame it on the flu

So I have been sick for the last two days, well truthfully I am still rather under the weather, so all I have done is stay in bed or on the couch playing video games.  Well there was a problem with that, my husband and son where home as well, being the weekend and all, so I found myself without a computer to play on (we only have 2).  Normally I would hop onto the WiiU and play, but I have finished all the games I want to right now and there is only so much Mario Kart 8 one can play (a lot...but there is still limits), so I stole my son's 3DS and started playing Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon.  What a fun game. The game is absolutely beautiful, but also very fun and even a little challenging for this old lady.  I admit it, I have died a few more times than in respectable, so I will blame it on the flu. Luigi's Mansion reminds me of all the fun I've had playing any number of the Super Mario Bros games as a child and I am looking forward to playing more of it today.  I am about half finished the game, but unlike when I was a child I have things I need to do today, sick or not, so I will play in between loads of laundry and cleaning the kitchen.
Oh I should also make supper at some point...I wonder what Luigi would want.

Highballs, Hairdos and Health potions

Hey everyone!
Today I want to share with  you a new passion of mine, a video game called Don't Starve.  It is this fun survival game where your main purpose is not to starve.  Sounds simple, but it is not really.  I am not sure why I like it so much, mainly because it presents a challenge to me in my otherwise routine life right now.  I am constantly trying to top my number of days survived.  Right now my highest is 58 game days.  It's tough.  It is one of those games that you can be 10 game days in and then you die and you need to start back at the beginning, with nothing on day one.
Here is a link to my YouTube video of me starting a Let''s Play series of Don't Starve and you guys can check it out for yourselves.

Don't Starve


Don't forget to like it and subscribe.  If you are looking for family friendly YouTube gaming channels consider subscribing to Proudlove Family Gaming.  I promise it will be clean (language and content), safe for kids to watch and hopefully entertaining. I also promise that we are trying to get better at this YouTube thing so keep coming back to see how we've changed and grown.

This blog will continue to be a bit of everything that I find important or interesting or both.  So I hope you keep coming back here too.

Thanks everyone.

Themed wedding

So I am heading to a wedding this weekend, my first Montreal formal event, and boy is it going to be something else. Or at least it seems that way. 

It is a themed wedding, with a colour scheme. Goodness, there is even a Pinterest board dedicated to the event, created by the bride and sent to the guests. The theme is Vintage Chic and I am busy trying to find an outfit and accessories. Not to mention my hair! What to do with my hair. 

It is my first formal event, I want it to be just right. I don't know why I even care, but I do.  

So right now my hair is in pins, so that it will be curly in the morning. I will experiment over the next few days. 

Pics to come. 

Raise a glass to the lonely

Ok, so many of you know that I recently moved (again).  Things are going well.  I have been here almost a month now, our stuff has been here about a week and a half (don't ask that is a very long story) and I have done a ton of painting to get the house how I like it.  I will write a post soon about my first impressions of the house, seeing I was very concerned that I wouldn't like it, seeing my husband picked it out without me getting to come and see it before we purchased it.  But tonight I want to talk about something else.  Tonight I want to write about my first party.  We hosted our first pool 'party' tonight with about 10 of Nathan's co-workers and their families and it was fun.  I had a pretty good time meeting new people, preparing food and pouring drinks.  It was a neat experience listening to these adults (and their children) switching seamlessly between English and French depending on who they were talking to.  It made me realize that I am so far from bilingual and I so desperately wish that I had paid more attention in French class in high school and made much more of an effort to keep up with the French that I did learn.  Nothing is more humbling than a 5 year old switching to English because he knows that you don't speak French.
But I am rambling.  I wanted to raise a glass to the lonely.  There were two other ladies at this BBQ this afternoon, one local girl and another 'import' like me.  It was very easy to tell who was who.  Although all three of us got a long very well and always had something to talk about, the two of us who are not from around here clung to every word that was shared like it was a life line.  Almost as if each exchange was like an olive branch, telling us that it will be ok, that the waters of loneliness will recede in time.  The other 'import', Lisa, and I are going to try to get together again on Wednesday evening.  I always forget how much time it takes for adults to be friends.  So this evening we unknowingly raised a glass to new friendships, maybe on Wednesday we will raise one intentionally, and who knows, it just maybe the start of a beautiful friendship.