Breakfast casserole and strawberry muffins

"Don't forget to take your violin to school," I'll sometimes say to my small backup dancer, or "Take 15 minutes and practice your violin." She meets these reminders with a smirk, because she does not have a violin. She plays the trumpet. I'm the one who took violin lessons when I was a kid, and my brain is still stuck on that. 

Backup dancer last year with her "violin"

This is the same slow brain that I had to train to eat less meat and dairy when I learned about the disproportionately bad environmental impacts of animal agriculture. This blog is a record of how hard that change has sometimes been, but I got there! I adapted to the point where I was eating meat only as a treat, and observing Vegan Vednesdays.

There have been a couple setbacks. At the start of the pandemic, when I honestly wondered whether humanity was on the verge of decimation, I let my resolve slide a little, but I got back on track. Then there was another setback when one of us had to stop eating gluten, but again--although I no longer do regular vegan days--I steered us back to a place of mostly vegetarianism. And every meal I've made for the last two years has been gluten-free!

But now, for medical reasons, one of us must also forego milk products, at least temporarily. This news was a real bummer. Meal planning started to feel like Jenga, the game where players aim to pull as many blocks as they can out of a tall tower without toppling it. How many food products can a person take out of their diet before it all falls apart and there is no joy in eating anymore?


With that in mind, I'm open to putting meat figuratively and literally back on the table. That's hard for me, though, because I understand the negative environmental impact of meat, and I find it immoral to ignore my personal responsibilities in addressing the climate crisis. So I looked back over my 230+ blog posts to see which recipes are still good without dairy OR wheat OR meat.

I was pleasantly shocked by what I found. The list (at the bottom of this post) runs to 47 recipes, all of which I have tested and found good, even with substitutions as noted. Maybe my old brain can find ways keep the dietary Jenga tower standing after all, even if I can't remember the word "trumpet." And it's comforting to remember that while cooking entirely without milk products isn't my choice, at least it is an environmentally friendly practice. 

I tried out three new recipes this past weekend that did not have milk, meat, or wheat ingredients. The first was "Easy Gluten-Free Bread" (Mama Knows Gluten Free). I used one whole egg plus one egg white rather than three egg whites, and that was fine. Everything went according to plan until I lost my grip on the pan of batter as I was trying to take it out of the bag in which it was rising.


It was a classic Jaylbyrd move, and I assumed I'd have to find a different carb to serve at dinner. So imagine my surprise when I stuck the pan--now only half-full of lopside batter--into the oven and it came out looking pretty good!


I used the bread to make sandwiches with Dill Pickle Chickpea "Tuna" Salad from Colorful Dinner Delivery, a local vegan service. The bread was pleasingly soft, but I found it excessively sweet. 


Then I made "Dairy-Free Breakfast Casserole" (Allergy Awesomeness). While the recipe called for fake eggs and real sausage, I instead used real eggs and fake sausage (savory Impossible sausage in a 14oz tube). 

The casserole was the delicious basis for a brunch at which I also served "Gluten-Free and Vegan Strawberry Muffins" (Paige Bakes). I used farmer's market strawberries, and I skipped the topping because I am lazy. The recipe is not written particularly well; note that your strawberries need to be diced rather than sliced, and the seventh step of the instructions should indicate that you just fill the muffin tin cups with batter about 2/3 of the way up. I doubled the recipe and got way more batter than I needed for 24 regular-sized muffins, so I made a bunch of little ones, too (cook the minis about 35 minutes). The muffins were dense, but tasted very good. I think you could get away with less sugar in this recipe.


Nothing beats a meal with friends on the patio on a nice day

Add the casserole and the muffins (maybe not the weirdly sweet bread) to this reassuring list of 47 tried-and-true recipes that contain no gluten, meat, or milk products!

  1. Sweet Potatoes With Tahini Butter
  2. Vegetable Noodle Salad With Sesame Vinaigrette (same link as above), if you use GF pasta
  3. Creamy Coconut Polenta
  4. Cauliflower Tacos with Cashew Crema (same link as above), if you use GF tortillas and plant-based "cheese"
  5. Vegan Fettucine Alfredo, if you use GF pasta
  6. Roasted Chickpeas and Veggies Dinner
  7. Quinoa Lentil Salad
  8. Crispy Sautéed Potatoes with Rosemary
  9. Creamy Corn and Seaweed Pasta, if you skip the cheese and use GF pasta
  10. Butternut Squash and Green Curry Soup
  11. Vegan White Chili
  12. Soba Salad, if you use GF soy sauce and GF miso, and make sure your noodles are GF
  13. Cauliflower Adobo
  14. Red Lentil Soup
  15. Baked Feta Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes, if you use plant-based "cheese" and GF pasta
  16. Cherry Tomato Pasta with Olives, if you use GF pasta
  17. Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup, if you use non-dairy milk
  18. Vegan Mac and Cheese, if you use GF pasta
  19. 4-Ingredient Gluten Free Sourdough Bread
  20. Lemon-Tahini Slaw
  21. Vegetarian Lox Rice Bowls, if you use vegan lox, and GF soy sauce
  22. Curried Coconut Corn Soup, if you use olive oil rather than butter
  23. Jambalaya, if you use plant-based "meat"
  24. Crispy Sheet-Pan Noodles With Glazed Tofu, if your hoisin sauce and noodles are GF
  25. Mushroom Quiche, if you use a GF and dairy-free pie crust
  26. Vegan Creamy Leek Pasta, if you use GF pasta
  27. Potato Salad with Tartar Sauce
  28. Israeli Falafel Wraps, if you use GF flour and GF wraps
  29. Coconut Butternut Squash Soup
  30. Pasta with Smoky Pumpkin Cream Sauce, if you use GF pasta, and substitute coconut milk for the dairy cream
  31. Tomato-Chili Pasta, if you use GF pasta
  32. 15-Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta, if you use GF pasta
  33. Oven-Baked Mexican Quinoa Casserole
  34. Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes, which are also delicious when you make them with fake butter
  35. Spiced Chickpea Stew With Coconut and Turmeric
  36. Quinoa and Wild Rice Salad With Ginger Sesame Dressing
  37. Winter Salad Hummus Bowls, if you use GF soy sauce
  38. Teriyaki Tofu Bowls, if you use GF soy sauce
  39. Lentil Stew with Leeks and Potatoes
  40. Pasta With Corn, Zucchini, and Tomatoes, if you use GF pasta
  41. Grain Bowls
  42. Creamy Mushroom Linguine, if you use GF pasta
  43. Fried Tagliatelle With Chickpeas and Smoky Tomatoes, if you use GF pasta
  44. Crunchy Cabbage Skillet Dinner, if you use fake butter and plant-based meat, and skip the sour cream
  45. Butternut Squash Miso Mac n’ Cheese, if you use GF pasta
  46. Slow-Cooker Curried Sweet Potato Soup With Coconut and Kale
  47. Slow Cooker Coconut Ginger Chicken & Vegetables, if you substitute fake butter or oil for real butter

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