non-dairy milk round up {a meat free family}

It’s been a little while since I talked about how our meat free initiative is going.

Both Jacob and I have had meat since we started.  Whoops!

Not together (at least not at first), and not for the same reasons.

Jacob got a beef burger at Burgerville last Friday.  He was hungry and didn’t know what to eat.  Plus it sounded good to him.

I started adding fish back in.  I felt like I needed a little more, and salmon + tuna just sounded right.

Then last night at house church we were tempted by, what we were told was ‘the best pizza’.  Even a non-pepperoni pizza fan like myself really, really liked it.  We enjoyed going off our no meat eating plan for a night, now we’ll continue on it.  No guilt here… Just a little heart burn + stomach ache, but totally worth it right?

Moving on…

A little while back I said I’d get to a non-dairy milk taste test.  And now that I picked up a few more varieties I figured now was the time.

Usually I stick with my plain soymilk.  I like the flavor.  I can buy it in bulk at Costco and it isn’t as expensive as some of the other non-dairy milks.

I go with the plain variety because it’s not sweetened as much as the vanilla milks.  It still has a slight sweetness to it, but not overpowering sweetness.

PRO: Soymilk works perfectly in my coffee and tea, giving it a slight creaminess too.  Another great thing?  You’re getting protein in here, which you would get with cow’s milk too.

CON: There’s always this talk about soy being good or soy being bad.  I try to limit my soy servings to 1-2 a day, which for me, works.

Rice milk always sounded nasty to me.  Never something I wanted to try.  But I did.  Just for you guys.  My thoughts were on track.  I really didn’t like this stuff.  It just seemed so watered down.

PRO: It’s a cheaper non-dairy milk.

CON: It soooo did not work in my coffee and tea.  It was very watered down and while drinking it I thought, what’s the point?  Low in protein.

Mmmmm coconut milk.  If you don’t think you like coconut milk because you’ve had it from the can, give this a try.  It’s slightly sweet (which coconut already is), and ultra creamy.

PRO: I love that I can use this as a drinking milk, but then also substitute it in for recipes that call for coconut milk (the canned variety).  It’s a bit more watery than the canned variety, but for me it’s worked.

CON: It’s not my favorite in coffee and tea.  The flavors just don’t mesh, and it’s kind of expensive.  Also, low in protein.

Almond milk was a good all around milk alternative… kind of.

PROS: Nice nutty flavor and it was creamy too.  Price range right in the middle… higher than soymilk but cheaper than coconut milk.

CONS: It was lacking in the protein department.

One thing I didn’t really mention is the nutrition stats.  There are variations between all of them… soymilk having more protein, coconut milk having more fat… but they all have one thing in common – vitamins and minerals added in.  Each milk has varying amounts of nutrients, but almond, rice and soymilk contain more calcium than coconut milk.  Another note – coconut milk and soymilk offer a lot more vitamin B12 than almond milk and rice milk.

Now, these can vary depending on the brands you pick up.  That info is just  based on these that I tried out.

All in all here’s how I’d go about picking my non-dairy milk…

#1 soymilk

#2 tie between coconut milk and almond milk

#3 rice milk… but I really wouldn’t want to pick #3

Do you have a favorite non-dairy milk?  What order would you put these 4 in?

Heather

Like what you read? Subscribe to the feed or by email to be the first with your hands on new healthy, budget friendly recipes, kitchen how-to’s, hikes, fitness tips and home workouts with some life and home balance thrown in there.

Leave a comment below or email me at gethealthywithheather@comcast.net to connect, ask any questions or share your thoughts.