Milk-free Monday - a first attempt

Before going ahead and making milk-free Monday "a thing", I thought I'd give it a little trial run with no fanfare, just to see how realistic a prospect it was likely to be. As this date fell on a Bank Holiday, I suspect I faced far greater challenges than I would on a normal working day - not least because I had planned to attend the Real Food Festival on London's South Bank!

Things got off to a surprisingly good start - not least because I hadn't decided to go ahead with the challenge until lunch time. By this point I'd already had my breakfast, which consisted of marmite on toast with vegan margarine, black coffee and some juice. So I was off to a flying start without even trying (we'd bought the vegan marge a week earlier, simply because it was on offer).
                                           
As expected, things got a lot tougher once I arrived at the foodies' festival. I managed to avoid sampling any cheese, but when we chanced upon a sizzling veggie burger stand, most of my resolve went out of the window: it wasn't clear if all or any of the burgers were dairy free, and I did not want to make a fuss and ask. So I based my choice on guesswork, and ordered a very delicious curried chickpea burger which seemed pretty milk-free to me. Having managed to track down the ingredients online I can now confirm they don't have any dairy (although they do contain eggs). One step at a time!

Curried chickpea burger from Greta's Wholefoods - dairy free!

Later, I fancied an ice-lolly, so decided to try out some home-made frozen treats being sold by the river. I settled on a water ice variety, and felt pleased with my choice. But on reaching the stand I was informed that this particular lolly was sold out, and I'd have to pick another. The remaining lollies all had very creative but not particularly informative names, so without knowing the ingredients of any, settled on one called '50s orange'. This turned out to be a milky lolly with a white chocolate coating: utterly scrummy, but my first definite fail of the day.

I learned quite a lot about dairy-free living on this one excursion: firstly that it's really not catered for very well in gastronomic circles, secondly that I'll have to get used to 'making a fuss' if I want to ensure I cut it out for even single days at at time and finally, that it's a steep learning curve to be able to order confidently without knowing the ingredients in a dish before you do. As a veggie you get used to dishes that have meat or fish vs those that don't (eggs Benedict, eggs florantine etc) but doing this with dairy is more of a challenge.

handmade lollies - not all dairy free.

After failing on the lolly front I didn't bother to try having a dairy free dinner: I was having mezze which included a bit of halloumi (but was otherwise all vegetable dips and salad). Not a cow's milk cheese, but a cheese nonetheless! I'll be looking into whether the origin of milk makes any difference at a later date.

Overall then, could have been better - but could have been a lot worse considering it was a last minute decision! I've now picked up some ingredients so I can be better prepared in future, and am having another dry-run today.