MSPI Surviving Work and Life without Dairy or Soy

In a previous post, I wrote about our journey that led us to MSPI you can read that here. In the post, I am writing today I would like to highlight some tips, tricks, links, and recipes I have found helpful.

When I started this diet I googled “no soy, no dairy” because I had no idea what the doctor meant by that. Could I have cheese or yogurt? Did no soy just mean no tofu? WHAT DID IT ALL MEAN?! Fortunately, I found some very good resources that taught me the acronym MSPI, answered my questions and made this all seem like an achievable task.

It is possible! Even for the lazy, not very good cooks, and the nurses like me that work long hours and have very little breaks. So without further ado here’s the skinny.

Tips:

Look at labels!
- Not everything will advertise they don’t have soy or dairy. Some things naturally don’t have them.

Have a meal plan!
- It makes life so much easier, at our house dinners and communal meals like breakfast on the weekends I’m off are all MSPI friendly.
Plan your meals at work!
- In a similar way that having a meal plan is helpful at home it is even more essential at work. I used to not even bring lunch, rather choosing to snack on things or eat whatever someone decided to bring in. Since I can’t have most of those things I can still feel a part of with my own meals/food.
Be adventurous!
- A lot of the food I used to eat didn’t stray very far outside my box. I was raised on Pennsylvania Dutch food and I enjoyed what I ate. It didn’t seem like a reasonable risk to try something new. Most of those meals I can no longer have, so I am forced to go outside my comfort zone. It has paid off! Who knew I would like quinoa?! Or that barley was so tasty?!

Tricks:

Buy frozen vegetables and grain medleys. Like Birdseye steam fresh or any other steamer bags. Just look on the back to find the ones that are safe.
Buy convenience foods like cereal. Most are MSPI friendly. I lived off Frosted Flakes for the first week.
Look at allergen information online before eating out. I get very stressed out when I don’t know if I can eat something or not when going out to eat. A lot of places fry everything and make everything with vegetable (soybean) oil. So you can end up with a dry BLT and no sides (true story).
Boxed Couscous. I use Near East, they have lots of different varieties most are MSPI friendly if you use olive oil instead of butter.

Links:

MSPI Mama She has great recipes, including things that naturally are soy and milk free. Also great for links.
Complete Children’s Network This was the first article I read about MSPI, very informative and lots of great links.
Intolerant Offspring This has lots of recipes and you can choose what you would like to eliminate out of the top 8 allergens.
Reflux Rebels Great information.

Recipes:

One Pot Spaghetti by MSPI Mama This is apart of their quick start, which means you probably have the ingredients for it in your pantry already.
Freezer-Friendly Breakfast Burritos by MSPI Mama
Fish by The Mediterranean Dish
Pasta Salad by One Little Project
Fruit Salad by Cooking Classy
Toast with Natural Peanut Butter
Lunchmeat sandwiches without cheese of course
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