Why I am starting to Blog

I have tossed this idea to start a blog around for quite some time. It came about when I started searching for good dairy free recipes online. Most that I have come across are vegan- which of course means no animal products at all. So it's been difficult to find good recipes that are dairy free but contain meat.
Let me give you a little background into my reason for avoiding dairy like the plague. First of all, I used to live off of cheese. Everything I ate had some form of cheese in it. I LOVED CHEESE. Pizza, cheesecake, stuffed shells, ravioli, lasagna, enchiladas, nachos, 7 layer dip... the list goes on and on and on. A few years ago I started developing lactose intolerance. It wasn't bad and a couple lactade did the trick if I wanted to eat cheese. Then I had my 2nd baby and it got worse. Much worse. I was put on GERD medication. I thought I was developing an ulcer. I went to a my doctor a few times and they checked my gallbladder. It took a while but I decided to do the elimination diet on my own. I lived off of rice and plain veggies for a while ( lost several pounds too) but I started feeling better. Ever since anytime I eat anything that has any sort of dairy in it I get very sick. No amount of lactade helps. It was a difficult lifestyle change to make, but it had to be done. I am now totally dairy free. I don't have an "allergy" in the medical sense since I don't break out in a rash or stop breathing if I eat cheese, but it does make me seriously ill. It's really not all bad now that I have found new foods to love. I do miss pizza and crave it all the time, but I have also found a substitute for that. So the past year has been an adventure in eating and cooking, not only for me, but for my family. The hardest part to all of this is eating out and social gatherings. My friends and family have been wonderful trying to accomodate me, but I know it's hard for them. And it's hard for me since there are so many foods with hidden dairy. ( I'll get to that in a later post).
So the purpose of this blog is to share recipes that are totally lactose and dairy free with others who may be in my shoes. And also to share some healthier, but very tasty, recipes with those that are trying to cut dairy out for the purpose of a healthier lifestyle.
I hope you enjoy some of these recipes.