So, I think one of the biggest problems for me (As we just discussed in my previous post on butter) is lack of dairy. For many folks, it’s the gluten thing. No problem for me – I don’t live and die by waffles or bread or things with flour – I can get around this. Now, cheese, milk, butter, yogurt and other things dairy are another story altogether. I’m pretty sure cheese is my favorite food group. If I could re-organize the food pyramid, cheese would have its own little section. And milk? Good lord, how to live! How to LIVE!?

This was all a little dicey for me until I discovered the wonder of coconut milk (in my case, bulk coconut milk!). It’s creamy, great for curries, baking, protein shakes, soups, frosting, and all sorts of other things where one would normally add dairy (except in your coffee…I can’t seem to make that one substitution work…). Tonight, for example, I was feeling sorry for myself (head cold! missed work and gym and ski racing!) and since I couldn’t have ice cream (oh, ice cream…and sorbet…how paleo has forsaken me by forbidding you…), I decided to try a blueberry-grapefruit-ice-mango-carrot-coconut-milk smoothie. Well, other than my decision to add grapefruit, it was amazing. A few seconds in a blender, and I had something that was pretty darn close to a creamy sorbet (seriously, leave out the grapefruit….don’t listen to me when I add things like grapefruit to smoothies…seriously). Thanks, coconut milk!