My Life After Dairy: Day 2

Day 2 started right off with my second milk alternative, oat milk. My opinion: yummie! I like it a lot better than rice milk as a beverage by itself. Its consistency is thicker and it actually has some of the oatmeal taste. I can definitely imagine using it for pancakes or for baking. Haven't tried the oat milk in any recipes yet, but plan on using it in the oven pancake dish for the parents group brunch tomorrow. Wish me luck :-) My general notion is, that rice milk will most likely be the better choice for cooking because of its more subtle taste, while I personally prefer oat milk as a plain beverage, for cereal, or recipes where an oat flavor would add an interesting note, for example for baking. I will definitely try to find some recipes for cookies or cakes and let you know about the results.

In related news: my rice milk pancakes also found approval with my friend Danielle and her girls. We enjoyed a nice brunch while Richard was out to sell his books in preparation for the big move. Lily had a blast showing her room to Emma and Ahnna and running all over the place. Her eyes just sparkled, it was wonderful!

For dinner, I tried a vegan version of Semmelknoedel (bread dumplings) a popular German side dish to accompany my Sauerbraten. It actually turned out alright, even though the recipe could have used something like egg beater to hold the dumplings together better. Here's the recipe for anyone who is interested (for the true vegans, these dumplings taste wonderful with a creamy mushroom sauce!):

Ingredients:
1 bag hard sourdough rolls (I remove them from the bag and let them sit on the counter for several days until they are hard)
about 1 cup warm rice milk
1 onion
some parsley
salt & pepper
egg beater (equal to 1 egg)
bread crumbs (if necessary)

Cut rolls into small pieces; pour rice milk over rolls until just moist. Cook onion in skillet until it starts to brown; add parsley (fresh or dried), stir, and take off the stove. Season bread mixture with salt and pepper to taste and mash up with your hand. Add onion and parsley mixture and egg beater and mix well. Add bread crumbs if dough is too sticky. Form dough into balls and cook them for ca. 15 minutes in boiling water.

Please feel free to add any mushroom sauce or other recipes in the comment section. I'm open to suggestions!

Tomorrow I'm looking forward to trying the last of the three milk substitutes, almond milk. It sounds delicious, and I can't wait to find out if it lives up to my expectations.