Pizza, cake and ice cream are traditional birthday party fare, but for dairy allergic kids, celebrating with friends can have more fright than fun.
Among kids, dairy allergies are becoming more common and more dangerous. Dairy is already the most common allergen among kids under five years old, and is beginning to eclipse peanuts for the most food-induced anaphylaxis incidents — a life-threatening response when a person's air passages swell up and reduce airflow — according to WebMD.
For those who have a cow's milk intolerance or eat a plant-based diet, the risk may not be serious, but they can feel left out eating their home-packed meals and not partaking in the same good-looking and -smelling foods as the other party-goers.
In my own life, I am always on the hunt for good, dairy-free plant based foods. I used my experience to help me come up with a list to help you throw a dairy-free plant based kids' birthday party, inclusive of your kid's friends' dietary needs. You definitely have to check your local stores because products may vary and some products are plant-based but do not have the vegan logo.
This list comes from my main sources of shopping, Sam's Club, SaveMart Super Markets, Grocery Outlet and Wal-Mart. The restaurants I list may or may not be in your area somewhere. But be sure to search around. These products are both tasty (good enough to tantalize the dairy enthusiasts, too) and safe (doesn't end up in the worst birthday ever category with a trip to the emergency room). However, for a severe allergy, you should contact the store or manufacturer to be sure the risk of cross-contamination is minimized and run any food past a food-allergic child's parents/guardians.
Eat in, pick up, or make at home
The cake, pizza and ice cream categories are divided into places in the area you can eat in, order for pick up, buy in a store or make at home. I never order cake from outside sources so I will add a homemade cake recipe that you can use for cupcakes as well.
Damino's
Here's how to order:
order Domino's thin crust with a tomato-based pizza sauce or barbecue sauce as your base since the Alfredo and marinara sauces are milk-based. Every topping except meat (including anchovies) is fair game on your vegan pizza.
Try ordering the Honolulu Hawaiian pizza without bacon, ham, or cheese or get the Pacific Veggie without cheese. The best bet is to make your own pizza and load it up with toppings like banana peppers, black and green olives, garlic, green peppers, mushrooms, onions, pepperoncini, pineapple, spinach, and tomatoes.
The penne pasta is vegan, but order it sauceless since the marinara and Alfredo sauces aren’t vegan. Be sure and ask for it in a dish since the bread bowl contains milk. For a plain but filling pasta bowl, ask for all the vegetable toppings to be mixed in.
The artisan bread is vegan, so you can enjoy the Mediterranean Veggie sandwich. You’ll have to leave out the cheese, but you’ll still get a warm sandwich full of roasted red peppers, banana peppers, diced tomatoes, fresh baby spinach, and onions. If you order in store, you can make your own sandwich with all the veggies and either pizza sauce, barbecue sauce, or mango habanero sauce.
Salads always come in clutch for vegans. Domino’s offers three salads, two of which can easily be made vegan. Get the Classic Garden salad without cheese or croutons for a full bowl of tomatoes, carrots, onion, and greens. You can also get the Chicken Apple Pecan salad without chicken and cheese for a fresh bowl of diced apple, dried cranberries, pecans, and greens. Italian, Catalina, and balsamic are the dressing options for both salads since ranch and Caesar dressings aren’t vegan.
Unfortunately none of the sides at Domino's are vegan, as they all contain milk or butter. All the drinks are vegan, however. Be basic and stick with water, or have some fun with soda options such as Sprite, Root Beer, or Coke.
Now you don’t have to be sad and hungry at the next pizza-filled gathering. Just order vegan Domino's goodies and enjoy your pizza along with your friends.
Pizzahut
Here's how to order:
Crusts
Original Pan is vegan, as are the Thin ‘N Crispy and Hand Tossed crusts.
Avoid all of the Crust Flavor add-ons, as they all contain some derivative of dairy. That means no butter crust.
Sauces
Stick to the tried-and-true marinara or go spicy with the Buffalo. Avoid the Creamy Garlic Parmesan for its dairy content and the Barbeque which contains honey. Honestly I have no problem with honey as a vegan eater. I use it for many things.
Toppings
Pizza Hut does not carry vegan cheese yet, so no matter what you order, you’ll want to go cheeseless. Vegan Pizza Hut patrons can load their custom creation up with a medley of vegetables including banana peppers, olives, mushrooms, red onion, green peppers, jalapeños, tomatoes, and the forever controversial pineapple. No matter what you choose, select the “extra” option so your pizza-maker knows to fill the crust canvas with veggies.
Pasta There’s a reason it’s called Pizza Hut, not Pasta Hut. None of the pasta items are vegan.
Sides
If you’re not a regular, you may not know that Pizza Hut makes fries. Unfortunately, this is the only vegan-friendly option on the sides menu. The breadsticks are not vegan—the seasoning contains cheese.
Desserts
While the savory breadsticks aren’t readily vegan-friendly, the sweet Cinnamon Sticks are plant-based. Skip the icing that comes with them (it contains dairy) and you’ve got a soft-and-fluffy, cinnamon sugar-coated treat to round out your meal. Pro tip: make your own icing at home by mixing a half cup of powdered sugar with a tablespoon or two of plant milk and a drop of vanilla extract. Add just enough plant milk until you’ve achieved a dippable consistency.
Little Caesars
How to order:
Order the regular crust and regular sauce—both are vegan!
Order extra sauce! Usually you can get it for free in place of the cheese. 🙂
BONUS: You can special-order the crazy bread without parmesan cheese, along with some crazy sauce on the side.
Go crazy with veggie toppings! Up the flavor meter with zesty garlic and banana peppers, or make a yummy sweet ‘n’ savory pizza by throwing some pineapple on with your veggies.
Papa John’s
How to order:
The sauce and original hand-tossed dough are vegan, so go ahead and order your veggie pizza as usual—but without cheese! Do your thing with Papa John’s wide variety of veggie toppings.
BONUS: Order extras of the garlic dipping sauce (totally vegan!) or get BBQ sauce on your pizza!
Blaze Pizza
How to order:
The Vegan Pizza comes with Classic Dough, Vegan Cheese, Red Sauce, Red Onions, Green Bell Peppers, Vegan Spicy Chorizo, Mushrooms, Olive Oil Drizzle, and Basil. The Veg Out pizza can be made vegan by removing the cheese or replacing it with their vegan cheese. The Veg Out’s other ingredients are Classic Dough, Red Sauce, Mushrooms, Red Onions, and Roasted Butternut Squash. However, Blaze Pizza is best known for their create-your-own pizza and salad options. A full list of the vegan-friendly ingredients are in the following sections.
As of January 2021, some Blaze Pizza locations have Vegan Cheesy Bread. It may not be listed on the menu, but all locations have vegan cheese and could make this upon request. Vegan Cheesy Bread is hard to come by so this is a great option if it’s something you crave.
Crusts
Blaze Pizza has five crust options, but only two are vegan-friendly. The two vegan crust options are the Classic Crust and the High Rise Crust. Unfortunately, their Cauliflower Crust, Gluten Free Crust, and Keto Crust all contain milk and eggs.
Sauces
Of their four sauce options, Blaze Pizza has two vegan sauces. These sauces include Red Sauce and Spicy Red Sauce. Both their Garlic Pesto Sauce and White Cream Sauce contain milk-based ingredients and are not vegan-friendly.
Toppings
Blaze Pizza has both vegan “meat” and cheese options! Their non-dairy cheese is simply called “Vegan Cheese.” If you don’t see the vegan cheese on display, still ask for it because sometimes it is kept in the back room. Blaze Pizza’s vegan “meat” option is a soy protein based Spicy Chorizo similar to sausage.
Blaze pizza has a great variety of vegan toppings to load up on your pizza. These toppings include: Artichokes Banana Peppers Basil Black Olives Cherry Tomatoes Garlic – Chopped or Roasted Green Bell Peppers Jalapenos Kalamata Olives Mushrooms Pineapple Red Onions Red Peppers Roasted Brussels Sprouts Roasted Butternut Squash Sauteed Onion Spinach Zucchini
Finishing Blaze Pizza has multiple “Finishers” to top off your pizza after baking. All but two of them (Pesto and Ranch) are vegan-friendly. These Finishers are Arugula, Balsamic Glaze, BBQ Drizzle, Buffalo Sauce, Olive Oil Drizzle, Oregano, and Sea Salt.
Salad
In addition to their pizzas, Blaze also has some salads to choose from. They have three salad options listed on their menu (Classic Caesar, Tomato & Mozzarella, and Arugula & Fresh Fruit). We recommend starting with the Tomato & Mozzarella (Arugula, Romaine, Grape Tomatoes, Mozzarella, Red Peppers, and Pesto Vinaigrette) or the Arugula & Fresh Fruit (Arugula, Seasonal Fruit, Goat Cheese, and Balsamic Vinaigrette) salad and customize to your liking. In order to make these vegan, remove the cheese or replace it with Blaze’s vegan cheese and use Balsamic Vinaigrette as your dressing. Their menu doesn’t explicitly state that they do create-your-own salads, but most stores should accommodate this request if you ask. You can also add any of the other toppings listed above.
No desserts or sides
Unfortunately, none of Blaze’s sides or desserts are vegan-friendly besides the vegan cheesy bread so make sure to fill up on their pizza or salads instead.
Drinks
Wash your pizza or salad down with a refreshing drink! Blaze has a variety of sodas (Coke products), lemonades, Agua Fresca, beer and wine. All of them appear to be vegan-friendly!
MOD Pizza
MOD is one of my new experiences and I was very, very satisfied. They offer vegan meat and cheese on your pizza and they have the largest amount of veggies toppings, I'm telling you I L9VE THEM!. MOD offers some premade pizza options, which you may be able to customize in order to make them vegan by asking for Daiya cheese. Ask the employee helping you for suggestions about ordering vegan—many restaurants are ready and eager to help vegan customers.
I recommend building your own pizza from scratch. MOD doesn’t charge per topping, so you can load your pizza up with toppings to your heart’s content. The default size at MOD is an 11-inch pizza, but you can also order the Mini (6-inch) or Mega (thick crust) option, depending on your appetite.
How to order:
Crust
Choose either the original or gluten-friendly crust. Avoid the cauliflower crust—it contains cows’ milk and eggs.
Pizza Sauce
MOD offers a few vegan pizza sauces. Try the BBQ sauce, garlic rub, extra virgin olive oil, red sauce, or spicy red sauce. Skip the pesto and white sauce—both contain milk.
Cheese
All locations offer dairy-free cheese from Daiya. The best part? There’s no extra charge. You can also opt for a cheese-free pizza.
Toppings
Enjoy the huge array of vegan toppings available at MOD, including the plant-based Italian sausage, leafy greens (which you can also use to build a salad, if pizza isn’t your thing), and plenty of raw or roasted veggies and fruits. Season your pizza with salt, pepper, and oregano.
Finishing Sauce
Drizzle your completed pizza with MODs vegan finishing sauces to top off your masterpiece. Don’t choose the pesto drizzle, Mike’s Hot Honey, or Sri-rancha Sauce, which contain animal-derived ingredients, but note that the following options are all
vegan:
Balsamic Fig Glaze
BBQ Swirl
Hot Buffalo Sauce
Red Sauce Dollops
Italian Pizza Shops
How to order:
Many Italian pizza shops should have no meat marinara sauce and vegan pizza dough. Always ask if their dough contains milk or eggs. And if they do not know ask the chef and if he/she doesn't know ask them to check the packaging and if they discarded that, you can try speaking with the manager and if no one knows it is best to go to the next shop. Always check your food before leaving for any traces of meat or eggs because these shops do still have meat on the menu.
REMEMBER! You can always add your own cheese later, but be careful not to burn your pizza. Making a Cheese sauce can come in handy. Mix some cheese with a little water at a time on the stove. Keep stirring until all Cheese is melted add water as needed.
Daiya Cheese, pre-made crust or homemade crust, your choice of toppings
You could also have some fun making pizza at home with toppings that are sure to delight party-goers.
There are many pre-made crusts available in grocery stores that are non-dairy, but you could easily make your own.
For cheese, Daiya shreds are often the easiest non-milk cheese to find in stores. The mozzarella and parmesan styles are typical pizza fare, however, you could throw in some cheddar or "Mexican four cheese" for a specialty concoction. For traditional pizza eaters, though, it may be good to tell them to expect the flavors and cheese consistency to be a little different from what they are accustomed. No guey cheese.
Other brands you may find: Field Roast Chao slices, Follow your Heart, So Delicious, Violife, Miyoko's, Forager and Good Planet are some that I know of.
Let's Talk Cake and Ice Cream!
Cake and cupcakes
As I stated I do not order my cupcakes or cake I make them myself and do the best I can as far as decorating goes. Below is a recipe you can use for cake or cupcakes and it should work every time whether you want white, yellow or chocolate, even orange cake works!
Ice cream
My kids all time favorite ice cream is Breyers Non-dairy Cookies and Cream and Vanilla Peanut Butter.
Other brand's you can try:
Chloe's Oatmilk, So Delicious (my favorite!), Ben & Jerry's, Talenti, NadaMoo Birthday Cake, Outshine Fruit Bars, Halo Top
You can also make this quick and easy at home ice cream from blended frozen bananas, mango and cherries. 😋
Other Ideas:
If you are going to have cheese and crackers there is plant-based slice cheese along with deli meat. Pretty much anything that you can make with meat transform it to plant-based and enjoy the party. As I stated before I hope these brands are available in your local area. Remember your kids no longer have to sit in the corner while everyone else is enjoying the party. Make an area labeled vegan and have fun!
As I stated before I hope these brands are available in your local area. Remember your kids no longer have to sit in the corner while everyone else is enjoying the party. Make an area labeled vegan and have fun!
Thank you as always for reading. L9ve, Peace and Blessings! ✌️
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Twitter: @Churchofplants
