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I haven't cut it out for myself, but Xander's allergic to milk, so he's on a dairy-free diet.

Substitute milk: Hemp Milk (Tempt)
Substitute butter: Earth Balance
Substitute yogurt: So Delicious
Hotdogs/Sausage/Lunch meat: Applegate

Key words that mean it contains milk: Butter, Casein & caseinates, Cheese, Cream, whipped cream, Curds, Custard, Dairy product solids, Galactose, Ghee, Half & Half, Hydrolysates, Ice cream, ice milk, sherbert, Lactalbumin, Lactate solids, Lactys yeast, Lactitol monohydrate, Lactoglobulin, Lactose, Lactulose, Milk, milk fat, Nisin preparation, Nougat, Pudding, Quark, Recaldent, Rennet, Simplesse, Sour cream, Whey, Yogurt

For me, it was easy enough to avoid dairy when reading labels--it was avoiding soy that was super hard, because I was avoiding all forms, including oil and lecithin.

I think at first, it's overwhelming for anyone who normally eats dairy--I used to snack on cheese and drink milk and eat a lot of baked goods with dairy and made a lot of casseroles with cheese or condensed soups, etc. But once I came up with about 20 go-to meals, then it became very easy.

My LO is still 95% dairy free at age 2.5, and I was dairy/soy free from when she was 3 months to 13 months. Even now, I eat way less dairy than I used to because I found I lost the cravings for it (and I never would have imaged that before).

Adira already mentioned the Earth balance butter--you can use that in baking/cooking, etc. Any recipe that calls for butter will turn out about the same using Earth balance in the red tub. For baking, I find that almond milk is the best substitute, and it's also what we use on cereal now. For cooking, I tend to use coconut milk or coconut cream in place of milk.

You can literally make almost anything in the world dairy free and I've found there is almost no difference. I just made a chicken pot pie using coconut milk and flour for the roux and there was no coconut flavor--it just tasted like regular old chicken pot pie.

There are tons of prepared foods that are dairy free, too. I could give you a list if you have a specific category you are having trouble with. Trader Joe's has tons of prepared foods that are dairy free.

My typical go-to foods are:

breakfast:
-eggs and toast
-dairy free pancakes (make my own or buy the TJs dairy free)
-oatmeal
-cinnamon rolls from a can on special occasionals (TJs are dairy free)

lunch:
sandwiches, there are a handful of DF Smart Ones frozen dinners, leftovers from lunch

Dinner:
-pasta with red meat sauce
-salmon, potatoes, and veggies
-chicken a million ways with veggies
-curries (both indian and thai)
-dairy free homemade pizza
-DF fishticks, sweet potato fries, broccoli

Snacks: fruits, hummus and pita chips, carrots, there are a lot of nutty "granola" bars that are DF,

junk food/ sweets: there are tons. Lots of dairy free cookie brands, lots of candies, even baking chocolates in some stores are DF, so you can easily make chocolate chip cookies or whatever. Coconut milk ice cream, popsicles, most non-cheese flavored chips are DF. You can definitely gain weight eating DF--Dairy free is not synonymous with healthy. I mean, candy like Skittles are dairy free.

=)

@catlady: Oh yeah, sourdough bread in general is usually safe, but always check the label!

Oh, another thing! McDonald's fries have milk. Wendy's fries do not.

Also, Enjoy Life makes some dairy-free chocolates (including a rice-milk milk chocolate).

American Flatbreads makes a good vegan pizza.

Earth's Best makes dairy-free frozen waffles.

Oreo's are dairy-free!

The PPs have great suggestions and info! I would agree with MrsADS: that eliminating soy as well is a good idea. It's like you're ripping the bandaid off all at once. You can always slowly try to reintro soy to see if it's really an issue. Soy was much harder to eliminate from my diet than dairy (it's in so SO much!), but all in all it wasn't too bad. I read lots of labels to find the best snacks to make sure I wasn't missing out and I was able to make a dairy and/or soy free version of just about anything.

Another big issue was making sure that everyone who took care of DD (or prepared food for me) knew what to avoid. Like @catlady: we had a few family members who didn't really understand what was considered dairy and I ate it by mistake and those little slip ups made LO show symptoms But for the most part I tried to never rely on others and always brought our own food to people's houses - no one ever minded!