Yogurt and Cheese

My foray into non-dairy foods continues. Today, I will regale you with my non-dairy yogurt and non-dairy cheese adventures. You don't have tell me how exciting this is, because I already know.

Without further ado...

Yogurt

So far, I have tried WholeSoy and Co. yogurt (Safeway carries this brand) and also Trader Joe's soy yogurt. Both are pretty good and I like them, but they would be better if they dialed down the sweetness. They both have the consistency of original Yoplait yogurt, which I find pleasing. I have gotten various flavors of the WholeSoy and Co. (vanilla, strawberry, and blueberry) and they were all good.  I like to add fruit and cereal and that makes a good snack and makes them seem less sweet. I would buy both the WholeSoy and Co. and the Trader Joe's brand soy yogurt again.

I just bought So Delicious cultured Greek style coconut yogurt in plain and Amande cultured almond milk yogurt in coconut flavor. Confusing? Yes. I just went a little apeshit at Whole Foods because they have so many brands to choose from (compared to Safeway.)

The So Delicious Greek Style coconut yogurt in plain was really awful.

It was thick, but kind of slimy and it had the consistency of gesso with an odd coconut flavor. I'm really sad to say that, because I was looking for something like Fage 2% Greek yogurt. I put some blueberries in it to make it bearable, but I still couldn't finish it. I would not buy it again, but I do want to try the regular So Delicious cultured coconut milk.

The Amande cultured almond milk in coconut flavor was just ok.

It had bits of coconut in it and it was really sweet. I liked that it was made from almond milk, though, and it had a traditional yogurt texture. I plan to buy more flavors, like strawberry and raspberry and see how those taste.

Cheese

I've been leery of trying cheese because soy cheese just seems like a bad idea. But onward and upward, right? So I got Galaxy Nutritional Foods VeggieSlices in pepper jack flavor.

It's actually not bad on a sandwich. It's kind of like American cheese, but I don't mind that. It's fine on a cold sandwich and it also melts pretty well - like on a hot Garden burger. It is soy based and lactose free, but does have casein in it, which is a milk protein. It doesn't seem to bother my skin so far and I am on my second package of it. They carry it at Safeway.

I just bought some Daiya havarti style dairy free cheese in jalapeno garlic flavor. It is totally free of dairy. They carry this at Whole Foods.

I've tried it on some Wheat Thins and it's flavorful, but I wouldn't say it's cheese-like. It doesn't seem like havarti at all.  The texture is thicker than a Laughing Cow cheese triangle, but you can still spread it on a cracker with a knife. The garlic packs a punch, so make sure you don't need to get up close to anyone after your cheese n' cracker snack. Even if you brush your teeth, the garlic taste still hangs around. I recommend chewing Orbit Peppermint gum after eating this. Your loved ones will thank you. But would I buy the Daiya havarti style wedge again? Sure, if I was at Whole Foods and wanted a snack spread for my crackers, I would pick this up.

I tried some fake cheese at Razzi's (a pizza place in our hood) and it was pretty bad. I had Daiya vegan shredded mozzarella cheese on my salad and it tasted weird and had a strange, dry texture. I also had the Daiya vegan mozzarella melted on my pizza and it was very glue-like and looked like melted plastic. I ate it because I was hungry, but I wouldn't order it again. So, that was sad, because I love Razzi's pizza and also their dinner salad with real cheese! I think maybe I'll just hold the cheese next time. (But I won't cut the cheese. Har har.)

That's as far as I've gotten with yogurt and cheese so far. The yogurt options have been successful overall. The cheese...well, let's just say that I really miss medium Tillamook cheddar and mozzarella cheese on pizza, and string cheese, and real pepper jack slices and nacho cheese dip and, I could go on forever. But I don't have any disgusting chin lesions from reacting to real dairy, so I guess I'll just enjoy that triumph.