Cheese Glorious Cheese!

First, I have to start off with a rant about how much I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cheese.
Like.
Cheese could just be a meal for me.
I could literally sit down, and just eat a block of cheese for dinner and I would be perfectly happy with that.
My childhood consisted of mac n cheese, grilled cheese, cheese n crackers, plain cheese quesadillas, sliced smoked gouda cheese (which I would just sit down and eat a few slices at a time), tacos with gooey queso cheese dribbling out the ends (not to mention nacho cheese taco shells), nachos with nothing but melted cheese, I could keep going all day long. The point is, to tell the total cheese freak I was that I couldn't have dairy anymore was complete and total devastation. No... more... cheese?

I still remember my last meal of tacos with that luscious, gooey queso cheese. I sat there, at the kitchen table, right before my mom started me on the SCD diet (which we quickly stopped). The last bite went into my mouth, I scooped up the dribbles of cheese left on the plate with my fingers, and then the plate went into the sink, the chapter of tacos closed indefinitely.

However, once we started looking around for dairy alternatives, my mom and I found that cheese wasn't as extinct to me as the dodo bird. Back in late 2014, there was only one brand of dairy and soy-free cheese that I could have. Five and a half years later, I can still only count the number of brands I can have on one hand, but hey, options are options!

So Delicious

My absolute favorite brand of dairy-free, soy-free, almond-free, everything-free cheese is So Delicious Shreds. They have 3 flavors, cheddar, cheddar jack, and mozzarella, and they're made using coconut milk.

I use the cheddar on tacos, nachos, and pizza. I don't really use the cheddar jack on anything except pizza, and the same goes for mozzarella. This cheese melts AMAZING in both the microwave and oven, not so much the stovetop though. One thing is this brand goes bad really fast if you just leave it in the fridge, so I usually leave mine in the freezer since I just heat it up to melt it anyway.

Another thing to mention though is that it's getting hard to find this cheese anywhere... I used to buy it at Sprouts and Whole Foods, but around February of this year (2020), they both stopped carrying it in stores. Now you can't find it anywhere in Arizona. Not sure about other states- I looked up California on So Delicious's website store locater and they said there were a few stores that carried it. I called one of them and they said they didn't have it, so who knows. I also called So Delicious themselves and they said that Sprouts and Whole Foods discontinued carrying the shreds for a "reason they can't disclose," and they're working on getting them back on their shelves soon.

We stocked up on the Cheddar cheese when we saw that stores weren't getting it in anymore and froze a few bags. I'm on my last bag in the freezer now savoring every last crumb... hopefully stores near me start carrying it again soon (or else this girl is going to be cranky haha!)😭

You can check and see if stores near you carry their cheese on the So Delicious website:  https://sodeliciousdairyfree.com/dairy-free-foods/dairy-free-shreds/

Follow Your Heart

When it comes to cheese, Follow Your Heart has a lot more variety than So Delicious. They have different types of sliced, shredded, and blocked cheese along with parmesan and feta crumbles.

I mainly use their American slices for sandwiches and the parmesan for spaghetti or other pasta-type dishes. The slices don't melt real well on the stovetop for grilled cheese, at least not the American, Provolone, or Gouda which are the only slices I've tried (the other ones I either didn't know existed until I looked up the Follow Your Heart website, or they have too many spices like garlic in them). They do melt in the microwave though on turkey burgers, and I'll also just put them on cold turkey or chicken sandwiches, which are great for school lunches! And yes, the Gouda tastes like real Gouda cheese- I'd eat a slice plain!

As for the blocked cheese, I've never really had a reason to try it, but I assume its like the slices, just... not sliced. I'm pretty sure the feta crumbles are new, and I haven't tried those either. 

Now, the shreds, I honestly can't remember if I've tried them before. Something tells me I have and didn't really like them, so maybe I've just kind of tried to push them out of my memory and pretend they don't exist. Either way, I'll have to grab a bag the next time I go to the store and give it a taste-test. 

Here's the Follow Your Heart website: https://followyourheart.com/product_category/vegan-cheese/

Violife

I have to obsess over Violife for a minute. You know I'm passionate about my cheese, and for the first four years of being everything-free, I basically gave up all hope in having a heavenly grilled cheese sandwich ever again. Sure, I tried shredded cheese on the stove, along with Follow Your Heart slices, but nothing ever melted before the bread burned. I would have to grill the bread, put it in the microwave with the cheese, then the bread would be soggy, and the cheese never tasted right. I abandoned any and all hope of ever having a good grilled cheese.

But then.

Last summer we took a trip to Durango, Colorado. We went to this little all-natural store, Nature's Oasis, to check out their stuff, and we got talking to one of the employees who pointed out Violife cheese to us. We had never seen it in Arizona before. The employee said it was really good, that her and her boyfriend really liked it, etc, etc, so I decided to give it a shot, although I was still skeptical because I knew that no everything-free cheese ever really tastes like the real thing.

When we got to the hotel, I put it on some mac n cheese, a sandwich, tried eating slices plain, the whole deal. It was alright, at the least it was some variety. We went back the next day to buy a couple more packs to take back home since we knew we couldn't get any in Arizona.

When we got back home, I decided to experiment and made a grilled cheese sandwich. To my absolute and utter amazement, I found that the cheese actually melted before the bread burned! Incredible.

But then.

I tasted it.

I don't remember my exact reaction, but it was probably something pretty close to jumping up and down, squealing, shoving another bite down my throat, then being close to tears over how INCREDIBLE the darned grilled cheese tasted! Seriously. Like. I almost can't tell the difference when I'm eating a grilled cheese sandwich with Violife cheese. When my mom makes a grilled cheese, and then I see how amazing hers looks, so I go make one of my own, I don't envy her "real" one for a single second. I honestly don't even care what "real" grilled cheese tastes like because mine is so amazing. Do you get the point yet? This is the BEST everything-free grilled cheese cheese EVER.

Amazingly enough, after our trip to Durango last July, Violife cheese magically appeared in Whole Foods in Arizona! Like, within a month. It was scary. But hey, I'm not complaining!

They have three types of slices- Cheddar, Smoked Provolone, and Mature Cheddar. I use the Cheddar on my grilled cheese, but I'm sure the others would work just fine meltability-wise. I've tried both the Smoked Provolone and Mature Cheddar slices, but I still prefer Follow Your Heart for just my cold meat sandwiches. 

Violife also has shredded cheese in Cheddar, Mozzarella, and Colby Jack. I've only tried Cheddar and Mozzarella. I don't care for them very much on nachos where you really taste the cheese flavor, but I'll use them on pizza. Honestly, pretty much every cheese is good on pizza. You just can't go wrong with pizza.

They also have Mature Cheddar, Smoked Cheddar, and Feta blocks, none of which I've tried. There's a parmesan block I haven't tried either... and they've also got cream cheese! I wasn't going to go into cream cheeses in this post, but since it technically is under the name cheese, I guess I'll cover it.

Violife's cream cheese options are Original (plain), Garlic and Herb, and Cheddar. I've tried the Original, obviously can't have Garlic n Herb 'cause I can't have garlic, and I actually didn't know Cheddar existed until I looked it up on their site just now! The original is good, nothing to complain about. I just don't get too thrilled about it because the only thing I ever used to put cream cheese on was bagels, and I'm yet to find everything-free bagels. But hey, it's still pretty good on crackers or something! 

Violife website: https://violifefoods.com/us/our-products/

Daiya

I have mixed feelings about Daiya. On one hand, it was the first dairy-free cheese I ever tried- Christmas Eve 2014 on top of baby purple potatoes. It's good, sure, but I personally like some of the newer brands better. I haven't had Daiya shedded cheese in a couple years, but the last I remember it, the individual shreds broke apart really easy, and the cheese was almost kind of greasy. I'm not saying it was gross, but it just isn't the best. I'm probably not the best one describe it, since I haven't had it in a few years and they could have changed it since then. Either way, I don't eat the Daiya cheese anymore, but it's still worth a try.

I'm not going to go through all of the different types and styles, but here's some pictures and their website if you want to do some investigating: https://daiyafoods.com

One thing I will stop to talk about, though, is their cream cheese. Like I've mentioned, I don't really have any use for the plain, and can't have the fancy seasoned stuff, but the strawberry kind on the other hand... technically, I'm not supposed to have strawberries, but I'll make an exception for this stuff (shhh). I'll toast some of my everything-free bread (look for that post soon!) and lather on the strawberry cream cheese and mmmm... it's so good. Not grilled cheese good, but it's pretty amazing. 

                             

 Okay, I think I'm about done with my cheese rant. Hopefully this post was insightful and I wish you the best of luck on your cheesey journey!

Also, if you really like grilled cheese... you HAVE to try the Violife. HAVE to. Okay, okay, I'm done with my rant now lol.


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