Happy Friday foodie friends! Today the weather is truly representative of spring, it was sunny enough to convince me to wear capris, but don't ya know as soon as I left the house the cloud cover showed up and made we wish for a down jacket.
Oh anyway, the weather really has nothing to do with this post, so onward we go. Recently I have tried two different vegan "cheezes'. I guess they call these cheeze with a Z just so that you can tell that it is not cheese in any way, shape or form. Whatever, here I am, a girl who cannot eat cheese, but misses the bygone days of 7-11 nachos and alfredo sauce. Thus, I took a trip down to my local Whole Foods store, and picked up a couple of jars of vegan cheeze. Both jars were about 6 bucks each, so they are not cheap. And it is for that reason that I am writing this review to share what I thought about each jar.
Heidi Ho Chia Cheeze Sauce is dairy free, gluten free, soy free, cholesterol free, low fat and low sodium. And even with all those things going against it (ha ha!) it is DELICIOUS! I bought this cheeze sauce to make nachos. I found it in the refrigerated section near the vegetables. Upon returning home I chopped up the toppings for my nachos, and whipped up some guacamole (you know how much I love avocado). Then I popped open the jar. I was totally grossed out, it must have been because it had been so long since I had handled jarred cheese, but it was very firm and didn't smell bad, but it did not smell good either. But once I threw it in the microwave and warmed it up, it was the perfect nacho cheese consistency. Truth be told, I do not even need cheeze to have nachos, and you can barely see the cheeze under all that guac, but now that I have been introduced to Heidi Ho, I will be eating a lot more nachos.
How good is it? Well, I didn't try it this way, but I believe you could just warm it up and use it as a dip. Next time I am going to get the spicy jar and do just that!
How good is it? Well, I didn't try it this way, but I believe you could just warm it up and use it as a dip. Next time I am going to get the spicy jar and do just that!
Victoria Vegan Alfredo Sauce: Arugula Pesto is dairy free, gluten free and soy free. I made this for dinner Sunday night for a little Walking Dead season finale party that I hosted (complete with popcorn and cupcakes!). Because this sauce is a little on the expensive side (all dairy free products are- welcome to my life!), I also heated up a jar of marinara sauce for the guys to eat (my husband and our friend Mick can eat all the cheese that they want) so this sauce was mostly for Sarah and I. I made pierogi and penne pasta for the boys and I, and I sauteed some zucchini coins for Sarah (She is gluten free). Then I fried up some chopped bacon, then sauteed onions and mushrooms in some of the grease. Who takes a jar of vegan Alfredo sauce and adds bacon to it? This girl!
While the cream factor of this sauce was up to par, and precisely what I was looking for, I am not quite sure if I will be buying it again. I felt like the flavor was OK, but verged on being too lemon-y. I get why lemon would make sense in the recipe, to give the sauce a tangy bite, like cheesy Alfredo has, but I didn't like that the lemon is all I could taste. However, after we all ate our share (sorry, I forgot to take a picture) I threw all the leftovers together, the mushrooms, onion, bacon, Alfredo and marinara and tossed the left over penne pasta in it, and that's what we ate for dinner the next day. That combination of sauces together (kind of a vodka sauce) was delicious, and definitely something I would make again.
How good was it? Well Sarah and I both agreed that the best part of the sauce was the bacon, but it was good enough for me to want to eat it again.
