Weekend Foodie Warriors- Take 18!

Hello hello, again, Foodie Friends 🙂 Hope you had a fantastic weekend! In this edition of Foodie Adventures, we celebrated Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A, enjoyed brunch at The Habitap, and compared some of my favorite non-dairy products!

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There’s only a few things in this world I love more than free food, and dressing up like a goof is one of them. My roommate came home from work and I asked if he wanted to dress up like a cow and go to Chick-fil-A, and somehow he humored me and said yes.

Cue the squealing of delight and frantic look for anything and everything in our apartment that could be cow themed!!

We started with tails, my scarves did well tied around our waists, and I happened to have an old Chick-fil-A calendar lying around, which we cut out to make little cow mascots on our backs. I’m wearing my white and black earmuffs too, which I wanted to make into cow ears but didn’t work out super well, so they just went on normally.

I’m also a big Bob’s Burgers fan as you can see by my shirt! While we didn’t take pictures of our meal, we did have some fun stopping by a pet supermarket in our costumes afterward, check out the slideshow for more (Fun fact, the little bird sat on my shoulder for about 10 minutes)!

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I love brunch, you love brunch! I had been hearing good things about this place for a while now, very under the radar murmurs about how good its brunch was, and didn’t realize it was about 5 minutes from our apartment.

They had a great outdoor-ish area with tvs playing live sports, some cool couches to relax on, and even some board games in the corner for Game Nights!

It was bottomless mimosas today which looked amazing (I was the designated driver this morning, so no alcohol for me), and the brunch menu was mainly biscuit based.

We’ll definitely be back, they had some great wines and beers on tap! If you download the untapped app and add them as a bar, the app will let you know whenever they add more beers. They also have fun tasting events and themed nights, this one is a must try!!

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For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been lactose intolerant for the last two years. When I say I’m intolerant though, I’m actually allergic to dairy. Too much cheese or ice cream and I get an instant stuffy nose as if I’ve had a head cold for the last few days. So for me, lactose-free products don’t work.

What I have found that works I’d like to share with you, as maybe some of the products I’ve started using can help make your non-dairy life a little better, especially if you’re a cheese lover (which I still very much am).

One of the things I’ve come to realize is that it must be something in cow’s milk that’s the problem. Hand me a block of goat’s cheese, sheep’s milk cheese, etc, and I can eat the entire thing with no consequences! So I’ve started subbing in Goat’s milk cheddar, feta, and soft-style cheeses into a lot of my cooking in place of their cow’s milk counterparts or even for cream cheese in some savory dishes.

Below, I’ve broken down some of my favorite Non-dairy copycats of my favorite real cheese products – Categories include Block Cheese, Shredded Cheese, Sliced Cheese, Yogurt, Ice Cream, and Beverages.

Block Cheeses

The two go-to block cheeses that I come back to again and again are these brands and flavors. They grate well, slice well, and dare I say hide well. My dairy-loving friends happily eat these “fairy”* cheeses (*fake + dairy= “fairy”🧚‍♀️) with me, and they melt really well and give the original cheese’s flavor they’re supposed to.

*Bonus* Snuck a Violife cream cheese I’ve found that I really like in here too, goes great on bagels and while I haven’t cooked with it yet, it melts super quickly! I also enjoy the Kite Hill “fairy” cream cheese, but it doesn’t last as long in the fridge as this Violife one does.

Shredded Cheeses

These two I enjoy a lot, the Follow your Heart Cheddar is great on grilled cheese and is a good melter along with the Daiya Pepper-jack style shreds, which tend to give more flavor of the pepper and hide the “fairy” taste a little better than some others. I have a bag of VioLife shredded cheddar in my fridge but I’ve yet to try it, so I won’t put it on this list yet.

Sliced Cheese

When I tell you these Chao slices are awesome, it’s no lie. This is another cheese lover’s favorite. My mom bought some of this brand for me to try as I was coming over that weekend, and before I got home she had opened it up and ate half the package 😍😂 It’s an awesome melter, great on sandwiches or for crackers and cheese. The Violife Cheddar slices taste like Boar’s Head American cheese. Fun fact, they actually put some cheddar cheese into their American to make it taste better, so I’m not surprised that that flavor is what this cheese reminds me of. The Follow Your Heart Pepper Jack slices are good, I almost think the flavor of these just slightly edges out the Daiya pepper jack style flavor. Good melter, and good flavor too!

Yogurt

My top two faves are the SO Delicious Coconut-milk yogurt and the Silk Almondmilk yogurt. Great flavors, great tang and texture, honestly doesn’t make me miss normal yogurt at all when I eat these. Works awesome in smoothies too!

Ice Cream

I’ve had a little more of a hard time finding “fairy” ice creams that match up to the richness and indulgence of normal ice cream. However, depending on flavors, some versions or milk varieties are better than others. Target’s Archer Farms brand and So Delicious are really good, and have fun flavors (chocolate flavors and crunchy toppings inside usually help add to the tastes and textures of the “fairy” ice creams. I LOVE the CoolHaus ice cream sandwiches, those are amazing 😍

*Bonus* The Reddi Wip Coconut milk and Almond milk whipped creams are super yummy!! Love these on pie, hot cocoa, and ice creams. The only issue is these two types of whipped cream are a little heavier, so you tend to run out of spray propellant in the can before you run out of whipped cream, which is kind of annoying.

Beverages

This category is kind of a mixed bag here. I live and die by Almond Milk, usually either Blue Diamond, Silk, or the Lidl Store brand, which I buy in the Unsweetened Original flavor so I can use it in my more savory cooking. The Ripple chocolate pea milk (bottom right bottle) is one of my favorite, smoothest, non-dairy chocolate milks that I don’t make myself. I love the holidays so I missed eggnog, so last year I found Califia Farms Almond milk eggnog, which made me super happy 💜 It tasted just like a lighter version of eggnog, without the heavy, and makes you wanna take a nap aftereffects. When you’re looking for a non-dairy boost of energy, the Iconic protein shakes are fantastic, they even have ones with coffee in them! Last but not least, I love making drinks for friends (Mudslides are one of my faves) but I could only have one before my nose would get stuffy. This Bailey’s Almondmilk liquor is a godsend 🙌

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So how was your weekend Foodie Friends? What are your favorite “fairy” cheese-related products? If you are a cheese lover, do any of these sound good to you or would you be willing to try them out in the future? Sound out in the comments below or let me know your suggestions of what dishes or places we should visit next. As always, feel free to like, comment, & share 🤗