Better than Cream Cheese

We love this cream cheese substitute. I have used it to make cheese cake with brilliant results. Seriously, my cheese cake passed quite well for a traditional dairy filled cheese cake. We could eat it all day long. I have also used it when I have a recipe that calls for soy yogurt and have none on hand. I mix it with soy or rice milk to make it the same consistency as yogurt. My husband likes to use it in wraps (he can have gluten in small amounts but not dairy). We have even had some of the flavored versions and liked them as well.

You can taste the difference but it is so close to the taste of cream cheese you can forgive the difference. Especially when it means you can have cheese cake!

Soy Whipped topping

Since Thanksgiving and the holidays bring pies and desserts that would be great with whipped topping, I went on a hunt. I searched the Internet and found this. I found it at one of my local whole foods type store. The packaging does say that it may contain trace amounts of milk. They still claim it is Vegan and Dairy Free on the front of the container. We choose to try it, even though trace amounts of dairy matter greatly to our oldest son. Turns out he didn't want to eat it. He was not in a mood to have something new. However, I tried it and feel that it is a great substitute for whipped cream. It is not unlike the dairy free stuff I use to be able to find in the grocery stores. To me it is a bit like fat free cool whip (maybe a little less sweet). My husband says it tastes like soy. I taste the sweet and the vanilla first and then the soy. Bottom line I highly recommend you try it and see for yourself.

Milk Substitute

Many of the recipes I use call for milk powder. I use Better than Milk Rice milk powder. I have also used the soy version but since my younger son seems to be sensitive to it, I switched to rice.

If you have a hard time finding a milk substitute powder for recipes you can always use soy infant formula. When I first started out with this diet I couldn't find a powdered rice or soy milk. Yet many of the recipes I wanted to make out of my gluten free cook books called for it. The Author actually talked about using infant formula as an alternative. For a while I actually liked the thought of formula because it has lots of vitamins and nutrients that are good for you. However, formula is expensive and I eventually found this. When I run out of the rice milk my son drinks I will use this till I can buy more. So there are other reasons it is nice to have around.

Ice cream

Turtle Mountain makes, in my opinion, the best non-dairy ice creams. These are the flavors my boys like. Yep one likes chocolate and they other likes vanilla and they never switch and won't try other flavors. This company also makes a line called Purely Decadent which has some really gourmet flavors. I liked pomegranate chip. YUMMY!!! I can have dairy and have had pomegranate ice cream on a stick covered in dark chocolate. It was heavenly. The purely decadent version of pomegranate with dark chocolate chips in it was pretty nearly the same flavor. I have found many of them at a local health food store.

http://www.turtlemountain.com/products/products.html

Tofutti Better than Sour Cream

We like this sour cream. It makes nice dips, good on mashed potatoes and anything you would add sour cream to. One year I made mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving and nobody noticed I used a sour cream substitute. My husband likes to have it on hand all the time.

We also like their better than cream cheese, which makes a nice cheese cake. Yummmm!

The boys like their mozzarella cheese slices. When in the mood they will go through a whole package eating them on top of crackers. It also melts so you can use it on pizzas or quesadillas (made with corn tortillas).

They also make ice cream.