Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella Cheese Shreds

I don't know about you, but Follow Your Heart Cheese was the first Vegan cheese that I really liked. Before that, there were numerous blocks of orange-ish clay that called themselves "cheese" but tasted like salted play-doh. Vegans at the time just accepted that Vegan cheese would taste a little funky. Follow Your Heart cheese really changed that (it melted!) and I'm forever thankful. In the last five years though, brands like Daiya and Teese have taken away some of Follow Your Heart's shine. So for me, it's exciting that Follow Your Heart has introduced three new shredded cheese products. For this review, I'm only sampling the Mozzarella, but the other two flavors are Cheddar and Fiesta Blend. And the best test for mozzarella is pizza, right? I think so!        

I've got the cheese all ready to go, but now I need a couple toppings. One of my favorite faux meats is Field Roast Smoked Apple Sage Sausages. If you've never had it, you're missing out big time 'cause it's tasty as heck. As for a veggie topping, I'm gonna be lazy and throw some black olives on this thing. I love my black olives. In a perfect world I would have had green pepper on hand, but alas...

As you can see the cheese melted nicely. I used the broiler for a couple minutes after the pizza was done to melt whatever cheese hadn't already melted. Texture-wise, I liked it more than the recently reviewed Trader Joe's Mozzarella Style Shreds. This was thicker and more cheese-like. It doesn't have the elasticity that Daiya does, which  I don't mind, but some of you might. Taste-wise, it was richer than I thought it would be. Not as rich as Daiya, but not as mild as the Trader Joe's. It has nice mozzarella flavor, maybe a hair salty, but still good. I liked that the flavor didn't overpower the pizza, kinda like Daiya sometimes does. But even though it was a dream melted on the pizza, eaten straight out of the bag it was a little blah. And I know you might be curious, yes it does have palm oil, but thankfully it has been sustainably sourced and bears the Rainforest Alliance certified logo on the packaging.

Overall, I was very satisfied with the mozzarella and I'm excited that Follow Your Heart finally has a shredded cheese on the market. It's a nice alternative to the other Vegan shredded cheeses out there.

Gardein Buffalo Wings & FYH Vegan Ranch

Finally working my way to other Gardein items, my next choice was the Gardein Classic Style Buffalo Wings. I never had actual buffalo wings so I'm not the best judge of how authentic they taste. But they look good on the cover and I could go for some spicy stuff.

Apparently people eat buffalo wings with ranch so I didn't want to be left out. Follow Your Heart has an amazing Vegan Ranch that is sure to knock you socks off. It's great on salads too, (so I hear).

Anyways, so what did I think of the Buffalo Wings? They were good but I have a few complaints. Comparing them to the Gardien Crispy Tenders, they are a bit tougher and not as breaded. Also they didn't come out of the oven as saucy as on the packaging, but I added a bit of Frank's Red Hot and obviously the FYH Vegan Ranch.

If I didn't have those two additions I might have been a little disappointing, but I did so I wasn't. So bottom line: They are good, but they won't ever replace the Crispy Tenders in my freezer.

John's Macho Nachos

If you went to Omaha Public Schools in the 1980's or 1990's you most likely remember Macho Nachos. Every week the lunch schedule was printed in the newspaper and I would count down the days till Macho Nacho day. It was my favorite lunch meal next to the cheese pizza with French fries. While I can't remember exactly what was on the nachos, I feel like I've been able to reproduce the spirit. So here is my version of the Macho Nacho!

As you can see it's pretty loaded. Sometimes I add more ingredients and sometimes I add less. Things I left out this time are black olives, green onions and salsa. And you may be thinking, "John, where is the the Frank's Red Hot?" Well, I did put it on but it was after I took the photo. Now let's check out the other ingredients.

I decided to go with Nacho Teese and I'm glad I did. Out of all of the Vegan cheeses I believe this is the most like old school nacho cheese because it's oozy and melty.

Uptons Chorizo-Style Seitan is the jam! If you've had the Uptons Seitan Tamales then you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's spicy and easy to make, total Laziest Vegans material. If you have this stuff in your area, try it, you'll love it.

And in the same breath, Amy's Traditional Refried Beans are the best refried beans I've ever had (in a can anyway). These aren't your old bland refried beans. I love 'em!

Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Sour Cream is the only Vegan sour cream I've enjoyed. The only downside is that is goes bad fairly quickly. In the future I hope Follow Your Heart can sell it in smaller portions.

Garden of Eatin' Blue Corn Tortilla Chips are my gold standard. So that's my version of the Macho Nacho! How do you fix your nachos?

Soy Dreams

I can vividly remember the first time I ate fake meat. It was before going Vegetarian but I was at the point where I started thinking about cutting out meat. While in the frozen foods section I noticed a meatless meatloaf. I thought to myself "how the hell is it meatloaf without meat?" It was an Amy's Veggieloaf frozen dinner and it turned out to be one of the most delicious frozen dinners I've ever had. It was one of those a-ha moments where I realized I didn't need meat to have a hearty delicious meal. For a couple years I ate the shit out of those dinners but once I went Vegan I had to stop because it contained honey. I would LOVE it if Amy's could bring out a Vegan version or just get rid of the honey all together (pretty please!!!).

Anyway this brings me to the point of my post. For those of you that think you have to give up all of you meat/dairy convenience foods because you go Vegetarian or Vegan, you are just dead wrong. I'm not going to lie to you and say everything tastes just like the original, but in most cases it tastes better. Down below are a couple of examples where I think someone got it right.

Tofurky Deli Slices by Turtle Island Foods

I never had any desire to try these because I was never a big lunch meat person. Late last year someone very sweet made me a sandwich with Tofurky Deli Slices and it was amazing! Now I buy them fairly often for my sandwich fix.

Field Roast Smoked Apple Sage Sausages

These were forced on to me by Whoa Wren. I'm serious, she fixed them in my house! I wanted nothing to do with them because sausage used to make me sick. Amazingly they were delicious and now I keep a couple packs in my refrigerator at all times. I'm also anxious to try Field Roast's other products...all in due time.

Yves Meatless Pepperoni

I don't make pizza that often but when I do I usually go with all veggies. A couple months ago I had a Vegan pizza party at my house and my friend Jenny brought some Yves Vegan pepperoni. I thought it tasted great! If you are really missing that pepperoni flavor this should do the trick.

Teese Mozzarella by Chicago Soydairy

Teese is my favorite pizza-making cheese right now. I agree Daiya is hella good but until I can buy some at the store I'm rollin' with Teese.

Follow Your Heart Sour Cream Alternative

This is a must for nachos! I also enjoy the Follow Your Heart Nacho Cheese, good stuff! Oh and of course Vegenaise, the O.G. of Vegan condiments.