Cheesy

Friday, I had had about enough of kids turning up their noses at my dinners and Kyle and Isaac got home late from school, so we decided to go out. We found Sammy's Woodfired Pizza, which offers gluten-free crust and vegan cheese. Friends have told me that Daiya cheese is good, so I thought I'd check it out for myself. Isaac got a pepperoni pizza with mozzarella cheese. (Gotta let the kid live a little!) He ate so fast I thought he was going to choke! Esther also had a pepperoni pizza, but with the vegan cheese. When it arrived at our table, she was upset and said, "cheese makes me sick!" She was shocked when we said it was special and she could eat it...she loved it! Kyle ordered a Margherita pizza on gluten-free crust with vegan cheese, and I had a veggie pizza with the vegan cheese.

Ok, the cheese was melty, which I guess a lot of vegan cheeses don't do. But it tasted like Velveeta, only grainier. I know...not so good. I'm guessing my friends who think it's good, just haven't had real cheese in so long that they have convinced themselves that it's good. Haha!! I understand...I once convinced myself that rice milk lattes were "just as good" as real ones. Anyway, my pizza wasn't too bad. It was covered in eggplant, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions and other goodies. But poor Kyle's just had tomatoes and basil, so you could really taste the cheese. He was not impressed and brushed his teeth as soon as we got home to get rid of the texture. The other problem was the price. These individual pizzas were $12 each...plus $3 for GF crust and $2 for vegan cheese. For the four of us (drinking water) the bill was $60 by the time we left the tip. Sheesh. I think for pizza I'll just stick to making my own. There's no need to eat processed cheese, really. There are lots of GF pizza crust mixes and I just add lots of vegetables. My favorite is pizza sauce, thinly sliced zucchini, sun dried tomatoes, black olives, mushrooms, spinach, and a little onion. Once you load all that stuff on, you don't really miss the cheese. (I'm lying, but it IS good.) For the kids I guess I'll give them a treat and buy some pepperoni...it's like a dessert.

So, lessons. It's too expensive to eat out with kids and vegan cheese is gross. You're welcome.