food reviews and goat cheese!!

So I went to Whole Foods today, finally!

I went in search of chocolate, because I've been really craving it and only have chocolate chip cookies and chocolate pudding. I found: Newman-O's (Chocolate cookies with chocolate creme), 365 brand Vegan Chocolate chips, and this little dark chocolate wafer candy bar that I didn't like much. I'm sad that they don't have any dairy-free chocolate that is like milk chocolate but without milk in it. Couldn't they do that theoretically with soy milk or coconut milk or something? I might try making a ganache this way sometime.

Then I went over to the place where all the cheese was and asked the girl behind the counter about goat cheese and going dairy-free. She said she actually didn't do dairy, and pointed out all the sheep and goat cheeses to me that I could try. I got a plain goat cheese (soft) that was on sale for $4.99 for a pretty good size package, manchego cheese (made from sheep's milk, hard - 6 months aged) and DRUNKEN GOAT CHEESE! (semi-hard, made with red wine). I was so excited about being able to eat cheese of some kind.

I had a great experience with the things I found and the people at the store, but as expected it was expensive-ish ($20 for these 6 items). But it was worth it. As I was driving out of Whole Foods' cramped parking lot, I was really hungry and decided to go for the Drunken Goat Cheese right then and there. It was so delicious. I felt like I was doing something wrong and sinful. It was savory and amazing. I'm so glad I picked it up. Here it is, complete with in-the-car bite-marks:

And now for some reviews...

Chocolate Newman-O's (bought at Whole Foods)

A+

The cookies were crispy, the creme filling creamy (not chalky at all!) and overall they were chocolatey and delicious. I ate 4 after lunch, and pretty quickly! I think they are better than regular oreos, and I highly recommend you try them. They were also on sale for 3 dollars, which is a better deal (about 32 cookies) than Pamela's Chocolate Chip Cookies, which were $3.49 for 9 cookies at Kroger. Even when not on sale, $4 or $4.5 would probably be a better deal, considering how many cookies you get. I'm happy with this purchase, and glad they aren't terribly expensive.

365 brand Vegan Chocolate Chips (Semi-Sweet 41% Cocoa) (bought at Whole Foods)

A+

These chocolate chips taste exactly the same as regular chocolate chips. I might like them a little better because I think they were a little less hard (although maybe that's because they were fresher than the regular chocolate chips I've had for a while). Whatever, they were good and I highly recommend. They were $3.39 regular price.

So now I have chocolate alternatives and a cheese replacement, so I'm pretty happy with that.

Also, for dinner tonight I experimented with my new cheeses. I make some piccolini pasta, and made a cheese sauce for it: I heated up some olive oil, added some garlic, Italian seasonings, a little bit of pepper and chili powder. After the garlic simmered a few minutes in the oil, I added in a bunch of the plain goat cheese. Stirred this a lot, and it made a nice, creamy sauce that I added to the pasta after draining. It was a little tangy, so I added some grated manchego cheese on top which definitely improved the flavor of the dish. So, that's my alternative alfredo sauce! Next time I might try this with some plain soft goat cheese and a larger amount of one of the other cheeses that I got.

After that, I ate some of the 'vegetable chili' that my mom's personal cook made, along with a slice of my favorite bread.

So glad I get to sleep in tomorrow!! In case anyone was wondering, my head hasn't been hurting any since I got this dairy-free thing down, and my stomach has been better-ish.

*this was posted at 1am, it says 2pm because that's when I started the draft*