Daiya Cream Cheese Style Spread

Every time I pick up a new pack of my dairy-free cheese, I notice all the other dairy-free products. It's crazy, isn't it? Butter, sour cream, cream cheese, you name it, you can get it dairy-free. I usually eye up all the options, and then buy only what I actually needed.

Cream cheese is my biggest weakness. I used to be a bagel-addict. I probably ate a dozen bagels every month, sometimes more. If I was out of cream cheese, I'd eat peanut butter or Nutella on them, but cream cheese was my very favourite thing.

I honestly have not bought a single pack of cream cheese since my diagnosis.

Not one.

How depressing is that? I consider it, every now and then, but what would I eat it on? Whenever I buy bread products, I usually have a plan for them. I'll buy a pack of gluten-free sliced ham and a loaf of bread and eat sandwiches for lunch a few days. Or I'll buy a package of gluten-free crackers and a little package of goat cheese. Bread products are such a luxury for me, that I haven't wanted to "waste" one on cream cheese.

But I caved. I bought a package of gluten-free sandwich bread and a little container of Daiya cream cheese style spread in strawberry flavour.

The other big problem with cream cheese is that I can't toast anything. We haven't bought a second toaster to be dedicated gluten-free, and even though I cleaned the old one a little, I know I can never eat anything that comes out of it.

I had a solution for that, though! I put my oven on broil, placed two slices of bread on a cookie sheet and popped them in for three minutes. This is how I make cheese toast, and it always works.

Except that without the cheese on top, the bread didn't fare as well. Oh well.

The "cream cheese style spread" comes out of the container and spreads very much like cream cheese. If you're a cream cheese connoisseur like I obviously am, you'll notice the texture is already a little different. It's perhaps a little more airy, and little more light, and it spread a little easier than cream cheese.

As for taste, I like it. There is something about the texture that is just off, but it's still good. I don't think you could trick someone into believing it's regular cream cheese, but I do believe you can content yourself with this if you can't eat dairy anymore.

I'd give it a 7/10: Not the most amazing thing on the planet, but a delicious spread for my toast that won't make me feel sick.