Comfort Food

One of my favorite snacks used to be something my family calls a "cheese crisp." Spread a thin layer of grated cheese on a large flour tortilla and stick it under your oven's broiler until the tortilla starts to brown and the cheese melts and begins to bubble. (A "Mexican" cheese mix such as monterey jack works well and tastes the best, although we also used cheddar or manchego or whatever other soft cheese we had on hand.) For me, this crispy, cheesy treat has always been the ultimate comfort food.

But, after learning that gluten and casein were making me sick, I figured the cheese crisp was just one of many things that I'd have fond memories of but never eat again.

Then, I discovered Food for Life Brown Rice Tortillas, and invented a kind of comfort food substitute. At the end of a long stressful day, if I was craving carbs, I'd warm up a rice tortilla in the toaster oven -- just until it was warm and soft -- and drizzle it with olive oil. Mmmmm.

Sometimes I'd substitute ghee for the olive oil. And, sometimes, I'd get really crazy and do half flax oil and half olive oil. Maybe not the most nutritious snack, but it sure was delicious.

I love the brown rice tortillas, and even though they don't have the same soft texture as a flour or even a corn tortilla, I really don't miss those. Still, the tortilla was never quite the same without cheese.

After trying several different cheese substitutes, I'd pretty much given up on ever finding anything that I could eat. So many of them contain casein or soy. And the one brand I know about that is soy and casein free contains yeast, which I had always had a strong reaction to -- in any form.

But, now that the yeast levels in my gut are under control and it appears that I am less reactive to a lot of foods (such as carrots and mushrooms), I decided to give Daiya cheese another try. This is a brand of vegan cheese that comes in cheddar, mozzarella, and jalapeno jack varieties. It melts really well, and contains no soy or casein, although it does contain inactive yeast, presumably for flavor.

Here is the result of my first cheese crisp in about 6 years! This is the mozarella variety of cheese, which is excellent in lasagna. The cheddar is actually much better for making cheese crisps. But, as when I was a child, when you want your comfort food, you use whatever you'd got on hand.

What are your favorite comfort foods, and have you found ways to recreate them using substitute ingredients? Have you tried Daiya cheese and do you like it?