Another Dairy Free Experiment

The days are feeling fall-ish.  Yesterday I decided to make soup-- it just felt like the right thing to do.  I haven't cooked in a long long time-- cooking and crutches just don't seem to go well together :)  But Doug was working late, the kids and I were hungry, and I had all the ingredients for corn chowder-- so I decided to go for it.

But... not only did I make my usual corn chowder-- I also decided to try my hand at a small batch of dairy free corn chowder for the little lady.  The picture says it all.  Major success.

My normal recipe usually includes farmer sausage not bacon-- it makes awesome corn chowder.  I get my farmer sausage from the Fine Foods in Waldheim Saskatchewan.  It's not exactly the store down the street-- but they sell the best!  I take the casings off while it's still partially frozen so that it kind of crumbles as you fry it.  Add some onions, potatoes (with some water), salt and pepper, corn (frozen, fresh, or canned) creamed corn, and an assortment of milk ingredients-- milk, cream (yes please!), maybe some cream of mushroom soup and lots of cheese!  Not exactly Emerson friendly.

But, I had some Daiya dairy free cheese in my fridge so I decided to give it a try.  The package says it's "Deliciously dairy free"-- I'm not convinced.  It smells a little funky to me-- tastes funky too-- but Emerson doesn't know the difference!  Once the potatoes were cooked, I added the corn, some almond milk (with a little flour to help thicken it up), a little extra dairy free butter for a bit more flavor, and the cheese-- or should I say "cheese".  

It melted pretty well and actually tasted pretty creamy.  The dairy free version wasn't as tasty as my normal corn chowder but Emerson ate it up!  It actually wasn't too bad.  Eme loved it.  And she loved it again today at lunch.

So did Caleb (he ate the dairy friendly version)-- he had TWO bowls full last night and even drank the last bit of soup right from the bowl.  While I tend to discourage this kind of messy eating behavior-- I was happy to see that he enjoyed it :)  So, I'm thinking that this meal will be a staple in our house over the winter months!  And even though the Daiya dairy free cheese was a little bit nasty to me-- I will likely be purchasing it again :)