Recently my diet has naturally featured less and less meat each week. Over the past 7-8 months my main method of transportation has been my bicycle and as such the food I eat doubles as my fuel too. With the new duel-nature of my food, I've naturally started eating more fruits and vegetables and less meat, partly because meat is tough to carry on the road (bruised fruit is still edible, whereas meat would hardly last an hour or two in my black backpack in the middle of summer) and partly because fruits and veggies give me better and more energy.

As my diet progressed away from meat I also noticed just how damn good everything tastes without meat overpowering everything. Now, I don't even miss meat! So much so that I've been considering switching to a completely vegan diet, at least for a trial for a month. The toughest thing to give up would be pizza, so when I saw this Soy Cheese Pizza from Amy's (makers of super-delicious frozen burritos) I had to give it a shot.

Amy's Frozen Soy Cheeze Pizza prior to cooking

Value

At $5.99 for a single person sized pizza, Amy's Soy Cheeze Pizza is at least comparable in cost to a delivery pizza. It's slightly cheaper than most small pizzas here in Boston, but remember to take into account the cost of cooking the pizza in terms of energy and time. Sure, it's a relatively easy process but it still does cost money to cook this pizza. Still, six dollars for a meal is reasonable.

Below is the nutritional information for this pizza as reported on Amy's Kitchen web-site. Note, the below figures are based off the box containing three servings, though realistically it's a small enough pizza for one person to mow down in one sitting.

Nutritional Facts

• 290 Calories
• 100 Calories from Fat
• 11 g Total Fat
• 1 g Saturated Fat
• 0 gTrans Fat
• 0 mg Cholesterol
• 590 mg Sodium
• 37 g Carbohydrates
• 2 g Fiber
• 3g Sugars
• 12 g Protein
• 80% Organic
• 4% Vitamin A
• 4% Vitamin C
• 2% Calcium
• 10% Iron

On its own, the soy cheeze pizza is not a great source of any nutrients, though it does have a fair amount of fiber and iron, as well as (obviously) being loaded with carbohydrates.

Score: 3 / 5

Quality

Though I was doubtful at first of soy's ability to match real cheese, the description on the back of the box of the soy melting into a mozzarella-esque pile of delicious gooeyness had my mouth watering. Plus my recent experience with soy cream "cheese" left me optimistic about this pizza. I fired up my oven to 425 degrees, waited for it to warm up and popped the soon to be warm, crispy but gooey pile of tomato, soy and crust into the oven.

12-14 minutes later, my excitement and anticipation disappeared as my eyes fell upon a slightly burnt but not melted pile of dough, sauce and half melted half burnt soy bits. The sight left me sadder than a kid at Christmas opening a big box to find clothes.

Score: 1 / 5

Amy's Soy Cheeze Pizza after cooking

Innovation

While I commend Amy's for their effort in taking the cheese out of cheese pizza, their soy based cheeze just does not compare to the real deal. The soy simply did not melt and instead either burned into a crisp or just stayed in its un-melted form. In either case it was honestly a bit nasty tasting, especially on the texture front. Having experienced the diversity of soy, I'm confident that this recipe could be tweaked to work but as is it simply does not mimic cheese. You're much better off just making a cheese-less pizza if you're trying to go the vegan route.

Score: 2 / 5

Social Benefit

Well, if you stockpile a bunch of these pizzas and thus do not get pizza delivery, there would be a net positive impact on the environment. Better yet, we could make our own pizzas from scratch using local ingredients and thus reduce the polluting impact even more.

These pizzas are loaded with salt and other preservatives, which is the last thing most Americans need more of. They're certainly not healthy but are most likely better for you than the average pizza shop. Amy's should be commended for at least attempting to make a vegan cheese-esque pizza, though the actual implementation falls far short.

Score: 2 / 5

Freestyle!

Somehow this soy cheese pizza ended up looking like a Barbecue chicken pizza, though unsurprisingly it did not taste like it at all.

Granted, I should have expected that the marketing on the back of the box wouldn't match up with reality, but I at least expected the soy "cheese" to melt! Instead, the soy sort of warmed up and kinda melted in some spots and kinda burned in other spots. The texture was decidedly not gooey and instead had a plasticy feel to it as the whole layer of cheese was connected and crunchy.

Still, I was hungry and food is food. I cut up the pizza into eight slices and after a few bites realized it wasn't as bad as it looked. The crust was actually quite good. Crispy and crunchy but also chewy enough in the right places. The sauce too was very, very good. Still, the disappointment of the cheese n bits topping overpowered the goodness of the sauce and crust.

Perhaps I'll try this soy cheese pizza again (especially if I go through with my month of veganism experiment and fiend for pizza) but this first time was disappointing though edible.

Score: 8 / 22

Amy's Soy Cheeze Pizza is available at Stop & Shop, Shaw's and other supermarkets.

Complete Score: 16 / 42 = 38%

A few years back when I first heard of the Atkins diet I laughed. Now, I'm not one to go on diets; I eat what I eat, sticking to a food plan seems a bit bizarre to me. Still, this Atkins diet of avoiding carbohydrates was straight up looney tunes to me. I could never give up bread! I also love bagels and can't imagine avoiding carbohydrates, especially now that I ride my bicycle everywhere and need the extra energy.

Carbohydrates and fake cheese FTW!

So long story short, I do make a conscious effort to eat natural organic foods, as they taste better and food without artificial chemicals is a big plus for our health. This trend started about the same time I quit my full time job. Knowing I'd be without health insurance I made a conscious effort to put good food in my system. Naturally, my decrease in consistent cash flow also led me to seek out non-meat meals, for health and cost reasons.

Tasty fake cream cheese inside!

At some point I tried out Soya Kaas: A Natural Cream Cheese Alternative and found it not only looked and tasted similar to cream cheese, I actually enjoyed it better than cream cheese! As John's vegan brother says, "why eat dairy if you don't have to?"

Why indeed?

Value

At $3.99 per 8 oz. container at Whole Foods, Soya Kaas is not cheap, but it's not extraordinarily more expensive than regular cream cheese. Considering it also has no cholesterol and is relatively low in fat (9 grams per 28 gram serving), it's worth the extra $.75 - $1.00 over regular dairy cream cheese.

Score: 3.5 / 5

Quality

It looks like cream cheese, smells like cream cheese, spreads like cream cheese and tastes even better than cream cheese. What's not to like?

It's made out of 51% organic ingredients. In total the ingredients are Tofu (Filtered Water, Organic Soy Beans, Calcium Sulfate), Non-hydrogenated Soy Oil, Caseinate (which is a milk protein synthesized from dried skim milk, so it's not 100% dairy free), Lactic Acid (from corn), Citric Acid, Carob and Carrageenan (a seaweed extract) Gums, Soy Lecithin, Natural Flavors and Sea Salt.

Overall, the ingredients used and the awesome taste make Soya Kaas not just a tasty alternative to cream cheese, but a superior product in general.

Score: 4.5 / 5

Alternative music meets cream cheese?

Innovation

When I first say the blue and white container of Soya Kaas at Whole Foods, I thought no way that tastes anything like cream cheese. Even though this was after trying soy butter and other soy products, and admitting they were close in taste to what they were imitating, I still thought there was just no way it could taste like cream cheese. Still, being adventurous with my food intake, I figured frack it, let's give it a shot.

The first thing I noticed upon getting home was the remarkably difficult plastic wrap covering the fake cream cheese inside the container. For some reason Soya Kaas chose to make it extremely difficult to peal back the plastic wrap in one motion, instead using a piece of plastic that falls apart as you pull it off. Really got to hand it to them, I thought I've seen all the various difficult to open packaging there is but this one really just falls apart as you try to peal it. Annoying but unique.

Onto the "cheese"! As I've noted numerous times already, this white spread really truly does taste like cream cheese. It's actually better tasting than most cream cheese spreads I've had. Spread a bit of this stuff on a warm crisp bagel and it'll melt and sink into the nooks and crannies and generally taste wicked good. All I know is that the soy bean is nature's most magical creation. It contorts into so many different food items it's quite insane. Props to you soy bean, props to you!

Score: 4.5 / 5

Social Benefit

Aside from the small plastic container, Soya Kaas is great for the environment. By relying on soy beans and other natural products, instead of relying on cows, Soya Kaas has a positive impact on reducing green house emissions. Unbeknownst to many people, cows are a leading producer of methane, a greenhouse gas. Though it's biological in nature, these gases do have a noticeable impact on global warming due to the sheer number of cows in the U.S. and abroad. It's not so much that cows are bad for the environment, rather millions upon millions of cows concentrated in small areas are bad for the environment and bad for themselves. By choosing a product that does not rely on cows you're helping to reduce the global demand for cows and helping to make sure they get a little more breathing space and we get a little less cow gas blowing hot air around.

Score: 4.25 / 5

Soya Kass + Bagel = Delicious Breakfast

Freestyle!

This "alternative" to cream cheese tastes great! In fact, while writing this review I made myself so hungry I simply had to have another bagel with alternative cream cheese and strawberry jam and orange fig spread (hmmm real fruit sugar and fake cheese on bread....drooool). If you're concerned about cholestrorol, cow gas, or need a lactose free alternative to cream cheese, give Soya Kaas: A Natural Cream Cheese Alternative a shot. I cannot guarantee you'll like it but I love it!

Carbohydrates and fake cheese FTW!

Score: 18 / 22

Soya Kaas: A Natural Cream Cheese Alternative is available at Whole foods for $3.99.

Complete Score: 34.75 / 42 = 82.7%