VeganMoFo Day 28: Mac 'n Cheese

I love mac and cheese, but I don't make it very often. It's a "treat," if you will. I usually just throw some nooch + soy milk + earth balance + salt/pepper over pasta and call it a night, but I do have a recipe that I like to make if I have more time on my hand. I found this recipe on the internet, I think the PPK, but I can't remember whose it is (sorry and thank you if it is yours!), and I changed it a little.

White sauce:
1/4 cup Earth Balance
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups soy milk

Directions:
Combine EB, flour, and salt in a sauce pan over low heat. When it starts to bubble, gradually add soy milk. Cook until bubbling.

Yellow sauce:
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 TBS cornstarch
1 tsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
spices: I used garlic (or garlic powder), onion powder, lots of pepper, maybe some hungarian paprika

Directions:
Mix together well and add into white sauce. Cook until thick and bubbly. Watch carefully, as it will thicken quickly!
Pour over pasta and I usually bake it for 20-30 minutes so it gets that yummy crust on the top, but it's good like this too.

I threw in some broccoli before I baked it to give it that healthy look.

Nom nom.

Sunday

I've been in a bit of a funk lately; Hoping it will pass soon and that everything will be okay.

Last night, Nik and I used up a gift certificate he had, at Asia De Cuba. So fun! Even though there were only 3 things on the menu that were vegan (2 appetizers and 1 side...), it was DAMN amazing. I was counting on this one entree being vegan, when I looked at the menu beforehand, but turns out they put egg in it somehow and they wouldn't make it without. This place is a sharing-type restaurant, so everything is super-pricey and HUUUUUGE portions (yaaay gift certificates). The appetizer salad I had might be the most amazing salad I have ever eaten though. It had cashews, hearts of palm, chicory, apples, mangos, and BANANAS with some sort of yummy lime dressing. Yes, bananas + cashews + lime dressing in my salad is beyond taste explosions.

We were going to see "The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons" afterwards, but we were stuck in a tunnel on the 6 train for 45 minutes instead and missed the movie.

Blog-cation is over!

Okay, so I took a little blog-cation after VeganMoFo finished, but I'm back now! I got wrapped up in pre-election stress and worry and paranoia and excitement, and then have been floating on cloud-nine the last couple of days. Seriously! I don't get sick of reading/hearing about the election either. I'm just eating it up. I hung up the newspaper in my office at work and drew hearts and stars all over Obama's face, so I am constantly smiling all day. The republicans in my office just don't talk about the election at all, but the rest of us are all happy/huggy/smiley. I kind of feel like a huge weight of fear for the future has lifted off of me. Pure relief and pride of living in this country. I called my senators and reps and requested tickets for the Inauguration!! I've been stalking Megabus' site, waiting for tickets to go onsale for Jan. 20 (and hopefully they will be the minimum $2.50 roundtrip price that they do!!) Don't know where I'm staying yet, but I don't even care!

Even though I have been blog-cationing, I have been eating some yummy food in the last week:


So I agree with Herbivore Creations, and this is THE BEST mac 'n cheeze ever. Like, no joke, serious. I made it last week and have occasionally daydreamed about it this past week.

I made some YUM pumpkin-chocolate-chip ice cream in my ice cream maker the other night. Super creamy, even though it doesn't look like it. I love the combo of pumpkin and chocolate. Super-Fall time. I actually ate a fair amount of the mix before it was put in the ice cream maker, as it tasted like pure pumpkin pie. I have to make a pie soon! I'll pick up some pumpkins at the market on saturday.


I made Kale Chips for the first time and they are surprisingly DELICIOUS. The BF devoured them, which was even more surprising. Super-easy too, in fact, I'll prolly make some more tonight for the weekend. Just mix some cut-up kale with some apple-cider vinegar, olive oil, sea salt, and pepper and then bake at 400 until crispy.

I love Sweet Potato Fries so so so much. Anytime I'm in a restaurant, I always default HAVE to order them. I made the VWAV version (that added cumin is ACE), and ate it with some garlic bread and a salad of pea shoots with raw veggies and sauteed tofu. mmmm

VeganMoFo Day 8: Glorified Mac 'n Cheeze + Garlic Press

So my new favorite kitchen utensil that I have purchased recently, has been a garlic press. Now, I'm the kind of gal who, when the recipe calls for 1-2 cloves of garlic, I add 4-5. Sometimes I think that I am immune to the taste of it, because even with all the extra cloves, it still tastes mild to me. It was during one of those yuppy domestic field trips with the boyfriend to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, while gazingly longily at all the kitchen gadgets that I never knew that I needed, that it was decided that a garlic press must be purchased. The boyfriend was the one that insisted that I buy it, and I was hesitant and stubborn in my tiny knife chopping ways. Who knew how much I would fully embrace it?! It saves so much time (especially with all that I chop)! You don't even need to peel it! Just stick it in the press and squish, and out comes perfectly minced garlic ready for my consumption. I couldn't ask for anything more.



This is my glorified mac 'n cheeze dinner. I like my mac 'n cheeze simple, just pasta, nooch, salt, pepper, a bit of earth balance, and a splash of unsweetened soy milk. That's it. No breadcrumbs or broth or other spices to mess with it. The only restaurant I have been to where I liked their vegan mac is Foodswings, in Brooklyn. It's nice and noochy and plain. I took my little sister there this summer and she ordered it and LOVED it. Now, this was surprising to me, since most people hate Foodswing's mac 'n cheeze, but she said that it tasted pretty close to my mom's classic version, so it made more sense. You go with what you were raised on. My mom bakes hers, keeping it super-simple like mine (except, I'm usually too lazy to bake it and just make the sauce in the pan after the pasta cooks.) Crispy on the top, cheesy in the middle. Now, tonight I had all these veggies from my CSA that I need to start using up, but I just really, really wanted a bowl of mac 'n cheeze. I compromised with myself and just threw them in at the end after the sauce and pasta were mixed (keeping them raw, because I feel like I'm eating healthier if even half of my meal is raw?) I threw in leeks, garlic chives, garlic, and arugula. The leeks totally got in the way of my nooch-covered pasta, but otherwise it was super-yummy and quick to make. Steamed wax beans on the side.

Does anyone else absolutely love the smell of fresh arugula? Sooo good. It's tied with Basil for the best food smell.