Another busy Monday is in the books. I knew it was going to be steady busy, so I was mentally prepared for it. Even though I would have rather hung out with my brother and his family before they left last night. Such is life!
I made this quick picky plate for breakfast. Hannah and Jacob bought cantaloupe last week and hadn’t cut it yet and they let me have one. I love proscuitto wrapped cantaloupe, but I didn’t have any proscuitto, so ham was a good substitute. Love the sweet and salty combo. The ham is Oscar Mayer black forest ham – 2 ounces for 1 point, so my breakfast was only one point!
I have to tell myself that no matter how busy I am, I do deserve to take a break at lunch. After a rainy morning it was really muggy so we decided to walk in Macy’s. I accessorized my lunch and bought chips and salsa from Frontera Grill. They have the best chips – they are almost lime zest and salt coated? I measured out a serving (12 chips) (4) and topped it with leftover salad and turkey breast from our Mother’s Day dinner. I chopped up a cheddar cheese stick (2) and used the salsa as a “dressing.” Delish.
Xxx
I knew I wasn’t going to do a full grocery shop this week. I hardly ever do when it’s a holiday weekend, usually because I spend my weekly grocery budget on the food for that day, which is what I did on Sunday. Although my sister gave me $20 bucks yesterday to chip in for the vegan mac and cheese – um, vegan cheese and butter isn’t cheap! Thanks again Jenn!
Anywho, when I got home I gave the kitchen a 45 minute deep clean while I defrosted shrimp. I love this shrimp from Sam’s Club. While the bag is $18 for two pounds of shrimp, it’s many many servings for me and it is peeled and deveined – love.
This isn’t really a recipe: 1 cup cooked spaghetti (6) mixed with 1/2 cup pasta sauce (1) and topped with an ounce of mozzarella cheese (4) and a sprinkle of bread crumbs, then put under the broiler to get all melty. I just sauteed some shrimp in salt and pepper for 3 minutes, and topped the shrimp on the pasta with some basil. Super delicious and pure comfort food.
My niece is vegan as of January of this year. I’ve seen Mississippi Vegan’s Mac and Cheese which he declares the best. His full recipe is here. I adapted it a bit by only using Follow Your Heart block cheddar cheese – Mariano’s didn’t have that big of a variety of vegan flavored cheeses like Tim used in his recipe. I also didn’t have tumeric (not a spice my Mom would normally have on hand) and I forgot to bring mine from home. I used two blocks of this cheese for the recipe – so 20 ounces total.
Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly. I started out with blending the roasted salted cashews in four cups of water in my Mom’s blender. That’s a nice blender, and I almost wanted to take it home with me. Mom – make a note, I’d like this for Christmas – thanks. Except see if they have it in blue – or black. Love, your favorite child.
It took about two minutes on high to blend the cashews. After I spent about $6 on 1 cup of cashews, I thought, I wonder if I could have just used cashew milk??
This is the Follow Your Heart Vegan Cheese. Um, don’t eat it by itself. I guess some people might like the taste of it on its own, but it was just okay. I think maybe its meant to be put into dishes, not just on its own. That is totally my opinion though. I added the cheese in batches to the blender, with the seasonings and corn starch. I think I let it go about 4 minutes until the sauce was completely combined. I tagged my daughter-in-law Liz on Instagram, because she’s vegan too and I thought she would love this recipe.
I cooked a pound of elbow macaroni, drained it and put it in a 9×13 pan, and poured the “cheese” sauce over top. I would have liked to add bread crumbs, but the bread crumbs my Mom had had Parmesan cheese in them. Did you know there is an app where you can scan a products bar code, and it will tell you if its vegan?! It’s called Is It Vegan – duh.
I topped it with shredded vegan butter and baked it for 30 minutes at 350.
The verdict? It was good. It tasted “cheesy” although if I were making it just for me, I would have added a shit ton more spice, like maybe crushed red pepper, or adding hot sauce to the cheese sauce in the blender? But everyone liked it and there was about the equivalent of that bowl below leftover.
I am not sure how Tim got this “shine” on his sauce. Maybe the tumeric or the different blends of cheese? I would like to try this again using cashew milk – I can buy a 64 ounce container for $2.99 usually, not on sale.
Speaking of vegan, have you checked out my daughter-in-laws Vegan channel on YouTube? Make sure to give her a like and subscribe. Her latest video is what she eats in a day.
Alright Tuesday, bring it on – make it a great day everyone!
Question: have you ever made a vegan dish and loved it? I’d love to hear about it!
Happy Belated Mother’s Day. Can you adopt me? You are such an amazing mom.
Like Kris mentioned, I also use the Trader Joe’s raw, unsalted cashews for making cashew cream. I’m not sure cashew milk would work as it’s not thick enough, but you could certainly give it a try. I’m not vegan, but love experimenting and recently found a cheese that is so amazing in flavor and meltability, that I buy it anyway even though I eat regular cheese. It’s called Chao and it’s a product by the same people who make Field Roast. I get the original slices, but it also comes in spicy and herb flavors. It’s slightly coconutty, but in a good way. Makes wicked good grilled cheese. http://fieldroast.com/products/chao/
I agree Chao cheese is better than other vegan cheese slices and a great alternative to dairy cheese.
Are all dairy free cheeses vegan?? I was confused by that!
Awesome! I will have to look for that brand. I was at Mariano’s and their vegan selection was a bit limited – only a couple flavors to choose from. Thank you!
I am not sure if it would make a difference but you said you used roasted, salted cashews vs the raw ones recipe calls for. I usually buy mine at Trader Joes . I sometimes reduce the cashews and add cauliflower rice to thicken my “cream base” I am not a mac and chesse lover but a lot of vegan recipes use a similar cashew base. One of my favorites is Isa Chandowitz “Glam Chowder”. This time of year though is a great chance to experiment making your own veggie burgers. I”m not much of a grill master but my favorites to order are beet burgers, walnut burgers, etc. Not a black bean burger fan though. Happy Tuesday, enjoy the sunshine.
Thanks for the tips – maybe the texture of the raw cashews will make a difference?? Love the idea of adding the cauli rice though as a thickener. Thanks for all your tips!!
Hi Biz – Leslie from the dark past here to thank you for the vegan mac and cheese recipe. I have become vegan (actually whole food plant based lifestyle) 14 weeks ago and am navigating that terrain as though my life depends on it, which I’m becoming convinced that it does. I watch all the videos Liz puts up, as well as a lot of other You Tube vegans and WFPB eaters. Bottom line – within 5 days of changing my eating, my daily fasting BS that ranged from 150-170 went to 100, and now, for many weeks is in the 70s and 80s daily. My A1C went from 7.1 to 6.0! It’s been amazing, and much more motivating than weight loss has ever been for me, though I’ve lost 30 pounds since I started, and have become a smoothie queen! Dare I say I might be a lifer on this wonderful journey, and while I wouldn’t probably do mac and cheese often, I love getting new possibilities and methods. Anyhoo – I still read you just about every time you post. Best to you always, and thanks also for the app you suggested. It’s $4.99, so I haven’t decided if I’m getting it, but good to know it’s there.
Leslie!! Hello – thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment – I so appreciate it. I hope all is well with you.
Of course I am thrilled with your A1C numbers – that’s fantastic. I’ll let you know when I make it with the cashew milk vs. making it with the cashews – it will save $$ that way.
Gah, the app I downloaded was free, so maybe there is one that has ads that is free vs. the $4.99 version??