Instant Mac and "Cheese"

Everyone remembers the blue box; the quick, easy lunch or dinner. There aren't very good (readily available) vegan replacements for the blue box. Leahey makes a pretty good version, but I hate the crappy pasta they put with it. If you order the cheesy sauce separate and make your own pasta, that's pretty good... but you have to order it online. Here is a version that you can make it home in almost the same time, once you've made the mix. Here is a recipe from the Uncheese Cookbook for Instant Cheese Sauce Mix.

Now that you have the mix, you can have mac and cheese anytime. I am still working on the proportions. I think I have too much sauce to pasta. Next time, I might cut the sauce in half. Play around with it and see what you think. It might be best to make some extra pasta (till we completely figure it out) so you can correct the sauce amount.



Note in the pic that it looks like I found the elusive straight macaroni. I didn't. This is Barilla Picollini (or mini ziti). It is bigger than straight macaroni. I think I will just use macaroni next time.

Instant Mac and Cheese

2.5 oz Macaroni Pasta
1/4 cup Instant Cheese Sauce Mix
1/2+ cup rice milk or soy milk
1 T Earth Balance Margarine

Cook the pasta in a medium pot according to directions. When tender, drain and leave in colander till sauce is done. In the same pot, over low heat, melt the margarine. Add the rice milk and sauce mix. Stir with a whisk. Careful because this will thicken very quickly since the pot was already hot. Once thickened, remove from heat and stir well. If it is too thick, add some more rice milk. Add the pasta to the sauce and stir well.

Szchezuan Green Beans and Tofu

I went to the farmer's market last weekend and asked for a small basket of the beautiful green beans from one of the farmers. Well, she gave me a small basket worth and then piled green beans up on top until we really had 2 small baskets worth. I didn't mind getting extra since they were the best green beans I'd seen all season; perfectly sized, not overgrown, and not a spot on them. I knew immediately that I'd make some Szchezuan green beans with them.



I searched all of my cookbooks for a good recipe and nothing looked like what I wanted, so I hit the interwebs. I found the perfect recipe over at Vegan Bean. We loved it. It makes a lot of very tasty sauce to go with the rice. We make stir fry a lot (so this is a big compliment) and I think that this is now my favorite stir fry sauce recipe. I think this recipe would work with any combination of vegetables. Definitely a keeper.

Note - I pre-steamed the green beans about 4 minutes before stir frying them quickly.
Note 2 - I know that white rice is not especially good for me, but sometimes a sticky white rice is the right choice for stir fry!

Thai Green Coconut Pumpkin Curry & Asian Pear Chutney

I borrowed a copy of the Millenium Cookbook and found a great recipe for Pumpkin Curry with Asian Pear Chutney. I've borrowed this cookbook in the past and the recipes always look so complicated. But, this recipe look approachable and I had some buttercup squash all chopped up and ready to go in the fridge. The great thing about this recipe is the green curry paste made from scratch (and the vita-mix ground up the paste like a champ). It is so yummy! Here is a pic of the final dish:



The pumpkin is cooked and blended up into the sauce along with coconut milk. For the vegetables, I used more pumpkin, potato, carrots, green beans, and cauliflower. I par-boiled the vegetables because the recipe called for them to only cook for about 7 minutes and there just ain't no way a potato cube is cooking in 7 minutes at high altitude. In any case, I would recommend parboiling the vegetables for a few minutes (potatoes and carrots longer than the rest) to give them a head start. I served this over some brown basmati rice.

Psst. Here is the recipe (pages 134-135).

Lucky me, I have about some green curry paste leftover in the fridge for another meal!

Waffles!

I love waffles. I recently got a new waffle maker (my old one made mini waffles) and there is nothing better than waffles and coffee on a Saturday morning. Oh wait, waffles, coffee, and vegan sausage is better. Everything goes better with vegan sausage.



This waffle recipe is from Vegan Brunch. Modifications: I used 1.25 Tbsp agave nectar instead of malted barley syrup, and I added 1/2 tsp vanilla.

Roasted Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash

I saw this recipe on 101 Cookbooks and really I wanted it. But it was not vegan and looked complicated to veganize. After pondering it for a while and discussing with some peeps over of the Vegan Freak Forums, I decided to just make it. Not to try to specifically veganize each ingredient, but just make a corn pudding and bake it in the squash without worrying about how to replace the egg whites.

This corn pudding is mostly fresh ground corn with some cornstarch for a thickener. I replaced the anise flavors in the original recipe with jalepeno and scallions. It came out pretty tasty. It doesn't look quite as pretty as the original, but I bet it tastes every bit as good. I used orange acorn squash that I found at our local farmer's market here in Park City.

Roasted Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash

2 small (2 lb.) acorn squash, cut in half lengthwise and seeded, cut so that they sit flat on bottom
1 tablespoon olive oil

Corn pudding:
~2 cups fresh corn kernels (2 ears fresh corn, cut off the cob)
1.5 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3+ cup silk creamer
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 T minced jalepeno
1.5 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 scallions
1 cup daiya cheddar (optional - it would taste great without it too)

Preheat the oven to 375F degrees with a rack in the middle.

Rub the orange flesh of the squash with the oil. Place cut side up on a baking sheet. You will want it to sit flat (and not tip), if you are having trouble just level out the bottom using a knife. If the squash is tilting on the pan, the filling will run out. Cover the squash with foil and bake for 40 minutes or until the squash starts to get tender.

Make pudding: In a food processor pulse corn kernels, cornstarch, silk creamer, salt and pepper into a thick batter. If it looks too dry, add a couple more tablespoons of silk creamer. It should be like a liquid mush. In a large saucepan heat olive oil over medium heat, saute the garlic and jalepenos till fragrant. Pour in corn mixture, stirring occasionally until mixture thickens (this won't take long). Remove from heat, stir in about 2/3 of the chopped scallions and 1/2 of the vegan cheddar.

Fill each of the squash bowls with the corn pudding. If you have any remaining corn pudding mixture, bake it separately a small oiled dish or ramekin (I didn't have any extra).

Bake uncovered for another 45 minutes, or until the squash is fully cooked through, and the pudding has set. The amount of time it takes can vary wildly depending on the squash and oven.

At the last minute sprinkle with remaining vegan cheese and cook under the broiler to brown the cheese (watch it closely). Serve hot sprinkled with the remaining scallions.

Serves 4 - 6.

It's Vegan Mofo time!

It's that time a year again. Vegan Mofo stands for Vegan Month of Food and vegan bloggers from all over the world will be blogging like crazy about all things vegan. If you want to take a look at the giant list of participants, here is the link. Or, you can read them all right here in Bloglines.

I'll be trying to blog as much as I can this month. I have no particular theme, but next week I will be cooking for one so there should be a round of posts all about that.

Stay tuned!

Favorite Cookbook? Might be Candle Cafe

I love the Candle Cafe cookbook. I've never made anything that wasn't amazing from this cookbook. Tuesday's dinner was no exception. It was spectacular.



Roasted Vegetable Salad with Roasted Garlic dressing over arugula
Seitan Skewers with a Citrus Chimichurri Sauce