Archives for June 2010

Not much to say, but for some reason I thought I should be blogging, so here I am!  My summer classes started this week.  I just got all of my books in, so I really haven’t done much yet except read for my business class.  I’m taking Principles of Management and Nutrition for Women this summer session.  And the TA for my Nutrition for Women class was my teacher for food prep and I loooooved her!  So glad she’s my TA!  She’s a fair grader so at least I know what to expect from that stand point.  Other than that there’s pretty much nothing going on right now.  Yep.

Well, that’s about it.  Peace out!

If there ever was a comfort food, mac and cheese it is!!  And this is truly the best of the best!  It’s creamy.  It’s cheesy.  It’s got a delicious crunchy topping.  It’s heaven on earth!!  AND it has absolutely no dairy in it!  Oh how I’ve dreamed about mac and cheese since I became a vegan.  Cheese is the only thing I’ve missed since I became a vegan, but it’s just not worth it.  I was so so happy when I found Daiya cheese.  Vegan cheese can be scary.  For the most part it’s not good…with the exception of Daiya.  This stuff is seriously revolutionary!  Anyhoo, here’s the recipe for mac and cheese!

Vegan Mac and Cheese (makes about 8 generous servings)

(Print this recipe!)

Ingredients:
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 pound elbow pasta (I use whole wheat)
4 tablespoons Earth Balance Buttery Spread
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
4 cups soymilk or almond milk
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
2 1/2 Cups Daiya Vegan Cheese, cheddar style
Breadcrumbs (I like whole wheat Panko bread crumbs for this)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente; drain and reserve.

Meanwhile, in a 5-quart heavy pot, melt butter over medium heat.  Whisk in flour. In a slow steady stream, whisk in milk until there are no lumps.

Cook, whisking often, until mixture is thick and bubbly and coats the back of a wooden spoon, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in cayenne, if using, and cheese. Season with a little salt and pepper.

Toss pasta with cheese mixture. Transfer to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish or individual dishes.

Top pasta with breadcrumbs. Bake until top is golden, about 30 minutes.

Have you ever run out of pretty much everything at the same time?  It plain ole sucks and it’s kind of expensive to replace so much at one time.  But you have to do it, so off to the grocery store I went!

First stop was costco.  I just had to renew my costco membership.  I almost didn’t renew it, just because it’s $50 and we could sure use that in other places right now.  BUT we really do get our money’s worth out of it with all of the huge amounts of produce I usually buy.  Costco has some really great prices on their produce and even has quite a few organic produce items.  Here’s some of the goodies I picked up this go round…

Well hello champagne mangoes, you sweet delicious little things, you!

I think blackberries are my favorite summertime fruit.  These store bought ones will have to do till the blackberries are ready to be picked at my grandmothers house!

Now this right here is worth the price of a membership to me.  These gigantic tubs of spring mix and spinach are 3 bucks!  You can’t really tell how big they are in the picture, but they’re gigantic!!

Shroomin!  😉

Six beautiful red bell peppers for 4 dolla!  Ya can’t beat that with a stick!

My very favorite veggie burgers in all of the world!!  I could eat these every day I think, haha!  At the grocery store you would pay more than $4 for a box of 4 of these.  I got TWELVE of them for $4.99!  Now that’s what I call a deal!!

Honeydew for $2.99!  Yumm!

I use black beans SO much- 8 cans for 5 bucks, what a steal!!

All in all I got some pretty good deals at Costco this week!  I won’t bore you with pictures of toothpaste, mustard, ketchup and whatnot, but we needed so many basics from the regular grocery store too.  Blech!  And of course I got scolded when I got home for spending so much money.  Oh well, totally worth it if I have my delicious veggies to munch.  My husband would be perfectly content eating ramen noodles and peanut butter sandwiches for the rest of his life.  Yeah, that would be cheaper but I’d like to live a long time and feel good and healthy so I think it’s worth spending the money to buy more nutritious food.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!!