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!!

Spanish Rice (6-8 servings)

(Print this recipe!)

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 Cup bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 28- ounce can diced tomatoes (undrained)
3/4 Cup uncooked brown rice
small can diced green chili peppers (undrained)
1 Cup vegetable broth or water
couple of dashes of hot sauce (I like Frank’s)

Directions:
Cook onion, bell pepper and garlic in a little oil until tender.

Add chili powder and cook a little more

Stir in tomatoes, rice, green chili peppers, hot sauce, vegetable broth or water, and a little salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered, about 20 mins or until most of the liquid is absorbed

Nutrition Info. per serving:
144 cal, 3 g fat, 2 g fiber, 4 g protein

Got to shuck about 10 ears of corn today.  Genius me bought 10 ears of corn to take to my in-laws last weekend for grilling and then left them at home.  I don’t think my brain has quite caught up with the rest of me yet from finals.  So stressful! 

Anyway, now I have a whole lot of corn hanging out in my freezer just waiting to get grilled up this summer!

Thought I’d post a recipe while I was at it!  We had these enchiladas for dinner last night and they were SO good!  One tip though- spray the bottom of the pan or put some extra enchilada sauce in it because ours stuck to the bottom of the pan and didn’t come out easily.

Easy Vegan Enchiladas 

(Print this recipe!)

Ingredients:
corn tortillas- 6-8 ( if you’re conservative with your filling you could probably get 12 out of it)
1 can of enchilada sauce (I always use a big can cause I’m afraid I might run out, LOL.  You can always freeze any leftover sauce)
1 can of vegetarian refried beans
1 small can of chopped green chilis
can of corn, drained
fresh spinach (I used a bag of baby spinach)
Vegan cheese (I used the Daiya Cheddar)

Directions:
Heat refried beans in a sauce pan on the stove.  Add a little of the enchilada sauce to them to make them a little more manageable (not too much, you don’t want them to be soupy!).

Steam or sauté the spinach until wilted

Add the corn and chilis to the bean mixture (I also added some onion and bell pepper)

To make the enchiladas, spoon a little of the sauce onto a tortilla, then layer the bean mixture, spinach, and a little cheese onto the center of the tortilla.  Roll it up and place it into the baking dish.  Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling.

Cover with sauce and sprinkle with cheese

Bake covered for 20 mins at 375 F, then uncovered for an additional 10 mins.

(like my retro pan?  I heart it!  I have two of them- I can’t believe my mom parted with them, they’re too cool for school!  I think I lucked out- they’re surprisingly expensive in antique stores.  I also have some mini ones- love them too!)