Your Vegan Mom

Mac 'n Cheese Bites

When we last spoke, I was making dinner.  I had seitan, potatoes, and kale to turn into some sort of meal for the family.  Remember?  It was Friday.  It had been a pretty ho-hum dining week in our house, and I was feeling ready to turn it around with a solid end-of-a-crazy-week meal.

And I did.  Friday night's dinner was so freakin' delicious.  I ditched the potatoes, and boiled some spaghetti.  I tossed it with some butter (Earth Balance), minced garlic, nutritional yeast, a bit of the pasta water, some finely chopped italian parsley, and salt.  Tasty and simple.  I sauteed the kale in olive oil with more garlic and salt, and squeezed in a wedge of lemon at the end.  I browned the seitan cutlets in a bit of olive oil, and heated up the leftover spaghetti sauce.

I served the cutlets drizzled with tomato sauce, next to the simple, cheesy spaghetti, and the garlicky greens.  It was a perfect Friday night meal.

But, in no way related to mac 'n cheese?  I'm getting there.

The next morning, we needed a restorative weekend breakfast to continue cleansing our palates of the preceding five days.  We had odds and ends of the previous night's dinner leftover, and we decided to put them into a frittata.  I whipped up an eggy mixture (inspired, as always when breakfast calls for some sort of structured egg-type dish, by Susan Voisin's mini quiche recipe) and stirred in the leftover pasta and the finely chopped sauteed kale.  I poured this mixture into a well-greased and parchment-lined cake pan and baked it at 375 for about 45 minutes, until it was firm in the middle and browned on top.  

We ate wedges of the frittata drizzled with that never-ending tomato sauce and thick slices of whole grain toast.  Good, good breakfast.

And do you know what it reminded me of?  The baked mac 'n cheese that my dad made when I was a kid.

You know those chewy end bits?  

So the next day we put that action to work on some mac n' cheese, in bite-size form.  You could, and in the future I intend to, add some shredded greens or whatnot, to turn these into little complete meal nuggets.

Not fine dining, but incredibly practical when you have a toddler in the house, or I suppose when you have some sort of big sporting event to watch on the T.V.

And so, so delicious.  

Mac 'n Cheese Bites
I don't use fake cheese a lot, but it's pretty essential here.  I tried to use a nutritional yeast based cheese sauce, but they turned out too creamy, not enough chewy. 

1 1/2 c. elbow macaroni, boiled in salted water, and drained
1 1/2 c. grated cheddar (I used Follow Your Heart)
2 T. minced green onion (yellow onion works too)

eggy mixture:

1 package firm silken tofu
1/4 c. soy milk
2 T. nutritional yeast
1 T. corn starch
1 T. butter (I used Smart Balance Light)
1/2 t. salt

Heat the oven to 375.  Grease two muffin pans with cooking spray.  

Whir all the ingredients for the eggy mixture in the blender or food processor until smooth. 

In a large bowl stir together the macaroni, the grated cheese, the minced onion, and the eggy mixture.  Spoon into the prepared muffin pans.  

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until the edges are nicely browned and the middle is firm.  

Cool in pan for a few minutes before you gently dump them out.  

Makes 18 smallish muffin-size macaroni bites or 48 tiny mini-muffin bites.  

And if you would like to turn this into a whole big trashy finger food buffet, you might add:

onion dip

meatballs

tater tots

What the Jaconi Bierys Ate for Dinner

besides chocolate chip cookies

I do not write about everything we eat.  The mundane, the emergency sustenance, the unattractive* do not generally get photographed.  And that is really for the best.  You do not need to know how many tofurkey sandwiches and tangerines we eat in a week, but the thing is, maybe every once in awhile there is value in jotting down just exactly what a normal vegan family eats in a normal harried week.  Not the pretty ideal.  No complicated recipes to follow.  Here is simply what we had for dinner - 

Saturday: This pasta, but cleaning-out-the-kitchen style with the dregs of a bag of frozen spinach and the same of corn in place of the swiss chard.  Also, I skipped the garlic, and added about 2 - 3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast at the end to help bring it all together.  

Sunday: BBQ seitan and fried potatoes (but there was Italian parsley in the aioli dipping sauce I made - does that count as a green vegetable?) 

Monday: stir-fried chickeny seitan with thai basil from Hot Sour Salty Sweet and brown rice (This was really good and simple, and used a whole cup of thai basil, and a ton of garlic.  Yum.  Also, this book is just a pleasure to visit.)

(The boy had brown rice balls, plain seitan, and frozen berries.)

Tuesday: Take-out burritos at my mom's house

Wednesday: Rigatoni with jarred sauce, I threw in about a 1/4 cup nutritional yeast to make myself feel a tiny bit better about the near absence of nutritional value in this "meal"

Thursday: Burgers (Amy's Bistro  - I don't like these.) with grilled onions, barbecue sauce, and avocado on toasted sourdough

(The boy had chunks of burger with sauce to dip, chunks of avocado, and a piece of wheat toast.)

Friday: Well, that's today.  As you can see, this has not been a super exciting or incredibly nutritious week on the dinner front.  So who know, maybe I'll make up for it tonight?  I have red potatoes, russian kale, and seitan cutlets, so we'll be cooking that up in some fashion.  

Let's share.  What was the tastiest real-live, un-photographed dinner you ate this week?   

*Yes, I do realize that the last thing I wrote about was a slab of oatmeal.  I said generally.

Vegan Cheese Sauce Mix

As I told you yesterday, I love to have this easy cheese mix from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Cooking on hand for emergency last minute meals.  It's as simple as the Kraft of your youth with less orange flavor and cardboard packaging.  Here is the recipe, just as it appears in the book, reproduced with the permission of the very nice authors.  We have made it three times, so clearly we like it, but next time I'm going to cut back on the garlic and onion a tiny bit.     

3/4 cup raw cashews or almonds
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds 
1 cup nutritional yeast
2 TB. arrowroot 
2 tsp. dry mustard
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. paprika 

1. Place cashews, oats, and sunflower seeds in a food processor fitted with an S blade, and process for 2 or 3 minutes until finely ground.  Scrape down the sides of the container with a rubber spatula.  Add nutritional yeast flakes, arrowroot, dry mustard, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and paprika, and process for 1 minute longer.

2. Transfer mixture to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

3. To prepare cheese sauce from mix, whisk together 1/2 cup vegan cheese sauce mix and 1 cup water or soy milk in a small saucepan, and cook over medium heat, whisking often, for 2 or 3 minutes or until thickened.  This makes 1 cup vegan cheese sauce.  Serve as a sauce with raw or steamed vegetables, baked potatoes, pasta, or other dishes, or use dry mix to season and flavor sauces, soups, vegetables, or popcorn.  

Variation: For a nut-free version, use an additional 1 cup rolled oats to replace the cashews and sunflower seeds.  For a quick and easy preparation, replace cashews, rolled oats, and sunflower seeds with 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or other flour of choice, and simply stir together with the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl.

Thyme-ly Tip: (It took me about 100 pages to stop expecting herbs in these sidebar tips.  This book is rife with those characteristic Complete Idiot puns.  After I got over my own idiotic herb confusion, I was really surprised at how many of these tips I had marked as quite useful bits of information.) To make vegan fondue, cook together 2/3 cup Vegan Cheese Sauce Mix, 1 1/4 cups soy milk, 1 1/2 teaspoons light miso or tamari, and a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg or black pepper.  If you're in a festive mood, add a little red or white wine.  Or use 2/3 cup Vegan Cheese Sauce Mix, a bottle of your favorite beer, and a little chili powder or hot pepper sauce.  (Clearly, I want beer cheese.)

The book is filled with those variations and tips - I like that - it means that there are about three times as many recipes as it appears at first glance.  

And finally, thank you so much for all of your thoughtful comments yesterday.  What a treasure trove of easy meal ideas, and just all sorts of nice sharing.  Man, I love the Internet and all you people.  

Barbecued* Seitan Tacos

As I'm quite fond of intending to make little tiny buns and not actually following through, (Yeast requires planning ahead, Man.) that orange chipotle barbecue sauce palled around with the only bread item we had on hand - corn tortillas.  And dang did we have some tasty tacos composed of random odds and ends pulled out of the fridge.  

To make 4 barbecued seitan tacos, you will need:

1 small fist-sized piece of seitan, shaved thin with a serrated knife

about 1/3 cup orange chipotle barbecue sauce (but you're not going to measure this, right?  Just shake some over the seitan until it looks like enough.)

about 1 T. canola oil

1 green onion, chopped

1 small avocado, sliced

1 leaf of romaine lettuce, shredded

4 corn tortillas, pan fried in about 1/8 inch of canola oil to make taco shells

Heat 1 Tablespoon canola oil in a large (preferably cast iron) skillet over medium high heat.  Add shaved seitan and barbecue sauce.  Heat until you have some caramelized bits (this will take about 3-5 minutes).  Add the green onion and cook for one more minute.  

Scoop seitan into crispy taco shells.  Top with avocado, shredded lettuce, and Mexican hot sauce.  

Devour.    

*So it's not actually barbecued, but the combination of the sauce and the high heat in the cast iron skillet will get you some serious grillin' flavor without having to get out the charcoal chimney.

 

Orange Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

 *

Phew.  I just managed to shuttle the boys out of the house for an hour, and it's quiet here for a moment.  There were leftover breakfast taco fixins from our traditional Labor Day beach breakfast, and I'm going to pour myself another cup of coffee.  Do you see me getting all caught up? 

On Tuesdays I have three kids now.  The oldest is four.  It's a challenge.  The biggest of which is finding something that those three kids and two mamas will eat for dinner.  One night I made spaghetti, I think I'm still cleaning it out of the grout.  Another night the four year old and I made tortillas.  I served them with refried beans, and oranges and strawberries on the side.  For the grownups the oranges and strawberries joined company with baby spinach, toasted pecans, and that orange-serrano vinaigrette.  I was feeling quite ingenious, until the four year old announced that she did not eat beans.  

Last night we had crunchy baked tofu sticks, sweet potato fries, and watermelon.  I figured that if I didn't use the word tofu, this would be a sure fire kid hit.  The watermelon was.  The mama told me that she really liked the salad I had made last week.  What am I going to feed these kids?  Fruit, I guess.  

And how do you get somebody else's kid to be a more adventurous eater?  Not possible, huh?  I best suck it up and plan on cleaning up a lot of pasta. 

I was thinking that miniature orange chipotle pulled seitan sandwiches on tiny homemade buns would be adorable, but I think I'll save them for me, this sauce is pretty pungent.  

Orange Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

3/4 cups orange juice (or 2 valencia oranges worth)

1 chipotle chile, minced

zest of one orange

2 T. tomato paste

1/4 c. minced onion (1/2 small onion)

1 large clove minced garlic

2 T. tamari

1 T. molasses

3 T. sugar

1 T. lime juice

1 T. apple cider vinegar

1 T. canola oil

1 1/2 t. smoked salt

Simmer all ingredients in a small sauce pan until reduced, about 15 minutes.  Puree.  Taste for seasoning.    

*(That picture of oranges is from last January and reminded me that I also love winter, and fall, and spring.)