Breakfast for Dinner and Mac and Cheeze too!

I had a lap full of cookbooks tonight trying to figure out what to cook tonight.  My 10 y/o daughter sat down beside me and took Vegan with a Vengence out of my hand flipped through and found pancakes.  Not that she really had to find them, I make them all the time. I love that book!  As soon as she said it, the decision was made and I remembered how awesome I used to think my mom was for making breakfast for dinner when my brother and I were young.  I thought she was so innovative; I love that lady.  Anyway, add some tofu scramble and a modified version of the sausage crumbles (I made them with TVP instead of tempeh) and you have a relatively quick nostalgic meal.  this photo is taken before we drenched them in warm maple syrup.  I am sure that all of you have done this before, but let today or tomorrow be another day that you do.

And since we're discussing throwbacks, here's what we had for lunch yesterday.  Stove-top Mac and Cheeze.  Now I have blogged on this before, but I really enjoyed it yesterday.  It came out creamier.  I went back to my old post to update the recipe a little.  For those who remember, this recipe lies somewhere between a Velveeta-ish, Kraft-ish, Tuna Helper-ish cheesiness and it worked.  I hope you enjoy.  Click here for the recipe.  I make with ingredients that have a long shelf life and that most vegans actually have on hand.  There are a couple of substitution suggestions for some of the ingredients too.  Happy stove-topping!!

My Stove-top Mac and Cheeze

My friends at the PPK just gave me the topic for my MoFo blog tonight. I am going to post my recipe here. I didn't really find this recipe anywhere, I wanted something that tasted like kraft but creamier and more real frankly AND, I needed something to satisfy my daughther's yearnings for real cheesiness and gooeyness like everyone else gets to eat (she is an aspiring herbivore but for now just allergic to dairy). I looked at a few recipes, one on the FFV which is a blog that I love, and it had great flavors, but wasn't completely my style. I also used some of the thoughts from an article on Soul Vegetarian's Mac and cheese (which I have tweaked a bit too for mega creaminess and thickness and because I could never get theirs quite right). I am finally happy with what I have come up with and I hope you enjoy it.

Ty's Stove-Top Mac and Cheese
1/2 box of pasta (sometimes I pick macaroni, other times, I pick more fun pasta)
3/4 to 1 whole package of Mori-Nu firm vacuum packed silken tofu
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup plain unsweetened soy milk (soy creamer also works really well)
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp white miso (or whatever miso you have)
1/2 tsp umeboshi paste
1 Tbsp umeboshi vinegar (in a pinch dijon mustard might work to replace the umeboshi ingredients maybe)

Cook pasta according to directions in a nice size sauce pan. Meanwhile, add all the remaining ingredients to a blender or magic bullet, and blend until smooth. Drain pasta, reserve some pasta water, just in case you need to thin out the sauce. Add the pasta back into the sauce pan along with the blended cheeze sauce, and stir gently over medium low heat until it's fully folded in. Then enjoy.

The munchkin actually loves the mac and cheeze, so of course I am pleased. My wonderful puppy (okay he's not a puppy) Kapone, looks on hopefully.
Nothing is very definite in my world of recipes. I don't keep cute index cards with pictures in the corner, filed neatly in a decorated recipe box. I generally experiment in the kitchen and if my family of omni's like it, I jot down the recipes on nearby scratch paper or printer paper and stuff them all into this well worn blue folder that sits on my cookbook shelf. I keep my own recipes and computer print-off's or magazine tear outs, I recommend everyone get a folder like this and mix it up some days, you might be glad you did.

My scribbled mac and cheeze recipe...
-Ty