My New Favorite Vegan Cheese Sauce Recipe!

I know I have posts a LOT of vegan cheese sauces, dips, spreads, etc over the years and there are many I like for many different reasons.  I also seems like I do them a little different each time I use them or make them.

Today I threw together another vegan cheese sauce and absolutely LOVED it!  I don't know if there has been another attempt I have enjoyed this much in a long time - if ever!  Here are a few photos of the Mac & Cheese I covered it in!

All in a blender...

1 C + 1 Handful Cashews, Soaked
1 C Water
1 T Garlic Tahini
3 Handfuls of Nutritional Yeast
1 T Lemon Juice (more to taste)
2 Squirts Yellow Mustard
1/2 t Turmeric
1 T Dried Minced Onion
Black Himalayan Sea Salt (to taste)

I think the Garlic Tahini addition really took it to the next level and helped with the over all creaminess!

It also kept the same creamy consistency and didn't dry out like some of the other cashew sauces I have done tend to do.

I had some left over and used it to dip pretzels in!  I didn't have any corn chips in the house or I would have try it on them, too!

I know I will continue to try different combos but I have to say - for the foreseeable future - this is my new favorite vegan cheese sauce!

I can't wait to try it on a baked potato!  Another pair I can think of is on top of cooked broccoli!

I can't wait to try and make this again!

Reads, Recent Kitchen Experiments, & Build-Your-Own-Wrap

WARNING!  This is going to be a lengthy post!  And most likely one to jump around a lot, too!

First I want to share with you a new-to-me-vegan-cheese that I found at Wegman's this past weekend on my mini haul!  It's from Parmela Creamery and it's an aged nut cheese that is on the sharper side and made with cashew milk.

I used these shreds in the recipe/meal idea below, too!  The verdict is still out on this one.  I liked it but I have had others that were more tasty.  It doesn't melt as good as some of the other ones I have worked with but it does have it's perks, too!  The aroma is much like an artisan aged cheese.  Tonight I tried it in a wrap (which I will get to a little bit later in this post) and I really enjoyed it in a wrap situation.  There were a couple of other flavors for sale but I wanted to try this one first.

The other night I was trying to throw together a bowl of sorts and it ended up turning in to something completely different.  Let me explain.  

THIS photo is of the bowl mixture which was pretty tasty in its own right but it made me left wanting.  I will go on to show you what I did with it shortly, but first, the ingredients for this include: 1 C Multi-color Couscous, About a pound of roasted veggies I found at Trader Joe's a while back that I heated up and put into a blender on pulse, and then I made a simple creamy sauce made of Cashews, Almond Milk, Sea Salt, Garlic, Onion Flakes, Dill, Nutritional Yeast, and a splash of Balsamic.  Everything was eye-balled so sorry I don't have the exact measurements.

So here is what I ended up doing with the mixture.  It was holding together pretty good on its own so I made them into little balls and pressed them down into a muffin pan.  As you can see I used the plant-based shreds on top of all of them.  On half of those I squirted some Sriracha on top.  Both were tasty.  I think I liked the ones with Sriracha on top better.  I then made another Vegan Ranch type sauce for dipping. 

Here's a close-up of the dressing/dip/sauce.  Because I was out of cashews I decided to use Sunflower Seeds for this one.  Below is that recipe...

1 C Sunflower Seeds
About 1 C Almond Milk
2 t Lemon Juice
2 Cloves Garlic
2 t Dill

1 t Smoked Paprika

1 t Black Sea Salt
2 t Dijon Mustard

2 t Onion Flakes

Here's a closer look of the little Couscous Bites I made.  I have to say for me just throwing something together I was pretty proud of these lil guys!  The roasted veggies in the frozen package I got at TJ's was made up of Eggplant, Red Peppers, Onions, and had a bit of Balsamic for flavor in them, too!

In other news...
I had to break down and buy my lunch the other day and didn't want to go too far from the office so I stopped in at Total Evolution.  I opted for the Build-Your-Own-Wrap.  I decided to go with Sprouts, Avocado, Shredded Carrots, Hummus, Tomatoes, and they make their own Vegan BBQ Marinated Chickpeas.  They also make their own Vegan Cilantro Ranch Dressing so I went with that, too!

I have a lot of things I will be thumbing thru over the next couple of days including the following...

Raw Healthy & Delicious Recipes from Norbu (Australia)
Maranda Pleasant's Mantra Yoga & Health
Raw Food Lifestyle - back issues from March/April & May/June 2014
Rawmazing Easy Raw Food by Susan Powers

I've also recently found a website for those with Dyslexia.  They have resources for children but they also have a section for adults so I decided to subscribe to their newsletter and got my first issue today.  I will continue to locate resources for adults and try and report back here.

What do you think about the experiments in the kitchen?  Or about the little Build-Your-Own I found in my small town?  Or about the currently reading list?  I will be featuring more mini hauls over the next week or so!  A few other things I'm wondering about are...what do you think about the changes to my site so far?  The FurKid Section/Tab?  The Into description and photo in the upper right hand corner of my nav bar?  And what do you think about the links section?  There are over 100 links there, now!  YAY!  I can't wait to visit and comment more frequently on both old and new friends sites!  Please let me know if I don't have your link listed and I will add it ASAP!  CHEERS!!!

3 Flashback Vegan Recipes

1 to 1.5 C Almond Milk

About 4 T Potato Flakes

1 t SeaClear (or 2 t Light Miso of your choice)

2 t SunRoot Syrup

2 T Chives

1/2 t Curry

For this Sweet Vegan Curry Sauce put everything into a blender and BAM! Done!

4 Frozen Bananas

5 T Almond Milk

1 C Frozen Strawberries

4 T Nut Butter of your choice

Put Frozen Bananas, Almond Milk, and Nut Butter into a high-speed blender until smooth. Pour this mixture into a deep bowl. Separately put the Strawberries in a food processor or blender and pulse. Pour Strawberry mixture into the banana mixture and stir so fruity chunks are still visible. Freeze for least 3 hours.

1/4 C Raw Tahini

About 1/8 C Water

1 t Dill

1 t Minced Garlic

1 T Lemon Juice

All in a blender until smooth. Double or triple this recipe for a multi-purpose sauce! YUM! I was going thru some of my old recipes and thought I would post a trio of them. What do you think!? Should I post some more?

Butternut Squash Soup, Guac Off, & Moosewood

I have a few things to share with you today.  Starting with this blender recipe!  This made a HUGE batch and measurements are approx because I continuously added things as I went.

2 pounds Butternut Squash

2 (or more) C Almond Milk

1/2 t Old Bay Seasoning

1 T Wildtree Garlic Galore (or Minced Garlic)

About 1/2 Onion

Nutmeg & Cinnamon to taste

Black Pepper & Pink Himalayan Sea Salt to taste

2 T Vegan Bouillion

6 Mini Red and/or Orange Bell Peppers

Optional addition for my leftovers: 1 T Wildtree Garden Vegetable Blend Seasoning

Our local Humane Society operates a separate Thrift Boutique where all the proceeds go back to the animals and today was their Holiday Open House.  They have some really neat stuff there and the inventory always changes.  The prices are extremely low, too!  I found this small book for just 49 cents and couldn't resist!  It's not a vegetarian book but it did have a lot of vegan/vegetarian recipes in there and some of them that weren't veg recipes sure did give me some ideas for ones I could easily tweak.

Today I stopped by a fellow league members house and she gave me this Moosewood Book.  She was so sweet!  She's been a League of Women Voters member for over 55 years!!!  That makes her a lifetime member!  I was so thrilled because I remember borrowing this book from libraries more than once in the past but didn't YET have it in my collection.  I have other Moosewood Cookbooks - maybe about 6 - but didn't have this one before today.  I can't wait to re-read it!!

Sorta-Sonora Dip

I was searching different dips I could make with the few ingredients I had on hand and came up with this.  It's sorta of like Sonora Dip - not that I really knew what Sonora Dip was - but I combined elements from at least 3 different recipes and then, of course, gave it a few more sprinkles of originality along the way.  End result was YUMMY!

Sorta-Sonora Dip

1 C Cashews

3 Tomatoes

1 T Minced Garlic

1 t Smoked Paprika (or more to taste)

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt to taste

Sriracha Sauce to taste

Better Choices

Eventho I cannot remember where I bought this box of Better Oats Organic Maple and Brown Sugar Multigrain Cereal with Flax I'm super excited I found another new-to-me product.  I'm also thrilled it's organic!  I have been seeing more and more organic labeled items in my small town.  That gives me hope that there will be more to come!

It's been frigid all morning and that proves that fall is officially here.  It was 25 degrees on my way in.  A hot bowl of this made it better.  The texture is a little different but the flavor is good!

I'm day 3 on my no bread and no pasta run.  Day 2 on the official challenge.  As I mentioned yesterday - my timing is horrible to start this!  Not only is it Vegan MoFo and I have hardly contributed anything to the month-long blogging celebration - yesterday was World Bread Day - and TODAY is National Pasta Day!  Yikes!

But it's all about BETTER choices.  I'm been rocking the salads for DAYS and now I'm back into making my own salad dressings.

As an added challenge, I'm trying NOT to buy anything new at the grocery store this week and work off of what I have in my pantry already which is NOT MUCH, to say the least.

In case you were curious about the contents of this salad dressing here is the Blender Recipe for this Tomato Paprika Vinaigrette that you are seeing above....

2 C Cherry Tomatoes

4 or 5 Sun-Dried Tomatoes

1/4 C Balsamic Vinegar

1/4 C Garlic Grapeseed Oil

2 T Agave Nectar

1 tea Paprika 

Onion Powder to taste

Wildtree Garlic Galore (or Garlic Powder) to taste

Pink or Black Himalayan Sea Salt to taste

Vegan MoFo ~ Cheesy Taco Corn Chowder!

Check THIS soup out!  It's Cheesy Taco Corn Chowder and it's VEGAN!

Before I get to the recipe I wanted to stick with the prompt for today and that is to FOCUS ON A NUTRIENT!  Corn is high in Pantothenic Acid - also known as Vitamin B5 and this nutrient helps us USE fats, carbs, and proteins as energy sources.  It also helps our hormones and immune systems function.

Corn is 12 % Pantothenic Acid.  It's considered to be a GOOD source of the nutrient, however, the BEST natural source of the nutrient is Shittake Mushroom which have a whopping 52%.

Corn is also a good source of phosphorus, vitamin B3, B6, Manganese, and Fiber.

Here's my recipe for this super tasty soup!

Kernels from 4 ears of corn (or about 3 Cups)

Up to 2 C Water

About 3/4 C Cashews

1 to 2 Cloves Garlic

1 T Vegan Taco Seasoning (I used Wildtree Brand)

2 T Nutritional Yeast

Cilantro, Parsley, or Basil Leaves, Dried, to taste

Cayenne Pepper and/or a sprinkle of Taco Seasonsing & Nutritional Yeast to taste and on top

This was pretty amazing if I do say so myself!

Vegan MoFo ~ New Friends!

Today's prompt for Vegan MoFo is...Reach Out!  Make a new vegan friend!  Well I think that is what makes Vegan MoFo great!  Each year I find new vegan friends online that I treasure long after the month is up!  I consider ANYONE who has visited my blog and commented to be in that group this year.  You can visit them on my BLOG ROLL post and if I have missed anyone please let me know!  Someone I really want to throw a SHOUT OUT to is someone I 'met' prior to this years Vegan MoFo and I absolutely LOVE their blog!  This person is great!  Some may know them as Vegan Peace others may know them as Vegan Power or perhaps you know them by the name of My Cat Loves Daiya which is the title of her blog!  No matter what you call her she's great and so is her blog!


I'm so happy I found her blog or she found mine either way she's great!  Funny thing is - she used to live about an hour to an hour and a half from me and I didn't even know it until about a week before she moved to the other side of the country!  BUMMER!  BUT...at least we have the blog world, right!  Another reason I would like to do a shout out to this person is because she's a great commenter and last week she made a comment on one of my posts and suggested I do a Tomato Soup!  Well, I took her up on the challenge and made the soup you see here!  It's a Vegan Tomato Cream Soup!  It only has 3 main ingredients with a few optional ingredients or ingredients you can add to taste.  Here's what's in it... 5 Tomatoes, 1 Avocado, 4 Sun Dried Tomatoes, and Basil Leaves, Sea Salt, and Cayenne to taste.  Special Thanks to Vegan Peace for this suggestion/challenge!

Vegan MoFo ~ Quick, Easy, Delicious Raw Vegan Creamy Carrot Soup!

Today's Vegan MoFo Prompt is "Quick, Easy, Delicious"...well most of my foods are QUICK so I figured what could be quicker than throwing some things in your high speed blender?  Take a look at this Raw Vegan Creamy Carrot Soup!  It only has a few ingredients and the sprinkled ingredients on the top are optional.
3 C Carrots (Chopped)
1 C Cashews
1 C Water
Sea Salt to Taste
Optional: pinch of Nutmeg, pinch of parsley


This is going to be a short post today but I wanted to remind you to sign up to be listed on my personal Vegan MoFo BlogRoll by commenting on THIS POST.  I wanted to THANK everyone for visiting and commenting thus far.  I will be working on some scheduled posts for this weekend as my online status will be spotty.  I would love your input on some things so here are today's questions!!!

Since I will be doing more raw vegan soups - what ingredients would you like me to try and use or feature?  Another question - what's a FUNKY suggestion for a flavored hummus that you might have?  And Finally - name 3 fruits/veggies that have a similar color that you think I use focus a recipe around.  Have a Blissful Day & Happy MoFo!

Un-Cheese Sauce #1

I have a few Un-Cheese Sauces I will be posting here and this is the 2nd one I tried but the first one - so far - I will be posting.

It was originally inspired by The Vegan Family Cookbook but I made a few minor changes based on what I had access to.  It turned out pretty good and did make a lot more than the other Un-Cheese I did the other day.  So far I have used this on Corn Chips as well as over top of Left-Over Casseroles.

Here is what I used to make it...

2 1/4 C Almond Milk

1/2 C Nutritional Yeast

1/4 C Bob's Red Mills All-Purpose Flour (Gluten-Free)

1/4 C Hazelnut Oil

2 T Almond Butter

1 T Minced/Dried Onion

ALL in a blender and then on stove top on medium until hot and thick

The Vegan Family noted TWO Variations or Kinds of "cheese" flavors as well!  For an Italian Cheese add a little Italian Dressing and Olives - Chopped.  For a Mexican Flair you can add Green Chili's and/or Chili Powder.

This was pretty good...I also liked it better after being in the frig for a night, too!

Mango Chia Smoothie

This is Breakfast today!  YUM!!!!  I have to admit this is the very first time I have ever tried this but I LOVE it and will be trying it again very soon!  All I did was throw the following into a blender...Approx 2 Cups of Mango Chunks, 2 Cups of Water, 2 Tablespoons of soaked Chia Seeds, 2 Tablespoons of Agave Nectar.

It's darn tasty!