Meatless Monday: Vegan "Not" Mac N Cheese and Scenes from a birthday dinner

A few weeks ago I made this for dinner. The girls were playing outside and I told them I was making mac n cheese. They came in a little later with their cheeks all pink from the cold air and they were ready for some warm cheesy mac n cheese. When they tried it, they started to complain right away. "Mom, this is NOT mac n cheese!!" "Mom, when you said you were making mac n cheese I thought you were making the stuff in the box!!" Needless to say it was not a success. But my husband and I loved it so I thought I would give it another chance at a later time.

Flash forward to my birthday dinner last week. This time I did not call it mac n cheese. I just called it pasta. And I used spaghetti noodle instead of macaroni. The result: The girls scarfed it down and even had seconds. Here is a little dialogue from the dinner:

Me: Girls, how do you like the dinner?
Girls: It's delicious!
Me: You know I made this same thing for you before and you said it was gross and you wouldn't eat it.
Girls: What? You never made this before!!

The moral of the story: It's all about presentation. This really is sooooo delicious and there is no cheese in it. The ingredients might seems a bit weird, but trust me, it is awesome.

I got this recipe from Liz at Flay Rah. I made a few changes. Here is my version:

Vegan "Not" Macaroni & Cheese

What You Need:

Pasta:
water
pinch of sea salt
16 ounces whole grain macaroni or pasta of any shape

“Cheese” Sauce:
2 shallot, peeled and chopped
2cup red potatoes (1 to 1.5 medium potatoes), peeled and chopped
1/2 cup carrots, peeled and chopped

2 clove garlic, minced
1 cup almond milk
1/2 cup raw cashews (or tahini) ( I used cashews)
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/8 cup coconut oil

2 tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

What You Do:

Cover the shallots, potatoes, carrots, garlic with water in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Cover the pan and simmer for 15 minutes, or until vegetables are very soft.

While the vegetables are simmering, bring the water and salt to a boil in a large pot. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Drain pasta (do not rinse) and set aside with the lid on to keep pasta warm.

Process the cashews, salt, garlic, coconut oil, mustard, lemon juice and black pepper in a blender or food processor with 1 cup almond milk. Drain water from softened vegetables and add to blender, process until perfectly smooth .

In a large bowl, toss the cooked pasta and blended cheese sauce until completely coated. Serve immediately.

** So good.

**This is also really good as leftovers, cold straight from the fridge.

Here are some scenes from the b-day dinner:

"Not" Mac n Cheese with a vinaigrette salad

My Dining table has become my homeschool desk and kind of the dumping place for everything else so...

We crowded around the small kitchen table and watched a NCAA basketball game.

** This is proof of what a great wife I am. I made my own b-day dinner and I let my husband watch a b-ball game. If you know me personally, you know how much I LOVE watching sports!!