Life and Other Stuff

Before going plant-based, I rocked mac and cheese. To the point that, because the only cheese ever used was Tillamook cheddar, I wouldn’t eat anyone else’s. A batch would be whipped up and devoured by my family, every time we declared it was the best one yet!

Since ditching dairy, homemade macaroni and cheese holds little appeal because, when you’ve had the best – why would you want anything subpar? We’ve tried many versions because my daughter is convinced that there is a plant based version some where that will taste good. One was made with vegan mayo (ewww), others made with coconut milk (hard pass), or even sweet potato and carrots blended (ehhh). We also tried the blue box knock offs – they were close to Kraft, but always just….wrong. Non dairy cheeses are not my favorite. Many have a gross aftertaste or a “stick to the back of your teeth” weird mouth-feel. Just not my jam. So far, the only vegan “cheese” sub I like is Miyoko’s pourable mozzarella. On nachos or homemade pizza, it’s delish!

I recently purchased Nora Taylor’s cookbook and it is gorgeous! We’ve made quite a few of the recipes and so far – all have been quite tasty. Her blueberry scone recipe was already our family’s go-to! Last night’s marinated tofu over rice with roasted veggies was so good I ate it for breakfast today! Flipping through the pages, I hesitated when I came across yet another macaroni and cheese recipe.

In the interest of satisfying my daughter’s yearning for yet another attempt, we made it for dinner. Dubiously gathering ingredients – it all came together quickly. The panko topping (w/melted vegan butter and paprika) was delightful and definitely made the dish. (Panko breadcrumbs were a staple on my earliest homemade iterations.) The creaminess was perfect.

Dearest daughter LOVED it. She ate 3 servings and swears she will eat it left over as well. Eric took a couple bites and said, “Nahhh. Not for me.”

If a person is used to dairy and animal products – vegan substitutes are going to taste wrong. It’s food pretending to be something that it’s not. If animal products aren’t in the diet, in my experience – tastes adapt. My tastes completely changed a few months after transitioning to plant based eating. Ultimately, this is a decent vegan Mac. Better than others we’ve tried.

All food experiments teach us something. I think what I’ve discovered is that I cannot stand nutritional yeast. The smell, the flakiness, I dunno, but it’s revolting to me in large quantities. There is one dish that I like it in, and it’s Mushroom Stroganoff. (Probably bc it’s only a couple of tablespoons.) Some plant based people talk about eating nutritional yeast, or “nooch”, by the spoonful and I quietly throw up in my mouth at the thought.

Even though this was more of a miss than a hit on my taste buds, (it looked promising!) I did branch out and try another vegan cheese sub. Kroger’s in-house brand Simple Truth did a dairy free cream cheese that we use on bagels that is quite good. None of these subs are what I would classify as “healthy” by any means, but it is nice to have options.

No weird mouth feel, no yucky aftertaste – I think what I may need to do is use my own Mac and cheese roux-based recipe and find the best non-dairy cheddar and see if that works, because Nooch is a no-go!

At the very least, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the epic black bean burger fail of 2017!

On to the next!