Macaroni Alfredo w/Zucchini Fritters

I haven't mentioned it, but I'm an ESL teacher now. Subbing for so many years has gotten me used to just showing up for work and never taking anything home. I'm proud to finally do what I went to school for, but I did have to adjust to the increased workload. Now that I'm no longer treading water and have my lesson planning down, I can finally cook for my family again! Even though Jason likes to cook, I take pride in my job in the kitchen. Tonight I made my famous Pine Nut Alfredo, but you could also use cashews. I also made these zucchini fritters, which are essentially my tofu nuggets with zucchini instead of tofu. Eggplant would also be great. Oh, and I recently found out my cholesterol is slightly elevated-pretty embarrassing for a vegan. Thats why I steamed my veggies tonight with no oil. Dr. Esselstyn would be proud (I hope)! The marinara on the zucchini is from a jar. Did I mention this is all gluten free? Here's the recipe for my Macaroni Alfredo.

Macaroni Alfredo
1 cup pine nuts
2/3 cups filtered water
1/2 ts salt
1/2 ts onion powder
1/2 ts garlic powder
black pepper
1 8 oz box of Ancient Harvest Quinoa Pasta
additional 1/2 ts salt

Blend pine nuts, water, 1/2 ts salt, onion powder, garlic powder and pepper until creamy and smooth. I use a magic bullet. Cook pasta according to directions. Add Alfredo, and if you are like my husband and I, add the additional salt.

Loaded Nachos

These nachos are better than Jose's, or any other Mexican restaurant! That may seem like a lauded claim, but as I was eating these, I couldn't help but think of how lucky I am! Jason had been asking me to make him nachos for quite some time and these were so easy and fast to whip up. The key here is crispy tempeh. Tempeh is the most under used gem in the vegan world. Its not a fake meat. Its a fermented soybean cake (sounds appetizing right?) It gets crumbled up and fried to a crisp. I love crispy tempeh kernels! I followed my mother in law's advice and didn't drain the black beans from the can. This gives them that restaurant-like consistency! And of course I had to top it off with the nacho "cheese" sauce from my first post! I hope after making this, tempeh will be your new best friend.

For the tempeh:
Crumble up 1 8oz package of tempeh into a bowl and mix in 1/2 ts each salt, garlic powder, dried minced onion, paprika, and cumin. Heat up 1-2 Tbs coconut oil in a saute pan and wait until it is smoking hot. Drop the crumbled tempeh into the hot oil and leave it undisturbed until the edges are golden brown. Flip the tempeh around a bit and leave it undisturbed for another few minutes. These instructions are essential for those crispy kernels! Don't play with it too much!

For the black beans:
Empty the contents of the can into a pot. Do not drain. Add 1/2 ts each salt, garlic powder, dried minced onion, paprika, and cumin. Mash with a potato masher while bringing to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes.

For the salsa:
I kept this simple since everything else is so bold and full of flavor! 2 cups chopped grape tomatoes, 1 small diced red onion. 1 finely diced jalepeno pepper, seeds removed. No lime. No salt.

Top it off with the nacho "cheese" and get ready to be blown away!

*A note about coconut oil. I use coconut oil because its the safest oil to heat! I know what your thinking, coconut oil is expensive! Well can you believe my mom found me a jar of this stuff at Marshalls?! I didn't realize they sell a lot of specialty foods their for half the price that you would get at a grocery store! If you can't find coconut oil, just use canola or peanut oil.

Stuffed Anaheim Chili Peppers covered in Nacho "Cheese" Sauce

 I know there are a lot of vegan nacho cheese recipes floating around out there, but I'm quite proud of this one I concocted on my own! There's nothing fake in here. All the decadence comes from blended pine nuts. I know the traditional route is cashews, but I find that pine nuts blend much better, and they don't even need to be soaked! I've been toying around with making stuffed peppers and treating them like enchiladas. So without further ado, here's the recipe for my creation!




For the filling:
1 cup brown rice
1 cup diced red onion
1 cup corn kernels
1 can black beans
1 ts salt
1 ts cumin
freshly ground black pepper
1 handful of chopped chives or green onion for color

Cook 1 cup brown rice with 2 cups water (its always 2:1). I know people struggle with cooking rice, but just buy a rice cooker and make sure it has a brown rice setting. Really its like Ron Popeil used to say, "just set it and forget it!" Once its cooked add the remaining ingredients and mix it all up.

For the "cheese" sauce:
1 1/2 cup pine nuts
3/4 cups water
3 Tbs lemon juice
1 ts miso paste
2 ts salt
3 Tbs Nutritional Yeast
1 ts garlic powder
1 ts dried minced onion
1 ts paprika (Don't use smoked paprika. Use the stuff that comes in the clear plastic packets in the Mexican section of the grocery store.)

Simply blend until creamy! I have a cheap blender so I have to blend then stir it, then blend again. Repeating as necessary.

For the peppers:
I used 9 Anaheim Peppers and had about half the filling left, so you could probably do about 18! Simply cut the stems off and use your hands to get a fair amount of the seeds and white stuff out. Lightly oil the outsides of the peppers, along with a large sheet pan so they don't stick. Now its time to get stuffing! Its easy to do and went pretty quick for me. Just grab a bunch of the filling with your hands and carefully push it down into the cavity. For energy reasons, I don't often preheat my oven unless I'm baking cookies or some other dessert. So for me, this is when I would turn on my oven to 350 degrees and pop these babies in at the same time. Bake them until their skin seems soft and just a bit shriveled. Once they are ready, arrange a few on a plate and top with the "cheese" sauce.  Here is Ava enjoying the filling with a bit of the sauce. I think she liked it! I hope you do too. Happy eating!