Best Ever Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce

Almost a week into another new month - look at that! The summer weather is still going strong here, so why not keep that festive vibe going with the BEST nacho cheese sauce.

This reminds me so much of the nacho cheese from Taco Bell it isn't funny.

I sometimes can't believe how a few simple ingredients, like potatoes, carrots and nooch (okay there are more ingredients than that but still) can create such complex, cheesy flavour. You'll be dipping all the tortilla chips and dousing all the nachos with this cheese sauce: see below ;)

Best Ever Vegan Cheese Sauce

adapted from: The Real Food RDS

Ingredients

1 yellow-fleshed potato, peeled and chopped

1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup raw cashews

1/2 unsweetened original almond milk

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 tbsp white miso

3 tbsp olive oil

half of a lime

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp cayenne

1 tsp sea salt

Directions

Put cashews in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Place a plate or cloth over the bowl while you prepare the other ingredients. 

Put the chopped carrot and potato in a small sauce pan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and let the veggies cook for about 20 minutes.

Drain the cashews and the veggies. Place in a blender. Add the remaining ingredients to the blender and scrape down the sides until completely smooth. Add more milk if the sauce gets too thick.

Summer Vegan Blueberry Buckle

Ohhhhh this buckle! What a joy to bake and eat. This is the perfect way to showcase some fresh blueberries or just have one heck of a good dessert on your hands.

We went to St. Jacob's Farmers' Market this past weekend and had a blast. All the produce looked amazing and so far, from what we've eaten, I can tell you it tastes amazing too! 

Green and yellow beans, eggplant, zebra zucchini, peaches, nectarines and, of course, blueberries all found their way into our reusable shopping bags. I was so surprised to see nectarines and peaches this early in the season. I thought they wouldn't taste very good but I was wrong - they are delicious. The best I've had in a while.

If you have blueberries from the farmers' market or grocery store, I implore you to bake this buckle. You absolutely will not regret it. In fact, I'm sure it'll be on heavy rotation once you do!

Vegan Blueberry Buckle 

Ingredients
Batter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks
1 Ener-G Egg Replacer
1/2 cup unsweetened original oat milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups fresh blueberries

Topping
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup Earth Balance Buttery Sticks, softened

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease an 8x8 baking dish.

In a large bowl, cream together sugar, Earth Balance, and egg replacer.

In a separate bowl, combine two cups of flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add dry ingredients to the sugar mixture, alternating with milk. Gently fold in blueberries, taking good care not to break them.

Topping:
Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter.

Sprinkle over the cake batter.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden.

Fudgy Vegan Brownies with A Crinkle Top

These are the best brownies we've eaten in a long time. If you need a chocolate fix, then these are the brownies for you! Gooey, fudgy and with that classic crinkle top, you simply cannot go wrong!

This recipe may involve a few bowls, but it is totally worth it. Once you taste these brownies, you'll forget all about the dishes left to clean. Brownies make life a little more bearable. 

Fudgy Vegan Crinkle-Top Brownies

Ingredients

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

6 tbsp vegan margarine, like Earth Balance

1/3 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2 tbsp ground flaxseed

1/3 cup sweetened vanilla rice milk

1/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp maple syrup

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x8 baking dish.
• In a measuring cup, combine the milk and flaxseed. Allow to thicken for a few minutes.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients, except cocoa powder. 
• In a separate, microwave-safe bowl, heat chocolate chips at 30 second bursts, stirring in-between, until chocolate is melt. Then add margarine and cocoa powder.
• In a large bowl, mix together chocolate mixture, flax egg and sugar followed by the dry ingredients. 
• Pour the batter into the baking dish and bake for 35-40 minutes. They will be slightly gooey until cooled.

New Vegan Eats Alert: VegItaliano in Vaughan

The past few months have been pretty busy, especially April, May and June. Caitlin and I painted our bedrooms after almost 20 years of the same wall colours. I also painted and distressed my furniture to better match my new colour scheme. It made me feel really handy :) I can say we are both pleased with our new bedroom looks.

In May, I visited a friend in London, ON and tried some new (to me) vegan foods there. I also got involved with our local NDP candidate's campaign. He didn't win but definitely should have!! We're still reeling from the election results. It'll be a long and tough road ahead with Doug Ford, but we're ready to fight. 

I started a new job in June, but the most exciting thing about June so far was attending the Paramore concert. They were sooooo good and I absolutely love their album After Laughter, so to see it played live was spectacular. That pretty much brings us up to date. Onto the focus of this post...VegItaliano and their delicious vegan Italian food!

This is the kind of food we've been missing since going vegan. One can only eat so many vegan pulled pork sandwiches or mac and cheese before getting bored. And we love us some Italian food!

Vegan Chicken Parmigiana

For a quick service restaurant, there are quite a lot of options on the menu. It's a nice spread, if you ask me. You can tell what's available from the green checkmarks beside each menu item. We had the cutlet parmigiana, chicken parmigiana and the porchetta.

Vegan Cutlet Parmigiana

The buns were really nice. We always appreciate good bread. We are bread-heads after all. Oh! and the tomato sauce on the cutlet and chicken parmigiana sandwiches was amazing!

The vegan cutlet parmigiana might have been the all-around fan favourite. Although, each sandwich was absolutely delicious.

Vegan Porchetta

The flavour on the "meat" was really good on the porchetta. I especially enjoyed the artichokes and peppery arugula on the sandwich, too! 

We loved every bite of these sandwiches and look forward to eating many more!

Although we left very satisfied after eating our lunch, we couldn't help but try the vegan tiramisu that was on the menu.

 We kind of were speechless after digging into this dessert. We were never tiramisu people prior to our vegan days but this made us converts! It was so flavourful and creamy and delicious! If you're lucky enough to be in the area, you must try this!

It was pure joy eating this food!

The VegItaliano is located at 2781 Hwy 7, Vaughan, ON L4K 1W1
Find them on:
VegItaliano website
Facebook
Instagram

Colourful, Peanutty Tofu and Veggie Bowl with Glass Noodles

We need some colour this time of year, don't we? Looking at this bowl of food makes me feel happy, and my belly too! I hope it will do the same for you.

How's 2018 treating you? What have you been up to? We just finished watching the series Please Like Me; it's a short little series but a good one. It's available on Netflix. There isn't much on Netflix that appeals to us other than Jane the Virgin, so it was nice to find another gem. These aren't new shows, but if you haven't tried either one of them and you have Netflix or mad streaming skillz, check them out!

Now, onto the dish!

Peanut Noodles with Veggies and Tofu

Ingredients

~ 250g or 8 oz glass noodles

3 carrots, peeled and finely grated

1/2 cabbage, thinly sliced 

200g of sugar snap peas, chopped

350g extra firm tofu, chopped into whatever shape you like

1 tbsp canola oil

2 limes

peanuts, crushed

Sauce

1/4 cup peanut butter

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced or pressed

1 tbsp grated ginger

1 tbsp sriracha 

4 tbsp tamari or soy sauce

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tbsp agave nectar or maple syrup 

Directions
Cook your noodles according to the package.

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a non-stick skillet. Once heated, place your tofu in the skillet and brown for one to two minutes, each side.

Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a small sauce pan. Cook on medium for two to three minutes, stirring constantly.

When the tofu is done, turn off the heat and remove from the heat. Add the noodles and sauce to the tofu and stir until the sauce is evenly distributed.

Divvy up the noodles and tofu in bowls and then add the veg on top. Sprinkle with peanuts and squirt some lime juice over top or give every bowl a wedge.