Ultimate Spicy Vegan Mac n' Cheese

Sunday was Devon’s (my hubby) birthday! He was away on a stag so we didn’t get to really celebrate, so we decided to do something on Monday night instead! I asked him what he wanted for supper and he wasn’t really that enthused about deciding, so I just let him mull it over for the morning. On lunch I was talking to him on the phone and saw a recipe for Mac and Cheese... well that’s a great idea!

He was down for the idea of an ultimate mac n’ cheese and I was up for the challenge. The challenge of making him something that I am unable to taste and also the challenge of making an ultimate vegan version! I can’t vouch for his version but he said it was awesome (he did go back for seconds!) but I can tell you that mine was the ULTAMITE VEGAN DISH EVER! I am pretty sure I yelled I LOVE THIS about ten times throughout the meal.

What I really love about this dish is that it is half of the calories and fat of what my husband’s was!!  Why yes I did say half! Can you believe that this whole dish is only around 700 calories and 15g of fat? As opposed to 1500 calories and 75g of fat, that Devon’s dish contained. So when you break it down and share this with someone (well, maybe share) your portion is only 450 calories and 7g of fat. I really hope you were sitting down for that one! It was a huge shocker to me too.

What is the secret you ask? Well I guess I can share that timbit of information with you, seeing as I really want you to try this....it’s a sweet potato! Crazy as it sounds it is a really great addition to this tradition dish. It has a creamy texture, rich taste, and a bright orange color that really adds a fun twist. Also substituting out the pasta for zucchini noodles definitely helps in reducing in unnecessary calories plus zucchini is much easier for your body to digest!

The dish really came together, especially with its kick of spice right at the end that literally had me going back for more (I had thirds, I won’t lie).  If you are not a huge fan of spicy food then just cut back on the jalapeno and Franks, or omit the Franks all together. 

Ultimate Spicy Vegan Mac n' Cheese

Severs 2 people (or one person if you are like me and eat the whole thing in one sitting!)

1 large sweet potato

½ cup rice milk

¼ cup nutritional yeast

½ cup Mozzarella Daiya

½ jalapeno, diced
½ tsp garlic salt

1 tbsp Franks Buffalo Sauce

1 medium zucchini

-Bake the sweet potato in the oven at 400 degrees until fork tender (around 45 mins).

-Peel the skin off the potato and dice into chunks (watch out its fricken hot!) and place into a medium bowl, add milk and mash until smooth.

-Stir in nutritional yeast, jalapeno, Franks Buffalo Sauce and Daiya until well combined.

-Using a vegetable mandolin, vegetable peeler or spiralizer make zucchini noodles.

-In a casserole dish combine the cheesy sauce and noodles, top with nutritional yeast and a little more Daiya!

-Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

-Serve and devour! 

Thanks for reading!
xoxo -N

Vegan Chili Mushroom Bites

 One of the questions I get asked a lot is “what do you eat at parties, or family get togethers?” Most of the party food out there is either meat or dairy based and sometimes both! So often when I go to parties it is usually slim pickins for me, hence why I am always bringing food with me everywhere I go.

This weekend was my sister in law Brittany’s, 21^st birthday and she had TGIF at her house to celebrate. TGIF is Devon’s families way of staying in touch with each other throughout the weeks. Almost every Friday we all get together at someone’s house for appetizers and drinks and catch up with each other. I usually bring some sort of dip like hummus for me to eat and share with people but this week I tried something new. I’ve been really itching to make these and I was super excited to give them a shot.

Every stuffed mushroom recipe I have come across uses some sort of cheese mixture in them. Which got me thinking, what about stuffing them with other things rather than cheese?!?! I mean it’s not like cheese is the only thing that would taste good stuffed in mushrooms, so what would? CHILI would! And of course I would be using my famous sweet potato chili. Now that I had the main ingredients figured out, what would a good garnish? How about a little Daiya cheese and jalapeno? Devons family haven’t had a lot of exposure to Daiya so why not top off these tasty bites with a little, plus why not add some heat with a bit of jalapeno? Yum! These sounded so good, I knew that they would be a huge hit with the family.

When I make my chili I try to freeze half of the pot in single serving portions. This not only helps me not eat the whole pot of chili but also saves me some time on nights that I don't feel like cooking. I just so happened to have two bags of chili in my freezer, the perfect portion for my chili bites. This averaged about 4 cups of chili, which filled up 3 small pkgs of mushrooms.

These heavenly bites turned out awesome, the whole family loved them and the only thing I would change is the fact that I didn’t make more!

Ingredients

4 cups – appox – sweet potato quinoa chili

3 small pkg of mushrooms, destemmed

2 jalapenos, sliced

½ cup Daiya Cheese

Stuff the mushrooms with the chili, top with jalapeno and cheese. Bake in a 350 degrees oven for 15 mins and serve!