Cheesy sauce gets healthier (but so delicious)

 

Cheezy brocs and spirals

 

I used to make a homemade cheese sauce in the microwave, so fast and easy you could whip it up while the macaroni cooked. A few years ago I discovered I liked it even more over broccoli or cauliflower than pasta.  The last couple of years I have been looking for alternatives to the dairy/saturated fat sauce.

 

I have tried many, some better than others, but the recipe in Vegan Diner is absolutely fabulous and so easy I can, again, whip it up while the pasta and vegetable are cooking.  I can’t give you the recipe but check your library for a copy of the book to try some of her fabulous recipes.

 

Here is a fall classic, at least in my part of the world: cranberry orange nut loaf.  Let it sit, wrapped or in a tin, for a day or two to let the moistness of the berries permeate the loaf.  It’s good toasted, too.

 

Cranberry orange loaf with walnuts

Vegan Diner simple supper

I borrowed the new cookbook Vegan Diner from the library a few weeks ago because of the raves it was getting on the PPK.  Most cookbook s I am happy to borrow from the library and return three weeks later but the very best ones I have to buy.  My copy of this one is coming.  I love the recipes and the layout is excellent

So tonight I made the Old-Fashioned Tomato soup – so easy and so delicious. 

On the weekend I had made the Great Smoky Mountain Cheeze, but substituting hickory liquid smoke for the smoked paprika.  The consistency is good, like a soft cheese – sliceable but still spreadable.  I toasted some leftover rosemary focaccia (recipe from Veganomicon) and spread on it some of the smoky spread.  Dunking it in the soup made it all more delicious.