Sunday Linner: Easy Vegan Mac and Cheese and Other Goodies.....

 

I remember when I was growing up, Sunday night dinners were always good. Even if the rest of the week was hectic, Sunday nights were often the time we ate together as a family and prepared ourselves for the week to come. I like the idea of a regularly dedicated time to get together with your spouse or loved ones and enjoy a nourishing meal in the comfort of your own home. So I guess I have unconsciously continued the tradition of Sunday night dinner in my own home, but actually it's more like Sunday afternoon "linner," since my husband and I frequently find ourselves enjoying a too-late-to-be-lunch and too-early-to-be-dinner combo meal.

The requirements of a good Sunday linner for me is that it must be home-cooked and it must be tasty. I tend to crave comfort foods as the days grow shorter, but there's nothing that says comfort foods can't also be simultaneously healthy and delicious!

I clipped this recipe for macaroni and cheese from an old Vegetarian Times (June 2008), and they say that they got it from Portland's own Vita Cafe. I used vegetable noodles instead of plain pasta, added fresh spinach and some sweet peas to give it a little green, used almond milk instead of soy milk, but otherwise it is the same as below:

In a saucepan, whisk together:

2 1/2 cups vegan milk

2 1/2 tablespoons white rice flour

1 1/2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon of granulated garlic

1 tablespoon of granulated onion

Simmer 4 minutes or until thickened, whisking constantly. Then whisk in:

2 tablespoons of vegan margarine (I used Earth Balance), and

1 teaspoon mustard. Simmer for 10 more minutes. Pour over cooked pasta (and add some veg if you want!)

I served the pasta with some oven-roasted garlic and herb potatoes, along with some white beans a la provencale from a recipe that my mother-in-law gave to me, and everything together combined to make the perfect Sunday afternoon-almost-evening linner. And now I feel ready to go forward and face another week!