Earth Balance Vegan Cheddar Mac & Cheese

Sorry I've been away from my blog for so long! For my first post of the new year, I figured I would go over my cooking and blogging goals and also write about Earth Balance's mac & cheese, which I finally tried last night! 

Last year, one of my goals was to cook more new recipes and do one blog post a week, but that didn't quite work out. So this year I am combining them; ideally, I will cook one new recipe a week, and that will be the topic of my weekly blog post.

To start it off, I made the Earth Balance Vegan Cheddar Mac & Cheese for dinner last night. It was fun and simple to make, nostalgic and all that good stuff. (After ramen, boxed mac & cheese was probably one of the first things I learned to cook growing up.) Earth Balance's mac & cheese is prepared in the same way. Boil the mac, drain, and return to the pot; stir in plant milk (I used soy milk), vegan butter (I used Earth Balance), and the cheese flavor powder; mix and serve.

Served with carrot "fries" (carrots, canola oil, salt; bake for 10 min, flip, bake for another 10 min).

Now, no, it doesn't taste exactly like what I remember the mac & cheese of my childhood tasting like (Zach agreed, mentioning it had a slight aftertaste, something I've seen other bloggers point out in their reviews). But it's a nice comfort food, easy to prepare, and a quick dinner. I had ordered mine from Vegan Essentials, only to find out later that's it's being sold at the Giant grocery store near me. It's not something I'm going to buy regularly, but it was fun to have, so I'll probably just buy it when it's on sale. (I also bought the white cheddar version, and the vegan cheddar squares, so once I try those, I'll post about them, too!) 

P.S. Leela and Buttons say hello, from inside the cat tent.

Peace. :)

Goals for 2014

Hello there! I hope you had a good start to the new year! In December, I clearly lapsed on my posting-once-a-week goal, but I'm bringing that goal back, and taking on a few others, for 2014.

Trying New Recipes: One of my goals is to cook more from my cookbooks:

Vegan Handbook (Vegetarian Resource Group)

The Cookbook for People Who Love Animals (Gentle World)

Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food (Alicia C. Simpson)

My collection cookbook, which contains tons of random recipes, some handwritten, copied down from who knows where, some clipped out from magazines, newspapers, etc.

I've rarely used these cookbooks; they pretty much just sit on a shelf together, wondering what their purpose in life is, so I'm going to try to pay more attention to them. I would like to get a greater variety in what I'm eating, and I know I'm sure to discover some new favorites in the process.

Reading More: I read a fair amount already, but I want to try to read even more this year, and I have a nice (nearly 2-ft tall) stack of books for 2014, and I'm sure more will be added along the way. I'm currently reading Catching Fire (The Hunger Games series) by Suzanne Collins. I saw the movie before reading it, and overall, I'm liking the book better, but there are a couple parts that I thought the movie handled better.

Self-publishing: Having completed my fourth NaNoWriMo this past November (as well as a Camp NaNoWriMo in April 2013), I feel it's kinda ridiculous that I haven't done anything with the stories I've written (other than just reading and editing them myself). I want to publish them, and I've been saying that for a while, but I keep procrastinating. My goal is to self-publish at least one of the stories. I think I might try my story about Mystery (the 30,000-word one I wrote during Camp NaNoWriMo) first, followed by my NaNoWriMo novel from either 2012 or 2013.

Other goals: I also want to work on exercising more, try meditating, and get back into the habit of walking every day (once it stops being so cold out).

Oh, and one more goal, thanks to Rachel at The Vegan Mishmash, is to submit my turkey sketches to 46millionturkeys.

Well, that's about all for now. I hope everyone's keeping warm; Mystery's strategy to stay extra warm and comfy is to cry until I lie down on the couch and let her curl up on my stomach. While she has me pinned down, I use the time to do some reading. 

"Chop, chop! Time to get more reading done!"

Peace. :)