cooking · Dinner · Plant Based Diet

The Priciest Vegan Mac n’ Cheeze

Delicious, creamy vegan mac n’ cheeze. I was in carb-heaven on Thursday, we were all enjoying a laid back dinner. There were a new flavor of popsicle in the freezer, the backyard was calling us. First though, we needed to enjoy our dinner….

Mac3

And so why was it the priciest mac n’ cheeze? It sent Alistaire to the ER for a severe allergic reaction. Oy. Nothing like a $100 co-pay, twice in under 2 months time (and a new allergy as well). I had to laugh that it was my home-cooking that did it. Yep, trying to put a tasty plant-based meal on the table and it winds up with us spending half the evening in a hospital room with a $100 bill. And all those luscious leftovers went into the garbage 🙁 Sigh. For $100 we could have eaten out 3 times at the local greasy diner and he could have eaten all the tater tots he desired, since they are fried in canola oil. Sheesh.

Mac1

While eating dinner, Kirk looked up at Alistaire. His face didn’t look right. He was turning red, his face was swelling up and turning into welts and hives. The picture above was about 30 minutes after we arrived in the ER, and about 45 minutes after he had his meds. He looked SO much better in the ER than he did at home. While trying to get his Benadryl into him he was getting a lot worse, very fast. But we did what we needed to do, even if both of us were shaking badly. I know I can use an Epi-Pen now and that we made good decisions. He looked awful, though as soon as we got the meds into him he didn’t seem to be getting any worse, so they were working fast. It is really amazing how fast Epi-Pens work.

An hour after that photo he was feeling great, and looked SO much better. He was given a steroid shot as well. The Epi-Pen had him bright-eyed and wide awake and having a grand time…..we finally got released when he was showing minimal new hives (they kept coming on for hours, just smaller and less painful). Very, very grateful for having the ER 3 miles away from our house.

Mac2

So…we have an appointment to see an allergist in a few weeks. It will be a multi-hour visit and I hope we get more answers. Like exactly what he is allergic to, besides peanuts, cashews and eggs. Whatever it takes to keep him healthy I will do!

Kirk and I got talking and realized one big issue we had, was while we had the meds, they were not easily grabbed for at home use. Since we had doubles, I made up a to-go kit for him, that stays on the shelf between the kitchen and living room.

Epi

Tucked into a clear locking box is his second set of Epi-Pens, a bottle of liquid antihistamine, syringe dosers, disposable gloves (if anyones hands are dirty/contaminated) and a printed out form that lists what to do – how much, when and how to do injections, along with who to call. I am going to hedge that it is hard for every Mom of an allergy child to let them out of their sight 🙁 Not sure when I’ll be OK with a baby sitter, even at the gym I get keyed up when they are playing while I work out.

Friday evening, 24 hours later, he was feeling great and out playing in the yard. Gotta love how resilient little one are!

B

But….lest we forget about the dinner, here is my vegan mac n’ cheeze. Good thing I enjoyed it, cause I won’t get it again! I am hoping after the allergy testing that I can try it with sunflower seeds!

Mac4

Vegan Mac n’ Cheeze

Ingredients:

  • 16 ounces elbow macaroni

Cheeze Sauce –

  • 1½ cups raw cashews
  • 1¾ cups unsweetened coconut milk
  • 1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
  • 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 large lemon, juiced (2-3 Tbsp)
  • 1 Tbsp white miso
  • 1 large clove garlic, peeled
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp fine sea salt
  • ½ tsp chili powder
  • Pinch ground turmeric
  • 4 dashes hot sauce, or to taste (used Tabasco)

Topping –

  • 2 slices whole wheat or whole grain bread
  • 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • Pinch fine sea salt
  • Pinch ground black pepper

Directions:

Soak cashews for at least 4 hours or overnight in filtered water, drain and rinse.

Preheat oven to 350°, lightly oil a 9×13″ baking dish.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil, cook pasta as directed on package, undercooked by a minute. Drain and shake dry, return to cooking pot.

Meanwhile, combine the cheeze sauce ingredients in a high-speed blender. Process until smooth. Stir sauce into pasta, then spread in prepared baking dish.

Toast the bread and pulse in a mini food chopper until finely crumbed. Toss in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Sprinkle crumbs over the top of the mac.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until golden.

Serves 6 to 8.

~Sarah

5 thoughts on “The Priciest Vegan Mac n’ Cheeze

  1. Sounds delicious! I also made mine in a blender. I made 2 different versions…one with just coconut milk (because hubby can’t have cashews) and one with cashews. Yours sounds delish. That’s so scary that happened to him!! How did you first get the epi-pen…did he react to peanuts the first time and then you got the epi-pen? That scares me to give things to Olivia. She has been okay with stuff I’ve made with almonds and a tiny bit of pecans and coconut milk. Haven’t done any other nut.

    1. After the scary peanut encounter and the first ER trip, our doctor made sure I had Epi-pens. I’d have at least Benadryl liquid in the house, for just in case. The whole thing is frightening, I bet you understand due to your hubby. I just feel scared to let him have anything new 🙁

        1. For Alistaire it is the first defense line: Benadryl first, then if needed and Epi-pen. And yes, I give it in a medicine syringe to the mouth. I hate that it is bright red, but I have to admit it is the lesser of two evils, so hopefully with controlling his foods, I can keep down the doses needed 🙂

  2. I made this today but was too impatient to bake it in the oven. I just tossed it all together and it was pretty good. I think next time I would add DIJON mustard though for some zing. Also I think several green onions finely chopped would make it even better. it’s sort of a uniform yellowy colour and the green would perk it up visually and the green omions would give a needed crunch factor. However that said I used PANKO bread crumbs on top of my mac n cheese which was a good addition too. Oh, and a few dashes of WHITE TRUFFLE OIL. Mmmmmmmm!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.