Things have been terribly uninteresting, food-wise, here in Aussie. For the past few weeks, I have been totally and completely uninspired. For breakfast, I have grapefruit and toast. For lunch, I have veggies and store bought hummus. Sometimes I go wild and have peanut butter and celery. Hold me back!

As a result, new and interesting foods have been scarce. I’ve tried one or two new recipes but they have all fallen short. I think I’ve temporarily lost my kitchen mojo!

This could very well have to do with a hacking cough and lingering feeling of ‘blah’ that I haven’t been able to shake for about a week or so. I’ve been downing green tea and honey like it’s going out of style. And I’ve been craving soup except it’s hot out! Maybe I just need to feed my soup craving and all will return to normal.

Despite the boring food phase I’m facing, I do have this recipe that I promised you a bajillion years ago (or 3 weeks) that I just haven’t gotten around to posting. It uses the Cheeze sauce recipe that I made for Halloween. I made another batch and have been using it for Mac and Cheeze, which is at least somewhat of a comfort food. Even if it isn’t the piping hot soup I crave.

Veggie Loaded Mac and Cheeze
serves 2

-3 TBSP olive oil

– 3 cloves of garlic

-half an onion

-half a bunch of curly leaf kale

-1/2 c. of tomatoes (I used small cherry tomatoes)

-1 1/2 – 2 c. of pasta of your choice (I used gluten-free buckwheat spirals)

-about 1/2 c. of Cheeze sauce, or more to taste

Heat oil over medium -low heat in a medium sized skillet. Add the onions and the garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, stir and cover, cooking until the tomatoes are soft and mushy. This should be about 5 minutes. My goal here was to create a really flavorful oil base to cook the kale in. Once the tomatoes are soft, add the kale and toss so it’s covered in the oil. Cover for 5 minutes until the kale and bright green and cooked down. Give it another good toss. Reduce the heat to low.

While the kale is covered and cooking, put your pasta on. Cook according to instructions. Once cooked and drained, add it your kale mixture. Toss everything together. Add your Cheeze sauce and stir/toss to coat. Add more if desire. Keep heat to medium low and heat your mixture until the sauce is hot. Serve right away.

Half recipes if you are making for one person. Leftovers to do not heat up well.

I’ve made this a few times and more often then not, I serve it in a big bowl and eat it curled up on the couch reading. It’s such a good comfort food meal. You will never pass this off as real mac and cheese to your non-vegan friends but it’s a great, veggie packed recipe that hits that craving when you want the blue box.

I do have a Travel Tuesday for you tomorrow and, hopefully, a Friday Favorite that I’ve been sitting on forever! We’ll see how I come along with the recipes. Fingers cross I create something not sucky soon!