Mac n’ (Wayfare) Cheese, Burritos

I’ve been eating a lot of vegan cheese lately. I can’t stop. I loved cheese in my pre-vegan days, and when I find a vegan version I’m happy with (because we all know it isn’t exactly the same – and perhaps never will be) I eat it on almost everything. I promised reviews of the Wayfare We Can’t Say It’s Cheese, so here’s the very first.

The first thing I would make was obvious – macaroni and cheese. Any vegan cheese should be able to pass this test. I used the cheddar dip (rather than the cheddar spread which has a much thicker consistency), and stirred it into the cooked noodles.

Unfortunately I wasn’t super impressed. (Also, terribly sorry about the picture. I’m getting mighty tired of relying on my cell phone for this.) Maybe I didn’t use enough  cheese, because it was a little dry/not flavorful. On hindsight,  I probably should have added a Tbs or two of Earth Balance, but I felt like it probably didn’t need it.

Today for lunch I tried again, this time with EB, a little miso, and more cheese. It was definitely better, but I’ll stick to making VeganDad’s mac n’ cheese in the future.

Last night for dinner I decided to use the Mexi-cheddar flavor and make burritos. I even made my own tortillas! I had no idea they were so simple. Plus it’s so much cheaper since there’s only three ingredients – water, flour, and salt. I used the recipe from Bunny Junk.

I spread the Mexi-cheddar variety over the tortilla, with a chickpea-cumin-chili powder filling, some red pepper, and avocado. I wasn’t too fond of this particular flavor on its own, but it was good rolled up in a burrito.

So far, my opinion of Wayfare’s cheese products are pretty positive. Compared to the vegan cheese alternatives on the market right now, these are rather close to being the best, especially the hickory flavor, which I’ve been eating off my finger every time I walk through the kitchen.

Wow Factor, and Instant mashed potatoes

Yesterday was quite the day for Ahimsa. My blog got the best number of hits in a single day ever – 1,525 hits!! Most were for the Mac-Stuffed Portobello Mushroom post. Usually, this blog averages about 100 hits a day, but here’s what I saw when I logged in this morning:

Wowza. So thanks to everyone for taking a look!

I wanted a really quick lunch today since I had just been on a 2 hour bus adventure (public transit! woot!) to pick up a few groceries. I had some leftover refried beans, and about 1/4 can sauerkraut from the pizza I made yesterday. So I mixed the two together and stirred in some chunky salsa. It made a interesting filling for a pita. 

[Picture: my sauerkraut/refried beans pita and instant mashed potatoes]

So onto a review of my side: Road’s End Organic’s Instant Mashed Potatoes and Chreese. Ewwww. I tried both the microwave method, which was actually the better of the two, and stovetop. However, either way you cook them, they just aren’t good. There’s a definite pasty taste, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get rid of the lumps from the stovetop method. They certainly are pretty though – almost pumpkin-orange in color. As much as I love this company’s macaroni and cheese, the potatoes are nowhere close.