May 21, 2013

Posts Comments

Delicious “Baked” Mac & Cheese: Healthy Comfort Food

September 25, 2011 By 1 Comment

Fall is the time of year when my comfort food cravings really start to kick in.  This past week, the need (yes, I mean NEED) for Mac & Cheese hit me like a case of Annie’s Homegrown Organic.  After some searching on the internet, I hit my kitchen with five distinctly different takes on raw mac & cheese alternatives, and like a mad scientist, I got to blending, until I found what I thought was the perfect combination of ingredients.  Even my meat & potato eating boyfriend gobbled this one down with joy…

Print
"Baked" Mac & Cheese

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Un-Cooking Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

3-4 Servings

Delish! Shown here paired with my wannabe Flatbread Salad.

Ingredients

    Noodles
  • 3-4 zucchini or summer squash
    • Cashew Cheese Sauce
  • 1 cup cashews (soaked 1-2 hours)
  • 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
  • 2-3 Tbsp Water
  • 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
  • 1 Tsp Sea Salt
  • 1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast
  • 2 Tsp Chili Powder
  • Pinch Ceyenne (optional)
  • Pinch Turmeric
  • 1 Clove Minced Garlic
  • Freshly Cracked Black Pepper (to taste)

Instructions

    Noodles
  1. Use a hand peeler to shred long, wide noodle shaped pieces of your zucchini or squash.
  2. Toss with a little salt
  3. Place in a strainer over another bowl (to catch liquid, as it drains)
  4. Let sit while you prepare your cheese sauce
    5. Sauce
  5. Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender
  6. Be sure to taste for any necessary adjustments before assembly
    7. Assembly
  7. Mix noodles & cheese sauce in a bowl
  8. Spread onto a teflex sheet & slide into the dehydrator for 1 hour
  9. Plate the warmed mac & cheese
  10. (optional) top w/ finely chopped walnuts & extra chili powder
  11. Note: the cheese sauce is quite rich, and required only light coverage on the noodles when I made it. You may prefer more than me, but be sure to start with less, and add more to taste. I ended up with about 1 cup of extra cheese sauce that will come in handy for cracker dipping & other snacking.
http://rawlivingcollective.com/2011/mac-cheese/
10-in. Nylon Tools 3-in-1 Vegetable Peeler

10-in. Nylon Tools 3-in-1 Vegetable Peeler

The handy 3-in-1 vegetable peeler also gets your fruits and veggies squeaky clean in a zip.

Vitamix 64-oz. Professional Series 200 Blender, Onyx

Vitamix 64-oz. Professional Series 200 Blender, Onyx

Combine the number of culinary tasks it performs with how often you’ll use it and the Vitamix Professional Series 200 instantly moves beyond a mere kitchen luxury to an everyday necessity.

Dehydrator, 5-Tray, Black, Excalibur 2500

Dehydrator, 5-Tray, Black, Excalibur 2500

Excalibur makes drying easy with the turbo charged Parallexx Drying System.
Paraflexx sheet - for Excalibur dehydrator

Paraflexx sheet - for Excalibur dehydrator

Keeps wet, moist, or gooey food from slipping through small holes in the dehydrator trays.
Filed Under: Dairy Replacements, Entrees, Kristel Hayes Tagged With: , ,
About Kristel Hayes

I began my raw food journey at the end of July 2011, and started the Raw Living Collective as a way to bring the joy of this happy healthy lifestyle to others by making it accessible and un-inimidating.

By day, I am founder of Mesh Marketing Creative Group, LLC. A technology, popular culture, and internet media junkie, I hold a bachelor of music from the University of California at Irvine (though I can only occasionally be caught playing for friends by the campfire nowadays). I currently live in Portland, Maine with my boyfriend and our trusty canine sidekicks Capo & Dora.

Comments

  1. Mandy says:
    October 5, 2011 at 9:34 pm

    This looks good. I freaking LOVE mac n cheese, and I wouldn’t have to feel guilty about this one!
    Mandy recently posted..Sunday SamplerMy Profile

    Reply

Speak Your Mind

*

Add your Twitter Handle to your comment (do not include "@")