Mum's "Meatless Monday" Mac and Cheese

This recipe is for tomorrow's Meatless Monday. I'll eat the leftovers of what I made today tomorrow for my lunch.

When I was growing up, Mum made an amazing mac and cheese using bacon, wine, and tons of Velveeta cheese on top of ravioli or tortellini. It was creamy heavenly artery-clogging goodness. I made it quite often for guests and some requested it when they were going to come over for a meal.

That recipe obviously does not lend itself well to a vegan lifestyle but today I made a cheese sauce that is almost identical. Still not good for us but oh-so-tasty!

Mum's Mac and Cheese

1 pkg (340g) uncooked rice (or not) macaroni
1tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small onion, chopped
4 cups unsweetened non-dairy milk
1/4 cup white wine or sherry
3 cups grated "cheese" (I used vegan cheddar and monteray jack)
1 "chicken" stock cube
1/2 tsp cajun spice or chili powder or paprika
a few drops liquid smoke (Corey also suggested trying small cubes of smoked tofu to be like bacon)
pinch of crushed chili flakes
salt and pepper to taste

You can do this two ways:
1. Cook the macaroni. Meanwhile, fry the onion and garlic in the heated olive oil in a large saucepan. When they are fragrant, add all the other sauce ingredients and bring to a very light boil. Turn down the heat and leave to simmer while the pasta cooks. The sauce will thicken. Add more smoke, salt, pepper,chili flakes to taste as needed. Pour onto the cooked macaroni.

OR

2. Fry the onion and garlic in the oil in a large saucepan. Add all the other ingredients including the raw macaroni. Reduce heat to low and cover. Cook 20 minutes, stir, cover, cook 20 minutes, stir, cover, etc until the macaroni is cooked. It will take about 1.5 hours depending on your pasta. Don't have it too high or else the sauce will burn. Adjust the seasonings as above.

Kabaka's Koffee Flavoured Kake

I made this cake last weekend and was sitting at the counter enjoying a piece when Kabaka decided that he LOVES coffee cake and wanted to crawl onto the counter to get a bite. This is the first human food he has tried to get. His claws were dug into my thighs and he was using all his 20lbs of weight to push against me as I tried to stop him from getting to my piece. I like the cake too, as does Corey.

Kabaka's Koffee Flavoured Kake

1 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 heaping tbsp instant coffee granules
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups flour (mine is whole wheat but I will also try with other types of gluten free flours)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a cake tin/muffin cups/ loaf pan.

Measure out half of the milk and stir in the coffee granules. Once they have almost all dissolved, add the other half of the milk and vinegar. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together. Make a well in the centre and add the oil, milk mixture, and vinegar. Stir together with a metal spoon until just combined.

Pour into the prepared pan and cook until a toothpick comes out clean. Muffins are about 25 minutes. A loaf is about 40 minutes. Set your timer for 5 minutes less and check. My oven is a bit off for temperature so I set it higher and cook for about the same amount of time. You know your oven best.

When the cake is cool, you can make a coffee icing that is 1/2 cup margarine, powdered sugar, and instant coffee dissolved in a tbsp of milk. The amounts vary on the intensity of the sugar/coffee flavour that you want.

I have also made these as chocolate chip muffins and added 1/2 cup chocolate chips after mixing in the dry ingredients.