Fourth Time, Not the Charm

Hey Readers!

Apologies for it taking so long to get to this post.  The trauma I suffered from our fourth dinner has taken awhile to recover from, hehe.  For this dinner Giggles selected vegan mac and cheese and broccoli salad.  It was certainly interesting ...

Recipes
Vegan Mac and Cheese
Raw Broccoli Salad

Birdman’s Reflection

It’s very rare that Giggles and I make anything that doesn’t taste ridiculously awesome.  But this mac and cheese … well it was just terrible!  But I still have her beat in choosing recipes that didn’t turn out too hot, including vegan lavender mint ice cream and pumpkin cornbread from before we started this blog.  The lavender ice cream is still at the top for worst recipes.  Just imagine cutting up grass from your front lawn, maybe some that’s been marinated with dog piss, and then mixing it with your ice cream – that may actually taste better than the lavender ice cream.

I think the main problem with the mac and cheese was the nutritional yeast.  I bought nutritional yeast powder from my area Co-op (which is an awesome store!), and I’m sure it was the right stuff.  But it just smelled so bad!  Like musty running socks mixed with crushed aspirin.  And as you can imagine, the yeast gave it all a really weird taste.  Someone reviewed the recipe on VegWeb and mentioned that the nutritional yeast flavor can take some getting used to, so maybe that’s it.

Or maybe there’s a grand conspiracy going on, hehe.  The mac and cheese recipe is called “Best Vegan Mac and Cheese in the Entire World … Seriously.”  It must be one of the most popular recipes on the site with 335 reviews and 4/5 stars.  Who are these people!  It just seems very strange to me that this many people could like it, but Giggles and I found it to be awful.  Maybe we were supposed to do something with the yeast first?  I bought it from bulk from the Co-op, so there were no instructions with it.

Despite the fact that it didn’t turn out great for me, I wouldn’t advise not making this recipe.  Hopefully you can still be open to trying it, because if there isn’t a big conspiracy, then a lot of other people thought it was amazing.  And there’s good that can come from any experience, no matter what the outcome.  I would just recommend you don’t make a lot of it.

Oh my goodness, it made so much!  But I couldn’t throw it out.  I’m too cheap and stubborn.  Yet I knew I couldn’t eat it all as it was, so I decided to try and salvage it.  I mixed it with a jar of spaghetti sauce and a jar of pizza sauce.  Then I put real cheese over the top and re-baked it.  For the most part, the sauce was able to mask the smell and taste of the yeast, so it became more bearable to eat.  And boy I’ve been eating it.  One huge portion everyday for the past week!  I just have one serving left to go today, and then I can be rid of it!  Now I’m singing with joy!  Zippity doo dah, zippity ay, my oh my what a wonderful day!  Plenty of sunshine coming my way, zippity doo dah, zippity aye!

So the mac and cheese wasn’t the greatest.   Fortunately the broccoli salad was better.  Despite being a vegetarian, I’m really not a big salad eater.  Salads seem to take a lot of effort to chew, hehe.  And I love the smell of sautéed vegetables.  But Giggles is my best friend and she tried my tofu the week before, so I decided to give the broccoli salad a try.  And it was pretty good.  Plus Giggles told me broccoli is super healthy and can give us our blue eyes of health J.    The only turnoff was in the salad dressing that’s included in the recipe.  It was the vegan mayonnaise.  I’m not a fan of mayonnaise and the vegan version had a pretty funky smell that I couldn’t get over.  The dressing is still in a container in my fridge.  We’ll see what happens to it J.

Ratings for these meals … The mac and cheese gets 1/5 (one point for not making me puke).  The broccoli salad gets 3/5 (more if the dressing had tasted better).  2/5 overall.

Although it wasn’t the greatest tasting meal, it was a good experience.  I had been really looking forward to the mac and cheese for the few days prior to it.  I was hoping to call and talk with Giggles that night, make the awesome looking recipe, and then relax and watch a movie online.  But nothing turned out as expected.  I wasn’t able to get a hold of Giggles, and I was bummed about that and almost decided not to make the recipe since it was already after 9:30.  But I decided to anyway.  And as you know, the recipe didn’t turn out at all like I had imagined it.  Then when I tried watching a movie online, the internet was down.  But at least I didn’t choke on my food and I didn’t cut myself while cutting the broccoli and I wasn’t raped by aliens.  So I can be thankful for that.

This experience of less than desired outcomes happened at just the right time though.  Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness by Bhante Gunaratana.  This was one of the greatest books I’ve read.  This book, along with his other book Mindfulness in Plain English are great reads if you’re interested in learning more about the practice of meditation.  So after reading these books I was really excited about meditation and the new ways of thinking.  But by last week I had gradually become less mindful.  This meal experience served as a reminder of some of the major points in the book: that forming attachments leads to unhappiness.  It was wishful thinking which led me to a fairly depressed state that night.  But I was not depressed for long, because I remembered what I had learned.  I became mindful of how I felt and the reasoning behind the feeling.  In his book, Bhante says not to become attached to things, especially things beyond your control, and to accept whatever situation arises.  It’s a lot like one of my favorite quotes I came up with: Don’t dwell on the past; learn from it.  Don’t worry about the future; embrace whatever comes.  Cherish this moment.


Giggles:

Hahahaha! wow! My apologies for this one Birdman!! Your probably asking yourself.. "why would you ever pick this?" 


It all started about a year ago when I was experimenting with all sorts of vegan dishes from our good friend vegweb.com. I came across this recipe and gave it a try! Something tragic happened though... I bought the wrong kind of yeast. Instead of nutritional yeast I bought active yeast..... so yes I made a dish that smelled like and tasted like a yeast infection. I ate it until it was gone and fortunately it made me lose weight haha! That would be due to the nausea it created! So I thought to myself... I wonder how this would taste with the right kind of yeast. That is why I wanted to try it again. The name of the recipe was just to intriguing.


Unfortunately when I was searching for nutritional yeast I couldn't find any!!!!! NONE!!NOTHING!! NATA!!! crap....


So I went without it.... I decided to use whatever I had in my kitchen. I ended up adding corn meal, corn starch, honey, a little flour and some other odds and ends. I baked it for the usual time... but omg it was terrible. Just plain nasty. I couldn't do it Birdman... I had to toss this one. I hope you can understand. At least I didn't make the full recipe... I divided it by 3 or 4 thank god. I can't even rate this one...


But the broccoli salad was delicious!!!! I didn't have access to vegan mayonnaise so I used ranch dressing instead. I ate this stuff everyday for a week!!! yummm... it made me feel healthy too. I'd give this a 4 out of 5 only because I'm not the biggest fan of seeds or nuts. 


I will not dwell on the past Birdman!! We shall move on and continue our foodfull journey!! By the way.. I love how you have spongebob in your picture and I have a rubber ducky in mine!!! Miss you so much bud!!!!