Meal Plan: June 14th- June 18th- Sunflower Mac

So I'm a bit on the exhausted side of things today but that's okay; all those episodes of Downton Abbey late at night are more than worth it. (Where have I been for the last five seasons?!) It is such quality television and just so so good. Anyway, this week, I flipped around the meal schedule again and made the Sunflower Mac. 

As you might already know, I have always disliked meat and cheese. I may or not have been the only child that never touched that neon orange excuse for macaroni and cheese. Even the real stuff grossed me out. The only way I'd ever consume cheese was if it were on pizza or in lasagna- essentially, in anything where the sauce or other ingredients were able to disguise the flavor of the cheese. What can I say? I take after my mother. I also really dislike things that are thick and creamy. So what drew me to make this recipe? I'm not really sure but it might have to do with the fact that I have seriously neglected the pasta chapter and also, I'm not sure I can call myself a proper vegan if I never made a vegan mac and cheese. And here we are. I initially was going to make the red pepper version but me and nightshades... we don't see eye to eye lately so that was out. I did take a few precautions to make sure that the creamy sauciness wouldn't overwhelm me. Firstly, I doubled the amount of pasta called for. (I should have tripled it!) I also added some peas to add color and more nutrition, sprinkled the top with some bread crumbs and nutritional yeast and BAKED this for about twenty minutes. The flavor to me is quite mild and not really very cheesy so I think real fans of mac and cheese might be disappointed. You might want to up the amount of nutritional yeast used here. All in all, I really liked this. It wasn't overwhelming for me and I really found it to be comforting, homey food. Oh and the best part? This week I spent a mere five shekels on food! That's right-- all I bought was a bag of pasta, a couple of carrots and two onions. A great feeling. The original recipe can be found here. Have a wonderful week!