Thermos 3-Tier Bento #17
This doesn't represent all that much effort, but I'm just trying harder this week, not hard. (To be honest, sometimes even this is too hard. So I'm proud when I manage.)
Anyone who has followed this blog for very long knows one of my favorite meals was always beanie weenies with macaroni and cheese. It was one of the first things I tried to veganize and kept going until I hit on a combination I really liked. This is not that. But it is inspired by the same basic ideas. (If you want to try my veganized beanie weenies, I've posted the recipe before.)
The beans themselves are the same ones I use in the vegan beanie weenies; I just left out the hot dogs and added some yellow sweet pepper. So basically you start with onions and peppers sauteed in vegan butter and then add a can of vegetarian beans in tomato sauce and heat through. It could use something--perhaps a bit of barbecue sauce for a touch of smokiness--but it was good.
The macaroni is Annie's vegan macaroni in a creamy sauce. It lives up to its name; it does not claim to be cheese and isn't cheesy. It's essentially a pumpkin sauce. It's vaguely sweet and it went well with the beans.
This looks like a great lunch! I didn't care much for that Annie's macaroni when I tried it, but I think if I'd combined it with your beans, I would have liked it a lot more!
ReplyDeleteThis looks great! It's always nice to be able to have one of your favorite meals, even if it isn't quite the same (like Julie, I'm not a huge fan of Annie's mac) but it looks like you paired it well! Mac and cheese is one of the things I miss most as well and one day when I'm feeling up to it I want to try and make an authentic baked mac and cheese… gluten free (yikes!).
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteA little while ago I linked to a butternut squash-based cheese sauce on a comment on your blog. I could see that working, perhaps, in a baked macaroni and cheese, and there are several other recipes out there. I hope you find a good combo that works for you!
The Annie's macaroni in a creamy sauce really works better as leftovers made into pasta salad, I think, but I wasn't in the mood this time.