Our First Vegan Dinner....but I kinda cheated

Alright, so tonight was the night. My roommate and I's first truly vegan meal! We did our shopping trip together on Monday night at Whole Foods, because there was no way we were going to find like 90% of the items needed to prepare this feast. I have to admit, the vegan Cheddar and Monterrey Jack cheese were a little frightening. I didn't really know what to think of that, and honestly when I was preparing the meal, I did not even sample them. I'm going to save that for another day. But, I digress. I think the thing that bothered me the most about the cheese was the fact that the packaging proudly proclaimed the fact that "It Melts!" Umm, I would hope so? That is what cheese does right....?

The majority of the cheese sauce was actually pureed butternut squash and soy milk, which by the way is going to be the beginning of my own recipe creation of some squash soup. I love squash soup! And while I was pureeing the squash for the mac & cheese, it dawned on me that it could make a killer soup base! I probably won't be able to do this until next week, but I can wait.

When this dish was finally ready and out of the oven, I was looking at it and got a little frightened. I didn't know what to expect. It smelled good and it looked good, but was it going to taste good?
To give you a little idea of what it is that we ate, here is a photo :)

The recipe came from the "Skinny Bitch in the Kitch" cookbook. I have to say I absolutely loved it! It tasted great. I have to admit that my mind was trying to convince me that it was "weird" and trying to get me to not like it. I was still carrying some of the uneasy feelings about the fact that the cheese wasn't real. I know that this is just something that I am going to have to adjust myself to, but I think it is going to be more enjoyable that I thought. The one thing I did cheat on was the "wheat bread crumb topping". I forgot to grab them on our shopping trip, and honestly, I couldn't have been bothered to drive in 30 min of Chicago rush hour traffic just for bread crumbs, so I just used saltines instead. Yes, they were not organic or probably even vegan, but like I said before, this is a process, and a slow one at that.

On a side note, I did mention in a previous blog about that "weird situation" that I had a couple years back. It was involving a vegan, who did not inform me of their vegan ways until after I moved in. Hey thanks guy. Needless to say, that only lasted 3 months. The dude was just weird to begin with and the whole thing made me uncomfortable. But luckily there was no lease involved and I was free to go whenever I wished. But seriously the food this guy ate....WTF? It was pretty gross in my opinion, but then again I do not like beets. I think this dude really needs to get a new cookbook or something because if he ever wanted to try and get people to be vegan, they better not see the crap he was eating. Hell, maybe he was not the type of person that likes food for its flavor, but just as a source of sustenance. Either way that dude needs a clue. I would have never thought that I would become a vegan, especially with that weirdo experience. But anyways, first vegan din-din was a total success!