Vegan Cheese Sauce and Lasagne Recipes
It's been FOREVER since I wrote in this blog! I have been super busy re-branding the website to better reflect my lifestyle. I want to show the earthy, natural life and I felt that the punchy colours on white background looked too synthetic. I bought a 2nd hand Canon 500D camera because my old one was giving me problems and I'm SO happy with it.
I have now added Tiny Land to Instagram!!
So I am sharing different tips and lifestyle ideas and recipes there too. I've also been improving various recipes and my Scented paint recipe is now SOO good..I compared it to the GALT brand of paint and it's just as good in the way it behaves..and yet it's made from flours and vegetable/plant materials...SERIOUSLY! :)
I am still struggling to colour bright paints naturally because the pigments that are available are only the Yellows Reds and Greens that I use in Woodland Crayons (Turmeric, Beetroot and Spirulina). To obtain a blue is notoriously tricky and VERY expensive. I don't like using synthetic colours but pretty much every product you see that has bright colours uses synthetics. Whether it's food, or clothes or play dough etc.
Smarties use natural colours but they need so little colourants on their sweet shells that it's affordable. If I were to put in the required amount of pigment in my paint..I'd be charging ridiculous figures. Natural blues are still very rare and I'm still on the search for a supplier. I was turned away by one recently because I am not in the food industry!
On the plus side, I have made a rota for our family meals..meaning Mondays are Rice, Tuesdays are Sausage and Mash (I have vegan sausages), Wednesday Pasta, and Thursday Pizza, Fridays Fish and Chips. This was to help Fin learn the days of the week and be aware and secure with a solid structure. I thought I'd find it boring but we have things differently each time.
This week I made the pasta lasagne and this is the result. It makes buying food, wastage, planning, etc SO much easier. I cook this meat up one a month and freeze it into little portions and take it out once a week and heat it up. If you only ever cook once a month let this be your go-to recipe it's so versatile and tastes amazing and fresh each time!!
Recently the kids have been eating meat and fish because to enforce differently puts a strain on the family. Finley has had emotional challenges where I thought he had PDA and was on the spectrum but we are working on it and he has improved (more on this in another post). With all this I decided money issues, housework, animal welfare and dietary choices need to be adult problems. The best way to teach children is by example and I will be the best example I can be to them, and when they make their own choices I can be there to support them.
I think my behaviour is the most powerful tool. Arguing my case pushes people away and it's not what I'm about. It is their relationship with the universe.
Anyways back to planet earth and this crazy Vegan Lasagne..really Vegan? Yes and both my kids LOVED IT! I overheard my eldest tell his dad when he got home "Mummy made you some dinner and it's YUMMY" Awwww. It's FULL Of nutrients and you can add some veggies in there too (see variations in Method).
So if you go over to my other post there is a mince meat recipe:
https://www.tiny-land.co.uk/single-post/2017/05/06/Ultimate-Vegan-Minced-Meat-Recipe
I made some cheese sauce (see below) and I didn't write down the ingredients until after so I hope this works. If it's too thick add some extra 'milk'.
Method:
I laid down some of the mince 'meat', gluten free lasagne sheets (you can also use corn tortillas) and then the cheese sauce. I times it by 2 and then poured over some boiling water. This is because the pasta needs to cook soft, and not crunchy, so it needs to absorb water to do this. I put in about half a cup. Then put in a preheated oven (180c) for 25 minutes or follow your lasagne sheet cooking times, since we are just heating up the meat and cheese.
Variations: You can also add layers of veggies, just make sure they are diced really small. I use little bags of pre-diced veggies from the supermarket with Kale, wee Potato and Beetroot in and the kids love that, it's surprisingly sweet.
Vegan Cheese Sauce (If you lack any of the below ingredients, go for it anyway!)
1 large or 2 small onions
2 carrots
1 large or 2 small potatoes
- Steam the above veggies till soft (or cook in milk and keep milk aside for later)
2 tablespoons coconut oil (I use refined for the non coconut taste)
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 teaspoons miso paste
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoons tahini paste
2 teaspoons mustard powder (I use the yellow Colman's brand)
1 cup Soya milk (or your alternative)
Place in blender and whizz away! Add more milk if it's too dry. Add salt to taste.
This sauce will be slightly nutty with the nutritional yeast and tahini, a little like a gouda cheese.
I'd love to hear back from you if you've tried this! <3
