Last night, when picking up the kids from daycare, I asked, “what should we make for dinner?”

…just then another child at daycare piped in, “Macaroni and cheese!”

My response was, “Oh, we don’t eat that because it has cheese.”

Avery has never had macaroni and cheese. She has severe food allergies to eggs, milk and peanuts, so I typically make our food from scratch. And the thought of making macaroni and cheese had never crossed my mind.

But I had a strange feeling, an internal dissonance, the entire drive home. And then it hit me, I had seen a recipe for mac & cheese using the vegan, non-dairy Daiya Cheese online. We’ve had great luck making pizza, quesadillas and even lasagna with Daiya Cheese, so I suspected we might have luck with mac and cheese, too.

I easily found the recipe on their web site, and then adapted it a couple of ways to accommodate ingredients I had in the house. I used penne noodles, added chicken (Avery’s idea!), smashed up Ritz crackers for bread crumbs and left out yeast. I also cut the recipe in half, because I knew a half box of noodles would be more than enough for 2-3 people (and it was plenty).

Ingredients:
4 ounces (1/2 box) Dreamfields Pasta (see why I like Dreamfields here)
1.5 tablespoons non-dairy margarine (we love Earth Balance)
1 cup non-dairy milk (we use Rice dream)
1.5 cups Daiya shredded cheese (I used both cheddar and mozzarella)
1/2-1 cup chopped, grilled chicken
1/2 cup crushed Ritz crackers (egg and milk free)
black pepper
sea salt
paprika

Preheat oven to 350. Cook pasta and drain. In a separate pot, simmer margarine.

When melted, stir in the milk. Then add cheese shreds. cook over low/medium heat for about 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning.

After a couple of minutes, you’ll notice it will thicken into a sauce.

Add the sauce to the noodles, mix. Also add in chicken if you’d like.

Move mixture into a baking dish, cover with breadcrumbs and sprinkle with paprika. Bake for about 15 minutes.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Avery and I both said YUM!

The only part she didn’t like was the pepper flecks, which she tried to pick out. That’s why I removed it from the middle of the recipe and suggested adding it at the end. I found it a bit bland for my adult tastes, and would add a bit of minced garlic and more salt and pepper while cooking if I were making it just for me. For kids, though, it makes sense to add salt and pepper at the end for those who might like it.

As a busy mom, I tend to gravitate towards what I know and make things I’m used to. This was a really good experience for me to push myself to try something new. I loved including Avery in the process so we could spend time together and, plus, it’s fun. It was her idea to add the chicken, which was awesome!

I hope this recipe encourages you to try new things and use ingredients you have on hand to make recipes work for you.

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