Start with Miso and end with Awesome

I had bought Miso to make my Mac'n'Cheese and I was trying to find a fun way to use whatever was left in a recipe. I also had some dried wakame in my pantry, so I thought "Waiiiiiit a minute here... I think this might be miso soup time!!!" And it was.

Kris loves mac'n'cheese.

When I asked Kris what some of his pre-vegan favorite foods were, he said something about how he would eat whole boxes of Kraft Dinner. I was not gonna make a regular mac'n'cheese for dinner though, for obvious reasons, so I got my beloved The Vegan Table cookbook out, and got cooking!

Now, I'm not gonna tell you Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's secrets for making this deliciously creamy mac'n'cheese, but I'm just gonna say that you would need cashews and nutritional yeast. Get The Vegan Table, it's totally worth it.

More sandwiches and more fries!

Who would wanna eat a tuna salad sandwich after tasting this?

Seriously, Colleen Patrick Goudreau is like... a Jedi Master of Vegan cooking. (Wow Vero, you're so cool...!)

Follow the Better Than Tuna Salad recipe, put it in a tasty bun with sprouts and fake blue cheese, and serve it with sweet potato fries, and you'll get this:

Même ma très omnivore de soeur Isabelle approuve!

Aux Vivres inspired me

So Friday night was the Aux Vivres night. And Saturday, I wanted to cook. Fully inspired by Aux Vivres, I got cooking!

The Vegelox we had the previous evening was just so crazy good that I had to figure out a way to make my version of it. I did some research online and although I was missing a really important ingredient (seaweed), I tried to make this vegan-version of smoked salmon. I mixed carrot pulp with capers, olive oil, green onions, salt and pepper. It wasn't as crazy as the one we had on Friday but it was more than just edible :P. I didn't stop there: I wanted to try making a cheese-like dip, something with herbs. I took out the tiny little food processor I have and mixed tofu with chives, olive oil, salt and pepper. It turned into what you can see on the right in the picture. It was really tasty! I could totally imagine this spread in a sandwich or something.

 And for my main course, with the peanut sauce that was in my meal at Aux Vivres, I wanted to do something that used peanut butter.

How about a spicy peanut butter marinade? Sounded promising! I mixed peanut butter with soy sauce, garlic, chili pepper flakes, a bit of olive oil and water. I marinated thick slices of tofu in it for a couple hours. Before cooking, I breaded my tofu in unsweetened coconut and sesame seeds. In the pan for a couple minutes on each side and BAM! Really flavorful tofu, with Thai aromas. I served it with whole wheat spaghetti with carrots, spinach and edamame, and a drizzle of sesame oil. Mmmmm!

Aux Vivres: Montreal's first vegan restaurant

I love HappyCow.net and its recommendations for vegetarians and vegans. That's where I read about Aux Vivres. Located on the Plateau, it's a really cute plate with a fully vegan menu. Kris and I gave it a try last Friday.

What we had:

Drinks: a cocoa-based smoothie, and the other one was made with berries. 

Starters: We went for the selection of cold starters. Cream cheese-like dip, vegelox (absolutely amazing), hummus, vegepate, tapenade, pickles and really good bread. 

My main dish: the Thai bowl, with tempeh. It came with peanut sauce, vegetables and rice. Mmmmm peanut sauce...

Kris' main dish: the Indian dinner; rice, a chick pea curry, chutney and a salad. 

For dessert, we shared a fake-cheesecake that was surprisingly creamy and moist. 

We asked for a table outside; they have a cute patio in the back of the restaurant. Aux Vivres seems like a good place to have a casual meal with friends, or on a double-date. I would definitely love to go back.