Tags
cheat day, food as fuel, healthy comfort food, healthy mac'n'cheese, vegan, vegan mac'n'cheese, vegetarian
When I am talking about cheat days, I am implying healthy eating but in bigger amounts than I do eat while aiming to lose weight. Sunday is my day of choice and today was my 4th cheat day since I started my diet. So far the method works great for me. How do I benefit from “cheating” one day per week? By knowing that I can satisfy my cravings on this particular day it is easier to stick to my diet the other 6 days of the week. It helps my body to recover by fueling it with nutrients (that’s why it is necessary to also eat lots of healthy foods on your cheat day). And it boosts my metabolism.
But enough of the theory. Let’s see some food! Today’s lunch was an amazingly healthy variation of one of my favorite comfort foods: Mac’n'Cheese.
Healthy Mac’n'Cheese
ingredients for 1 portion
- 1/2 cup raw spelt pasta (or your favorite kind)
- 1 cup cauliflower (plucked into tiny pieces)
- 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 T coconut oil (olive oil will work too)
- 2 T nutritional yeast
- 1 T soymilk
- 1 clove garlic (crushed)
- 1/2 tsp tumeric, 1/2 tsp curry, sea salt to taste
- handful spinach leaves *optional
1. Cook the pasta according to instructions, and add the cauliflower 3-4 minutes before done. When both are cooked, drain and set aside.
2. Combine the oil, pumpkin, yeast, soymilk, garlic and spices in the pot. Heat and stir for 2 minutes.
3. Turn the heat off. Pour pasta and cauliflower (and the spinach, if you want to) into the pot, stir until the sauce is evenly spread (and spinach slightly wilted). Add salt to taste – I like my Mac’n'Cheese with a good amount of salt, but I get it if you use it scarcely due to health reasons.
4. Comfort yourself!
What is your favorite comfort meal? Have you ever hat a cheat day? What food are you craving right now?
Mmm. Mac & Cheese seriously has to be one of the most comforting meals ever…. right up there with a big bowl of banana oatmeal
I’ve made this dish with nutritional yeast and squash before, and it was surprisingly good for how healthy it was – definitely gives old KD a run for it’s money 
The banana oatmeal, witch yeast and squash O.o’???? Just kidding!
Guess oatmeal would be my second choice, too! Now off to my first exam!
I made this just now and liked it a lot! I must say I have never had mac and cheese before (not I’m not crazy, just not American) so I can’t say how it compare to unhealthier versions. I did however forget to cook the cauliflower so that had a bit of a bite to it, which wasn’t that much of a problem because I used whole wheat pasta, cooked al dente, anyway.
Thanks for the recipe!
I am so happy that you liked it! My cauliflower was still quite crunchy too. I just prefer my veggies this way.
Oh and, truth to be told: I never had the real deal, too. I live in Germany and the only thing slightly like mac’n'cheese are pan fried noodles topped with a little cheese,
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