Fantabulously Gluten- and Dairy-Free Mac n' Cheese

          Oh, Farty Girl. We’ve only just met. But you are truly a girl after my own heart—or stomach, rather. In her recent post, “Making the Impossible F’ing Fantastic,” fellow blogger Farty Girl chronicled her quest for and immense joy upon creating a gluten- and dairy-free mac n’ cheese, one that truly sated her craving for this comforting and classic Americanized pasta dish.

          Upon reading her witty and delightful post, I shared with her that I know this longing all too well. There was a period in my life where I lived off of Annie’s microwaveable single serve mac n’ cheese packs. Sometimes I’d really let loose and cook an entire box of it. And my Grandma Lee—her slow-baked, super cheesy mac n’ cheese is a staple dish at our family gatherings, and has been for years. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

          As I’m sure you can imagine, saying good-bye to these cheesy delights was not easy for the new, dairy-free me.

          That’s why I decided to pay homage to said blogger buddy and, drawing from the info she provided, see what I could whip up, and if it would even come close to Grandma Lee's baked version. You can read Farty Girl's highly entertaining post for the full scoop, and I strongly urge you to do so, but the secret to this scrumdiddlyumptious gluten- and dairy-free dish can be expressed in one word: Daiya.

          I had never heard of these cheese imitators nor seen their products before Farty came along and cut it for me. My experiences with imitation cheese have been unpleasant and extremely disappointing, to say the least. Fake cheeses typically just don’t melt or stretch or crumble or taste anything like the dairy stuff. So after quite a few lousy attempts, I’d pretty much resigned myself to living without.

          That is, until Miss Farty revealed her discovery. And oddly enough, Daiya’s cheddar and mozzarella shreds have only just appeared on the shelves at Weggermans here in good ol’ Rochester, NY—as in, within the past week or so!

          I couldn’t believe my eyes when I beheld this tasty spectacle on my way home from work the other night. I thought for sure I’d have to petition Farty to send me some cheese shreds via snail mail (which she did offer to do, by the way). But there the lovely (albeit expensive) packs of cheesy goodness were—sitting right in front of me as I went to grab my container of Earth Balance buttery spread. So, of course, I bought some!

          Not only is this stuff delicious, but it’s also gluten-, soy-, casein-, lactose-, dairy-, and cholesterol-free, and it contains 15% of your daily recommended intake of calcium per serving. That’s only 5% less calcium per serving than its average dairy-containing counterpart. (I can make this claim because I compared it to the shredded cheddar—real cheese—sitting in my shared refrigerator.)

          So now, without further ado, I present to you, thanks to the illustrious and inspirational Farty Girl (with a little bit of Grandma Lee's baking style thrown in):

Fantabulously Gluten- and Dairy-Free Mac n’ Cheese

You will need: 

1 package Tinkyada Gluten-Free Brown Rice Elbow Pasta (or its equivalent)

1/4 cup Earth Balance buttery spread (vegan)

4 oz. Daiya Cheddar Style Shreds

4 oz. Daiya Mozzarella Style Shreds 

 1 1/2 Tbsp. potato flour/starch (or some other GF flour)

1/2 cup soy milk (or rice milk, almond milk, etc.)*

Optional: something crumbly** 

*You can always add more if you prefer a creamier "sauce," but I was going for a melty texture as opposed to a super creamy one.

**multigrain chip bits; crushed nuts; etc.; I chose to use Food Should Taste Good tortilla chips, made with flax, sunflower, and sesame seeds, oat fiber, brown rice, quinoa, and soy flour—because they do taste good and because they were the only crumbly thing I had on hand.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Cook the pasta, in a pot on the stovetop, according to instructions (16 to 17 minutes).

Drain and pour cooked pasta into a casserole dish.

In the now-empty pasta pot, stir the non-dairy milk product, Earth Balance buttery spread, potato flour/starch, and Daiya shreds until the mixture gets all ooey gooey.* 

Pour the mixture into the casserole dish and spread over each and every elbow macaroni.

Bake for 20-30 minutes.**

If it suits your fancy, sprinkle some crumblies on top. 

*You can also just mix these things straight into the casserole dish, but it seems to spread more evenly if you blend the cheesy stuff first. 

**depending on how browned you like it

Bon appétit!

Note: If you want to get all super healthy with this one, you can always toss some veggies into the mix. I’m more of a simple gal myself, and I was really just craving the classic mac n’ cheese experience here.

Really, National Milk Producers Federation? Really?

            Okay, sorry. But I am finding this just a tad ridiculous: “‘Not Milk?’: Dairy Petitions the FDA to Block Labels Like ‘Soy Milk’ on Non-Dairy Products.”

Apparently, as Sherry F. Colb reports in the above-linked article, the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) has a problem with non-dairy milk products like soy milk, almond milk, and rice milk using words like “milk” and “cream” in their names—as in, a serious problem. It’s to the point where they’ve got the FDA bullying select non-dairy beverage companies, as well as the makers of vegan cheese and ice cream substitutes (the horror!), into dropping the words from their product vocabulary altogether.

            The whole thing is silly and unnecessary, if you ask me. I like the author’s take on why the use of words such as milk with these products is actually extremely useful and beneficial to those of us who either cannot or choose not to consume real dairy:

Someone who is accustomed to pouring milk into her coffee or cereal will, once she becomes a vegan, probably want to continue pouring something that has a flavor and texture similar to that of milk into her coffee and cereal. Knowing about "soy milk," "almond milk," "hazelnut milk," and "rice milk" makes her transition simple: she tries the various options and selects the ones she likes best. The label "soy beverage" (as the NMPF recommends as a substitute for "soy milk"), by contrast, would do nothing to let her and other vegan consumers know that the soy product she is buying serves a similar function to that of the dairy milk they consumed in the past.

So, if the NMPF has their way in this playground-type battle, Silk couldn’t refer to their stuff as soy milk anymore; it would have to be soy beverage. And Tofutti cream cheese would have to be called… kind-of-like cream cheese but not really because it has no cream?

            Ugh. I don't know. Time to grow up and find something real to fight over, dairy industry. Or at least, stop picking on the people who are just trying to do some genuine good for all the food-allergy suffering and animal-friendly souls out there.

We all Scream for... Rice Cream?

     I love my sweets. I always have, and I always will. I long ago embraced my semi-addiction to sugar as an inescapable part of my genetic fabric. Nature and nurture have had a hand in that—one of the key players being none other than my dear, sweet Grandma Joan. 

     From Mike & Ike’s to ice cream cones, Grandma Joan’s house was a treasure trove of carefully concealed goodies. When visitors came over, she would cleverly place a bowl or two of sugar-free hard candies on display in her living room, as a sort of deterrent, I believe, but I knew where she kept the good stuff.

     Not surprisingly, some of my most cherished childhood memories are of spending the night at Grandma Joan’s house. I had trouble falling asleep as a child, so I would lay in her guest room (my room while I was there) and wait until I heard her turn on the television and settle into the living room couch for her own ritualistic bout with insomnia. Then, like clockwork, I would make my way downstairs and slide in next to her, waiting to hear one single string of words from her mouth. Sure enough, within minutes of my arrival, she’d turn to me casually and say, “How about a cone?”

     Happily, I’d follow her into the kitchen to make ice cream cones. She always bought the cheapest brands, and I’d often be mildly disappointed to find only freezer-burned Neapolitan flavors or frozen yogurt in her freezer. But regardless, the sensation of that ice creamy goodness melting over my taste buds and trickling down my throat was pure bliss.

I felt such incredible kinship with my grandmother as we sat on that couch with our ice cream cones in hand, watching Audrey Hepburn and Barbara Streisand movies into the wee hours. And that comforting connection with ice cream most certainly followed me into adulthood.
     So I’m sure you can imagine my dismay when, in the summer of 2006, a routine blood test revealed that I had developed an allergy to milk. In fact, I was so resistant to this result that I didn’t officially stop eating dairy until the summer of 2009. I did stop drinking milk (for the most part) upon receipt of the lab results, but ice cream and cheese? No way.

     Alas, my mind may have been hooked on fresh mozzarella and frappuchinos, but my body revolted. I simply cannot digest dairy products. I won’t go into the details, but the reaction, which involves a lot of swelling and discomfort, has become unpleasant enough to keep me away from all things dairy—for good.

So now, imagine my sheer ecstasy when I came across Living Harvest Tempt—a rich and creamy frozen delight made from hemp milk. It is unbelievably, indescribably delicious. Since the anti-dairy diagnosis, I’ve tried coconut ice cream (I’m not a fan), and soy-based ice cream products, which make my belly blow up like a horribly unattractive balloon. But hemp-based ice cream? Divine. My favorite flavor thus far is Coffee Biscotti. I have yet to try Mint Chip and Chocolate Fudge, but that’s only because my current local grocery stores do not carry them.

Tonight, after another long waitressing shift, I decided to try a new brand: Good Karma Organic Rice Divine. Rice milk typically leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but the folks at Good Karma have managed to whip this non-dairy beverage into a light and refreshing frozen indulgence, sort of like the frozen yogurt of the non-dairy ice cream world.
     Following a brief perusal of the available flavors, I settled on Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge,  which melted quite satisfyingly in my mouth with its gobs of peanut butter and chewy bits of fudge-like goodness. My only complaint is a slight taste of the carton having been left in the Wegman's freezer for too long.
     Then again, this hint of freezer burn actually enhanced the nostalgia of my frozen treat eating experience. If only I'd had a cone! (They do make gluten-free ones, by the way.)