Cheese can go pretty quickly in our house. We don’t consider it a necessity or even a staple. The boys have some limited sensitivies to certain kinds of dairy, which is an improvement from severe restrictions on it- so we have come to hold dairy products with an open hand. It’s just not necessary for a healthy diet, so there is no reason to fight for it.
That does not mean, however, that we aren’t fans of the stuff.
I think we have cut down the dairy we buy in a grocery shopping period by about ½, and when it’s gone it’s gone. For that reason, I don’t often shmear cheese all over a recipe- called for or not- like I used to. We sprinkle it on and try to use it as an addition on a variety of meals instead of a huge component of a few.
Before now, I’ve probably only made a cheese sauce once. I remember buying heavy cream and cracking up at the excessiveness the whole time.
This one obviously doesn’t have heavy cream, and it only takes 1 cup of shredded cheese.
For perspective, when we put straight shredded cheese on something like chili, our family might wind up using half a block. ….I told you we like it.
I honestly didn’t have high hopes for a cheese sauce with just a bit of cheese. Maybe I’m just not acquainted with these sorts of recipes. In any case, the temperature dropped below 100 and I wanted to celebrate the foreshadowing of fall with some chili and cheese.
My only suggestion on this one is to use a nuttier/heartier milk than I did. Somehow, I wound up with coconut milk instead of almond the other day. It was original, not vanilla, but coconut milk still has that sweet tinge to it. It was only evident on first tasting it, but it was enough that I didn’t love it. A different kind of milk will make all the difference.
The best part? It lasted for.ev.er. I had chili cheese oven fries, Hubby had cheese oven fries, the boys had chili with cheese and oven fries with cheese. It kept coming and coming and coming.
Nutritional highlights: While I don’t think you have to have dairy to have a complete diet, I don’t think it’s a nutritionally devoid splurge like, say, Newman-O’s or Reese’s. You get some calcium and, my favorite, fats. Yum. Combined with some Nutritional Yeast, this is way better than dousing your baked potatoes in Velveeta. Not that I do that…
Need the recipe? You don’t have to be a vegetarian or pregnant to enjoy whole foods. Head over to Buy.Com, with over a million books discounted everyday,to grab a copy of The Vegetarian Mother’s Cookbook and cook along!
