Fun mail and good food

Look everyone, I got a package in the mail too! Galaxy foods contacted me about taste testing some of their products and of course I jumped on the chance. I know a quite a few of you are enjoying a similar package. Thank you, Stacey! Not pictured is the pepper jack, which happens to be Brandie's favorite. She is no longer able to find it around here so I gave it to here and told her she had to do a review on her blog. "Mom, my review is that I love it"

A rushed night, which gave us a quick meal of cheddar mashed potatoes, sauteed green beans and spinach with garlic and olive oil, and apricots. I grated some of the cheddar block cheese onto the potatoes. As you can see it didn't melt right away, but after giving it a mix into the hot spuds it melted great. I have not had cheese in a very, very, long time, but this stuff is great! I took the same thing to work the next day for breakfast. Who said I had to eat a "typical" breakfast. :o)

Next I made some of Vegan Dad's broccoli soup. With the addition of some more shredded cheddar block cheese we had broccoli cheddar, which was fantastic.

Here is the finished product. DH who will not eat cooked broccoli (throw it in a salad he says) loved this soup. It had to be the cheese. I was thrilled beyond words. That gives the vegan block cheddar cheese a 5 star rating! *****

As you can see in the picture above I also received mozzarella flavored sliced cheese. Of course that meant Italian of some kind. Pizza seemed to be quick, easy, and it also gave me a chance to use some more of the "new kid on the block" steamed sausages. I used Vegan Dad's recipe again, which I have posted about before. For those of you who have yet to try them, you really must. The crust recipe is from Vegan Lunch Box and it is really good. It is a multi-grain crust. Here are the little darlings just out of the oven. As you can see this cheese did not melt, but the flavor is spot on for us. My mom stopped by and also gave the cheese and the pizza a thumbs up!

Ok, everyone needs to go check our Rural Vegans site. She made some awesome stuffed shells and listed the recipe. Take note, I quartered the recipe because I was short on tofu and it still made a dozen stuffed shells. I used melody's simple marinara sauce that I have tested for her. I also put the mozzarella cheese on 4 of the shells and coated them with some olive oil before baking. I thought this might help the cheese to melt. Well, the verdict is in. No melting, but fantastic flavor.

Out of the oven and onto the plate. These are even better the next day. Although the cheese does not melt it has a very creamy texture, which in a sense is kinda melty, but just holds its shape. Does that make sense?

Well, it is now 1 am and I figure I should hit the hay. I will be posting again real soon. I am testing for Lindsay from The Happy Herbivore so look forward to some fun food porn. Just enough to wet your whistle and drive you crazy while waiting for her cookbook. :o)