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Creamy dairy-free cheezy sauce on a black soy bean burger (a la Mark Bittman)

Hello.  I’m Jennifer and I’m a work in progress.

It’s not that I was a particularly undesirable person before, but with age comes growth and maturation.  A comfort of life in your own skin.  The comfort of knowing that it’s OK if everything is not exactly how you wanted it to be, how you dreamed it would be, and read that it should be.  The comfort of knowing that we have some control, but not all control.

We all have things to work on – some obvious; some not so obvious until someone tells you about them.

What I love about aging is the clarity of the decisions that need to be made.  Oh, and the answers themselves.  There weren’t always decisions to be made.  But, when life starts to focus, the decisions that need to be made present themselves.  These things called decisions do not come without work, lots of work.  That’s what “work in progress” is, right?

So, you might be wondering what exactly I am talking about.

  • The best nourishment for my body and my kids’ bodies
  • The best choice in schooling for my family
  • Being the mom who raises responsible, compassionate, community-centered, spiritual, happy, and kind people (wow, that’s a long list)
  • Treading lightly on this amazing earth we live on (while reducing our consumerism)
  • Physical exercise for the body and, equally importantly, the mind
  • Finding peace in my grey hair that curls more and more after each birth 🙂

An abbreviated list for certain, but nonetheless many important things I have been contemplating.  While I primarily use this blog space for sharing recipes and food that my family and I love, I couldn’t help but talk about all the other very important decisions we are working through.

On a musical note (because music is a huge part of our daily lives), I’ve been playing Katell Keineg a lot.  Have you listened to her? There is something about this woman’s voice that is transcending.  I am taken to the places she sings about.  My favorite is her first recording, O Seasons O Castles, one that I discovered as a freshman in college.  I’ve loved this recording so much so that I wanted to name my daughter Hestia (Greek Goddess of the Hearth) after the first track of the same name.

I do have a delicious dairy-free cheezy dip recipe to share with you.  I have been watching lots of raw food videos lately and stumbled upon a cheezy dip recipe from The Raw Food World.  This recipe was inspired by that recipe, slightly tweaked to give it a more tangy taste.

We use this to dip corn chips, as a dressing on salad, and on black bean burgers with guacamole.  It would be awesome on top of nachos.  Marc says it’s just like Velveeta, only better.  That’s gotta be good, right?

Easy Cheezy Dip/Sauce (dairy-free)

  • 1 cup macadamia nuts (you could also use cashews)
  • 1 red bell pepper (on the smaller side; the larger the more watery the dip will be)
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (or more as desired)
  • salt to taste

Blend all ingredients in a blender.  I use a VitaMix and the dip is incredibly creamy.  It has a slight red bell pepper flavor alone, however when you dip a corn chip in it, it tastes just like nacho cheese.

This dip keeps in the refrigerator for several days in a closed container.

Enjoy the dip! And, I would love to know…what are you working on in your life?