Brussels Sprouts "Cheese" Pasta Bake

Wow, where did the week go?!?  Just finished week THREE of cleaning up my health and getting back on track.  Down only ONE sad pound this week, but fitting backing into my smaller clothes and I feel SO great!!  Trying to remind myself that the scale is not the tell all be all of life!  It is easy to become frustrated after stepping off the scale and just saying, "Screw it I give up." BUT I chose to keep moving forward knowing that how I feel today, how great I feel, how happy I feel...that's the reward.  I have also gone these three weeks with absolutely NO alcohol....zero, null, none!  It feels amazing to go to bed and night feeling good and wake up the next morning feeling great.

This vegan redhead is so excited for the weekend (even with the crappy weather coming)...why you ask?  Because there will be a new addition to the kitchen - YES a new food processor!!  LOL!  May not seem that exciting to some, but if you LOVE to cook and have been using a broken food processer for a while....you'd understand my excitement!! After looking around I have decided to purchase the 11-cup capacity processor from Cuisinart.  We have a Cuisinart coffee maker we love, and everything I have read about this one seems to fit all of my needs.  Originally I looked at buying it from Amazon, however Bed Bath & Beyond has it and guess what I have?? Yep, a 20% off coupon!!  Woohooo....makes this vegan redhead a happy-happy girl!

Last night I cooked up a great vegan meal that was pretty easy and VERY tasty!  There are so many different veggies you could add to this and any of my chilies/peppers can be omitted from the recipe if you don't like your food spicy.

Brussels Sprouts "Cheese" Pasta Bake

Ingredients:
8 oz Quinoa Pasta, cooked according to instructions
4 oz. Can of Green Chilies
1/4 Cup Sun Dried Tomatoes
1 Cup Brussels Sprouts, shredded

Sauce:
1/4 Cup Cashews, soaked for a couple hours if you do not have a Vitamix
1 1/2 Cups Almond Milk
2 tbsp Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp Mustard
1/2 tsp Paprika
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
1/2 tsp Oregano
2 tsp Soy Sauce
1/2 Medium Tomato
1-2 Chipotle Peppers in Adobe Sauce (less if you don't like as hot)
1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cook the pasta, according to instructions. While that is cooking make the sauce.  In the blender add all of the sauce ingredients. Blend, taste and adjust salt, spice.  Once the pasta is done and drained, add the sauce, green chilies and sun dried tomatoes and toss to cover. Pour into baking dish.

In your food processor place your cleaned Brussels Sprouts and pulse until finely chopped up. Evenly pour the Brussels Sprouts over the pasta until covered. I use a little olive oil cooking spray and light spray the top.  Bake uncovered 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!

Have a healthy and safe weekend!