Weeknight meal: Baked Potato

We've added another meal to our easy meal list. This meal relies a lot more on convenience foods than most of the other meals on our list, but we need more variety on our list if we're going to stick with eating more meals at home.

We've made this a few times now. It's a baked potato, with Upton's Naturals seitan, broccoli, and locally-made Nacho Mom's vegan queso. The Upton's Naturals seitan has been sneaking into a lot of our meals, lately. It freezes well and defrosts fast, and it's great in spaghetti sauce, casseroles, and anywhere else you might use ground meat. In the past, we've made our own cheese sauce, and I think we'll continue to do that in the future since it's cheaper and we can make it exactly how we want it.

To make a quick cheesy sauce for baked potatoes or broccoli: saute a few tablespoons of flour in nonhyrdogenated margarine or neutral oil for about two minutes over medium low heat. Slowly pour in a cup of unsweetened plant milk, stirring with a fork as your pour. Turn the heat to medium-high. As the sauce warms, sprinkle in a few handfuls of your favorite vegan cheese. (I've used both Daiya and Tofutti slices for this.) Stir until the cheese melts into the sauce. Add a pinch or two of paprika, and season with salt to taste.