My cookbook, The Abundance Diet is going to be released in just 14 days! I’ve received a boxful of copies and I’m so excited to share it with you! The book is visually stunning with photography and cover design by my dear friend, Annie Oliverio of An Unrefined Vegan.  The cookbook is formatted for ease of use with meal plans, shopping lists and over 100 healthful plant-based recipes. You can preorder your copy on Amazon here at a significant discount off the publisher’s price. The Abundance Diet will also be available for purchase at Barnes and Noble and other notable retail book sellers.

I haven’t been blogging much since I’ve been focusing most of my efforts on just being a mom lately. However, every once in a while I still come up with something that’s just too good not to share. I developed a vegan nacho cheese sauce last week that knocked my socks off! Now, I’ve made plenty of vegan cheese sauces and many of them claim to taste just like the real deal. I’m here to tell you that most times I’ve been disappointed. I’m going to tell you that this vegan cheese doesn’t really taste like exactly like the dairy nacho cheese you remember. I think it tastes even better, especially because it’s actually good for you because it’s made with all whole food ingredients and no fake stuff. When I served it to students at my vegan cooking class at a yoga festival over the weekend I heard excited whispers everywhere “This tastes like nacho cheese!” I’ll let you make it and decide what you think.

You can use it as a salad dressing on your favorite taco salad fixins. Or you can just serve a giant bowl of it with your favorite corn chips, like these gorgeous ones from Trader Joes that are filled with plant goodness.

Guilt-Free Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce

• 1 (12 ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained
• 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk, from a can (alternatively, you can use 1/2 cup soaked cashews)
• juice from one lime
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 -1 teaspoon redmond real sea salt or your favorite sea salt to taste
• 1 cooked russet potato, about 4 oz. roughly diced (alternatively, for a more hummus like dip, use one cup white beans)

Method: Add the roasted red peppers, coconut milk, lime juice, nutritional yeast, chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, black pepper and salt to a blender or a food processor. Blend until completely smooth and creamy. Add the potato and blend again until silky. If you are using a high speed blender like a Blendtec, continue blending on high speed until the sauce is warmed through. Or pour it into a small saucepan and heat until bubbly. Serve immediately.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups cheese sauce.