I wanted to use up as many ingredients I had leftover from our trip to Florida to limit the things I'm bringing back to Michigan and what I came up with was pretty good. Even my non-vegan husband liked it. Basically, I followed the process I used to use when I was vegetarian years ago and I was making a cheese based sauce. Since I've been vegan, the only cheeze sauces I've made are from cashews and/or butternut squash which is my favorite, but this turned out pretty well also.

Ingredients:

1/2 - 3/4 10 oz pkg of rice noodles or whatever vegan noodles you might have
1/2 8 oz bag vegan cheeze mozzarella
1/2 8 oz bag vegan cheeze cheddar
8 oz chopped mushrooms
4-5 cloves garlic chopped
2 T olive oil or vegan margarine
2-3 T nutritional yeast
2 T four
1/2 cup plant based milk

Topping:
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup mix of vegan mozzarella cheeze and vegan cheddar cheeze
2 T nutritional yeast

Process:
Preheat oven to 350. Heat olive oil in a shallow pan and add chopped garlic. sauté for a couple of minutes until deliciously fragrant. Add the chopped mushrooms and continue to saute until somewhat soft. Mix in the nutritional yeast well and set aside off of the heat.

Heat olive oil or margarine over a medium flame. While heating the oil, mix the flour with the plant based milk well. Try to eliminate chunks of flour but don't worry too much if you can't. Using a whisk, add the milk/flour mix to the heated oil and stir constantly. Slowly add the 1/2 cup of plant based milk and continue to mix with the whisk until creamy. You can add more milk if it gets too thick. Add the plant based cheezes and continue to mix well using the whisk. When the texture is nice and melted, set aside on a very low fame while you work on preparing the rice noodles per instructions on the box. When prepared, drain and add the noodles to the cheeze mix and fold the cheeze in well with the noodles. Meanwhile using vegan butter grease an oven friendly bowl preferably with a lid (you could cover with foil if you don't have a lid). Add the noodle/cheese mixture to the oven friendly bowl. Add the mushrooms to form another layer. Finally add the cheeze/breadcrumb/nut yeast mix sprinkle all over the top. Cover and heat for about 45 minutes. Remove foil or lid and let heat for another 10- 15 minutes until the top is nice and melted. Remove from oven and enjoy!

NOTE: I made the above with what I had on hand, but I really think this dish could be much more delicious by mixing in steamed broccoli and perhaps adding a layer of sliced tomatoes!! Or add your favorite veggies!

Last summer I discovered the Baggalini purse while on vacation in Grand Haven. Baggalini purses are amazing for organization and are amazingly vegan! I paid way more for the one I found in Grand Haven at a local gift shop, but then when we were visiting my step daughter in Florida, she had one and told me she got it at Marshalls for a fraction of what I paid last summer. So, with her encouragement, I checked out the Marshalls by her house and snagged this bargain for only $20!

Reykjavik has so many good food options and many restaurants are vegan friendly. I’ve listed some of our favorites below for those of you who will be travelling to Reykjavik soon! However, in addition to those listed here, there were so many more that we didn’t try. Make sure to check out Ragnar Freyrir’s list of vegan options, which was literally a lifesaver when we were in Iceland.

-Passion Reykjavik
I LOVED this shop. We stopped here twice to get some breakfast before leaving to explore outside the city. Both times we got delicious pastries, including a giant chocolate rolls, delicious chocolate-covered croissants, and granola pastries. In addition to the delicious food, the inside was very cutely decorated and was a lovely café. I literally cannot recommend this place enough.

​Íslenska Flatbakan
This was one of our favorite places. This restaurant was located just outside Reykjavik in Kopavagur. It was mostly known for pizza and had so many delicious options. We started with vegan cheese breadsticks, which were filled with creamy vegan cheese and topped with spices. We got the Good-Hearted One, which had vegan chorizo, bananas, onions, jalapenos, pineapple, and peanut. It was SO DELICIOUS! It sounded so weird with the bananas, but it was amazing. It looks like since we’ve been there, they’ve added a few other options including a BBQ pizza, buffalo pizza, and buffalo breadsticks. Definitely recommend this unique and delicious pizza place. 

Eldur og Ís
We stumbled upon this shop while walking around Reykjavik and were not disappointed. There menu was filled with build-your-own crepes (sweet and savory) and they advertised vegan crepes. We went here multiple times, getting sweet and savory. Every single one we had was delicious. My only complaint is that they didn’t label which of the toppings was vegan, but this was easily remedied by asking the server. 

Sushibarinn
My husband and I craved sushi while in Iceland and read that Sushibarrin had great vegan sushi. We weren’t disappointed, with full vegan rolls. While the sushi was delicious, I want to point out that there were numerous “exotic” meats on this menu, which might disturb some people. 

In my previous post, I explained how we started mapping out our trip to Iceland and also researched vegan-friendly restaurants. With this information easily displayed to us on a map, we were able to plan how and where we were going to eat while we were there.

These past two summers, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to Iceland with my boyfriend (now my husband) and with friends. I was ridiculously excited for so many reasons. While this small island is about the size of Georgia, it has a wide variety of different landscapes. From waterfalls and glaciers to volcanoes and lava fields, we saw so many amazing landscapes while there. It felt like a completely different world. I found ridiculously cheap flights there, so it was decided that we would go!