Well, you just knew I wouldn’t be able to keep my fingers out of the vodka, didn’t you? Well, you can rest assured I haven’t been imbibing my beloved vodka martinis. I have, however, been experimenting with a vegan vodka sauce, and the results were excellent…and while the recipe requires vodka, it requires no cream or cheese or any dairy whatsoever!

So…here we go.

Vegan Vodka Sauce

• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 jar of tomato sauce (or a can of tomatoes)
• 1/2 cup savoury cashew cream
• 1/2 cup vodka

Directions:

Brown the onion and garlic until soft and translucent, then place all the ingredients (including the sauteed onions and garlic) in the blender:

Blend until smooth and pour into a saucepan to heat up:

The lumpy bits are some Field Roast Italian vegan sausage (yum yum!).

Serve over brown rice pasta. This is our favourite brand (it’s a bit pricey, but totally worth it):

And top it all off with some vegan parmesan.

This was a PERFECT meal–it’s seriously the bomb diggity. James had to get up at crack of dawn to invigilate exams and hadn’t eaten all day, so he was in need of some serious comfort food, and this just fit the bill.

And tomorrow is….our last two exam invigilations of the semester…and FOREVER!!!! On Friday, we’ll mark the exams, enter the grades…and then we’re DUNZO!!

Oh, and I was given this lovely Haida hummingbird bird pendant as a retirement gift from the department.

The artist is Jeff Pat of Coast Salish. The hummingbird is apparently “a joyful messenger and a symbol of health,” so what could be more appropriate for our fresh commitment to healthy living!

And the (ironic) song of the day is Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” because we’re on the eve of retirement from being (apparently) “another brick in the wall” (haha):