Piezilla

Do you ever do that thing where you follow a recipe without really giving any consideration to the sheer vastness of the dish it will make?

Today I tried a recipe from Garden of Vegan . Recipe stated it made one pie.... which I was aware is a lot of food for just me and the Hubby, but I was kinda tricked by the fact it contained two of my fav foods, peanut butter and chickpeas. Anyway, I have been rushing about today and not really eating enough and since I wasn't going to be having any side dishes with it, I thought hubby and I could eat most of it.... I think I failed to realise how big the pie was going to be. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you with Piezilla!



Like the leaves? My Hubby made the pie crust and the leaves too :)



Full of lovely veggies

So you can see the full vastness of it. It's like a pie from a medieval banqueting hall, but all vegan like.

Curried Vegetable Pie with Chickpea Crust, the recipe is on Calorie Count, if you decide to have a go and you like it, please buy the book.

It was actually a very tasty pie. I would recommend it who heartedly, or at least try adding a bit of chickpeas to your normal pie crust, and maybe peanut butter to the filling.

But yeah, I might explode.

Broccoli Skillet Toss

I go through small phases of really longing for certain veg. This week, I've not been able to get enough broccoli.

Saturday Night it was Broccoli and Chili Pasta, which I've posted about before and today I had a snack bowl of broccoli stir fry.

Broccoli Skillet Toss - Serves 1

1/2 head Broccoli.
1 clove garlic
2 rings red onion
2 small slices of fresh ginger
1/2 tsp chili paste
1 tsp oil of choice

• Cut broccoli into florets. Slice garlic as thinly as you can and matchstick the ginger.
• Heat your 1/2 tsp oil in a cast iron skillet to a medium heat
• Add garlic, onion and ginger and cook until starting to go translucent
• Add broccoli and cook, stirring frequently for 2-3 mins
• Mix remaining oil with chili paste and drizzle into pan
• Cook for another 2-3 mins. If you have a lid big enough, place this over your broccoli to help it cook and keep the moisture in.
• Eat. Chopsticks optional.
  

I also had an epic food purchasing fail. Being as I love peanut butter I was very excited to see some cheap in QD (budget shop in my town). It turns out when a jar of peanut butter with chocolate chips in it is for sale and cheap, it's because it seems to contain no chocolate chips, just sugar.

Now, sugary peanut butter might be okay to ice a cake with, but it's not so nice on toast. Queue the quickest peanut butter improve know to man.

Chocolate Peanut Swirl

1 small jar peanut butter
4 squares (c 20g) dark chocolate

• Chop chocolate into chip sized lumps
• Microwave jar of peanut butter for 1 min. It should now be runny enough so you can't dig a hole in it
• Add chocolate chips and stir just long enough to incorporate the chips, but stop before the chocolate fully melts
• Place jar in fridge to harden

Actually, this saved the jar of peanut butter. I wouldn't go as far as buying peanut butter to do this to... but if you have one of those inexplicably sweet jars, go for it. It came out like a very budget version of 'Dark Chocolate Dreams' though not nearly as nice. Admittedly though, it was less than 1/4 of the price. I expect if I added more chocolate it would work better, but I fear that I would be throwing good money after bad.

Also, I've had a bash as coconut milk kefir. Basically, I took about 1 cup of coconut milk and added 1 tbs of soy kefir. I let then rest overnight on the counter top. It had separated out into especially sour 'whey' which has gone to make sourdough, and white creamy stuff. After straining, there was about a 1/4 cup of coconut cream kefir. I wouldn't bother again.

Modified Kale Pasta Eats

Firstly, Hello to anyone coming over from the link on For those of you who don't know what Operation Beautiful is, please visit the site. The primary aim is to tackle 'Fat Talk' by sharing positive notes in public spaces. It goes further than this though, and in my opinion, empowers all through the acceptance that appearance is subjective, and we are all beautiful.

Now, onto the eats!

Since first trying 'Matthew's Spicy Tomato Peanut and Kale Pasta' recipe from The Dolce Vegan, I've eaten it regularly, possibly around once a week. This is for three reasons

1) Its a very good way of eating my greens that even my Husband likes
2) I'm overwhelmed with Kale, grown in a container in my front garden
3) It's very, very tasty!

However, the original recipe calls for tomato juice, which we don't often have in the house. The recipe calls for a can of tomato juice, of a size I've never seen in the UK. This meant buying a carton and freezing the left overs, which never works.

Necessity being the mother of invention, I've tweaked the recipe a lot to make it more of a 'store cupboard + Kale' type of thing.

Adapted Kale & Tomato Pasta - Serve 2


Pasta for Two (150g)
Bunch of Kale, Chopped (About 2 big handfuls)
Can of Chopped Tomatoes
1 Tbs Tomato Purée

2 Tbs Peanut Butter
1/2 Tsp Garlic Purée
1/2 Tsp Hot Pepper Sauce (Tabasco is fine)

1) Cook the pasta
2) While the pasta is cooking, put the chopped kale, tomatoes and purée in a small pan. Bring almost to a boil, reduce heat and simmer gently for 8 minutes
3) After 8 mins, add the peanut butter, garlic and hot pepper sauce, stir
4) Leave another 2 mins, drain the pasta and mix it into the tomato mixture

Finn!

Don't be tempted to skip the tomato purée, this really thickens up the sauce and gives it a tomato tang which is otherwise missing.