Silky Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie

Oh wow, sometimes I even amaze myself. This pie I made today is really, really awesome. It kinda tastes like chocolate mousse meets peanut butter pie meets heaven. I HAVE been eating way better but Jared has a birthday coming up (on 3/11) so, instead of celebrating just one day, we usually celebrate for at least a weekend, if not a whole week. So, to start off the celebration I made him this pie. Something this good shouldn't be kept secret, so I will share. You'll have to make your own though, unless you come over!

Pie Crust:
1 sleeve of Cinnamon (no Honey added) Graham Crackers
4 generous tablespoons of Earth Balance (or other vegan margarine)
1/4 cup of natural vegan sugar

Preheat oven to 350. In a food processor, pulverize the graham crackers until it is a fine crumb and transfer to a mixing bowl. Melt the margarine and add to the graham cracker crumbs along with the sugar and combine until everything is moist. Add mixture to a 9 (or 10) inch pie pan and form wet crumb to the top of pie tin. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Set aside to cool and make filling.

Filling:
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
2 tablespoons (maybe more) of Vanilla Soy Milk
1 12 oz box of Firm Silken Tofu (I used Mori Nu)
6 generous tablespoons of Natural peanut butter
1 tablespoon agave nectar (this is optional, I just like the flavor)

In a small glass mixing bowl over a sauce pan of simmering water (double boiler action!), melt the chocolate chips and soy milk together. Once melted, set aside to cool a minute. In the same food processor that was used for the pie crust, combine the tofu, peanut butter and agave nectar (if using) until completely smooth. You may need to scrap down the sides a few times. While the tofu/peanut butter/agave is mixing in the food processor, pour in the melted chocolate chip/soy milk mixture until everything is well incorporated. If the mixture isn't pourable (it shouldn't be totally watery though) add a touch more soy milk. Taste to make sure it is sweet enough (I don't know . . . you may have a crazy sweet tooth). Add the mixture to the baked graham cracker crust and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until firm (I let mine set for over 2 hours).

If you have some kind of soy whipped kream, add to the top for extra naughtiness.

An Update, Simple Food

I've had a few people inquire regarding my arm and job situation. Well, I am still hurting but healing slowly. I have more range of motion with my elbow but my wrist, which is what I actually fell on, is taking a bit longer to heal. I am able to do basic knife skills, cooking/baking and dishes but I am unable to left heavy items like big pots of water for cooking pasta. I have taken back most of the kitchen responsibilities but Jared does still help a lot with household things I struggle with like taking the garbage out, lifting laundry and washing the heavy pots and pans. He is my hero and I am a VERY lucky lady.
The other update is that I am still unemployed, which is getting more and more depressing. Thankfully, Jared is plugging away at work to support us. So, as usual, I keep myself busy with cooking, baking, recipe writing, resume tweaking and job scouring. I am one of those weird people that actually like to work, so it's tough to be without a job, unless you count being a home maker, which I do. Atlanta's job market is just too small for a college graduate (with a Business Management degree) with about 5 years experience in the field I came from (mutual funds/investing). I'm up for changing paths but it seems the only jobs are either super entry level, which employers feel I am too qualified for OR executive level, which of course I know I am not yet qualified for. NOTHING IN BETWEEN, WHICH IS MADDENING! If anyone in Atlanta knows of a job opening, let me know! If all else fails, I could always go back to school!
Anyways . . . that's my sad story for the moment. If ya'll could send me out some good vibes, it would be much appreciated!
Since being a little congested, my appetite hasn't been up for much. I have made a few simple sides and something I have been meaning to make for a while now, Tempeh Hot Wingz.
I am a huge fan of veggie plates, so I made some roasted red potatoes with olive oil, garlic, fresh thyme and fresh rosemary and kale that I sautéed in a little olive oil and sea salt. The potatoes were of course awesome, but I decided I'm not the biggest fan of kale. Maybe I just didn't cook them the way they shine, but I'm not sure I'll buy them again.


Ever since I saw the recipe for Tempeh Hot Wingz from Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk floating around I knew I wanted to try them. I'm not sure why I wanted to try them because I wasn't the biggest chicken wing fan pre-vegan days, but I liked the idea of baking on the crispy coating and dunking them a deliciously spicy and sweet sauce. What I took from this is I don't really like Tempeh all that much. For me, I just don't care for the texture. Jared liked the Tempeh Wingz and I liked the coating and sauce, so we'll make this again but with tofu instead. I made a "ranch" style dressing to dip the wingz in.

Pesto Bread, Blueberry Muffins, Mac & Cheeze Plate

I have been fascinated with bread making ever since I was a kid. Between my Grammie's yeast rolls and biscuits and my Dad's pizza crusts and breads, I have been around good homemade breads my whole life. I mentioned before that my Dad found me a bread machine at a garage sale and I have been a bread machine girl every since. I still love the idea (and practice) of mixing, kneading and forming dough with my own hands, but the bread machine does provide a consistent product. This week I merged the use of my bread machine and my own hands by making a pesto spelt and whole wheat bread. I got the general idea from one of my fellow bloggers, Have Cake, Will Travel! I added both spelt and whole wheat pastry flours with some water, vital wheat gluten, brown sugar, sea salt, pesto and yeast to the bread machine and used the Dough setting. About 2 hours later, after a thorough kneading and long rise, I formed the dough into 4 loaves and baked them in the oven for about 30 minutes until they were golden brown. The bread turned out chewy and full of flavor between the 2 nutty flours and the bright (and mind you, leftover) pesto.
Baking in the oven:

Right out of the oven and cooling:

With steel cut oats becoming a bit boring in the mornings, I decided to make some muffins. With trying to stay in line with my healthier eating, a low fat muffin was in order. So, I turned to the Damn Tasty Vegan Baking Guide and made the Blueberry Streusel Muffins but cut the oil in the recipe with apple sauce. They did indeed taste healthier, but very delicious nonetheless.

Tonight I made one of my favorite things: Mac and Cheeze! I used quinoa shells instead of a traditional white flour pasta. The quinoa pasta wasn't as good as what my palate is use to but I think over time I will eventually get use to non-white pastas. I used the Soul Veg Mac and Cheeze recipe (the one they use at the ATL restaurants) I found online here, which is very naughty but between portion control and using a healthier pasta, I didn't feel as bad eating it. To go with the Mac and Cheeze I roasted some very sweet (and cheap!) asparagus and made a salad with mixed baby spring mix and cherry tomatoes.

Black Bean Soup, Fruit Salad

As I mentioned in my last post, I haven't been feeling all that great. I'm congested, have a nasty cough and a bit of a sore throat. Since Saturday, I haven't been too excited about being in the kitchen but wanted to use up some of the produce I got last week. To soothe me, I decided to make a simple and quick Black Bean soup and Fruit Salad for dessert.
The Black Bean Soup had black beans (dried that were soaked over night and cooked), red onion, garlic, oregano, salt, black pepper, chipotle powder and veggie stock. I mashed up the beans with a potato masher and added the veggie stock until it got to a soupy consistency. I topped the soup with quartered cherry tomatoes and avocado that was left over from the sandwiches I made for our picnic this past weekend. Very comforting!

The Fruit Salad was super easy. I just diced up a golden delicious apple and mango and coated them with juice from half a lemon and then threw in the blackberries, blueberries and cut up strawberries. I think fruit based treats are my favorite way to end to any meal.

Signs of Spring

True signs of spring for us are tax season, picnics and allergies.
As I've mentioned before, Jared works as a stockbroker. Under normal circumstances, it can be a stressful job. Throw in tax season and Jared's job can be down right bad. This week ended especially awful for Jared, so I made him one of the first things he eyed in My Sweet Vegan: Peanut Butter Bombs!!! Okay, okay, I had one or two myself and they were good, but Jared really needed them, I swear! Little did he know, I had a great Saturday planned too. (Sorry for the blurry pic, we were hypnotised by these delicious and naughty treats.)

I decided to surprise Jared with a picnic. For Saturday's picnic, I made some lower fat potato salad on Friday night. That's right, lower fat potato salad. Yes, I did use Yukon gold potatoes and a little Vegenaise BUT to make a very creamy dressing for the potato salad I used soy milk and lemon juice. The lemon juice thickened the soymilk and gave it a tangy bite. I also added celery, grated onion, mustard, salt, black pepper and Herbes de Provence. Of course, Jared saw the potato salad and got into it when he got home from work Friday so I told him of our picnic plans.

Saturday morning came and I surprised Jared with breakfast in bed. I made him banana waffles with mixed fresh berries and maple syrup. I first let the blackberries, blueberries and strawberries macerate in maple syrup while I made the waffle batter.

I made the Banana Nut waffles from Veganomicon, minus the nuts. On top I added the mixed berries with maple syrup and little whipped Earth Balance. These were so good.

After breakfast and lounging around a bit, I made sandwiches for our picnic lunch. I got some ciabatta rolls from the farmers market and slathered homemade pesto that I made with that lovely basil in my last post. I used the pesto recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. I also added cucumber, avocado (just a little), red onion and tomato.

So, we packed up our food, blanket and dog Sweetpea and headed over to Grant Park. We couldn't have asked for a better day. It was in the upper 60's and very sunny.


There was also these beautiful flowers surrounding us, (which I think were actually weeds . . . but, hey, sometimes weeds have the prettiest flowers) that reminded me that allergy season is around the corner.

Sure signs of spring, maybe, but I am feeling like a cold is in the making so winter may very well still have it's grip on me. Hopefully, it is just allergies come early.