Should we serve...pasta?

Tonight my fiance and I have invited his mother to dinner to tell her we're engaged. My family already knows because the live 9 hours away, but my fiance wanted to wait until we got the ring to tell his mom, and well, here we are!

Now, as you may or may not have figured out, we like to cook. And his mom isn't close minded when it comes to food, though it does sound like she's not especially open to eating a meal made from meat substitutes (i.e. Tofurkey, seitan, veggie burgers, etc.). We sat on the couch around midnight looking through VeganYumYum and VegWeb trying to find inspiration. I found that we kept leaning toward pasta dishes, which is what she normally serves us when we visit her house. I think pasta tends to be a default vegan dish. It's easy and filling and doesn't have to involve cheese or dairy. We were leaning heavy towards VeganYumYum's Pistachio Arugala Pesto with Penne and Sauteed Brocolini, when I turned to him and said, "We need to show her that vegan dishes are more versatile and cook something other than pasta."

He remembered when I had made him stuffed peppers when we first starting dating and we agreed this would be a more interesting dinner choice and would show his mom that we don't just eat pasta! My stuffed peppers incorporate quinoa, TVP, salsa, sauteed veggies and bread crumbs. They're really yummy. In addition, we're going to make a nice big herb salad and I'm going to try baking a Mediterranean olive loaf from The Joy of Vegan Baking. For dessert, I'm going to test out a new From Scratch & Sniff cupcake idea - ginger cupcakes with bosk pear filling, dipped in chocolate ganache, topped with vanilla icing. Yum!

I've got a full day of cooking ahead of me so I'd better hop to it. I'll share my stuffed pepper recipe later; I don't normally measure the ingredients so I'll pay attention when I make it today and try to give you some more exact instructions!

Shepard's Pie and Corn Bread

So when I told my boyfriend I was making vegan Shepard's Pie for dinner last night he laughed and shuddered. We both remember the dreaded Shepard's Pie dish as the stereotypical lower middle class cheap meal; our moms would layer cheap ground beef, peas, and other assorted frozen veggies and top it all off with a heaping helping of mashed potatoes. It was bland, but warm on a cold winter's night. I never complained (can't speak for my boyfriend, though).

I was paging through Vegan on the Cheap and found this recipe for Smoky Southwestern Sweet Potato Shepard's Pie and was intrigued. The ingredients included carrots, onion, black beans, sweet potatoes, and corn. Things we like, yes? So I went for it! Here's the recipe for you - enjoy!

Smoky Southwestern Sweet Potato Shepard's Pie, adapted from Vegan on the Cheap
2 chilies in adobo
2 Tbsp water
3 sweet potatoes or yams, skinned, and cubed
2 Tbsp Earth Balance or other margarine
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 cans black beans
1 1/2 cups mild/spicy salsa
1 1/2 cups frozen or fresh corn (defrosted if frozen)
1 tsp cumin
Salt & Pepper

Set oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 inch pan. Set aside. Steam the sweet potatoes for about 12-15 minutes until they are soft enough to mash. In a blender, blend the water and chilies until smooth; set aside.

In a large skillet, cook onion and carrots in olive oil, covered, until softened, about 10 minutes. In the mean time, mash the sweet potatoes and add Earth Balance, salt & pepper, and half of the chilies mix. Mix well.

Put the onion/carrot mixture into the prepared pan with the beans, salsa, corn, cumin, the rest of the chile mixture, salt and pepper. Mix well and then spread the mashed sweet potatoes on top in an even layer. Bake for 40 minutes.

Someday I'll get a better camera :P

We served this with a small spinach salad and vegan corn bread from my new book, The Joy of Vegan Baking (thank you Amanda & Erin!). The Shepard's Pie takes a long time to prepare so I wouldn't make it on a hectic night but it was well worth the wait and was certainly a fresh twist on an old, tired out dish.

We've only been vegan since January 1st, so almost two months now, and I have already lost about 9 pounds without really making a strong effort. I've started feeling healthier and have thoroughly enjoyed researching and learning about what I'm putting into my body and what it will do there. I'm actually glad that cheese is beginning to repulse me, since I was craving it everyday in the very beginning. The more research I do on milk/dairy products and the industry, the more disgusted I get....more on that later!