Vegging Out

Sorry, I couldn’t resist a pun (on a pun, actually).

It took months before it was my turn in the library queue, but I finally got my hands on a copy of Mama Pea‘s Peas and Thank You! I decided to tackle two of the recipes this week as a test drive. Behold breakfast:

Tea and a muffin. Before I get into the Pea biz, let’s talk about the tea. I made a quick Whole Foods run Sunday — my first since I moved to LA, believe it or not — and discovered that they had this delicious delight:

Celestial Seasonings‘ Nutcracker Sweet: “an irresistibly simple blend of fine black teas made more festive with creamy, nutty vanilla and just a pinch of cinnamon.” I was so excited to find this stuff!

Anyway, back to the food:

This little guy is a Blueberry Muffin with Streusel Topping from the aforementioned cookbook. It’s so cute and delicious!

As you can see, I didn’t go quite heavy enough on the streusel in an attempt to reduce the sugar and fat. If you do the same thing, I definitely recommend adding cinnamon to the batter. You can view the original recipe here, and below are the tweaks I made:

• I used white whole wheat flour instead of whole wheat pastry. I don’t really know what the difference is, to be honest.
• I subbed frozen bloobs for the fresh, and as a result followed the book’s instruction to add them to the muffin tin itself.
• As I mentioned, I made about 1/3 less of the streusel topping than the recipe called for. Don’t do that. I also used turbinado for all the sugar in the recipe and canola oil instead of Earth Balance. These choices were totally fine.

I absolutely love these muffins! They are filling, considering how small they are, and have the perfect level of sweetness. I’m excited to work my way through the batch this week.

My second reci-pea is the Spicy African Peanut Stew:

The original recipe is here, and my changes are below:

• I used freshly cooked chickpeas instead of canned. I swear I’ll never go back.
• I used 1 rounded teaspoon ground ginger instead of 1 tablespoon of fresh.
• I minced two massive garlic cloves and did not measure them.
• I omitted the sweetener because I forgot about it.
• Instead of 1 can light coconut milk (the store was out), I used half a can of full-fat and made up the difference with almond milk.

This stew is incredibly rich and delicious and full of fiber and protein. Plus, it was a great excuse to use my slow-cooker, which I love. I even used the general spice mix to make curry for Mr. X. Hopefully I can coerce him into sharing a picture this week.

Have you tried anything from this awesome cookbook? If so, what’s your favorite recipe? If not, what’s your go-to cookbook?