Some like it hot... but some are spice wimps! Plus PB cookie and pasta recipe!

Apologies to Jay, but I'm going to have to ruin my boyf's macho image by telling you he's a spice wimp and doesn't like his chilli quite so burn-the-roof-of-mouth-and-make-eyes-water hot as I do. So the solution to this, as you can see in the pic above, is to move his milder portion of the chilli to a seperate pot once I've cooked it, then add extra spice to my own. ;)

I've also made another variation to my usual recipe for chilli(see under main meals in my archives) by adding a tablespoonful of molasses (Jay can't have it since he's diabetic, so another reason for seperate pots, but it's actually loaded with minerals like iron and calcium so it's surprisingly healthy for non-diabetics) inspired by the chilli recipe in Vegan with a vengeance and this makes the chilli nice and rich to boot so I'll be using it again.
This pasta dish is an Asparagus (only there wasn't any asparagus in the house so I used a head of broccoli instead :P) and Sun-dried tomato Pasta with Pesto, from a Viva! "Recipes from the Inredible Veggie Roadshow" free leaflet. It says it serves 3-4 but I made 2 big platefuls for us and Jay declared it delicious and ate all the leftovers from the pan to boot. :)

Since the leaflet was being given away free I'm fairly sure the lovely people at Viva! won't mind if I post their recipe here, but if there's a copyright problem, please contact me and I'll remove it asap. :) Here are more recipes on their site- http://www.viva.org.uk/recipes/index.html

250g fusilli pasta
1/2 pack sundried tomatoes(pre-soaked as instructions on packet) chopped into bite-size pieces using kitchen scissors
1 tin asparagus(or a head of brocolli like me if you don't have any ;))
8 garlic cloves, finely chopped(don't crush, cos it'll clump together)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
100g vegan pesto(I used Zest)
2 tsp dried herbs such as basil or oregano, OR a handful of chopped fresh coriander(I used the former)
pinch of ground black pepper and sea salt

-cook pasta as intructions on pack
-drain, and add olive oil to prevent sticking
-heat asparagus and add to pasta
- add herbs and sundried tomatoes
-in a saucepan, heat olive oil, add chopped garlic and fry till lightly browned
-add oil and garlic to pasta mix, add pesto, and stir in carefully but thoroughly
-add salt and pepper, then serve

Vegan junk food alert! Redwoods cheatin' vegan "bacon" rashers in a sandwich(I'm even using naughty fresh white bread! :o) with vegenaise. Unhealthy, sure, but delicious nonetheless!
I've been tweaking a peanut butter cookie recipe by looking at various recipes and created something that works beautifully. Makes about 13...ish.

115g smooth peanut butter
85g sugar
4 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

55g flour
1 heaped tsp cornflour
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt(don't bother if your PB is salted already)

-preheat oven to 180C
-cream together wet ingredients
-in another bowl, sift dry ingredients, then add to wet and mix til combined
-flatten tablespoon sized blobs of dough onto a greaseproof papered baking sheet, then bake for 12 minutes
-leave about half an hour to cool, then eat.

For your drooling pleasure, here's the pic...