Creamy pasta sauce

Yesterday my sister was talking about how she was going to make carbonara for dinner that night. It made me really want carbonara for dinner. My thought pattern went straight to an alfredo sauce recipe I have made before, and I would just add some thinly sliced seitan (I use the Vegan on the Cheap recipe) into it to sub for the bacon, or pancetta or whatever it is that you use in carbonara. I thought I had everything for the recipe at home, so I didn't go get anything at the shops.

Of course I didn't have everything (I was missing the tofu, duh) so I just threw together this mess:

It actually worked out really well. It was in no way a carbonara (I couldn't even be bothered defrosting my seitan) but it is a creamy proteiny pasta sauce and it satisfied the craving. It's a good way to use up any okara you have leftover from soymilk making, I also chucked in some almond meal/pulp leftover from my almond milk making. It works, trust me. Next time I will use all soy/almond milk, but I had some coconut cream leftover in my fridge that I didn't want to waste.

Pasta with Cream Sauce (inventive, I know)
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
200ml light coconut cream
50ml soy milk (I just topped it up to 1 cup)
3 garlic cloves, crushed or grated
1/2 cup nutritional yeast (1/4 cup provides 400% reccomended daily value of B12 did you know?)
170g okara (what I had leftover from making milk with 100g dry soy beans)
1/4 cup almond pulp
1 cup 'chicken' stock
1 tbsp tahini
black pepper
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 tsp chilli powder
3 tbsp flour*

1 cup frozen green peas
1 cup cooked white beans

375g cooked pasta

Method

Put the first block of ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.

Put pasta on to cook, when almost done put mixture from the blender into a medium sauce pan on high heat. Stir until very thick. This won't take long. Stir through your beans and peas.

When pasta is done, drain it and return it to it's pot. Pour in the sauce and toss to combine.

Divide among plates and serve! We got three servings, but they were a little bit too big, so dividing it into four would probably be perfect.

So much of the okara I get from making soy milk gets wasted, which annoys me. I always have one lot in the freezer but never use it so I don't want to just keep freezing it all. However we have been using it lately! Such as in the above recipe, and the other week Nadine made an awesome lasagne and I told her to mix it into the plain tomato sauce. It made it quite meaty and cheesy tasting which we were pleased about. I'll use that trick again.

This ended up costing me $1 per serve (4).

*Next time I'll use only 2 tbsp flour.

Vege Patch

I am a very good procrastinator. I have a research project due tomorrow morning and what am I doing? Updating my blog.

I had already planned to plant some beans, peas and radishes yesterday, but not only did I do that, I re did my entire patch!

It doesn't look like much now, but it will soon :) I live in a block of units so I've made do with a tiny little patch of dirt that I've made a little bigger by pulling out some grass. I wonder if I'm allowed to do that? Oh well.

I relocated almost all of my plants that were already there except the cauliflower (center back) it's growing very very slowly because it hasn't had much sun this winter. The sun is moving across now though and in spring/summer it will be full sun. I don't think they'll ever cauli-flower though, but I'll give it until they die :)

I've got lots of little chilli plants that I'm trying to rejuvenate, a few basils (which aren't very nice at the moment :( ) various other herbs in pots and some flowers. I've planted purple king climbing beans at the back on the tall teepee (left) and soy beans on the other side. I'm not sure if they climb. Peas in front of the soy beans and butter beans in front of the purple :) And I planted some radish seeds in the very front. Apparently they are very simple to grow and can be grown all year round - why then are they so expensive to buy in the shop?

Anyway Bob (our cat) decided she would like to dig a hole right in the middle of it just after I took this photo. GARgahghdajfeni. Luckily she didn't dig up any seeds...besides, who could stay mad at this?

Or this?

Or this??

I can't :) I may have to put up some chicken-wire though...I would like some beans peas and radishes, personally :) We also have bush turkey problems too...

Quick, cheap and easy dinner

Quick spaghetti, peas and spinach - Serves 2

1 cup frozen green peas
About 2 cups baby spinach
1/4 red onion
5 cloves garlic (or to taste)
1 tsp hot chilli sauce (or 1 fresh chilli)
Sprinkling of thyme
Rice bran oil/olive brine/water/whatever you like to fry things in

Spaghetti for 2

While Spaghetti is boiling, fry up onion and garlic. Once it's softened a little add in the peas, chilli sauce, and spinach. Cook on low until pasta is ready.

Serve up and eat!

This is good when in a hurry - say if you have a lot of studying to do and can't waste time cooking up gourmet meals. Though usually when I have an assignment to do I find the hardest, most time consuming recipe to cook. Ha.