Mexican Vegan or Vegan Mexican....and peanut butter

When does a "day off" not mean a "day off"? When you're doing the DELTA and learning to be a vegan at the same time, that's when! Today was supposed to be a study day. So far today, I have read half a chapter of "Beyond The Sentence" (Scott Thornbury), scribbled some notes on the print-out of Assignment Two, tried to figure out how I'm going to write this with the teacher in my group, done the shopping, weathered a trip into the depths of the spaghetti bureaucracy that is the Italian Health System (and come away screaming, wailing and gnashing my teeth, facing ANOTHER trip to the same place tomorrow, to try and sort out what went wrong today)...

Lunch on the run - the last wholemeal bread roll with the last black bean burger, plus lots of fruit...

and because I had a spare five minutes, I made peanut butter!

I used this recipe, which is hardly a recipe at all, considering I bought roasted, salted peanuts :-) 300gr packet, 1.5 tbsps of our good olive oil, in the food processor for about five minutes. It's never going to have that store-bought consistency, but then...it ISN'T store bought, and I know exactly what is in it - there is no hydrogenated vegetable fat here, folk, nor sugar, and next time, I'm going to rinse off the salt, too.

Inspired by the kidney beans in the cupboard, I decided we'd have a Mexican Vegan night. I have a great recipe for low-fat guacamole, made from peas (500gr frozen petit pois, thawed out, 2 cloves crushed garlic, 2 tbsp lemon juice, or 1 of lemon, 1 of lime, chopped fresh parsley and chopped fresh coriander (cilantro), which I didn't have, so I used the spice, which gives a different flavour, but is still good. A little salt, and I added some cannellini beans, just for extra protein and creaminess. Whizzed it all in the food processor and there you go! Low fat guacamole! 

I still wanted to use those kidney beans, but we had refried beans just yesterday. Thinking along the lines of "salsa", I chopped up some black olives and sun-dried tomatoes, mixed them with the beans, then drizzled over some lemon juice, and let that sit for a bit.

And of course, completed the meal with our favourite carrot salad. I thought the plate looked very colourful and inviting, and the kids were very happy. There wasn't a single "yuck" from my son tonight.

Here endth (food-wise), day Nineteen!