Life has been so hectic lately! I thought this summer was going to be so nice and relaxing with plenty of time to blog but instead I have been out of town every weekend for at least 1 night for the past 5 weekends in a row! Not that I am complaining one bit, it’s a very fun kind of busy, filled with bachelorette parties, wonderful weddings (big congrats to Jordan and Trey Williams!), and visiting out of town family. This week will be no different as we are off to Tulsa for a concert on Tuesday and then to Dallas on Wednesday for Katie and Zach’s wedding festivities!
I have been cooking during the week however! I’ll blog soon about some of the great recipes I’ve made from the Vegetarian Times Cookbook soon, this post however is all my entry for the Peanut Butter Boy’s new Peanut Butter Exhibition: Fruits and veggies. We let me tell ya this is right up my alley. Almost everyday I eat peanut butter with fruit and veggies, peanut butter and banana oatmeal, or vanilla yogurt mixed with peanut butter and frozen raspberries, peanut butter and celery, you get the gist. I knew I had to really get creative for this though. Lately Mark has been requesting pie, one of his favorite things in life, that got me thinking about using peanut butter and fruit in a pie. I had decided to make veggie burgers and grilled corn on the cob for dinner one night when it the perfect ending to a summery meal hit me: s’,mores pie of course, but not any s’mores pie, a layered s’ mores pie made with my special s’ mores ingredient, peanut butter!!
For as long as I can remember I have loved to add a smear of peanut butter to my graham cracker along with the chocolate and marshmallow, and in more recent years I have been making my s’ mores with dark chocolate, the combination is pretty much perfection. I think we had dark chocolate peanut butter s’ mores for dessert for a couple weeks straight right after we got married when it was still freezing in Oklahoma. To incorporate the fruit element of this pie was easy, I had about 5 very ripe bananas begging to be used up in something and I remembered seeing recipes for banana s’ mores before ( in fact, check out this delish looking recipe it looks like it would be so fun to make if you have company over to grill out) so I set to work. The pie turned out better than I even imagined! Super yummy and Mark loved it as well, in fact I think in his current rankings in only falls below his grandmother’s famous chocolate pie and I just dont think I can compete with those childhood memories 
Recipe:
One homemade or store bought graham cracker pie crust. I made my own by just googling “graham cracker pie crust recipe” and making one that got good ratings on allrecipes.com.
Over a double broiler melt 1 cup of dark chocolate chips, I added about a tablespoon on milk to these and stirred constantly. Pour the dark chocolate into the bottom of the crust, spreading evenly to the edges.
Next,
combine 1 cup of natural peanut butter,
5 bananas that have been previously peeled and frozen ( you could probably skip the freezing if you are short on time because the whole pie goes in the freezer, but the consistency may not be as good),
1/2 liquid sweetener, I used brown rice syrup but honey, maple syrup or agave would probably work great as well.
1/2 block mori-nu firm tofu, this just helps out with that silky pie texture but I bet you could sub another banana for it if you aren’t into tofu like me haha. Also, adding some cream cheese would instead would give it a fun cheese-cakey element.
Process the peanut butter, bananas, sweetener, and tofu if using, in the food processor until smooth. Pour this filling on top on the dark chocolate layer. Cover the pie with foil and freeze for two hours. Take pie out of the freezer and let thaw 15 minutes. Smooth a layer of marshmallow fluff over the pie. I really love Suzanne’s Ricemellow Creme, its so yummy and vegan to boot! Turn the oven’s broiler on to low and place the pie under it for about 4 minutes. Take out and there you have it, melty s’ mores perfection with an incredible peanut butter banana filling! This pie tastes pretty sinful, but is actually pretty good for you, the ripe bananas really are magic when it comes to sweetening baked goods and pies without adding too much sugar.
Sweet summery s’ mores success!! Like that alliteration? Haha, I can’t wait to see/ make some of the other entries! Check em’ all out in a couple weeks to see what other food bloggers came up with at The Peanut Butter Boy’s blog.
So given that I have the time and the will I’ve decided that this summer I’m going to cook my way though The Complete Vegetarian Times Cookbook. This cookbook is one I have had in my collection for the past year or so and it is really a great one. Yet, I have this problem where when I am thinking about what I want to make for dinner or whatever I look to blogs or online recipe sites like RecipeZar or AllRecipes instead of using my beloved cookbook collection, and a pretty large collection it is, I love them! Recently though, I have made several online recipes that just didn’t turn out and I think it is because it is easier for people when publishing online to omit steps or ingredients or instructions or cater them to their ovens quarks. Not that I haven’t found wonderful recipes online, I have found and saved many that I love, but its time for me to get back to basics and cook the tried and true cookbook recipes. So…..that long-winded lead up leads me to my point: I’ll be cooking my way through my cookbook collection, starting with the complete vegetarian times.
There are 600 recipes in this cookbook, but I’ll only be making the ones that Mark and I think sound good. I’m really excited to step outside my comfort zone of looking up recipes that I want to make and start letting the cookbook authors lead me! My venture began last night with one of the risotto recipes from the book, it turned out sooooo great, i loved the addition of the leaks into the risotto. As and I can’t resist healthy-izing everything I make by just a bit if I can I used half arborio rice (risotto rice) and half short grain brown rice to get us some whole grain in. We really couldn’t tell the difference at all, it was super creamy and delish.
Risotto with garlic, onions, leeks and mushrooms.
Whipped Feta with sweet and hot peppers served with some of the best focaccia bread we have ever tasted.
Fried halloumi cheese with fried kalamata olives atop a bed of spinach.
Our favorite dish of the night: Spinach Falafel with Tahini, Yogurt, Beets & Cress.
My incredible dessert: Sicilian Almond Cremolata & Warm Chocolate Panino. This is actually a non-dairy ice cream but you would never know it, I would highly recommend it to Tati, my little lactose intolerant friend 
Pancakes:
Next time I make this I would alter what Ellie did just a little bit and bake the fish for 4-5 mintues first and then finish it under the broiler on low for around 5 minutes to give it more of that wonderful crunchy top that we love on the cod at Nobu. The flavor of the miso was very good though. I also have been rolling my own sushi lately and last night made us veggie rolls and asian sauteed spinach for the side dishes. I forgot to get a picture of the sushi! Boo! Logan did have a really good idea though, he thought that some extra miso sauce would taste really good as a dipping sauce for the sushi and I agree that it would be great!
