VeganMoFo 2017 #31: The Monster Mash

31st: Halloween – Try not to scare us too much with your spookiest dish.

Halloween was never a part of my childhood being in Australia, so I don't really get excited about it now. It is becoming a bit more popular here these days, and now you can get carving pumpkins and shops have small displays of decorations and costumes as well. We don't really have any trick or treating in our area, and to be honest we normally turn off the doorbell just in case. Not being mean, just not particularly interested and I don't want to buy a heap of expensive vegan candy to hand out on the off chance someone does stop by.

Anyway, I don't mind a bit of Halloween themed fun every now and then. Though I 100% am against all the gross eye-related themed things of food and decorations. NO NO NO do not make me be sick because I will be and then it will all be really gross. Cute little chocolate chip or olive dots, yes. Anything more realistic than that, NO. See above re being sick.

Anyway, I made a thing for this theme, and for the final day of MoFo!

Monster Mash Shepherd's Pie: I am a fan of shepherd's pie, so this seemed like a good choice. The stew-component is lentil and mushroom based, and comes together pretty quickly. I only had three cups of lentils (using 2 tins) rather than 4, so I upped the mushroom a little. The potato topping is a ghoulish green, thanks to the addition of scallions and cilantro. I only used 1 cup of scallions rather than 2, because I'm not a fan of raw oniony flavour, but it still got nice and green. I also used some potato boiling water with a splash of olive oil instead of all the olive oil... 1/2 cup of olive oil is just too oily for me. I got about 5-6 servings out of this. There is no baking step, as you are making little monsters out of the mash, so it comes together pretty easily and fast.
Rating: :)



My poor little Monster Mash is really not that scary. I am not good at cutting teeth into radishes. BOO!



And then, dear readers, I mashed that monster. I mashed him and his brains squished out! No, not really. I gave him a ketchup halo because I always like ketchup with my shepherd's pie. Sorry little green one.



And so ends another year of MoFo! It's definitely been a bit of a challenge this year, but I am so glad that I got through it! I am going to be a bit scarce over the next few weeks. My beautiful friend Molly is coming to visit me from Seattle, and we are going to have some time adventuring in both Brisbane and Melbourne, so keep an eye out for future posts detailing all our fun! If I have time I will write and schedule my OzComicCon Brisbane and Sydney posts to come out during that time, just to keep a little bit of content going!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post - Month of Sahara



This ends my month of Sahara as well, but my love of Sahara will never end. Even though she is no longer physically with me, she is always always always in my heart and on my mind. Every post I do on this blog has a kitty photos, and I will continue to share photos of her and her angel-sister Gizmo here, so you will be seeing their beautiful faces again. And of course, Dim Sim continues to provide never ending photo opportunities of a sleeping black cat for me to share here as well!