Flippantly Vague Musings of a Quirky Vegan

Shepherd's Pie and Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

Today I found bugs in my flour. Normally I keep my flour in an airtight container in the pantry, but for some reason I kept the last batch of cake flour I used in it's original box. That was a dumb move...I went to make cupcakes today and found lots of buggy things crawling around inside the flour box. Heebie jeebies ensued. So, off to the grocery store for some more cake flour (and I hoped that would be all, since after taking notice of how much money I spent on food on the last credit card statement, I decided to reduce my spending by a lot. Or else my husband might dismember me and leave me out for the coyotes).

Well, I did buy one more thing today, and that was a frozen Amy's Shepherd's Pie. Now, I am not fond of too many prepackaged frozen dinners, but thought since I am a taste tester of sorts, I figured I should buy it and try it out. It sounded good, with mashed taters and lots of veggies packed inside.

Got home, made cupcakes using this chocolate raspberry cake recipe that I adore (thank you Susan! You are a goddess!), and promptly popped the shepherd's pie into the oven. I figured I should eat a dinner before devouring some cupcakes, to lessen my guilt. While the pie was cooking (45 minute cooking time...holy cow! For such a small pie! This better be good....), I frosted the cupcakes using a veganized version of the chocolate frosting recipe on the back of the Nestle cocoa box (Earth Balance for the butter, soy milk for the milk, etc.). I left a few cupcakes unfrosted so I could pipe a little bit of raspberry jam into the centers for a bonus treat before I frosted them.












Time to try the shepherd's pie! The mashed potatoes looked somewhat appealing on the top, so I dug in. Okay, the inside looked nothing like it does on the box, but I have come to expect that from packaged food. First bite: eh, pretty good. Subsequent bites were about the same...eh, pretty good. Adequate, I would say. I ended up eating most of the garbanzo beans and chunks of potato with the tater topping, and leaving the rest of the innards for the trash (and I hate wasting food!). Well, this left more room for the cupcakes, which was really my wish all along...more room for the chocolatey goodness!






Cupcakes=Brooke's butt just got bigger.







Brooke-o-meter:
Shepherd's pie, 5 peas.
Cupcakes, 10 peas.

Meat-eater-meter:
Shepherd's pie, 7 peas after a tiny, tiny taste
Cupcakes, 8.5 peas

Kids-o-meter:
Well, they barely ate their dinner, so no cupcakes for them. Oh, the looks of agony on their faces! Ha! And they were not interested in trying the shepherd's pie.