Dinner Plate #10

 

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate and those hiding from the world, and those in other countries where it isn't even a thing! I guess that covers my bases. Anyway, happy November 28, whatever that means to you.

I wanted pizza. I told myself this was irrational, as I had no pizza sauce and no cheese, but the craving wouldn't go away. So what to do but to make some sauce from seasoned tomato sauce and tomato paste (roughly following this recipe from Joy Food Sunshine but with just enough for one pizza), whip up a quick batch of vegan pizza cheese (recipe from Kathy's Vegan Kitchen), make some crust (recipe from All Recipes), and dig up some toppings?

The toppings were some onion, bell pepper, frozen veggie sausage crumbles, the last bit of fresh spinach I could salvage from a bag I'd somewhat forgotten about, the end of a package of now-wrinkly grape tomatoes, and olives (both black and kalamata). It was a delicious pizza, if kind of a lot of effort. In spite of cutting the recipe in half, I do still have pizza cheese, too, which I will have to figure out how to use (and probably not in pizza, but we'll see). I enjoyed the pizza--it really hit the spot for whatever that craving was.

The salad turned out larger than planned, but that's fine. I have part of one head of romaine left, so that was the base, along with a shallot that needed using, some Persian cucumber (which does need to get eaten up soon), bell pepper, olives (yes, more olives), Bac'n bits, and a homemade vegan ranch. I accidentally put way too much dill in my ranch, but it was fine. The salad was perfectly serviceable, though not the best one I've ever made or anything.

Things like this are part and parcel of the pantry challenge mindset, and also a benefit of veganism. If I want something, I can probably make it with what I have on hand, usually. No need to buy cheese, I'll just make it. I could have made sausage, too, if I needed to. On the other hand, it's good that I had some time off, because it took me a few hours to make this pizza, and usually I can't spend that kind of time on something like this.

Oh, well. Here's to muddling through.