I got home from work tonight at a decent hour, perfectly energetic and ready to go. But when I looked in the fridge and prepared to pull out the ingredients for tonight’s planned meal – a perfectly good choice – I just … didn’t want it. Could not fathom the idea of eating a Chinese stir-fry with rice!
No, pizza was what I wanted, and fast. Thank goodness we had this pizza bandiera on the menu for later in the week!
The funny thing about this dinner substitution is that the new choice saved me no time. I still had to prepare the vegetable mixture – a sautee of onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, wine, salt, and pepper – and prebake (and then bake-bake) the pizza dough. And prepare the salad. As well as wash two forks, because our silverware drawer was completely bare! (The dishwasher is running as I type this. It’s been a bit of A Week for being only Tuesday.)
I’d say I’ve never made this particular recipe – originally from Vegan Planet – before, but there’s a little red star by it in my copy of Robin Robertson’s wonderful cookbook, so clearly I have made it at some point or another. It must have been years ago, though, and must not have made the impression this one did – because I think I’d remember a dinner as good as this one! I was skeptical that the flavors would mingle well enough to make a good sauce-and-topping combination, but those fears were quickly put to rest when I tried the final product. LeeLee and I both loved the mixture of sweet and savory, of mild and spicy, that this sauce provided. And paired with a fresh lettuce-and-olive salad (I felt like another tomato on the dinner plate would be one tomato too many!), it was a great dinner indeed.
So, in short, we subbed one good but less-sought-after meal for another that we really, really wanted, and we didn’t have to call for takeout or spend any additional time on meal prep. It’s a win-win! (And not to worry. That erstwhile dinner will show up soon enough. I’ll let you know when I make it!)
:)