I haven’t had the motivation to cook lately.  Just one of those funks.  But I feel really bad every night when dinner time rolls around and (1) there’s nothing ready to eat or (2) it’s something easy and lazy.  Last week I decided that I would make a new dish every night from recipes on blogs that I enjoy reading even if some haven’t been updated in a reeaaallly long time (ahem!!!).  It didn’t really work out as I had planned it, but I did manage to make a fair amount of dishes that I’ve never made before.

6 Layer Bean Dip from Disposable Aardvarks Inc.

Dippers were hemp and veggie tortilla chips with flax seeds (hey, you gotta get in those Omega-3s!), and some veggie crudite.  This was good, but I put on way too much sour cream.  I think we all would have liked it better if I’d not been so heavy handed with the sour cream, especially since it has the same consistency of the beans and it was pretty impossible to scrape off.

While on the topic of sour creams, I tried a new brand that I’m not sure I’ve blogged about before:  Vegan Gourmet Sour Cream Alternative.  It was good and I would use it again, but I think I still prefer Tofutti.

Next up are Mini Samosa Wraps from The Veggie Guy.

I left out the crushed red pepper.  Even with that, these still had a little kick to them (good for me because I like spicy).  Emma even tried a few bites and, while she wasn’t wild about them, she didn’t spit it out.  These were good, but it was too much of the same texture for me.  Mushy potato inside and soft tortilla outside.  I was really missing the deep-fried crispy texture of a traditional samosa.  Flavor-wise, these were spot on.

Sloppy Joses over Polenta from One Frugal Foodie.

The original recipe calls for ground turkey, so I substituted a vegan ground “beef.”  Also, I couldn’t find polenta in a tube for some reason, so I had to make my own and it actually turned out really good.  To make the polenta, I used 2 cups of veggie stock and 2 cups of plain, unsweetened soy milk and 1 cup of polenta.  Yum!

This recipe was really tasty (and made excellent taco filling for a leftover night), but my hubby had the brilliant idea of just using corn bread in place of the polenta next time.  So much easier and a better texture.

Chili from Vegannifer.

I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, but I think it still turned out pretty close to the original.  Changes I made to the original recipe:

1. I omitted the cubanelle pepper and tomato.  I just used 1 onion and 2 green bell peppers and added some chopped celery because I had some that needed eating.
2. In place of water, I used veg stock.
3. In place of pineapple juice, I used a tropical carrot juice.
4. I don’t know what Vegebase is and I didn’t have any, so I didn’t use it.
5. I didn’t have red beans, but substituted one 15 oz. can of black beans and one 15 oz. can of garbanzo beans.
6. I omitted the rice.
7. I didn’t have cilantro flakes or chipotle powder and omitted those as well.
8. I had leftover Sloppy Joses and threw that in the pot too (just the beefy part, not the polenta).

After all those substitutions and omissions, this chili recipe was pretty good.  Next time, I won’t add the seitan chicken.  It’s good with it, but we’ve been indulging a little too heavily in the fake meats lately and I feel off.  I’d rather not eat those as often as we have been.  Later this month, I think I’m due for a fast/cleanse of some sort.

Spicy Jalapeno Pizza from Tofu N Sprouts.

I prefer a veggie heavy pizza as opposed to a cheese heavy pizza.  I think this pizza is a good blend of the original recipe and my personal pizza preference.  Please do read through the original recipe as there are LOTS of great vegan pizza making tips.  One such tip: prebaking the pizza dough and then broiling the cheese.  From now on, I will prebake my dough then broil the cheese to melt it, then put the veggies on, then broil some more.  When you try to make a pizza with lots of veggies and vegan cheese, the water in the veggies makes the cheese too wet and it’s not the most pleasant thing to eat.  But, if you broil it first to melt the cheese, then add the veggies, it makes a perfect pizza.

It’s probably also worth mentioning that I just used the Pepper Jack rice cheese and jalapenos.  I didn’t add any of the other stuff to the dough… as I mentioned previously, I am lazy.