It’s the first night of chanukah and as I drove home from work I realized I hadn’t really planned dinner for the party of four that were joining us to eat. Last night I made croutons, and I have last week’s onion soup in the freezer but even with a salad, it didn’t quite seem like dinner. Something was missing.

My wife suggested a “polenta tamale pie”, not something I have ever made – my experience with Mexican cooking is fairly limited, but it sounded good, so I grabbed my phone and tried to find some inspiration for a dish that would be table-ready in less than an hour. I stumbled upon A Couple Cooks and found a recipe I felt confident I could adapt and serve by the time guests walked through the door. I’m not scared of trying new dishes when I have company, especially when the ingredients sound like they are a good fit – my one failing in making this dish in a hurry was that I forgot to put my SD card in the camera before the dish was complete!

The following ingredients made for a wonderful vegan dish that I will happily serve again and again! These ingredients will serve eight. (Thank You Anne, my WeightWatchers leaders for working out the points on this. If you serve six, rather than the suggested eight, this works out to be 5 Points Plus per serving.)

Vegan Tamale Pie with a Polenta Crust Olive Oil

One 18 oz roll of polenta

3 – 4 tomatoes

1 cup of corn

1 cup salsa

1 1/2 cups black soy beans

2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

1/3 cup garlic breadcrumbs

1/2 cup Daiya Mozzarella vegan cheese