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Polenta

February 13, 2013 in Food by traveleatlove | 7 comments

Remember that heavenly polenta dinner that I attended in the North End last year? It was on an incredibly cold night, and warm welcomes and hot boards of polenta, along with lots of laughs, good friends by my side, and restaurant family stories made it simply magical.

Polenta is the perfect comfort food, a canvas for all sorts of flavors and ingredients, and my only wish that night was that I could make polenta as creamy and lump-free as the polenta at Lucia.

Well, it’s not quite the same, but I have found a way to make polenta that we love right at home. The secret is Pastene instant polenta. Instant polenta? I kind of assumed it would be lumpy and not great just due to its instant nature. I couldn’t have been more wrong; with boiling water it cooks in minutes and barely requires stirring. It’s the easiest way to start a comforting dinner on a busy weeknight or a slow-cooked sauce and polenta on a Sunday afternoon.

We’ve been eating a lot of polenta, and it’s been fun to experiment with the toppings. One Sunday night, I made a turkey meat sauce, health factor amped up with red lentils, made creamy with coconut cream and spicy with hot paprika. The coconut cream might sound a bit weird, but it just worked. It’s definitely a new favorite Trader Joe’s product.

Another favorite polenta dinner included a spicy chicken sausage and peppers sauce made with caramelized onions, sweet and hot peppers, arrabiata sauce, and some corn thrown in, because while we did a great job snack shopping before Nemo, we kind of forgot groceries for the week. As a result, we’re cleaning out the cupboards and freezer. It’s been kind of fun using things up and getting creative, but I definitely look forward to a fully-stocked fridge and a meal plan again.

There doesn’t seem to be an end to dreary weather in sight, so I think polenta is here to stay. I’d like to make a creamy mushroom sauce soon, maybe with some tofu snuck in to add nutrition and protein.

Are you a polenta fan? Any suggestions for what fun toppings to add?

Tags: chicken sausage, coconut milk, Food, healthy, lentils, peppers, polenta, recipe, turkey, versatile meals

Brown Butter Roasted Pumpkin Salad

October 16, 2012 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 4 comments

A brief respite in the cooler weather made for a perfect opening to have a room temperature salad for dinner last night. With warm air streaming through the windows, I got to work breaking down a pumpkin from our visit to Verrill Farm to serve as the star of the show.

The second I cut into the pumpkin, that smell hit me, and I was suddenly standing there daydreaming about sitting around our dining room table as a little kid, newspapers laid out to take the pumpkin guts and seeds. In that moment I literally felt like I shouldn’t be holding the knife, that my dad should be doing the carving while my sister and I drew our designs and our mom brought out cider or snacks.

I hadn’t planned on toasting the seeds, but that happy memory said that I had to, the later taste and crunch again bringing me home. It’s pretty amazing how senses can do that.

Once I snapped out of my daydreaming, I got to work once again on dinner, starting with the pumpkin. I simply roasted it at 400 degrees until the flesh was tender, then peeled the blistered skin off and chopped it into cubes.

To finish off the pumpkin, I sautéed it in brown butter and a sprinkle each of cinnamon and cayenne pepper.

Next I got my salad dressing ready, mixing apple cider, maple syrup, olive and oil, and hot paprika until it tasted just right.

I also cooked a cup of lentils and then got started building the salad on beds of Olivia’s Organics baby kale.

I topped the mix of pumpkin, lentils, and kale with creamy goat cheese and the toasted pumpkin seeds. The combination was absolutely delicious! It felt great to eat salad without feeling cold inside, and I loved the mix of seasonal ingredients.

I saved the remainder of the pumpkin to toss in a smoothie in the morning, a blend of vanilla soy milk, yogurt, cinnamon, pumpkin, and steamed spinach. With less than three weeks until NYC Marathon time, I need all the nutrition I can get!

I am excited to be participating in a Vouvray tasting with TasteLive tonight. So far it’s been a good week, and I hope keeping that positive attitude will only make it get better.

What’s making you happy this week?

Tags: dinner, easy dinners, goat cheese, healthy recipes, lentils, pumpkin, quick dinners, quick meals, recipe, salad, Vegetarian

Vegan Joe’s

March 2, 2011 in Food, recipe by traveleatlove | 11 comments

One of the things I have been focusing on while recovering from my flu, especially now that I can eat, is replenishing my body with whole foods. Having seen a few vegan Sloppy Joe recipes around the blog world. including Veganomicon’s Snobby Joe recipe, and with an abundance of dried lentils and beans in the house, I decided to bust out the slow cooker for my own version of a Sloppy Joe.

Working from home is amazing. I was able to start my recipe out by soaking two cups each of yellow lentils and black beans two times before actually starting them in the slow cooker.

While they soaked the second time, I mixed up a flavorful sauce that included 1/4 cup organic maple syrup, a tablespoon mustard, and a can of tomato paste.

I also pureed 1/2 a Vidalia onion, two habanero peppers, and four cloves of garlic into a nice paste.

When it was time to get cookin’ I threw all of the ingredients in my slow cooker. The beans and lentils were added to a few cups of water, plus the sauce and veggies. I mixed it thoroughly, then put the lid on and cooked on high for four hours, checking to make sure there was enough liquid to soften the lentils and the beans.

Before I left for a night of fun blogger events, I put the slow cooker on warm and left whole wheat rolls next to it for my hubby. I also left instructions that there was potato salad and cabbage slaw in the fridge; the slaw recipe is amazing, and I will be able to share it in a few weeks when it is launched in a new recipe app.

I decided to forego the roll when I got home, eating two bowls of the Sloppy Joe with the spicy slaw. The contrast between cold and warm, crunchy and soft, spicy and somewhat sweet was perfection. Though not at all fancy or complicated, this meal really “got” me. I could eat it again and again.