Easy Meals for the Lazy Chef

Coming back from a long Thanksgiving and then preparing for another one-night stand with a celebrity in LA (relax, it's just an overnight dash from the East coast over to the West coast to play with someone famous), I hoped to minimize my time in the kitchen. So lunch the next 2 days is a strange concoction that somehow tastes fabulous:



Creamy Tomato Green Bean Soup

Boil .5 cup brown rice in 1 can veggie broth for about 10 or 15 minutes. Add 3 cups fresh green beans (and more water/broth if necessary) and cook until green beans are done. Meanwhile, using your handy dandy immersion blender attachment (or a blender), blend .5 block of silken tofu (firm), 2 TB tomato paste, and some canned chipotle in adobo sauce. When the green beans are done or almost done, add the creamy mixture to the pot and add salt to season. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Enjoy the strangest but most delightful concotion you've had in awhile.



Chipotle Polenta with Lime Infused Spinach/Artichoke/Roasted Garlic

I'm fairly certain you can guess from the title what's in it. I boiled some polenta, salt, and chipotle powder (which I will use for chipotle brownies soon!) until creamy. At the same time I boiled one package of frozen spinach and one package of frozen artichokes, which I didn't know existed. I added some salt and roasted garlic and cooked until piping hot. I added the lime juice, stirred, then piled atop the chipotle polenta and added jennilicious' favorite plant- cilantro. Some of the bites were amazing...and some were just ok. I'm not sure how that can happen. Yes, that's my unsweetened homemade cranberry ginger ale.

Chipotle Polenta

I've made polenta now the last 2 nights.

Thursday- I made polenta and added chipotle to the corneal. I then topped it with homemade salsa (chopped up one small on the vine tomato, half a red onion, 2 cloves of garlic, and some cilantro). And the best part- I added some chili powder/cumin to a few TB's of Better Than Cream Cheese. Now, in the past I feel I may have maligned this stuff. But, it's my crack cocaine (that and silken tofu). I love it. This dish was awesome, except I didn't cut the onion into small enough pieces so it was a little overpowering.

Friday- Same first sentence and last dollop. Instead of salsa, though, I cooked .25C of lentils with the other half of the red onion and another tomato. And a dash of salt. The lentils alone were amazing. On top of the polenta, though, was fantastic. Yum.

Balsamic Creation

I've been intrigued lately by balsamic vinegar and decided to bite the bullet and purchase some during my last shopping spree. As usual, I had some items to get rid of in my fridge- asparagus, snow peas, and spinach. While I originally thought I'd use the wok to stir fry all the veggies with some balsamic vinegar, I also wanted to make some polenta. I didn't feel like making it and waiting for it to congeal, so thought I'd bake the veggies with polenta on top.

I made three servings of dinner (about 400 calories)- 3 cups snowpeas, 27 stalks of asparagus, and 5 cups of fresh spinach mixed with balsamic vinegar and pepper (the grocery didn't have sea salt, so now I get to go to the organic grocery and probably snag some more Better than Cream Cheese and other goodies). Meanwhile, I sauteed 6 large gloves of garlic in olive oil spray and added 5.25 cups of water when the garlic browned. On the side I mixed 1.5 cups cornmeal (my weird baking mix) with 1.5 cups cold water. Once it boiled, I added the cornmeal and stirred for 10 minutes or so until creamy. I then poured it on top of the veggies and popped it into the 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

So how was it? I'd say average...It needed something else...probably salt. I'd love to add some mushrooms and maybe veggie broth to it.

Wannabe Pizza

I wanted to make another amazing pizza, but I didn't want all the calories. So I improvised. I made some polenta, let it congeal, then cut it into 9 squares. Baked on 400 for 30-40 minutes until brown. Meanwhile, in the blender I added 1 cup dark red kidney beans, lots of Italian spices, a touch of water, a TB or so of tomato paste, and blended until smooth. I added 1/3 large onion I'd just sauteed at the end.

Once the polenta squares were done, I smothered on my bean sauce and topped each pizza with a pepperoni. Not as good as the real pizza, but a nice little meal. Might be a good appetizer dish. A little Better Than Cream Cheese might have been nice, as well as some red pepper flakes. But I ran out of the former and just totally forgot the latter. *Sigh*

Polenta! Glorious Polenta!

Being from Southern influence*, I grew up eating and liking grits. Being a health-conscious eater, however, I know that grits are not a whole grain so they are of little value to me. Good thing I stumbled upon Yankee Grits, aka polenta. It's so easy to make and absolutely delicious. I eat it at least once a week (I believe today makes the 3rd time I've had it this week), usually before heading out to door to trivia because it's fast, filling, and fantastic. The best part about it is that you can do whatever you want to it and it's always yummy.

*While I grew up in Texas, I don't define it as "The South," especially having spent a great deal of time in Atlanta and going to graduate school in Auburn, Alabama. My southern influence is attributable more to the fact that my dad is from Alabama and my mom from Georgia. Texas is, well, Texas.

The basic recipe is simple:
1-2 cups boiliing water
.5 cup cold water
.5 cup cornmeal

My cornmeal is actually cornmeal mix that has a bit of wheat flour added to it. I like this much better than regular cornmeal, but go with what you've got.

When I first started making polenta, I always went with the 2 cups of boiling water and it was great. One day I was an idiot and only put it 1 or 1.5 cups of water...and created an even better version that I would probably lick off the floor. 2 cups make a nice polenta with a slightly liquidy consistency (can't think of something to compare it to at this moment). 1.5 cups makes a thick, creamy mixture that is heavenly.

To make polenta, while water is boiling, mix cold water and cornmeal together in a bowl to get all the lumps out. Add to boiling water and stir like crazy until it looks tasty, 5 minutes? I like to turn the heat down to medium low just before adding the cornmeal so it doesn't stick to the bottom at much. It makes a large serving that has just 200 calories. That's it.

My favorite polenta is made by adding some (2?) cut up canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and 2/3 cup corn. I adore chipotle peppers and put them in pretty much anything. Watch out, though, they pack a punch. So you've added an extra 120ish calories- about 320 total for a filling meal. Last time I made it, I added dried dill, a big squirt of regular mustard, and a small spoonful of Gray Poupon, which I would never have except a friend willed it to me when she moved away. It was quite tasty. I've also made it by mixing in some dried Italian herbs. It's also good with black beans, cumin, and chili powder. The possiblities are endless and I love mixing it up.

If you let it cool, the polenta congeals and becomes sliceable. From what I gather, it's pretty common to slice it up and fry it. I suck at pan-frying, so a few times I have put it on a sprayed baking sheet (I use Olive Oil nock-off Pam) and cooked it on 400ish until it gets crispy, 30 minutes? I'm not sure on the time because I always get impacient and take it out before it gets really nice and golden on the outside. It tends to spread out, too, which scares me and I'm pretty sure I'm not doing it right.

Today I got a little whacky and sauteed 3 cloved of garlic (if I could bathe in it I would) in about .5teaspoon of olive oil. When it was brown I added the water. While that was going, I put some seeds rescued from my butternut squash 2 days before on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Well, first I tossed them with .5teaspoon of olive oil and a little salt. Ok, I added a lot of salt, but that's ok, I learned a lesson (that I seem to keep learning). The seeds cooked on 250ish for 15ish minutes until they were nice and crunchy. Then I tried to remove all the excess salt and dumped them into my steaming bowl of garlic polenta. Delicious.

I tried taking a photo, but before the seeds were out of the oven, the camera batteries died and I couldn't find anymore.