Category: Recipes

I have added a new side dish to my dinner rotation.  Baked Creamy Polenta.  I purchase the polenta in bulk at my local health food store.  It has always been a favorite of mine, but it always seemed daunting cook from scratch.  When I made it, I used the premade polenta in the tubes, that always has the texture of rubber.  This recipe is a winner and very easy to make.

Baked Creamy Polenta

6 cups water

1 1/2 cups slow cooking polenta

1/4 cup butter (I use Kerrygold)

Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Bring 6 cups salted water to a boil.. Whisking constantly, slowly add the polenta and reduce heat to medium-low. Whisk often, until polenta is tender. If the polenta becomes  thick too soon,  add more water and continue cooking. Add butter and ½ cup Parmesan to polenta and stir.

Add to baking dish, cover with additional parmesan cheese and bake in 350 degree of 20 minutes.

Tonight I scrapped my meal plan of homemade macaroni and cheese and decided on Meatballs instead.  It turned out really good and is adapted from a number of recipes I found online.

I used cauliflower rice and turkey meatballs that I had in the freezer (both from Costco).

Meatballs and Mushroom Gravy Over Cauliflower Rice

2 tbsp butter

16 oz white mushrooms

1/4 cup flour

1 quart vegetable broth (I used Penzey’s vegetable base)

8 oz frozen spinach

Premade meatballs

1 lb Frozen Cauliflower Rice

Salt and Pepper to taste

Melt butter in skillet, add mushrooms and saute for 5-6 minutes.  Add broth and bring to a boil.  Once boiling add flour and whisk until smooth and thickened.  Add frozen meatballs and spinach.  Serve on cauliflower rice (or regular rice if you prefer).

Since there was an abundance of vegetables in this dish, we had a fruit salad on the side.

I know that the picture above is not the best looking food picture ever, but don’t let that dissuade you from trying my brussels sprouts.  We were almost done with dinner and when I thought to take a picture, so this is what was left.   As a general rule Brussels sprouts are healthy, these are probably not real great for the heart, but boy are they good.

When I was a kid, I hated these vegetables more than any other.  I avoided them like the plague and allowed myself to avoid them until recently.  My kids and I were at a restaurant for dinner and these were on the menu.  The bacon and blue cheese convinced me that they would be safe to try.  I am officially converted, however toxic the recipe may be.

Brussels Sprouts and Bacon

1 pound brussels sprouts

1 pound bacon

blue cheese

The instructions are easy.  Cut up the bacon and fry it.  Once cooked drain most of the fat.  Add the shredded brussels sprouts and fry in the bacon until crispy.  Add blue cheese to taste.

We ate these with salmon and quinoa in an effort to cancel out the bad fat.

We were gifted a huge bag of rhubarb.  That with the rest of the strawberries I had in the freezer from last summer made a wonderful Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Filling

4 stalks rhubarb

3 cups strawberries

1 1/2 cup sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping

1 stick of butter, softened

1 1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups quick cooking rolled oats

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a bowl toss the chopped rhubarb with 3/4 cup of sugar and let stand for 20 minutes.  Toss the strawberries in another bowl with a 1/2 cup of sugar.  Stir both occasionally.  After 20 minutes, add the rhubarb to the bowl of strawberries, do not add the rhubarb juice to the strawberries.  Stir and add the cornstarch, lemon juice and vanilla.  Transfer to a 9 by 13 baking dish.

Combine all of the ingredients for the topping a mix master or bowl and blend or use fingers.  Blend until mixture is large crumbs.

Sprinkle the mixture over the filling and bake for 30 minutes.  Reduce to temperature to 325 and bake for another 30 minutes.  The fruit will be bubbling when done.  Let stand for 20 minutes before serving.  Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Enjoy!

I made an absolutely delicious casserole tonight without a recipe and with ingredients I had on hand.  I did not take pictures of the prep because I did not know it would be worth documenting, but decided to take a picture as it came out of the oven because I knew it would be good.

I am a Wisconsin girl, so I love a good casserole.  But, I try to avoid the typical Campbell’s Soup creations.  When I started dinner, it was with the intention of including my vegan daughter, who did not eat with us after all.   Oh well, more for us.  In the end this turned out to be a mix of vegan and non vegan options since she was not eating with us.

Cheesy Brown Rice Bake

1.5 cups brown rice

3 cups water

8 ounces mushrooms

12 ounces frozen broccoli

4 tbsp butter (Kerrygold is the best)

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk of choice

8 ounces mozzarella cheese (I used vegan because it melts so much creamier)

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup whole wheat panko crumbs

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Boil rice in 3 cups of water, per instructions.  Fry mushrooms in 1 tbsp of butter.  In heavy pot melt remaining 3 tbsp of butter, when melted add flour.  Whisk the flour and butter until smooth, add milk.  Once thick add the mozzarella cheese and stir until melted and smooth.  Stir together rice, mushrooms, cheese blend and broccoli.  Pour into casserole dish and sprinkle with Panko.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minute,  5 minutes before taking out of oven add the parmesan.

Honestly, this was delicious.