Honey Blueberry Polenta

My immune system is terrible.  2014 barely begins and I get another cold when I just had one last month.  Granted, my roommate was sick and I had just hung out with a bunch of children as part of a volunteer event shortly before I started feeling off.  Luckily, it was nothing major.  Just annoying congestion and coughing.  I self-medicated with a lot of rest and liquids, including some tea that caught my eye at the grocery store.

Something else that made me feel better was getting a package of some things I left behind at my parents’ house.  Mom also sent some fun, random little extras including a tiny jar of some local honey and the cutest smiley face I’ve ever seen.  (And The Kite Runner, which I read all day on Sunday.  It was amazing.)

One morning the polar vortex had me craving something warm and comforting for breakfast but I was sick of oatmeal.  I had just bought polenta a few days ago for a dinner so I figured some grits would be a great partner for the honey Mom sent.  (Let’s be real…I just wanted an excuse to eat a lot of honey for breakfast.  Might have put it in my tea too…) Thus, the incredibly simple honey blueberry polenta was created.

1/4 cup polenta
3/4 cups of milk (I used coconut milk.)
Frozen or fresh blueberries
Honey

I brought the milk to a boil in a small saucepan.  I added the polenta and lowered the heat, stirring occasionally for about 3 minutes until it thickened and grits absorbed most of the milk.  Then I removed it from heat, added the blueberries with a stir, and let it rest for a couple minutes. (My frozen blueberries defrosted by just hanging out in there.) Finally I scooped some into a bowl and doused it in honey.  This probably makes about 2 small servings but for me it was one generous helping.

Just a note: In the pic above, I didn’t stir in the blueberries to make it prettier. ;)

What I’ve Been Cooking Up

A lot has changed since I last wrote.  Well, really one thing has changed but it’s a big thing:  I adopted a dog!  He’s retired racing greyhound named Dreamer, to be exact. I adopted him through a great organization called Greyhounds Only that rescues retired racers from tracks in Florida.  I had been thinking about adopting a dog for about a year; then I finally went to a Meet & Greet and fell in love with this guy.  It’s been 2 and a half months and I already can’t imagine life without him.  He’s a big sweetheart who just wants to nap and be friends with everyone.

I can’t believe that it’s already 2014.  What’s harder to believe is that I only wrote 2 blog posts last year.  When WordPress sent my 2013 stats and I read that, I was horrified.  I thought, how did I let this happen? I swear I cooked in 2013!

This jolted me to revive this blog as part of my 2014 resolution to get back into writing.  I’ve neglected my creative side too long, and this is the year to change that.

So as a little warm-up, here’s a few recipes that I’ve had on repeat the past few months, as well as a creation of my own:

 

Vegan Chocolate Chip Pancake for One from Food.com.  I went through a pancake phase, indulging myself in a different kind of pancake every Sunday, and it escalated to me finding a single-serving recipe I could quickly make during the week.  I just omitted all the optional ingredients in this recipe including the sugar and added chocolate chips.  It is really simple; I had the recipe memorized by my 3rd personal pancake breakfast.

Vegan Black-Bean Quesadillas from Love My Vegan Life.  This quesadilla recipe has chipotle hummus instead of cheese and, strangely enough, it’s an perfect substitute!  The hummus lends it the creaminess you’d get from the cheese so you don’t even miss it.  I didn’t have pre-made chipotle hummus so I pureed a couple of chipotle peppers in adobo with red pepper hummus.

 Tofu Popcorn “Chicken” from The Vedge.  This.  Just…this.  I made this quite a bit towards the end of 2013.  I never got it to look quite as “chicken-y” as she does in the blog, but I loved the flavor.  The coating is spot-on and when you have these the next day, they’re so close in texture (and almost taste!) to the animal version, it’s scary.  (I added a little hot sauce droplets to mine and dipped them in soy sauce.)

 

BBQ Seitan Stuffed Sweet Potato with Mojo-Marinated Kale from ME!  I love sauce.  When I wasn’t a vegetarian, I loved barbecue and wings so much simply because the meat was a receptacle for delicious tangy, spicy sauces.  Once I learned how to make my own seitan, it wasn’t long before I started dressing it up in my favorite sauces.

Making seitan is actually not too intense of a process.  I use Terry Romero’s recipe from Viva Vegan, my go-to cookbook, but there are countless recipes out there.  You can also just buy ready-made seitan at some grocery stores.  I try to have some loaves on hand to make throwing together recipes, like BBQ stuffed potatoes, very quick and easy.

First I poked holes in my sweet potato and put it in the microwave to “bake” it.  Then I heated a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and sauteed the seitan until it was browned.  Then I turned the heat off, added barbecue sauce, and sauteed it for a few more minutes so that the seitan absorbed some of the sauce.  Next I split open my sweet potato and used a fork to mash the insides up a bit.  Finally I stuffed the seitan inside the potato and swooned over the delicious smell of slightly caramelized bbq sauce.

The mojo-marinated kale is also easy if you have the pre-made marinade.  Mojo is a citrusy garlic marinade used in Cuban cooking, and you can sometimes find it in the Latin section of the grocery store.  While I’d prefer to make my own to control the salt content, I had Goya brand marinade in the fridge so I put it to use.  I heated a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat and then added some shredded kale.  I sauteed that for a couple minutes til it cooked down slightly.  Then I added a few splashes of mojo, put the heat on the lowest setting, covered the pot, and let it simmer for a few more minutes.  The citric bite of the marinade made kale way more exciting and tasty than I’ve ever experienced, and it seemed to pair well with the smoky bbq stuffed sweet potato.

…Now I realize that I haven’t really written a recipe.  Since this is something I just threw together a few times, I don’t quite have exact measurements to share; but I’ll definitely be eating this probably another 5 times, so I’ll be sure to update this blog sometime with an actual recipe.  Nevertheless, I hope it’ll inspire someone to do a culinary experiment of their own.  :)

Cheers to a new year!