Pre-Boston Weekly Meals

I was at it again the week I headed to Boston.  I am on a roll and I managed to cook dinner two nights in a row, and then divided up the leftovers for Ryan while I was away.

My first recipe stems from seeing this in the recent Cooking Light magazine.  But then I had a this thought that I had just seen this same recipe somewhere.  Ok, they were similar, and not entirely the same, but the idea was polenta with sausage and mushrooms.
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Since I do not eat sausage, I decided to use the Morningstar Farms crumbles instead.  DSC07324
Here is what it looks like in the Good Housekeeping Cookbook.
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I started by slicing up my mushrooms.
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Then it was time to experiment for the very first time with polenta.  The directions seemed easy so I just went for it.
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Like I said, I have never made polenta before, so this was quite the experience.
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In the meantime, I got the sauce going with the soy crumbles, tomatoes, mushrooms and seasonings.
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All the while I was still stirring my polenta, which was going somewhat crazy because our stove either does too much or too little on the flame.
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I was pleased with the polenta, and plated it up to serve for dinner.  So, what do you think?  Does it look like the picture from the cookbook?
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I really liked this and would like to do more with polenta in the future.
The very next night I made a Mexican Lasagna, which I found in the Vegetarian Times Low Fat and Fast cookbook.
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I started out chopping up my onions and pepper.
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I went with pinto beans, although the menu lists pinto or black.
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I used up some of my frozen corn, too.
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Look at that!  This is what becomes the lasagna filling.
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To make the lasagna, corn tortillas become like the noodles.
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Then I added my filling.
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Next came a surprising ingredient: cottage cheese.
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This was then topped with some shredded cheddar, and then the layers repeated.
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This went in the oven for about 20 minutes.
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This was a huge hit and I will definitely be making this dish again.

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever made polenta?  Have you ever had a Mexican lasagna?

4 comments:

Rachel Lauren said...

ohh Those both look awesome. I really love polenta. its awesome with a fried egg on top. and the yolk gets all runny. mmm. I might try a mexican lasagna, we have a giant bag of corn tortillas right now.. hmmm.

Unknown said...

Had polenta last night! t least I think that's what that was...

Special K said...

Funny...because YEAH! I have made the lasagna with POLENTA and HOMINY but yours looks so great!

Kristen (swanky dietitian) said...

That mexican lasagna looks amazing!! yum!

I have only had pre-made polenta and I did not like it. I think I need to try making it from scratch.

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