I remember eating polenta at my Italian grandafather's house and not being particularly impressed with it. I learned to enjoy it more after having a variation of it in Africa, and especially after a fabulous polenta dish I had in Italy when I was visiting relatives. But I'd never actually tried to make it before. However, since our son was recently diagnosed with multiple food allergies, we've been getting more creative than usual in finding complete meals that we can enjoy together, and it seemed time to bring polenta to the table.
I used a basic recipe I found on foodnetwork, and tweaked it just a touch:
5 cups vegetable broth, 1 cup water
2 tsp salt
1 3/4 c. stoneground corn meal
1 tsp olive oil
Bring the broth/water to a boil, add salt, then whisk in corn meal. Stir it frequently for about 15-20 minutes until it's thick enough for a spoon to stand up in. Once it's cooked, turn off heat, add some olive oil (the recipe calls for butter...but milk happens to be one of the wee one's allergies) to make it creamy.
We served it with a marinara sauce (sausage, onions, garlic, crushed tomatoes, fresh sage, oregano, and parsley). The three year old wasn't interested, but the rest of us enjoyed it.
-Thyme
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
The Great Smoothie Challenge of 2011
It's hot where I live. That means it's smoothie season! Smoothies are great for breakfast or for a snack. They can be very nutritious and tasty or just plain sugary indulgences, all depending on how you put them together. My basic formula for a nutritionally balanced smoothie goes like so:
1 cup plain yogurt (I like plain because I can control how much sugar is going into the soothie, but you can use flavored if that's what you have around, just don't add as much honey later on; maybe omit the banana as well if it's already sweet enough)
1-2 cups frozen fruit
1 small or 1/2 regular/large overripe banana
honey to taste (if necessary at all)
1-3 tbsp ground flax seed for a nutrition boost
Blend to perfection
You can play with this to get all kinds of variations. For instance, when I'm using frozen berries that include dark berries like blueberries and black berries, I like to throw in a big ol' handful or two of fresh spinach; you don't really taste it and with the dark color, you don't really see it either. Then again I know some kids enjoy the green color, so you can do the spinach trick whenever it strikes your fancy as long as the color doesn't bother you.
Coming to the present, I was making smoothies today for snack. Instead of following the above formula, I was winging it with very ripe fresh strawberries that needed used. Since my yogurt was fat-free I needed to add some fat* to the mix. Peanut butter usually overpowers things, so I got creative and went for the Nutella. It was a total gamble and it paid off. So I'm going to continue tweeking this idea now and then to get the perfect strawberry Nutella smoothie. This unexpected flavor combo brings me to the premise of this post:
Please post your favorite or most creative smoothie flavor ideas and how you make them great. Nobody wants to eat the same smoothie over and over all summer long; or at least I don't. So post away. There's no prize except for the wealth of ideas that we'll get from each other. Now get blending!
Rosemary
*Yes, I said fat. Fat is important as a part of your meals and snacks to help keep you full for longer. It actually slows down the rate that your stomach is emptying, hence keeping you full. It's also very important for small children. Their stomachs are very small and without the concentrated calories from fat it can be hard for them to get enough calories. So when I'm making these for my kid, I'm extra conscious to make sure that there's some kind of fat either in the smoothie or on the side.
1 cup plain yogurt (I like plain because I can control how much sugar is going into the soothie, but you can use flavored if that's what you have around, just don't add as much honey later on; maybe omit the banana as well if it's already sweet enough)
1-2 cups frozen fruit
1 small or 1/2 regular/large overripe banana
honey to taste (if necessary at all)
1-3 tbsp ground flax seed for a nutrition boost
Blend to perfection
You can play with this to get all kinds of variations. For instance, when I'm using frozen berries that include dark berries like blueberries and black berries, I like to throw in a big ol' handful or two of fresh spinach; you don't really taste it and with the dark color, you don't really see it either. Then again I know some kids enjoy the green color, so you can do the spinach trick whenever it strikes your fancy as long as the color doesn't bother you.
Coming to the present, I was making smoothies today for snack. Instead of following the above formula, I was winging it with very ripe fresh strawberries that needed used. Since my yogurt was fat-free I needed to add some fat* to the mix. Peanut butter usually overpowers things, so I got creative and went for the Nutella. It was a total gamble and it paid off. So I'm going to continue tweeking this idea now and then to get the perfect strawberry Nutella smoothie. This unexpected flavor combo brings me to the premise of this post:
Please post your favorite or most creative smoothie flavor ideas and how you make them great. Nobody wants to eat the same smoothie over and over all summer long; or at least I don't. So post away. There's no prize except for the wealth of ideas that we'll get from each other. Now get blending!
Rosemary
*Yes, I said fat. Fat is important as a part of your meals and snacks to help keep you full for longer. It actually slows down the rate that your stomach is emptying, hence keeping you full. It's also very important for small children. Their stomachs are very small and without the concentrated calories from fat it can be hard for them to get enough calories. So when I'm making these for my kid, I'm extra conscious to make sure that there's some kind of fat either in the smoothie or on the side.
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