Rainy Day Blues

Creamy Blue Cheese Polenta & Asparagus, Mushroom and Chicken Stir fry*

What's a girl to do when it's pouring buckets of rain outside and she's feeling hungry? Cook, of course! I decided to try out one of the recipes I recently copied from my Mom's new cookbook, and boy did I get more than I bargained for! What you see here is the beautiful (and tasty) result of my efforts, but I was left with a few more blues before I was done thanks to the modern 'convenience' of the electric stove.

What you may not know about an electric stove is this: no matter how closely you think you are following the directions of a recipe, electric stoves don't heat up evenly. When things really get cooking you need to lower the heat because all the heat sort of accumulates into crazy super heat. Say, for example, you are cooking up polenta on medium heat according to the recipe, and stirring continuously just like it says, all of a sudden the heat might get explosive and end up on your dress, stove, and fingers leaving little burn marks all along it's trail....you know, hypothetically.

My poor burnt finger and polenta covered stove

My polenta spattered dress. I thought I'd spare you the burnt tummy that lies underneath. ;-)

But, in the end the meal turned out pretty tasty. So, after I cleaned up the kitchen, and changed my clothes, I had a delicious meal on my hands. My adapted recipe is below:

Creamy Blue Cheese Polenta*

3 cups water
2 cups non-fat milk
1 cup instant polenta (aka corn grits)-- I used Bob's Red Mill brand
2 ounces blue cheese
1 wedge laughing cow light blue

Heat up the water and milk until boiling and whisk in the corn grits stirring continuously. Lower heat and keep stirring for 5 minutes until polenta is creamy. Then stir in cheeses until dissolved. Serving size 2/3 cup.

On the side I cooked up some asparagus pieces, red onion, portabellas and a 2 oz. chicken tender in a frying pan with some spray. Perfect accompaniment!

In the morning I used 1/3 cup of the polenta as an side to some fried eggs and green onions. *


*For anyone who may care-- Pointsplus value for 2/3 cup of polenta is 4 points.
Polenta & Stir Fry meal, 6 points
Egg & Polenta meal, 6 points