The new thing I love

Polenta. It's so good! Tonight's dinner was Polenta with Black Beans and Spinach. It was so simple to prepare that I thought I was messing up and it comes together ultra-fast! This is a great, hearty, savory meal - it will probably be amazing in the fall, come to think of it.

I popped my polenta cherry by slicing a 24 oz tube into 12 equal rounds, then grilling it on a skillet until golden and crispy. It looked a little bland, so despite the recipe author thinking polenta is fine the way it is (and she may be right!), I sprinkled each side of the polenta with some garlic powder and salt. I think it really added something, but someday I'll probably cook polenta without doing that, just to see what it tastes like unadorned.

While the polenta was sizzling away, I rejuvenated some sun-dried tomatoes (packed dry, no oil) in a cup of warm water, which I then added to the garlic and black beans in my saute pan. After flipping the polenta halfway through cooking, I laid some baby spinach atop the beans and tomatoes and covered the pot to let it wilt.

I'm still impressed with how tasty dinner was. I placed 3 polenta rounds on each plate and topped with the bean mixture. The table looked a bit bare, so I added a nice bowl of mixed Greek olives and Parmesan cheese.

I'm having a lot of first-time-I-cooked-with-that moments this week. I'm thrilled that they aren't colossal failures!

On a side note, I have no fun stories to tell of Angst begging for spinach tonight, since he was hiding in the bathroom from the thunder. I have another spinach recipe coming up later in the week, though, so hopefully I'll have my little kitchen helper then!

if you want to make this super-easy recipe, run out to your nearest bookstore and grab Vegan Express by Nava Atlas - you won't be sorry!