Gluten-free Polenta Vegetable Loaf

I love my loaf pan. Basically because it gets me though many a quick bread, which have been quite abundant around here lately. But today, it upped it's standard.

Enter: the polenta loaf.

Polenta has consumed my thoughts before, so this is nothing new. I love it when foods can swing different directions - feeling pasta sauce? Throw it on. Have leftover pesto? Mix it in. Have two leftover cans of beans in the fridge who have nowhere to go? Yes - they go in, too. SO GOOD. So right.

By the way, polenta is a schmancy name for corn meal. It's WAY easier to find it under it's given name, like in the bulk food section of your nearest WinCo. Which is a store that just appeared 2 miles away from me, and has already made a bulk foods lover out of me for life. Bulk food is cheaper than the pre-packaged stuff, and you can control how much you buy. It's a beautiful thing.

For the vegetables, I used leftover stir fried veggies from the night before, but feel free to use whatever floats your fancy. These just had mushrooms, carrots, beans, peppers and tomatoes with a balsamic-gravy thing going on. Use something you love.

This has the casserole feel to it and isn't structured to stay together once you dish it up. As you can see by the sliding slice on my plate in the background, it will be juicy. However, if you prefer saucy over dry, this will work out just fine. If you don't, you'll be so happy with the flavor it won't matter anyway.

Polenta Vegetable Loaf
Makes one 8x5 loaf

Ingredients
3.5 cups water
1 cup polenta
1/4 cup prepared pesto
one 2.25 ounce can sliced olives
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 cup spaghetti sauce (your choice)
1 cup cooked vegetables
1/2 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup canned garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

To do:
1. Preheat your oven on to 300 degrees and grease your loaf pan.

2. Boil the water in a medium pot; slowly add in the polenta, continually stirring so it doesn't clump. Turn the heat down to low, cover, and stir every few minutes to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of your pot. Once the polenta has significantly thickened, add in the pesto, olives and parmesan cheese; stir to incorporate and take off the stove.

3. Spoon and smooth 1/3 of the polenta in the loaf pan and layer with half the spaghetti sauce, then half the veggies, and lastly 1/2 of the beans. Repeat this, ending with the last 1/3 of the polenta on top.

3. Pop in the oven for about 15 minutes, until slightly hardened and "crusted" on top.

4. Let cool for a few minutes; slice and serve!

Arugula and Walnut Pesto

Sundays are pretty low-key around here. We go to church (Scott helped me in Sunday School today. That was pretty cute), we get fed lunch at his parents, stuffed with dessert at mine, and then we head to Freddie's for some grocery shopping. We return home late-afternoon, which leaves me more time than our usual week nights to prep dinner. This extra-long stretch means I can get super wild in the kitchen...which also means Sunday dinners result in adding another recipe to the books, or adding some more contents to our trash.

While we were wandering around Fred Meyer grabbing the usual suspects, I got to thinking of how I could use the arugula that was slowly dying in our fridge. I knew pasta was in the plan for dinner, so pesto came to mind. It didn't take me long to walk straight to the bulk department and fill up on some walnuts. Hi-ho, bulk department TOTALLY the way to go. 3/4 pound for six dollars? This equals out to many more walnuts happenings soon.

This turned out way better than I had expected. I used various other pesto recipes to form a base of how-to-do, including these two. While the peppery taste arugula holds was delish, it was really the salty parmesan that blew it out of this world. But that's me, who could have a hunk of parm in my lip the whole day and be totally content.

This played well with pasta, but I would definitely suggest warming it up in a sauce pan (while your noodles are boiling) and adding spoonfuls of boiling pasta water as necessary to get it all creamy and juiced up.

Arugula Walnut Pesto
Makes about 1 cup

3 cups loosely packed arugula
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 cloves garlic (preferably roasted)
1/4 cup heaping walnut halves
3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
S&P to taste


1. In a food processor, get your arugula, lemon juice, garlic, walnuts, and cheese roughly grated and mixed up.

2. Stream in olive oil as the processor is running to get it all smooth and pureed.

3. Taste. Add salt and/or pepper. Taste again. Say "mmm."

4. Use as you wish! Leftovers will be on my sandwich tomorrow.

Cauliflower Pizza

January came and went, and I survived yet another year of Vegan-O-Con. That's 30 days of eating a Vegan diet, which excludes cheese, dairy, honey, Eggo waffles, hot chocolate packets and countless other food products that I hold near and dear to my ticker. Given that it sounds generally strange for me to suddenly embrace such a dark, twisted world (a lifestyle that millions of other people adhere to regularly), here me out.

All through December, I continuously trash my body. I'm not necessarily an unhealthy eater, but I definitely have a difficult time saying no to all the holiday treats and eats that are constantly orbiting around my vicinity. I truly have zero self-control when it comes to December. And it works, because I know that when January rolls it's enlarged belly around, I will pay. And I will regain my personal standard of healthy by cancelling out the butter, sugar and grossly portions of chocolate with absurd amounts of kale chips, nutritional yeast, and grape tomatoes.

It's strange, but this is totally a system that works for me. Yes, I had two cheat instances (heelllo Tony's pizza and mini-cupcakes) but I didn't beat myself up for it. I got right back on track and dedicated myself to plant-based foods the next meal.

I also find that it sets the tone for the remainder of the year. If I eat super clean in January, I enter February with a strong mindset of what healthy meals should consist of. Meals that make me feel good and leave me with energy. Meals that will include cheese and milk, but will still include veggies and healthy protein. I also find that my cravings for sugar dwindle almost down to nothing. This is saying a lot, given that I am a human female.

Oddly enough (psych) I was completely counting on a nice hearty slice of PIZZA this first week to initiate my non-vegan diet. Quite coincidentally I came across this recipe that used veggies in a way I've never imagined before. As pizza crust. It had to happen.

Cauliflower Crust Pizza
adapted from Eat.Drink.Smile.
makes 2 medium pizzas

3 cups riced cauliflower (one small cauliflower - read Beth's ricing instructions)
2 eggs, whisked
2 cups shredded cheese (I used half mozzarella, half cheddar)
1/2 cup almond meal
3 teaspoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons minced garlic
salt and pepper, to taste
any toppings you want!

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and grease your baking sheets

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cauliflower, eggs, cheese, and flax meal.

3. Once fully combine, add in the oregano, garlic and S&P. Stir stir stir!

4. Once all the ingredients are fully incorporated, divide into two equal-sized balls and flatten onto the baking sheets to a 1/4 inch width.

5. Place in the oven on the middle rack for about 20 minutes. These babies will begin to smell heaaaavenly, and will make you so excited to see how they turn out. Is cauliflower crust truly possible?

6. Once the crust is hardened but not burned, take them out and turn off the heat and the broiler setting on.

7. Add your toppings - we went with a Mediterranean themed pie, complete with sundried tomatoes, olives, caramelized onions and capers with a pesto sauce. The second was marinera-based, with a bean-puree, onions and cheddar sauce.

8. Place under the broil until the cheese begins to bubble - about 5 minutes.

9. Remove from oven and let sit for about a minute. This may be the hardest things you've ever done.

I really dug this! It's not quite pizza, as the crust IS made of cauliflower, so a fork was required for some bites. The flavor was excellent though, and i felt just as satisfied as if I had eaten real pizza. This will be happening again!