Awesome chicken in tomato sauce over polenta

Have you ever had polenta?  Have you ever seen that log of polenta at the store?  I enjoy polenta, it’s basically corn meal and liquid – and it’s a great alternative to mashed potatoes or rice.  You can put pretty much anything over it and it’s delicious.  I was introduced to polenta by my lovely wife, and we would buy the log that you slice up and heat on stove with liquid until it’s a mashed potato consistency.  Then I decided to try to make my own from scratch, and it’s really not a hard thing to do.  You have to buy Masa Harina (it’s corn meal – don’t get all freaked out by the fancy name).  Then you bring water / stock to a boil add the Masa Harina and stir for about 30 minutes until it’s the texture you want.  If it runs out of liquid before the texture is right, add more.  It’s relatively forgiving when making it and if you’re a decent  multi-tasker, then it shouldn’t be hard to cook other things and stir the polenta every minute.  If you don’t stir the polenta frequently enough – you’ll end up with clumpy polenta – and I’m not going to lie – that’s gonna suck.  But after you’ve made fresh polenta a couple of times – it’s really easy and cheap – masa harina isn’t expensive – especially when compared the cost of the polenta log at the store.

Polenta Anyone

The secrets of the universe can best be defined by this picture:

Kids love cheese, and unless they have a lactose problem – here’s a great way of getting some vegetables into them.  The first thing to do is cook the vegetables that you want to put in this cheesy soup so that they are soft – cook it any way you want – boil, saute… whatever.  Now that the vegetables are cooked and set aside and semi-mash them (I don’t like everything mashed to a puree – it’s nice to have the texture of the vegetable in there – and it also allows you to still distinctly taste the vegetable in the soup.  If you mash it to a puree then all the flavors mix together and it could still be good, but it’s not what I personally like – or my daughter), start a roux (melt 3 tbs. butter and stir in 3 tbs. flour – stir until smooth) – once you have you’re roux, add 2 1/2 cups milk (I actually use 1 1/4 cup homemade chicken broth and 1 1/4  cup milk) – and bring it to a boil.  Cook and stir for 2 minutes until thickened and bubbly.  Add salt and pepper (and minced parsley if you want that in you’re soup).  Remove from heat and add your semi-mashed vegetables, and a cup of shredded cheese (I like cheddar – but do what you like).  Stir until the cheese is melted and enjoy.  You can crumble bacon over the top, add chopped chives, maybe sour cream.  You can also add cayenne, or some other spicy pepper if you’re into the spicy.

Potato cheese soup

I love this because no matter what vegetable I put into this soup (but let’s be reasonable – if you add beets to this – then you get what you deserve – having beets thrown at you), my little daughter will eat it up with a smile on her face.  Notes on nutrition, the longer you boil a vegetable, the less nutrients that vegetable has.  If you overboil, then both the flavor and the nutrients leech into the water – and you’ve lost the healthy part of the soup.  So par-boiling is good for softer vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower…  Sauteeing is better for summer squash, bell pepper…  But the soup is delicious regardless of the nutrition in the vegetables – and that’s thanks to the cheese. ::).

If you have any other nice soup ideas, or other meals that the kiddies enjoy – please share.

So my little girl is potty training and I’m finding out a lot of stuff that first time parents probably encounter.  First of all, it can happen quite quickly.  Our little girl has had diaper rash for so long, and the doctors can’t do anything besides give her ointment that doesn’t work.  So my wife and I broke down and did what we agreed to not do – offer up M&M’s for each time she used the potty.  Wow, talk about fast learner.  Put chocolate on the table and she dropped her drawers and could pee on demand.  So we were very excited and we bought underwear, which she was totally into.  Until accident number 1 (poop in the drawers – let the good times roll), then she wanted to wear diapers.  At the sitters she was wearing underwear all day long and didn’t have any accidents, even during nap time – but her poop schedule got all messed up.  She started pooping once a day instead of twice, and in the evening instead of night.  And she went a couple of days with no poop (that’s when I start to talk myself down from freaking out). Well, because we were putting her in diapers – we assumed that she’d feel comfortable going poop (I’m going to try to write the word poop as many times as I can) in her diaper, and also she’d go pee at night while sleeping.  Ahhh – but no, about 5 days ago she woke up every hour crying and we thought maybe it was another one of those infamous ear infections that she’s known to get.  Then at about 3 in the morning she asked to go to the potty, and she pissed like a race horse and went to sleep fine.  But her poop schedule was still off, so I started researching how we could help.  I came across three things that seemed worth trying. 1) Papaya enzymes (I have taken these before and they had helped me with digestion when I was having a lot of heart burn problems) (2) Fiber in general (bananas, oatmeal…) and (3) Flax seed (I have taken the oil in the past and put it in salad dressings – which cloaked the very distinct taste of flax).

So that night (I don’t like to ponder these things too long) I headed out the the store and bought ground flax meal and papaya enzymes.  When I got home I gave her a papaya enzyme and she thought it was Candy – awesome.  Then I took the flax meal and mixed in a teaspoon of it into her morning oatmeal – she didn’t even notice.  That day her poop schedule went back to semi-normal.  At lunch I sprinkled a teaspoon on my goulash and it blended in perfectly.

So I will be giving flax meal to my little darling for two reasons:

1) It’s a good fiber source (but you can’t give too much, because in excess it’s a laxative)

2) It’s an amazing source or Omega 3 fatty acids.  According to webMD, “Recent studies have suggested that flaxseed may have a protective effect against cancer, particularly breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer. At least two of the components in flaxseed seem to contribute, says Kelley C. Fitzpatrick, M.Sc., director of health and nutrition with the Flax Council of Canada.” – http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/benefits-of-flaxseed – and it’s also good for the heart. It also contains some Omega-6 fatty acids which are good for infant brain development – so it’s good for breastfeeding mom’s to be eating flax.  If you want more information, here’s another website that talks about the benefits of flax: http://thebest-healthy-foods.com/flax-seed-benefit/

The beauty of flax is you can bake it into things like breads, muffins, cookies – there are a zillion ways to hide it so that you, your friends, your kids are eating them without protest.

If you have any thoughts on this, recipes you’ve made with flax, other potty training stories – please share.  Oh yeah – did I mention that my little girl, besides very quickly learning how to control her peeing – she also learned that she could hold some pee in, so she could enjoy her M&M’s and go pee again in 5 more minutes…  It’s great to watch those not so little minds develop.