Eat Food That You Make

I used to really hate cooking, or rather, feel really overwhelmed at the thought of cooking, as if it were too hard to get it all together or something. Not anymore. So I'm going to share with you something I make pretty regularly, something that is really easy and pretty good for you. It's basically a little casserole that I adapted from this recipe over at Sustainable Pantry. I don't know what to call it...it's basically polenta with some kind of beans, tomatoes in some form, some cheese, and some vegetables. And it's good! I've fed it to vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike and they all seem to like it. So here goes.

You will need:

• 1 1/4 cup Coarse-grind cornmeal. (If you can't find coarse-grind, regular will do)
• 4 cups water
• 1 can (16oz?) of white beans, either cannelini or great northern
• 1 can (16oz) of diced tomatoes, well drained (and I mean WELL drained. Or, you can use fresh chopped tomatoes. Fresher is better, I always like to say.)
• parmesan cheese
• mozzarella cheese (I used a mozzarella ball, but you can use whatever type you want)
• 1 small white onion (or whatever you have on hand)
• mushrooms (or not, your call)
• Salt, pepper and whatever other seasonings you want to add

Directions:
1. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan. Mix the cornmeal with the 4th cup of water. When the water is boiling, slowly add the cornmeal/water mixture and whisk so it doesn't clump up. Bring it back up to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer. Stir it frequently or it will stick to the bottom of the pot. You'll want to cook it for about 15 minutes. It will thicken as you cook and you want it to be fairly thick. This is the fun part because as it cooks, it will bubble and kind of look like lava (that's how they describe it at Sustainable Pantry and they're right).  I even took a little video of it while it was cooking so you can see for yourself:

                                      (Notice my unicorn trivet)

2. While the polenta is cooking, dice the onions, chop the mushrooms, shred the cheese if necessary, drain and rinse the beans and drain the liquid out of the canned tomatoes. Maybe take this opportunity to pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. But don't forget to stir the polenta from time to time.

3. When the polenta is done, turn off the heat and throw the diced onions in there, some salt and pepper, maybe some garlic powder, and a handful or so of parmesan cheese.

4. In a 9x9 pyrex or other square casserole dish, layer one half of the polenta. Then add the beans, then the tomatoes, then the mushrooms, and finally the mozzarella cheese. Pour the remaining half of the polenta over the top and spread it around. You can add some more parmesan cheese on top if you'd like.

5. Bake for 20 minutes. It really won't need more time in there than this. You'll find that if there's too much liquid in the tomatoes, the bottom will be watery, but that's okay, it will still taste good.

Ok, now you try.