The hairy eyeball before the meal.

With much skepticism, from B,  I cooked parmesan crusted polenta with a vegetable marinara for dinner. After our workout after work we have gotten into the routine of cooking dinner right away in mind of the goal of watching jeopardy to start the night. We die the nights Jeopardy isn’t on! Back to the food at hand. I made a gluten free bread crumb, parmesan and black pepper mix. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten a pepper grinder for fresh pepper. This is something I am wanting to invest a little money into. I worked off of a pampered chef recipe from a cookbook I received for the wedding. (Thanks Mrs. Breitnauer!) I obviously tweeked it to my liking but used it as an outline. I sautéed two zucchinis and a package of mushrooms. I would have loved to use a bulk mix of creminis and shitake but all Trader Joes had was baby bella’s. They worked, but don’t have as much flavor to them. The zucchini also didn’t have a pow of flavor, but it’s not in season, so it will do. Once cooked to crisp I added some marinara to sit and simmer for flavor. In the mean time I boiled some chicken to add for Brandon. I would take the vegetable version any day but B needs the meat and I am working on cooking for a manly man. I then crusted and fried the polenta at about ½ inch thick slices. When the chicken was done I shredded it and put it with the sauce and saved the chicken water to make stock to freeze. I know that Ina has a recipe for stock but I couldn’t find it in the heat of the moment as my polenta started to burn.

 

When done we had a wonderful flavorful meal. I knew he would love it but kept my mouth shut. Within the first bite I got praise! With the second bite, even more praise! With my first bite I loved it! Next time I think I will do shrimp instead of chicken. It would be a good flavor combination!