A Delicious Dinner!

I am SO excited about my dinner tonight! I have some groceries to use up before our trip next week, so I decided to look for a new recipe to try that used a few of them. I picked eggs, spinach, & cheese and found something terrific! At first I flipped through some of my favorite cookbooks.

But I ended up finding this particular recipe using the Whole Food Recipe app on my iPhone. There is a neat way to search where you tell them what food you have on hand and it pulls a bunch of recipes that use those ingredients. What I found was called "Poached Eggs on Manchego Polenta Croutons with Spinach". I had a tube of pre-made polenta in my fridge and some Romano cheese to sub in for the Manchego. I was a little nervous because I've never poached an egg before, but I was up for the challenge.

First, I sliced the polenta into 12 rounds (Have you used this stuff before? It's so good crisped up in a skillet, baked in the oven, or used as a layer in lasagna instead of noodles!) Then I piled on the Romano and popped them into a 425 degree oven for 12 minutes. They came out hot and crispy. Mmmmm.

Then I tackled poaching an egg. The two tricks to poaching an egg that I've learned from (several years of) watching the Food Network are to add vinegar to the water and to stir the water to create a "whirlpool" before you drop in the egg. The recipe said to cook for 4 minutes for a liquid yolk and 6 minutes for firm. I went a little over 4 and wished it was a little runnier. Also, next time I will use a bigger pot for deeper water because part of my egg got stuck to the bottom (I think my "whirlpool" was a little too strong). I didn't get the perfect poach, but it wasn't bad. I mean, it tasted good, what more could you want!

On a plate, I laid a bed of baby spinach, topped it with 3 of the cheesy polenta slices, and then added the egg. Salt, pepper, and a bit of hot sauce and I had the best dinner I've had in a long time! Seriously, I was sooooo happy with this. Isn't it awesome when you cook yourself a wonderful meal?! SO rewarding.

After dinner I packed my meals for tomorrow. For breakfast I have an English muffin with almond butter and a banana. Lunch is leftovers from dinner (minus the egg) and apple slices. I filled a bowl with spinach, added a couple of spoonfuls of hummus, a sprinkle of hot sauce, some red pepper slices, and 3 polenta slices. For snacks I have cottage cheese, some crispy chickpeas, and celery with a Laughing Cow cheese wedge.

While watching TV I snacked on half a package of coconut M&Ms. These taste good, but I kept expecting little pieces of coconut. I think it's kind of funny that they are all green, white, or brown.

Okey doke, time to go find something green to wear tomorrow - goodnight!