Early Bird Special – Polenta Pie

Last night after work, I got started immediately on dinner. What I had in mind would take nearly an hour to bake, and since I'm used to eating the 'early bird special' I knew there was no time to waste!

I have been wanting to make a polenta pie for a while now, and when I realized I had the ingredients for Caitlin's (Healthy Tipping Point) version I was ecstatic!

The recipe couldn't be simpler! Chop, steam, blend, mix, slice, top, bake. Got it? Here are some visuals:

NOTE: If you read below the recipe, she recommends omitting the milk (which I did). The one change I made from Caitlin's version was to use fresh tomatoes instead of sun-dried (Katie's not a fan). I blotted the tomato slices between a couple of layers of paper towels before arranging on the top of the pie.

Isn't it pretty?! (before baking)

It tasted really good - so creamy and 'cheesy' for having no dairy in it! But I still thought it seemed a little too soft. Maybe add some bread crumbs or an egg to bind it? Longer baking time? I also thought I used too much asparagus, but Katie thought it was fine. I'm excited to try this again with different veggies - broccoli? mushrooms? spinach & artichoke?

(after baking)

Since the pie recipe only calls for half of a container of tofu, I thought I'd make some BBQ baked tofu with the rest. To do this I:
1. Drained the tofu (squeeze out excess liquid, then wrap in paper towels and place under a heavy object for 15 minutes. Here I used a kettle full of cold water, but in college this is what I'd use my giant text books for!)

2. Cube the tofu
3. Coat the tofu in BBQ sauce
4. Spread tofu on oiled baking sheet

5. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes (alongside the polenta pie), flipping/stirring once.

It smelled great while it was baking! It will be nice to have in the fridge for a quick and easy meal later in the week.

While dinner was baking, I packed my breakfast and lunch for the next day. For breakfast I made a delicious 'peaches n cream' smoothie! This was just some frozen peaches, plain yogurt, and a bit of maple syrup blended up - yum!

For lunch I packed the last of the meatless meatloaf on top of some brown rice. Then I added some cottage cheese and a sliced pear for snacks.

We ate dinner while watching The Biggest Loser (when is the makeover episode?! It's my favorite!) and then Katie introduced me to Tabata workouts! Tabata workouts are intervals of 20 second 'sprints' and 10 second rests. You do this 8 times (for 4 minutes). The Lincoln Crossfit WOD (workout of the day) was to do 4 sets of Tabata intervals - pullups, squats, pushups, and situps. You do as many as you can during the 20 second 'sprint'. I changed my sets to be planks, squats, modified pushups, and glute v-ups. 20 seconds sounds short, but let me tell you, I was sweating and grunting by the end! It felt great! Oh, FYI, you can download a Tabata timer ap for your iPhone that will buzz at each of the 20 and 10 second intervals. I'll just warn you, those 10 second rests start feeling shorter and shorter!

Ok, time to do some car-buying research (boooooo!!!) Got any tips for me?!?!