Well, this was delicious.

What? You’ve never eaten breakfast out of a mixing bowl with a plastic spoon? Well, you haven’t lived my friend! I’m really living the dream these days.

But seriously, this meal is about as delicious, filling, easy and flexible as breakfast can get.

In fact, I think it’s maybe even easier and more flexible than oatmeal.

Quick Breakfast Polenta

Yield: Serves 2.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 Cup Dried polenta
3 Cups liquid (I used just water for my version, but you could use milk or any kind of stock as well)
Pinch of salt and pepper
Toppings a-plenty

Directions:

1) Add polenta to a medium pot. Add liquid along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Most polenta needs 3 cups liquid per cup of polenta, but check your packaging.

2) Bring to a simmer and stir constantly until it begins to thicken. Make sure it isn't sticking to the bottom of the pot. Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

3) When it's bubbling and the polenta is soft, it's done. You can thicken it up more if you want but I like mine a bit runny for this dish.

4) Top with any number of delicious things.

Polenta

In the South, polenta is known as grits. Sometimes restaurants serve polenta as blocks (like this polenta with tomato sauce), but really grits or polenta is just ground corn that has dozens of different preparations.

I’m calling it polenta just because I recently got back from Italy and that’s what they call it there.

Grits? It's just ground up corn!

Polenta is shockingly simple to cook. Just add it to a medium pot and add liquid along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Most polenta calls for about 3 cups of liquid per cup of polenta but you should check yours for instructions as the amount of liquid might change depending on how course the grind is on your polenta.

I just used water for my version (because that’s all I had), but you could use milk, any sort of stock, or a mixture. Milk will make the polenta really creamy and rich. Something like chicken stock would make it really savory.

Bring the pot to a simmer, stirring frequently to make sure the polenta doesn’t stick. Then turn the heat to low and simmer it, stirring frequently. It should start to thicken in no time.

Bubble Bubble...

Meanwhile, find some add-ins that you’d like to top the polenta with, but don’t forget to stir the polenta every 30 seconds or so. This is where the real magic of this breakfast comes in. You can add almost anything to this stuff, savory or sweet.

For this version, I added some leftover dried fruits and nuts that I had in my pantry: Dates, apricots, and pecans. I also added in some brown sugar and a bit of butter.

Endless possibilities really.

The polenta will probably take about 10-15 minutes to cook again depending on your specific kind. I actually like mine a bit on the runny side for this meal. If it gets too thick then it will firm up really quickly as it cools. The corn should be tender but the thickness can vary based on your personal tastes.

This was my finished version after about 15 minutes of stirring and bubbling.

Looks kind of bland I know.

Then just top with anything you want and eat immediately!

Awesome breakfast.

This is actually a great meal for if you’ve had a few too many the night before (I made this the night after Betsy and I had a going away party). It’s simple to make and really flavorful and filling.

Here’s 20 things you could add to this that would be really good:

- Chocolate chips
- Cocoa powder
- Maple syrup
- Crumbled bacon
- Crumbled breakfast sausage
- Any dried fruit (cranberries, cherries, blueberries, etc)
- Any nuts at all (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, etc)
- Seeds (poppy, sunflower, etc)
- Butter
- Brown sugar
- Milk
- Goat cheese
- Sun-dried tomatoes
- Roasted peppers
- A poached egg
- Chopped shrimp (shrimp and grits)
- Chopped spinach
- Smoked paprika
- Gorgonzola (blue) cheese
- Shredded cheddar cheese (cheesy grits)

Have anything to add to the add-in list? Leave a comment!

I’m always up for a good challenge and this was a tough one. I mean she clearly has a pretty large advantage on me as I’ve never purposefully tried to make a vegan dish although sometimes I make one by accident I’m sure.

To make things even more difficult, these were are chosen ingredients: Fruit preserves and raisins!

I'm pretty much at a loss.

Honestly, I’m not sure what I would’ve done even if I could’ve used meat and/or dairy. I poured over recipes for days trying to think of something that would work with both of these things and satisfy the Vegan deal. I decided to use an Apricot preserve that I had left over from my very non-vegan calzones. No real reason other than it was in my pantry.

This is the approximate thought process that eventually got me to my recipe:

“I want to make something good. Something with apricot and raisins. Maybe I could make a sauce? And put it on what? Salad? Gross. Tofu? Ugh. Veggies? That wouldn’t be filling enough. Yes. Filling. I want something filling. Something filled with apricots and raisins. Ok. I’m really on a roll now. Wait. Roll. I can make a roll. A roll with filling. But my filling would be a jelly. A JELLY ROLL. Kick ass.”

And the dessert was born: Vegan Apricot Raisin Jelly Roll

I had two huge problems right away: 1) I’ve never made a jelly roll. I knew they have eggs in them though. 2) I’ve never substituted anything for eggs or baked anything Vegan at all.

I did some research and found this eggless baking guide. I decided to do a mix of two different substitutions and use some banana and some silken tofu in place of eggs. Why? I have no idea. I’ve never done this before. It just felt right okay?

Who needs eggs?

This was the recipe I ended up with.

Vegan Jelly Roll (Adapted from Baking Sheet)

- 1 banana, mushed up
- 1/3 Cup Silken tofu
- 3/4 Cup sugar
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla
- 3/4 Cup sifted cake flour
- 3/4 Teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 Teaspoon salt

With a hand mixer, I combined my banana and tofu until they were fairly smooth and then added my sugar and vanilla. In a separate bowl, I sifted together my flour, baking powder and salt. Then I mixed them all together.

No animals were harmed in the making of this batter.

To make the roll you need to make a very thin layer of cake that is moist and flexible. The last thing you want to do is overcook this batter.

I got a large baking sheet and lined it with parchment paper. Then poured the batter and spread it out to form a thin layer. At this point, I figured I had about a 10% chance of success with this.

Here was when failure became a distinct possibility.

Bake that for 8 minutes at 350 degrees. You might need up to 10 minutes, but definitely start checking it early. You don’t want the cake to crisp up at all.

Meanwhile, get a large kitchen towel and sprinkle it with powdered sugar. By sprinkle, I mean cover.

When the cake comes out of the oven, loosen the edges around the parchment paper, take a deep breath, and flip the parchment paper over onto the towel! If you have any kitchen karma points stocked up, now would be a good time to cash them in.

Peel back the parchment paper and dust your cake with more powdered sugar. If you are lucky, you might see this:

Oh glorious day!

Start on one of the shorter ends and roll the cake up with the towel! Basically, the dish towel is acting as the jelly while the cake cools. Set the entire towel deal on a rack to cool.

Cool it down.

As this was cooling, I decided to focus on the jelly filling. While I could just mix together the preserves and the raisins, I thought I would kick things up a notch with some of this Vegan ingredient:

Whiskey = Vegan!

I soaked the raisins in about 1/4 Cup of whiskey for 20 minutes or so. Stirring every few minutes. I probably used 1/2 Cup of raisins.

Drunken raisins.

Then I added the whiskey and raisins to about 2/3 Cups of preserves. Yes. This makes this dessert alcoholic. At this point I figured it would give the dessert some kick and also someone would probably need to be drunk to try it anyway…

Goop!

When your roll is completely cool, you can unroll it, spread your filling on and roll it back up! That part is super-easy.

Umm... okay.

Once it is rolled up, sprinkle it with a good dusting of powdered sugar and you are all set!

Success?!

This turned out much better than I thought it was going to turn out.

I know... Overkill on the sugar.

A few honest assessments on this recipe:

1) The cake part wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t quite as fluffy as if I had used eggs I think , but it was still decent. It tasted like bananas and you couldn’t taste the tofu at all.
2) The filling was super sweet. If I were to for some reason make this again, I would add probably 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice to cut the sweetness.
3) The entire time I was making this, I was singing the Coolio classic, “Rollin’ with the Homies.”

Check out Veggie Girl’s dish and don’t forget to vote for your favorite! Voting closes on Sunday at 9AM EST.

These guys would have totally clinched the competition for me: Apricot and Chicken Calzones

One. Million. Dollars.

The sort of annoying thing about the Pillsbury Bake-off is that you have to use specific ingredients from specific lists. Obviously these ingredients are from sponsored companies and it’s how they are able to give out the crazy amount of money that they give out just for baking a cream puff or something. I was originally going to use an apricot jam and a pre-made frozen dough from the approved companies to make my calzones.

Since they disqualified me, I decided to use a different brand of apricot jam. TAKE THAT PILLSBURY!

These are the ingredients I added to my chicken filling.

Mascarpone was a bad choice.

For the chicken filling, cube about a pound of chicken and cook it in two tablespoons of oil. When it is cooked, add about 8 ounces of apricot jam, the juice of one lime, and 1/4 Teaspoon grated nutmeg. Stir all that together and add a pinch of salt and pepper. The apricot is pretty mild actually and the lime cuts the sweetness. It turned out to be a really nice filling.

Simmer it down.

I actually made two versions of this recipe. For version one, I used mascarpone cheese and store bought puff pastry. These turned out okay, but mascarpone wasn’t a good cheese choice and the puff pastry was too light. If I were making these again with puff pastry, I would make them smaller and use a different cheese. If they were bite-sized, they would be tasty little appetizers. Maybe not million dollar appetizers, but tasty!

Puff pastries are tasty.

This was the result of the puff pastry experiment.

Good. Maybe not million dollars good.

But this wasn’t quite what I was looking for. I wanted a more traditional calzone. Something substantial. I also figured that since I was disqualified, I might as well make my own dough, because let’s face it – frozen dough is not worth a million dollars.

I made a standard pizza dough that I would use for forming the calzones. Check out my mashed potato pizza or mini-pizza party post to see the recipe I use for pizza dough. The standard recipe I use in those posts make 2 large pizzas, 4 large calzones, or 6-8 smaller calzones.

Homemade pizza dough shouldn't be intimidating.

I made the same filing for these as I made for the puff pastry version, but I used mozzarella cheese. The mascarpone turned really soupy which I should have expected. Mozzarella is an awesome melty cheese. It worked great with these.

Roll the dough out into a thin circle on a flour-dusted surface. I did not go light on the filling with these. It’s a million dollars people. Don’t skimp on the chicken!

Don't go light on the filling.

Brush the edges of the circle with some egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with 1 Tablespoon of water). Fold over the dough and work out any air bubbles. Then seal the edges. I’m not the best at making the decorative edges. I just make sure that it is sealed well or the cheese will just explode out the side of the calzone. Then brush the top with more egg wash and cut a few slits in the top to let steam escape.

Ready for the oven.

Slide these guys into a 400 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. When the come out, they will be very hot. Let them cool for a few minutes before cutting into them.

Calzone done right.

Ok. So I probably wouldn’t have won the Bake-off, but I also don’t really consider myself a food professional. That’s okay though. These awesome calzones helped soothe the pain of rejection.

A Pizza stone and peel will really help your cause if you want to make these.

Any readers out there able to actually enter this competition??