Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Sausage & Polenta Bento


Sausage & Polenta Bento, originally uploaded by sherimiya ♥.
This bento arose from some random food tweets I was reading in the morning. Someone mentioned they had sausage and homefries for breakfast and I thought that sounded good for dinner, but then I realized I only had purple potatoes. Not sure how appetizing that would look. Then someone else mentioned polenta croutons and I thought: hmm, polenta - perfect! So that's what I made. It really helps that I follow lots of "foodie" types on twitter :)

I gave MisterMan some Trader Joe's chicken / jalapeno (!) sausage alongside some sauteed mini sweet peppers and onions. I actually didn't mean to use the spicy sausages, but I forgot to check, and didn't notice until after I already started frying them up. Oh well. I decided to just give it to them without mentioning my mistake. If you mention "spicy", my girl will shriek "No! Too spicy!" without even trying it. So what do you think? They gobbled it up for dinner. Woohoo!

For some reason kids just love polenta, and I made this one without any butter at all; just cornmeal and cheese. I was going to save some for frying into croutons, but they ate it all up too fast. I decorated with maroon carrot flowers and a little broccoli. For fruits I added a sliced plum and a mini mandarin. Two little chickie pals will accompany him for lunch :)

9 comments:

  1. polenta is nice, too bad the rest of family don't think so. SPICY sausages rocks really brings flavours to any dish. TinySprite is too cute.

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  2. Thanks javapot, I agree. Spicy sausage and polenta. Gotta remember this combo :)

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  3. I love polenta, but have never tried it with cheese. Maybe I should simply try it ;) Your bento looks really nice and delicious. But I would act like your daughter, I don't like spicy things. So I probably would not try the spicy sausages if I had known the mistake ;)

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  4. wow, jalapeno sausage sounds wonderful, need to make a note of that for my next trader joe's run. nice that the kids gobbled it, too! this bento is sweet with the little ducklings, and the colors of the plum are amazing. along with the polenta and the sauteed peppers and the clementine, it's a symphony of oranges, peaches, and warm yummy tones!

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  5. So nourishing and tasty, and full of savor and warm color! I'd like to have this bento for lunch then curl up like the kitty for a nice nap!

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  6. I can't figure the difference between polenta and grits. I love sausage and grits so I can only imagine how good this bento is/was ;)

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  7. Looks tasty!! Kidlet will not eat something if you say it's spicy, which is funny because he loves food that is spicy, he just doesn't know it I guess! :D

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  8. I love sausage and polenta! I especially love the creamy kind with lotsa butter and cheese. :D Beautiful bento Sheri!

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  9. Hi Lil'chan, thanks! Actually I've never tried it without cheese! It's quite easy to simply add it and see :)

    Thanks megan, you're right about the warm tones; I didn't even notice that. TJs has nitrite-free sausages in all kinds of varieties; they're really good!

    Thanks bentobird, wish I could say I did that, but...I did wish I could!

    Angi, I don't know the difference either; you would know more than me about grits, but isn't that hominy? I've never had it but I bet I would love it too.

    Jenn, that's so funny. Kids are so silly that way! Thanks!

    Thanks Susan; my kids would never have enough butter and cheese!

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