Polenta with Turkey Sausage and Greens

This dish came out very tasty. Even the kids liked it. I was worried that the green stuff and the texture would be met with curled noses and tears. This recipe came from a Weight Watcher's cookbook that I found at a yard sale for a quarter! It is called Everybody Loves Chicken. It is a great cookbook and way worth the quarter.

Polenta with Turkey Sausage and Greens
Serves 6
1 cup of coarse ground cornmeal
4 cups of water
1/2 tsp salt

6 spicy Italian turkey sausage (I used sweet Italian because of the kids)
14oz can of mustard greens (just greens and water!)

Bring water to a boil, slowly whisk in cornmeal. Keep whisking and simmering until it is as thick as you like and smooth. It will thicken more as it sets.

Squeeze sausage out of casing into a skillet sprayed with cooking spray. Crumble and brown sausage until cooked through. Add can of mustard greens (Liquid and all! The liquid has lots of vitamins.)stir over low heat until greens are cooked through.

If counting Weight Watcher points measure out 1/2 cup of polenta into a bowl. Top with approximately 1/6 of the sausage and greens mixture. Sprinkle with 1/2 TB of parmesan cheese. 6pts.

Tastes good the next day for lunch too! Just heat it all in the microwave and chow down.

Cornmeal and canned greens are great food storage items. I buy popcorn (not microwave popcorn, the real deal!) in 50lb bags at Sam's. I grind that in my grain mill for cornmeal. Grind as needed to retain vitamins and to keep it as fresh as possible. If you grind more than you will use then freeze the rest.

This looked very pretty in the bowl. Kind of Italian Country comfort food. Unfortunetly I was too hungry to go find my camera! Instead I am posting a picture of the canned greens I buy. They are cheap and simple. No additives.

This meal is a great budget stretcher too.
Greens .59
Sausage reduced for quick sale - $2.00 (at my grocery store they ALWAYS have quick sale turkey sausage)
Cornmeal:  Pennies for 1 cup of cornmeal.

Under $3 for the entire meal or aproximately .50 per serving.

Bread Day

Once a week I make lots of bread. I started out making it just for our family and I would take an extra loaf to a friend now and then. Soon I had friends showing up on my doorstep on bread day asking if maybe I had an extra loaf to spare. Soon I had a small following of bread junkies that show up with money in hand hoping to snatch up any extra loaves I have. I enjoy baking and I like that people like my bread and a little extra money for the fun jar is kinda nice too!

I make a whole wheat bread and often add goodies to it depending on my mood. I have started trying to make a good sour sourdough and while I have the sour part down but my dough always turns into a big blob when I bake it. Tasty but not pretty!

I bought my bread pans from The Urban Homemaker. I love these pans.

DIY Instant Oatmeal

We love oatmeal and instant oatmeal is very convenient but it is also pricey and full of junk! Not to mention all the packaging that is wasted with those little packets (my kids would eat like 3 each morning). I started experimenting with making my own. I think it tastes much better and is certainly better for us.

I use old fashioned oats, powdered milk, powdered whey protein (keeps my blood sugar stable), brown sugar, and real salt for the basic oatmeal. I then add all sorts of nutritional extras. I have some kids that don't like chunks of dried fruit in theirs but they all like the flavor fruit adds so I throw dried fruit, nuts or seeds and some of the oats into the blender and blend into a fine powder. The last batch I made I used pumpkin seeds, dried raspberries and dried apples. I also add spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, pumpkin or apple pie spice. Whatever sounds good. I used to package serving sized portions into reusable zip bags but that was too time consuming and the kids would forget and throw my bags away. Now I just mix it well in a big rubber made container. I just make sure the brown sugar is completely mixed in.

Too serve just scoop the desired amount into a bowl and pour boiling water over it. Stir and let set a bit to thicken up.

I make a HUGE batch but it really only lasts about 2 weeks.

Instant Oatmeal
32 servings

8 cups old fashioned oats
4 cups of oats; powdered in blender
3 cups dry milk powder
2 cups of brown sugar
4 tsp. salt

Optional Extras: ground flax, nuts, seeds, whey protein, cinnamon, dried fruit, oat or wheat bran.

Mix well and store in an airtight container. Scoop desired amount into bowl and pour boiling water over it. **Stir and let set a minute to thicken. We just eyeball the water amount. After you make it a few times you get your oatmeal groove and know just how much to use.

** if you use 100% old fashioned oats it might need a minute in the microwave to thicken it up. Sometimes I use quick oats for the whole oats and old fashioned oats for the pulverized oats.