Chili Polenta Slices

I love learning about a new ingredient that i've never cooked with before. 

Introducing...Polenta! It comes in a tube, it's yellow, and it's boiled corn meal. It looks a lot like cheese, so I think it throws people off. I would pass it on a weekly basis when I was grocery shopping at Darrenkamp's. But didn't know what it was until recently. 


I had seen a recipe for barbecue chicken on top of polenta. I wanted to try a variation on it while on vacation. Well, I went to Walmart & Food Lion and neither of them had it. So I waited to come home to try it.  I went to Giant & Weis and couldn't find it there either. So I did what I should've done all along and went to Darrenkamp's to pick it up. It's located in the Pasta isle near the the tomato sauce and parmesan.



If you cut out the oil (maybe bake or using cooking spray instead) then this meal in incredibly low in fat & calories. It's even pretty healthy with the olive oil. There is about 35 calories and no fat in each slice of polenta. I used 98% fat free turkey chili and just a little bit of shredded cheese to keep the count down. 


Ingredients:
1 tube package of polenta
2 tbsp olive oil
1 can hormel turkey chili
1/2 block of jack cheese, shredded (I used Heluva Good Monterey Jack with Jalapeno)


Directions:
Open package of polenta (some water might leak out).
Dry off and cut into 1 cm slices.
Pour 1 tbsp of oil into a pan on low heat.

Place 4 to 6 slices in pan and cook for 5 to 6 minutes on each side or until they turn a crispy brown color. (do not burn). Lower heat if necessary.

Meanwhile, cook can of chili over medium-low heat for 5 to 10 minutes or until beans and chili are all heated through. 

After polenta is cooked put spoonfuls of chili on each fried slice.

Top with jack cheese.

What do you think? Comments? Suggestions? I would love to know that you visited my blog. Please leave me a message letting me know you were here! Did you try out a recipe? Let me know! I would love to hear from you :-)