Roasted Vegetables and Chorizo over Polenta
When we were staying with my parents this summer, my mom asked me several times when she was planning meals, “Will your girls eat this?”
After a while, I realized that I never actually think about them when I make dinner. I pick things that look good to me and that’s what we have (it’s good to be the boss).
On a really good day, I make a dinner that everyone in the family likes.
But I’ll settle for 75%, which is what happened with this meal.
(If you guessed that the missing 25% was Ella, you were absolutely right. She still ate it, but she wasn’t very happy about it. Ani, on the other hand, had three servings).
Anyway, since no one went to bed hungry, and three of us are very excited about leftovers tomorrow, I’m counting it as a big win.
chicken chorizo and roasted vegetables over polenta
Roasted Vegetables and Chorizo over Polenta
This chicken chorizo and roasted vegetables over polenta recipe is a dynamite dinner! So much flavor and incredibly delicious!!
Ingredients
Roasted Vegetables:
- 1 to mato halved and then sliced
- 1 red pepper thinly sliced
- 1/2 red onion halved and thinly sliced
- 1 yellow squash halved and thinly sliced
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 8 oz ground chorizo or sausage will work too
Polenta:
- 1 cup milk
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 3/4 cup cornmeal
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar or colby cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups baby spinach roughly chopped
- 4 eggs
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
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On a baking sheet lined with foil, arrange the vegetables in a single layer, toss with olive oil and generously salt and pepper. Roast until soft and slightly browned, about 30-40 minutes. Set aside and leave the oven on.
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In an oven-proof skillet, cook the chorizo. Remove from the pan and drain. Set aside.
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In the same skillet, warm the milk and broth. Add the cornmeal and whisk to combine, then let it come to a gentle boil, stirring frequently. Add the cheese, stir to combine, then salt and pepper to taste.
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Sprinkle the spinach over the top of the polenta, then layer on the vegetables and finally the chorizo. With a spoon, make four wells and crack the eggs into them. Put the skillet in the oven and cook for about 10-15 minutes, until the egg whites are opaque.
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Serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
(adapted from Feasting at Home)
I don't think about my kids when planning dinner, either – or my husband, sometimes 🙂 I do adjust portions sometimes based on whether the kids like it and will eat a lot at dinner + leftovers or if they probably will just pick at it and we don't need as much. Backfired last week when I only cooked a few pieces of tilapia and they went nuts over it!
That method has been working well for me for some time. I make what I want and put it in front of them without telling them what it is. And most of the time, they eat it.
My nephew spent some time with us last week and I nearly went crazy trying to feed him because he's so picky. His mom said he likes Kraft Mac and cheese, so I bought some. When I made it, he looked at it and said, "but I like hot dogs in my macaroni." I don't do hot dogs. So then he says, "this doesn't look like the kind I like." I bought the spiral noodles instead of the regular macaroni noodles. He tried it, said it didn't taste good and didn't eat it. I also didn't make him anything else, so he grabbed an apple and a cheese stick and ate that.
The next day, at a family party, he was in tears because there was "nothing for him to eat." There were tables of food–veggies and dip, salad, deviled eggs, potato salad, mini hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls, ham, turkey breast AND corned beef. But "nothing for him to eat."
This looks so yummy! It's 100% going on next weeks meal plan! I don't plan with kids in mind either. Kyle will usually at least put it in his mouth, and as long as he does that once, I don't really care if he spits it our or whatever, cause at least he tried it. We also keep the house well stocked with bananas, yougurt, and eggs for when my meals don't make the cut.
Whaaaat?! This looks amazing! I am definitely making this pronto. (Well, telling the chef, my husband, to make it….) I love sausage but sometimes the casing weirds me out a little, so ground chorizo is just the solution! Also, the apartment we're sub-letting has some polenta chilling out in the cupboard and I've never really used it before and wasn't sure what to do with it. Now I have a recipe…
I always cooked mainly what seemed good to me and served the kids whatever I made. They're great eaters and when they're guests they will eat anything they're served even if they don't really like it. Their friend's families love to host them.
On the other hand I have a couple of nieces whose mom was always a short order cook. They're 19 and 14 now, and they are still exactly like Kayris's nephew with "nothing to eat for them here"! I love them but I never enjoy their visits because I always stress about what to serve them and even if I make something I know they like, they're never satisfied because "it's not exactly the same like mommy's" or whatever.
I'm bookmarking this recipe and I know my kids will gobble it up!
I feel ya with trying to get your child to eat, and be happy about it. Janni's 2 year checkup puts her in the 5% weight and I'm not sure what to do about it. Sigh. This looKS super yum! Gonna have to try it!
You and I have chatted oodles of times about picky eaters, so you know where I stand on this issue. As we get ready to leave our kids with Eric's cousins (and they will in turn leave their kids with us some time later) I am so glad my kids will not be a huge burden to the cousins, at least not insofar as being picky eaters. It didn't really dawn on me until reading Karyis's comment above that teaching my kids to eat a variety of foods makes things easier on their caregivers too. (And, I'm really happy that these cousins also do not have super picky kids since we'll be watching them sometime too. I would (a) hate to have to cater to their specific tastes and (b) have their bad eating habits rub off on my own kids.)
This was so delicious. We made this with sausage instead of chorizo, and I would absolutely make it again. Thanks for the great recipe!