Breakfast Polenta with Banana

Breakfast polenta has officially made it to my personal list of "best breakfast options". It's a super easy, affordable and delicious way to fill your belly and keep you fuelled during the entire morning.

Polenta is a dish made from boiled cornmeal. I know it doesn't sound exciting at all but trust me, you are going to love it. After it's been boiled you can add alls sorts of ingredients and cook a wide range of different meals with it. 

You can make sweet and savoury dishes. You can serve it warm or cold. And when it cools down you can make cakes or patties that you can bake, roast or grill. It is super versatile and easy to introduce to one's diet. 

Polenta is a big thing for many European cuisines, especially in Italy where it is originally from. They use it in soups, salads, as a side dish and as a thickening agent. It is gluten-free so a lot of people use it to cook baking goods and make things crispy. 

I grew up having polenta as a staple in my mom's kitchen but to be honest, I don't cook with it much. But since it's so good I really want to include it in more recipes. I'm starting with breakfast options such as this one and a super tasty polenta with blueberries recipe that I'll be sharing with you very soon.

You can easily find polenta at the store. It's now very common and fortunately, very affordable as well. You can buy the coarse cornmeal and make polenta from scratch to make it really cheap. But it takes a while, maybe 40 minutes or so to be fully cooked. 

You can also find pre-cooked polenta in the refrigerated section of most supermarkets. It comes in a tube and is ready to use but is a lot more pricey and I think is a good option if you are going to slice it and have ti as patties. 

Luckily, there's a third option and that's instant or quick-polenta, similar to instant oats. This is the happy middle. It's a lot more affordable than the pre-cooked stuff and it is ready much faster than making it from scratch.  

I like to be time efficient early in the morning and pre cooked meals help. We can make the recipe in 15 minutes or less. Also, since we like to keep our recipes budget-friendly I always opt for instant polenta.

This recipe is quick and easy. We just need to heat up the almond milk and add the polenta just as it starts to boil. Let it simmer for a few minutes so the polenta becomes thicker. That's your queue to add the protein powder and the turmeric. 

I like to serve it in individual containers and then mix in the topping ingredients. This way I make sure everyone gets a good amount of everything. To finish it off I cut the bananas into little slices and I try to make it pretty out of pure vanity!