Polenta Lasagna & Cake Pops the cheating way

The other night my friends Chris and Angela came over for dinner.

Angela found a really good recipe for using polenta in place of pasta noodles.

It turned out awesome.

We added a few extras though, because the recipe was pretty basic and plain.

Here it is:

Ingredients

1 (18 ounce) package polenta, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
1/2 (24 ounce) jar bottled marinara sauce
1/4 cup pesto
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Oil an 11x7x2 inch baking dish.
Arrange a single layer of polenta in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Spread a thin layer of pesto over the polenta. Spoon half of the sauce over the polenta. Top with another layer of polenta and sauce.
Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Turn on the broiler. Top polenta with cheese and pine nuts, and broil until cheese browns and nuts are toasted.

Our modifications:

We oven roasted zucchini, squash,onions and mushrooms in the over with some olive oil and seasonings till tender and added those to a layer in the dish.

We also added a layer of Ricotta Cheese so that it was a little heartier and had more of that lasagna taste.

Then we broiled it at the end with cheddar and Parmesan on top!

It tasted great.

The verdict from the boys – “It needs meat”

While that dish was in the oven , we decided to try out on of my Christmas gifts.

I got a Cake Pop maker!

I have tried numerous times to make the enviable cake pop.

I usually yield 5 that turn out great, the rest suck.

They all taste good, but that’s not the point!

This machine makes it so much easier.

It wasn’t on my wish list, i didn’t even know it existed, but it’s a pretty hand little thing.
It would actually be a great project for younger kids too.