I don’t do dishes in the morning. Dishes are no way to start the day.
While I am all about a big, fat, kitchen wrecking breakfast- morning clean up is absolutely nowhere in my early day itinerary.
The reality is, I may not get to have that perfect, sunny morning weekend wake up experience everyday. I am convinced, however, that there’s a way to put a smile on my face every morning… even if you have to force it on with a wrench.
When I’m in no mood to get out of bed and start my day I give myself this little speech in my head: Joy, stop being such a crabby pants. Get out of bed, go put on that big robe that feels like a combination of cloud and kitten and make yourself breakfast without setting those robe sleeves on fire. While you’re treating yourself to a fine morning… go ahead and take a break from those breakfast dishes. You’ve done enough work just getting out of bed… The dishes can wait.
And just like that, the ugly Monday morning isn’t as nasty a beast as I thought.
Make Monday morning Vanilla Brown Sugar Breakfast Polenta, and let the dirty pan soak in the sink until you get home from work. Live a little… don’t do the dishes.
What’s the deal with polenta?
Here’s what you need to know: polenta is ground white or yellow cornmeal. It is boiled with water or milk and made into a warm and super pleasing porridge. The mixtures cooks up smooth and creamy and can be made either sweet or savory according to your needs.
The Moretti polenta I used is straight from Italy, although you can find it here it the states. It’s dreamy. The Moretti family has been making polenta in Lombardy since 1922. Their corn is air dried then stone crushed. It’s the real deal. The polenta meal comes in different levels of coarseness. I chose the fine grain meal because it cooks up faster and I love the texture for breakfast food.
Note: If you have leftover polenta, don’t dump it! Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap, add the leftover cooked polenta and cover with the overhanging plastic wrap. Throw it in the fridge for a night or two, and I’ll show you how to make fried polenta sticks next!
Vanilla Brown Sugar Breakfast Polenta
1 cup polenta
3 cups cold water
2 cups whole milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
sprinkle of cinnamon (if desired)
In a small bowl measure out 1 cup of dried polenta. Top with 1 cup cold water and stir. Set aside. In a medium saucepan add 2 cups cold water and 2 cups whole milk. Bring to a low boil. Add salt and stir. Slowly add the polenta and water mixture, using a whisk to stir out any possible lumps.
Once all of the polenta is added, turn the flame to low and simmer, stirring frequently, until the polenta has thickened. Depending on the coarseness of your meal, it may take 10-40 minutes. Mine took about 10-12 minutes to cook. Once thickened, add sugar and vanilla bean or vanilla extract. Sprinkle cinnamon in if you life.
Place polenta in small bowls and top with milk and a sprinkle of additional brown sugar if you like.
Place leftover polenta in a lined loaf pan for fried polenta sticks as directed in the note above.
{ 57 comments… read them below or add one }
Wait… whoa… does you bringing this up mean there are people in existence who DO do dishes in the morning??
I have never made sweet polenta, but I am sure gonna now! Looks comforting and creamy… perfect for a drizzly monday morning.
Can you use cornmeal for this instead of polenta? I’m trying to use up my cornmeal.
I must confess… I find it really, REALLY difficult to let dirty dishes just lie there in the sink… sigh….
This does look like the most perfect breakfast dish — looking forward to the polenta sticks recipe too :)
This breakfast looks really appetizing! I never thought to have polenta for breakfast! So, I must try it! Thanks!!
Getting up to the thought of dirty dishes is the worst, so I put on my “kitchen blinkers” and use the counter that faces away from the sink to make coffee and toast. If you can’t see it, it’s not there, right?
I reckon I could use that counter to cook up a batch of this, is looks perfects for chilly February mornings. Thanks Joy!
Question…can you microwave cook the polenta? With a toddler and a baby in the house 10-40 min is a lot of stove time…but looks so good I really want to make it! Thanks!
I get out of bed for 2 reasons – to put on my big, fuzzy pink robe and drink coffee.
Growing up, I would have farina for breakfast. Sweet polenta sounds like it would right up my alley.
Yum. This looks great a nice change from my oatmeal!
Now THIS is something I haven’t thought of! I’ve only ever had savory polenta…I’m a huge fan of things like Malt-o-Meal, Cream of Wheat, and of course regular oatmeal, so I’m betting I’m going to LOVE this! Thanks, Joy – I can’t wait to try it!!
What a joyful breakfast! Can’t wait to try this…thanks Joy :)
I’ve never thought of having polenta for breakfast (where have I been!!) but this would definitely be a great reason to get out of bed!
My mouth is watering! Looks delicious.
Fortunately my kids love polenta as much as I do, because it a frequent breakfast around here.
We eat grits for breakfast here in the South like that….so why not polenta? YUMMY! Looks great!
Joy,
Lately, polenta has caught my fancy, and I just can’t seem to get enough. I like to use chicken stock when I’m making it for savory dishes, and I love your idea of using milk. I don’t doubt that I’ll be trying your version this week. And getting out of bed in the morning? Ugh; I know how you feel.
Take care,
Kylie
Oh my goodness does this polenta sound good. I love polenta all by itself, but add a smidge of vanilla and a dash of brown sugar, and you’re right: it’s worth getting out of bed, even on an ugly Monday morning. Love your morning speech to yourself, by the way. And I’m all about letting the dishes soak. Everyone needs a good soak in the tub once in a while…no rush to get out!
Love love love. I love polenta and now you’re making me love it even more by adding sweetness, aka awesomeness!
I love polenta for breakfast (well, I’ll be honest, I love it all the time)… Actually blogged on it back in September, both the porridge and the panfried-the-day-after version, but at that point I was off the dairy and sugar. In any case, thanks so much for reminding me about it!! You’ve solved my dilemma of what to make for breakfast today! It looks wonderful!
I love how this sounds! And of course, I still have dishes in the sink from last night (is that so wrong?). I haven’t had breakfast yet, so I’m going to try this out. Thanks!
This looks so yummy! My favorite Cream of Wheat is maple brown sugar but I can rarely find it, this looks like a great alternative!!
And don’t get me started on dishes. Our dishwasher died last month and it’s been a neverending battle for counter space ever since!
I love polenta! We had it the other night for dinner, with roasted veggies. i have the leftovers in the fridge in a pan. I can’t wait to see your next recipe!! I love the breakfast idea!!
I’m ashamed to say I have never actually tried polenta! But it looks absolutely fabulous here, especially for the cold mornings we are experiencing. Yummy! :D
I don’t think I need any more encouragement to let the dishes soak in the sink! I’m already pretty enthusiastic about ignoring them when I’m not in the mood. Your polenta looks wonderful! I’ll have to try some out for myself.
I’m from Sweden, and we’ve been eating polenta cooked in milk for breakfast for as long as I can remember. However, we like to eat ours with lingonberry sauce and milk. Ah, lingonberry…! It’s delicious with absolutely EVERYTHING! If you can find lingonberry sauce in the US (it’s not the same as that cranberry thing you use for thanksgiving), you will not be disappointed! Just a little tip from the north. Love the blog, btw!
Oooh, a nice and sweet polenta. Genius! Fried polenta’s always good. Can’t wait to see yours.
Wow. I’m not a huge polenta person, but I’ve never tried it this way. What a great idea! :) I’m foreseeing adding this to our Sunday Girls-Only Late Breakfast this week.
:)
I’m just glad that I can check your blog and make sure you are still cooking and kicking! Do you have time for anything else in your madly busy world of food ? :) Miss you,
Angie
How about Vanilla Brown Sugar Dinner Polenta with some bacon? We frequently have “comfort” dinners, and this works perfectly!
can i use skim milk instead of whole?
How in the world did you manage to make polenta look so enticing!
This sounds fabulous!! I can’t wait to try it out!
Never considered polenta for breakfast, but this looks like a great idea. Can’t wait for your fried polenta sticks recipe.
Such a great idea to add variety to breakfast. Thanks for sharing.
;o]
Mmmm. Sounds yummy.
Also, I just wanted to say that your posts always make me happy, hungry, and inspired to go make something in the kitchen. I found your blog a few weeks ago, and stayed up way too late for several days reading back through all of your archives, and then going through them again to copy out all of the recipes for easy reference. Slowly, I will work my way through them all :).
Joy, you rock.
This is something I have never tried, and suprisingly, it looks like there are many out there who haven’t either. I will definately try it. Thanks for the idea!
This is definitely my next weekend breakfast experiment. I don’t have polenta stocked in my pantry, but thinking of just trying this with good ol fashioned cornmeal..
JOY! that bit you shared abt what goes on in your head when your trying to wrench yourself out of bed was hilARIOUSu! i could not stop laughing. i dont know if anyone has told you this before, but u have an awesome sense of humor!
Doesn’t anyone have a dishwasher? What is “doing dishes”?
that is my all time favorite polenta. It put’s Bob’s Red Mill to shame!!!!!
Hmm…normally I despise cornmeal mush(I fry it, which is delicious, but I hate it plain). This looks mighty tasty, though, so I may give it a try.
Now, there you go! I’ve never thought of sweet polenta as a breakfast food, though I do like my grits! I will definitely give this a try this weekend.
I made it this morning with regular cornmeal and 2% milk, because that’s what I had in the house. It was yummy! :)
I’d been wanting to try this recipe all week, but I simply don’t have the time before work. Finally, I got to test it out today and it is so delicious! Even better than I’d expected!
Thanks for the recipe; I know what I’ll be using the leftovers for!
This looks amazing! I’ve never had a sweet version of polenta before, so I can’t wait to try this for breakfast one weekend.
Thanks for sharing!
I made this morning with instant polenta and it was great! I skipped the step where you put the polenta in a bowl with water since i figured that was to help it cook faster which I didn’t need since I used instant. Also, obviously didn’t cook it as long.
We ate it with maple syrup, so yum. looking forward to fried version tomorrow!
I like the sound of polenta for breakfast!
YUM! I’ve never had sweet polenta before but I totally enjoy sweet breakfast couscous. I’ll have to give it a try! Can’t wait.
This recipe is divine. In fact I’m eating it right now and getting ready for a 2nd serving. Absolutely can’t wait to indulge in the fried breakfast polenta tomorrow morning.
Joy- We’re a little late in making this…but are enjoying it now for our Easter breakfast. It is creamy and just delicious! I can’t say I’ve ever had polenta this way and really like it. Thank you for the recipe!
Phoo-D
For an extra special treat, add some sliced bananas and maple pecans to this recipe…
I made this the other day and it was delicious. Perfect for a cold morning! Thanks for the great recipe.
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