Polenta Stuffed Peppers

 What do you do when you have an abundance of anaheim chilies and fresh tomatoes?  How about polenta stuffed peppers, a side of black beans and as starters some fresh fig margaritas, flax seed chips and fresh guacamole.

For the guacamole, I used two avocados that my friend Laurie gave me right off her tree.  I added them to the food processor with some scallions, two small tomatoes, a piece of red pepper from the jar, some peperoncini, garlic, lime juice, fresh parsley, cumin, chili powder and S&P.  

  

 In the mean time, I slit the chilies lengthwise and removed the seeds.  I placed them slit side down on a cookie sheet.  I then cut three tomatoes in half and a red onion in quarters, drizzled them with olive oil and put them skin side down on another cookies sheet. I roasted all the veggies at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or so.

While the veggies were roasting in the oven, we enjoyed the guacamole, some healthy chips (yeah right) with flax seeds and some margaritas.  I made them in the blender with tequilla, lime juice, triple sec, lots of ice and added some fresh figs which gave it a pretty pink color.  

The stuffed peppers are ready to go in the oven to bake.  To make them:  1.  Put the roasted tomatoes and onions in the food processor with about 1/4 tsp. cinnamon and S&P to taste.  2.  Put half of the mixture on the bottom of a 13x9" glass baking pan.  3.  Open a tube of polenta that you can buy at Trader Joe's.  Of course you can go to the trouble to make polenta from corn meal but this is so much easier.  I had thought you could only slice this polenta roll but no, just put it in a bowl and mash it with your hands or a spoon.  4.  To the polenta I added a 10 oz. bag of thawed frozen roasted corn 5.  To the polenta and corn, I added some goat cheese and feta cheese - about 1/3 cup or so.  I didn't add any salt since the feta is pretty salty on its own.  6.  I stuffed each pepper with the mixture and put each in the glass pan.  7.  Cover the stuffed peppers with the remaining tomato/onion mixture.  8.  Bake 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.  9.  Serve covered with chopped scallions.  

A delicious and nutritious meal.