This shrimp & polenta dish from eatingwell.com is one of my favorite recipes for a quick and delicious meal. It's basically 4 main ingredients--frozen shrimp, a bunch (or a bag) of spinach, canned tomatoes, and a tube of polenta, all of which I usually have in my pantry, freezer, or fridge. As I recently mentioned, I've got armageddon-levels of canned tomatoes in my pantry, so that's what I used, but fresh tomatoes work well if you prefer. The original recipe calls for escarole, but I think spinach is easier to come by and works well in the dish. Any leafy greens could easily be substituted--kale would be nice and would make the meal even heartier. I love using prepared polenta (sold in a tube either in the pasta aisle or in the refrigerated section near the tofu in most supermarkets)--it's convenient, tasty, and a nice change from pasta or other grains. Plus, it's gluten-free, so if that's a concern in your family, it's definitely a nice staple to keep on hand. The original recipe calls for grilling the polenta--I broil mine, but either way you'll get polenta that's nice and crispy on the outside and creamy inside. This is a great way to prepare polenta and top with any sort of pasta sauce, but the sauce and shrimp in this dish are especially flavorful and are garnished with a few sliced olives. I'm lucky enough to have a jar of home-cured olives given to us by a friend (thanks, Brian!), but any sort of oil-cured olives would give the dish a nice salty finish.

Head over to my blog at thebestpickle.blogspot.com for the recipe!

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by Cvita

Oh my...i think i`m gonna love this. Thank you Tracy

by marcedvr

Looks delicious... this is nice one

by tracyseverson

Thanks for the feedback--glad you like it!