cheesy vegetable and bacon polenta muffins

Now, I'm the type of person that loves my meat. I rarely shy away from a juicy slab of steak or a beautifully fragrant roast lamb or a succulent roast pork. Have I turned you off yet? Yet I'm also the type of person that finds extremely fresh looking vegetables enticing. Strange I know, but strictly for cooking and eating purposes only. Who doesn't want to cook with and eat the freshest ingredients they can find? When I visited the friendly grocery store that oddly sells a comprehensive combination of Asian and European products the other weekend, I thought to myself, I need to incorporate more vegetables in to my diet (and I do use the term 'diet' loosely. I'm on by no means, any sort of restrictive diet. Let's just call it 'an attempt at healthy lifestyle choices').

You have to know that while I may appear, at times, hard working and diligent (I can hear my colleagues cough right now), I am actually quite lazy. When I dug through my Women's Weekly recipe book and found a recipe for corn and bacon muffins, I thought, why don't I just add a whole heap of other vegies? I might as well, seeing as really, I don't have the time or energy to peel, chop, dice and slice a whole heap of vegies for one meal.

Here is the outcome: cheesy vegetable and bacon polenta muffins. I think they turned out alright. A bit ugly but tasty. And that's what counts right?

Give it a go - these are super easy to make. They're also like a meal on it's own, on the go. If you're one of those that is time poor, bake some of these and chow one down (or two) for lunch. I like to think of it as a balanced meal. Carbs, vegies and a bit of meat. This muffin (or bruffin, if you eat it between breakfast and lunch) covers pretty much all the food groups. A bonus: if you have kids that don't like vegies, I think this is a good way at "hiding those vegies" I hear so much about in my day job.

Cheesy vegetable and bacon polenta muffins

Adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly: Cheese, corn and bacon muffins

preparation time | maximum 30 minutes (depends how fast you are at peeling, chopping etc)
cooking time | 20 minutes
makes | 24 standard sized muffins or 48 mini muffins (good for lunch boxes!)

1/2 cup of polenta
1/2 cup of milk
3 bacon rashers, rind removed, chopped finely
1 small to medium onion
1 cup of peas
1 cup of chopped capsicum (any colour you like)
1 1/2 cups of self-raising flour
420g can corn kernels, drained
420g can creamed corn
100g butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup grated cheese of your choice
extra grated parmesan or pecorino cheese (to sprinkle on top)

1| Preheat oven to 180 degrees (fan-forced) or 200 degrees. Oil or spray with oil your muffin pans.
2| Mix polenta and milk in a small bowl and cover. Leave to stand for 20 minutes or so.
3| Get on with chopping your bacon! And then get on to chopping your capsicum. If you're really time poor, you could buy the frozen stuff but fresh is always better. Cook the onion and bacon in a frypan, stirring until fragrant. Add in your peas and capsicum. Watch the beautiful colours combine. Remove pan from heat and cool mixture for about 5 minutes.
4| Sift the flour into a large bowl, stir in the corn kernels, creamed corn and bacon mixture. Add the melted butter, egg, grated cheese of your choice and polenta mixture. Mix muffin batter only until just combined.
5| Spoon the batter into the muffin pan, dividing as equally as you can. Sprinkle the extra parmesan cheese on top.
6| Bake uncovered for about 20 minutes, or until the muffins are well-risen. Turn the muffins onto a wire rack.
7| Enjoy warm and pat yourself on the back for including so many vegetables in one serve.

You can substitute any of the vegetables (other than corn) so this is also a great way to use up bits and bobs of vegies in the fruit and veg chiller of your fridge.