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Hot Polenta Breakfast with Dried Fruit Compote

This healthy hot breakfast is so good with its natural sweetness from the honey and dried fruit you may feel like you are eating dessert. It is a delicious topping for the polenta. A perfect satisfying breakfast on a cool morning that will sustain you for hours.

Prep and Cook Time: 30 minutes Ingredients: 2½ cups fresh orange juice 1 TBS fresh lemon juice 1 tsp finely minced lemon zest ¼ cup honey ¾ cup coarsely chopped walnuts 15 pitted prunes 10 dried apricots cut in half ¼ tsp cinnamon 1 cup polenta 4 cups lightly salted water

Directions:

1. Combine the orange juice, lemon juice, zest, cinnamon and honey in a medium sized saucepan and stir. Bring to a simmer on high heat and add prunes and apricots.
2. Turn the heat to lowest level. Simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Don't let prunes get too soggy. While prunes are simmering start cooking polenta by bringing lightly salted water to a boil in a medium saucepan.
3. Slowly add polenta to boiling water, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring to make sure it doesn't get lumpy. If it starts to get too thick add a little more hot water. You want it soft.
4. Remove fruit from sauce with a slotted spoon to a shallow bowl and turn the heat to high. Reduce the liquid to about half. Return fruit to the sauce, add walnuts, and serve over bowl of polenta.

   Serves 4

Healthy Cooking Tips:

When making polenta, be sure to allow yourself the time to stir it almost constantly. Otherwise, it will get lumpy. Cook on low temperature to ensure that it doesn't get too thick before it has had a chance to get fully cooked. The sauce in this recipe needs to reduce by half for a rich, full flavor. Otherwise, it can taste too weak. Just taste it as it reduces until it is the way you like it in sweetness and flavor.

Nutritional Profile

Introduction to Recipe Rating System Chart

In order to better help you identify recipes that feature a high concentration of nutrients for the calories they contain, we created a Recipe Rating System. This system allows us to highlight the recipes that are especially rich in particular nutrients. The following chart shows the nutrients for which Hot Polenta Breakfast with Dried Fruit Compote is either an excellent, very good, or good source (below the chart you will find a table that explains these qualifications). If a nutrient is not listed in the chart, it does not necessarily mean that the recipe doesn't contain it. It simply means that the nutrient is not provided in a sufficient amount or concentration to meet our rating criteria. (To view this recipe's in-depth nutritional profile that includes values for dozens of nutrients - not just the ones rated as excellent, very good, or good - please use the link below the chart.) To read this chart accurately, you'll need to glance back up to see the ingredients used in the recipe and the number of serving sizes provided by the recipe. Our nutrient ratings are based on a single serving. For example, if a recipe makes 4 servings, you would be receiving the nutrient amounts listed in the chart by eating 1/4th of the combined ingredients found in the recipe. Now, returning to the chart itself, you can look next to the nutrient name in order to find the nutrient amount it offers, the percent Daily Value (DV%) that this amount represents, the nutrient density that we calculated for this recipe and nutrient, and the rating we established in our rating system. For most of our nutrient ratings, we adopted the government standards for food labeling that are found in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's "Reference Values for Nutrition Labeling." Read more background information and details of our rating system.

Hot Polenta Breakfast 1.00 serving 267.64 grams 446.31 calories Nutrient Amount %DV Nutrient Density World's Healthiest Foods Rating vitamin C 82.89 mg 138.2 5.6 excellent omega 3 fatty acids 1.39 g 57.9 2.3 very good manganese 0.80 mg 40.0 1.6 good molybdenum 21.51 mcg 28.7 1.2 good dietary fiber 6.49 g 26.0 1.0 good copper 0.51 mg 25.5 1.0 good World's Healthiest Foods Rating Rule excellent DV>=75% OR Density>=7.6 AND DV>=10% very good DV>=50% OR Density>=3.4 AND DV>=5% good DV>=25% OR Density>=1.5 AND DV>=2.5%

In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Hot Polenta Breakfast with Dried Fruit Compote

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