Miscellaneous Monday: Quick Dinner and Dirty Cell Phones

Hello friends and Happy Monday!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend and were able to enjoy the delightful warm weather, sunshine and changing leaves.

In true Miscellaneous Monday form, I present two completely unrelated topics: a vegetarian recipe and methods for cleaning your cell phone.


With the weather being so pleasant, I decided to fire up the grill on Sunday, and cook some vegetarian cuisine.  Don't all you meat-eaters navigate away from this page.  This healthy and hearty dish is satisfying even to a regular carnivore ( i.e. Timmy even liked it).

Polenta Stack with Navy Bean Salad

Ingredients

1 can navy beans (sometimes called great northern beans) rinsed and drained

1 can diced tomatoes, drained

1/4 cup basil, chopped

5 ounces crumbled feta

1 medium sized zucchini or yellow squash

1 fresh red pepper

1 tube prepared polenta

olive oil

salt

pepper

Start by heating up your grill.  If you want to make this inside, no problem, just preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Grab four 18 inch pieces of foil and coat the middle with cooking spray.  Set them aside until you are ready to make the foil packets.

Rinse and drain the can of beans.  In a large bowl mix the beans, tomatoes, chopped basil, feta and some salt and pepper to taste.

Beans and Tomatoes.  Feel free to add seasonings you see fit!

Grab another bowl, and cut you your zucchini into thin round slices, and cut the red pepper into similar size slices.  Toss the veggies in 1 tsp of olive oil and add salt and pepper for flavoring.

Next, get a cutting board and slice your pre-cooked polenta into 16 equal sized rounds.

The polenta really helps this meal feel filling

Take the foils and place 1/4 of the bean/tomato mixture in the center of each piece of foil.  Place 4 slice of polenta in each packet on top of each bean mixture.  Then add the veggies.

Wrap up each foil packet and crimp edges to seal the little packets.  Place on the grill over the hot hot heat for 10-15 minutes.  Do the same if you are cooking in the oven and enjoy!

Cleaning your Dirty Cellphone

I am not a germ freak, trust me.  I personally abide by the five second rule for food on the floor (only for me, not for people I cook for) and I have no problem walking around outside without shoes on.  However, when I read that your cellphone likely contains 18 times more bacteria than a toilet handle, I start to get a little nervous. 

If you have a cell phone without a touch screen, use a mixture of 40/60 alcohol to water to clean your keypad and the solid parts of your phone.  Use a cotton swab, dry cloth or even a q-tip to get into the hard to reach cracks between the keypad.

If you have a phone with a touch screen, you will want to avoid using a harsh cleaning agent on the screen like alcohol.  Head to your nearest electronics store and buy a wipe specially formulated to clean the screen and kill bacteria.  Some brands to try include iKlear/KlearScreen, Dust-Off, and ViewGuard.  These brands all have germ killing properties. 

Some keys for cleaning all types of cell phones:

• turn your phone off before doing any kind of cleaning/maintenance
• keep any liquids out of areas that have access to the internal part of the phone like a USB port, or anywhere you would plug something into, and use an air duster instead
• allow your device to completely dry before turning it back on.

Happy Cooking and Cleaning!

Looking forward an excellent Tuesday!