Salad and Pizza and Cupcakes, Oh My!

This week we enjoyed a good array of food.  On Sunday, I made a big batch of Chicken Dumplings to eat for lunches with a chicken from whole foods.  Was my first time making dumplings from scratch, instead of from store-bought biscuits, and the results were not very good.  I also went without any condensed cream of celery/mushroom/chicken soups.  It was edible, but not amazing like what I have made in the past.  When I perfect it, the recipe will make an appearance on the blog.

Monday
Left over turkey day food

Tuesday
Harvest Root Veggie Pie from Daily Garnish

Carrots, Beets and Rutabaga.  I even left the skins on as directed...I was scared...

Crust.  Made in the food processor.

Mushrooms.  Pay attention and don't burn them like I did!

Mushroom Layer.

Baked Root Veggies Layer.

Mashed Sweet Potato Layer.  I didn't want to get the mixer out...so I used the masher.

The bf thought it needed a bit more flavor.  He ate it like a pasty...with ketchup.

Wednesday
Creamy Tomato Barley Risotto from OhSheGlows

YUM!  This might be a reoccurring dish.  The nutritional yeast did a great job making the dish taste thick and cheesy.  The bf and myself were surprised by how flavorful it tasted.  Now we need another recipe to use up the remaining miso in the fridge...

Thursday
Pear and Blue Cheese Salad from AllRecipes

Followed the recipe except for using a head of lettuce, instead of mixed greens, and no candied pecans because the bf is not a nut eater.  I put sunflower seeds on mine.  If I would have been smart, I would have slowly added the dressing and not dumped it all on.  There was way too much dressing; it was like eating salad soup.  None-the-less, it was good.  I would make it again, but would cut the dressing in half, and maybe sneak in a few candied pecans  ;)

Friday
Thai Chicken Pizza from ClosetCooking

Overnight-Rise Pizza Dough

Add enough flour to where the dough hook picks it up and kneads it around the bowl

Cooked Chicken Breast

Alfalfa Sprouts from my Easy Sprouter!

Cheese, Sprouts, Carrots, Green Onions, Peanut Sauce & Crust

Spread on the peanut sauce.

Add the cheese

Add the carrots, chicken and green onions.

And finally the sprouts!

The bf ate this one with barbecue sauce, declaring it Barbecue Chicken Pizza.  Sigh...  I omitted the peanuts, since the bf doesn't like them, and the cilantro, because I didn't want to buy an entire bunch and only use 1/4 of it.  The sprouts were not bean sprouts, but in fact alfalfa sprouts that I grew using my Easy Sprouter.  Since these are smaller, they probably should have been put on halfway through the baking time.  They got a little crisp.  The pizza was a bit bland; would add the cilantro next time.  The idea of pizza + sprouts is a good idea though.


Dessert!
Dark Chocolate Mini-Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting from BrownEyedBaker

Have I mentioned lately that I love my mixer?

For mini-cupcakes, cook for ~14 minutes

Frosting!

I piped it onto the cupcakes by using a sammich bag with the corner cut off.

They looked cute, but not professional this way.  But it was better than trying to spread frosting onto tiny cupcakes with a spatula.

I brought them with me to work so that everyone would attend my meeting  ;)  hah  I was told that they tasted delicious :)