A Pinterest Dinner

So, last night was supposed to be felt night. I had big plans for my felt food collection. I was going to add lots of pieces for upcoming birthdays. But I decided I wanted some recipes from Pinterest for dinner. I had left some chicken tenders in the fridge to thaw, so I needed a chicken inspiration. Off I went to look at my boards. I hit pay dirt. Chicken rolls with asparagus, southwestern stuffed sweet potatoes, and roasted garlic-Parmesan cauliflower. If any of that sounds like it would tempt you, please follow the links to the recipes. (The southwestern sweet potatoes come from one of my favorite recipe blogs, Pennies on a Platter.)

Unfortunately, the cauliflower was the easiest of all the recipes, in that it required no pre-cooking. I ended up spending a little over 2 hours in the kitchen working on dinner. Now, don't get me wrong, it was all delicious and worth it. But 2 hours for a regular dinner, for just me and the hubs? Bit ridiculous. Especially when I have school work that needs to be dealt with before I can move on the fun crafty part of the evening.

But here are the pics of my 2 hour dinner (not counting the time it took the sweet potatoes to cook in the oven!)

I used shredded pepper jack cheese in the chicken rolls, to give it a kick. Delicious!

Ran into some problems with this recipe, however. First, I cut into my sweet potatoes to discover they are white sweet potatoes. Which, as research turned up, are actually "real" sweet potatoes, they just have a milder flavor. Then, I went to get the black beans from the pantry...and there were no black beans. I always have black beans. They are a staple in my cooking. How in the world I ended up with no black beans is a mystery. So, my only options were to venture back out into the cold night to buy black beans, or improvise. Let me just be the one to tell you....black-eyed peas do NOT substitute well for black beans. To start with, they required way more salt than I would normally add, and they lack flavor (which is why most people cook black-eyed peas with a ham hock!)

Even if you are not a cauliflower lover, I suggest you try this! This bowl was heaping with roasted veggies, but by the time I actually finished cooking the meal, this is all that was left! They are THAT good. I could make and eat them everyday. And I just might.

So, after all that work, I never did get to work on the felt food.