Soup! Vegan Cauliflower "Buffalo Wings"

I love Sriracha...  I just discovered my deep love for it this year.  I know it's been around for a long time, but sometimes I'm late to the party. Better late than never is all I can say!

I found this recipe pretty much as soon as it came out and I KNEW I needed to make it. I actually followed the recipe pretty closely and that never happens.  (I added some more smoked paprika.)  Full credit to Kitchen Treaty for the recipe. I'm just posting it here in case the Internet goes down or something.


1 medium yellow onion, diced (about 2 cups)
2 medium carrots, diced
2 medium stalks celery, diced
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (or to taste)
 6 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
4 cups cauliflower florets, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes (about 1 pound), cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 tablespoons Sriracha
1 cup unsweetened (home made) almond milk

I put everything in the soup pan except the paprika, sriracha and almond milk. I let it all cook for about 30 minutes.  I pulled out about 1/2 of the soup and blended it (I need to get an immersion blender!).  I poured in about 2 cups of almond milk and 2 tablespoons of our sriracha sauce.  Next time I'll start with just one tablespoon--it was a little spicy for the girls--tasty but spicy!

I'll definitely make the soup again.  We made the oven broiled bread, too, and the girls loved it! Yum!  A fun night and yummy dinner.  (Kira took charge and made the bread--she followed the directions on the other page.)

I took no pictures.  I was too busy eating! Go look at the pictures on Kitchen Treaty's page.

a new cookie

I found this recipe for strawberry oatmeal cookies this past summer. When I saw it, I thought, I must make it with apricots.  I have a ton of apricots in my freezer from this past spring.  I've been meaning to make apricot jam, but I haven't done it yet.  I've been chipping off pieces of the frozen apricots and using them in my oatmeal and they are so yummy.  I decided to try to recreate the apricot oatmeal yumminess in a cookie.

 

Here's what I did:

Wet ingredients
1/4 cup almond butter
1/2 cup maple syrup sugar (it's crystalized maple syrup)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 flax egg (1 tablespoon flax seed meal + 3 tablespoons water)
1 teaspoon vanilla 

Dry ingredients
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups gluten free whole oats

1.5 cups  chopped apricots

Mix the almond butter, maple syrup sugar, maple syrup, flax egg, and vanilla. Get it as creamy as you can. Add the apricots when mixed well.

Mix the dry ingredients (flours, baking soda, salt, oats).

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones.

Scoop into cookies and bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes.

My husband and oldest daughter LOVE them.  I like them a lot. They are a great breakfast cookie. I want to add more apricots next time.  Maybe, I'll add 2-3 cups of apricots.  I'll keep you posted.  I probably have enough apricots for 6-8 more batches of these. (Unless I make apricot jam.)  Also, next time, I might use almond flour instead of whole wheat.  (I'm not gluten-free, but I find gluten-free flours more interesting than whole wheat.) Also, I don't need to use maple sugar, this recipe was very dry and needed a little more moisture (hence the maple syrup in addition to the maple sugar).

Another note, I might use less almond butter... (File this recipe under still in progress.)

 

(Oldest daughter liked them--she couldn't keep her hands out long enough for me to get a picture!)

Chocolate Chip Sunflower Butter energy bites

 Inspired by http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/no-bake-energy-bites/
1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup whole rolled oats
1/2 cup sunflower butter
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon chia seeds (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
 about 1/3 cup water


Mix it all up!  Roll it into bite-sized treats! Refrigerate. Good for breakfast and snacks!

Natalie loves sunflowers! No surprise she'd like sunflower butter treats. Picture from 2012.

Happy World Vegetarian Day!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Vegetarian_Day

Take a look at the wikipedia for a whole week of related events.

Veggie love to you all!