What I Cooked: Pt. 10

In all honestly, I am writing this post while watching Planet Earth with my girls, so just imagine David Attinborough is reading this to you and enjoy!
This week’s What I Cooked is a perfect example of balance - to fully be able to enjoy true physical and mental health, you have to be able to enjoy indulgences fully without guilt, while still remembering they are just that - indulgences, or as my 4 year old calls them “sometimes foods”.

Cauliflower Parmesan
Such an incredibly easy recipe but man, it feels fancy! I substituted shredded mozzarella for the vegan variety.
Paired with home made garlic bread and a full spinach salad, its the perfect easy, but a bit fancy dinner. I posted one of our favorite ranch dressing recipes, but here’s another easy creamy dressing we love: roughly a tbsp of hummus, thin out with a a tbsp or 2 of water - add some fresh cracked pepper and call it a day.

Chickpea Salad
If you were to only make one recipe I ever suggested, let it be this one. This is one of the most delicious, crowd pleasing recipes - for omnivores and vegetarians alike.
Enjoy it topped on a bed of crunchy lettuce, or as the filling in a pita or sandwich, or just eat it as is!

Blueberry Filled Maple Cupcakes
This past weekend, I was at a loss for what to make to celebrate both my husband and my mother-in-laws birthdays. So I decided to do what I do best and completely winged it - and thus was born the bluberry filled maple cupcakes!
For the cake:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup coconut palm sugar (or any other sugar you have on hand)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp pink himalayan salt
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
5 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup water
1 1/2 tsp maple syrup

Mix all of the dry ingredients together.
Make 3 depressions in the dry ingredients - two small and one large. Pour the vinegar and maple syrup in each of the two smaller depressions and the vegetable oil in the large one.
Pour water over the entire thing and mix until smooth.
Bake at 350 degrees for 18 min.

For the filling:
Add 1.5 cups of frozen wild blueberries and 1/4 cup of water in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Add 1 tsp or cornstarch or arrowroot powder to thicken.

When the cupcakes and filling have cooled, use a small knife to carve out a hole in the top of the cupcake. Fill with the cooled blueberry filling. Cover with icing of choice - We used a quick and easy vegan maple buttercream.