Rachel Ray’s Cauliflower Soup

This is one of my favorite soup recipes for fall for two reasons:

1. It’s soooo stinking easy and requires few ingredients (read: cheap!).

2. My entire family lurves it.

I promise you that this soup tastes so much like Cream of Potato that you could probably fool your family into believing that it actually is.

4 TBS butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 large or 2 small heads of cauliflower, finely chopped
5 cups vegetable broth (ok yes, you can use chicken broth)
s & p to taste

Melt butter in soup pot. Add onion and cauliflower and cook until onions soften but not brown. Add broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until cauliflower is softened, about 20 minutes. Puree the soup until smooth. Season with s & p. (We like to sprinkle grated cheese on top…)

Enjoy!

Chewy Granola Bars

This is a good granola bar recipe. I’m always looking for things like this to make for snacks and lunches. I plan to adjust the recipe in the future to hopefully include less sugar.

2 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt, divided
2/3 cup chopped dried apricots (I used cranberries)
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup almond butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 and spary 9×13 glass dish with cooking spray. Combine oats, flour, baking soda and 1/4 tsp salt in bowl. Stir in apricots, chocolate chips and walnuts.

Beat brown sugar, maple syrup, almond butter, oil and egg whites with electric beater until smooth. Stir in oat mixture.

Spread mixture in prepared baking dish and pat down firmly. Sprinkle top with remaining salt. Bake 30-35 minutes or until firm. Cool 20 minutes before slicing into bars. Unmold and store in airtight container.