Tropical Green Smoothie

I ran out of spinach this morning.  I know, I'm ashamed of myself.  This is my first morning sans spinach in almost a month.  And, to top it off, I've been experimenting with green powders, and the one I'm currently using is just not cutting it for me.  It's tasty, but doesn't seem like it packs the same punch the Garden of Life Perfect Food was doing.  No endorsements deals here, just mentioning it's a great product.  So, with no spinach, I decided to just double up the scoop of green powder and carry on.  Best I could offer myself at 6:45 am.



It was a really great tasting drink, even if I was missing my spinach.  The color was a pretty minty green color and I loved that you could see all of the seeds and ingredients through the mix.  My ingredients?  Well, this morning it was:

2 scoops green powder

1 T ground chia seeds

1 T ground flax seed

1 T hulled hemp seed

2 cups water

1/4 cup plain yogurt

1 banana

1/2 cup frozen mango chunks

1/4 pineapple chunks

1 t coconut oil

Dump all that in the Vitamix and blend.  It was delicious, a little sweeter than I'm used to, but very tropical tasting!  A nice start to the morning...but I hope I get to the store tonight for spinach.  I missed it!

 

Individual Berry Cobblers

What a lot of juicy deliciousness is in that picture!  We'd decided that this week was going to be a "no eating out, no desserts" type of week.  Well, the best of intentions finds us at the end of a very long Wednesday and through a bad set of circumstances missing our group trail run we'd headed out too and so, we surrendered.  Thankfully, we didn't eat out - I was able to whip up some seared sea scallops, garlic mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus spears pretty easily while the hubby rested his suddenly very painful ankle.  :-(  And, as soon as we were done, I just knew I was going to hear "what's for dessert?"  Just call it knowing him too well after 18 years of togetherness.  So, I was prepared.  I'd already been thinking of something that would at least have some of the appearances of healthy about it.  And beautiful berries on top of a little bit of dough always makes me happy!  This is almost a clafouti texture, but is missing that egg taste that I love.  (And all of the calories that come with it!)

Healthified Berry Cobbler

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup milk

1 cup berries, your choice, I had blackberries and raspberries on hand so that's what I used.

Preheat oven to 375.  Mix all ingredients except berries with a whisk in a medium bowl until smooth.  Butter or spray the insides of small baking dishes, I made 4 in the smaller size I used. Add batter to about halfway in the dishes and then top with the berries.  You can sprinkle a bit of sugar right on the berries before baking if you like, but it's not necessary.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until edges are browned and center is set.  Let cool a bit or serve hot with vanilla ice cream.

 

Cinnamon Streusel Topped Blueberry Muffins - and as a bonus, they're Gluten Free!

Since limiting gluten in my own diet, I've become pretty creative at finding new flours, thickeners, etc for myself but haven't attempted to serve it to the family or to the daycare kids yet.  Today that changed, and I think they were completely okay with it.



I had found a few recipes on a search for a blueberry muffin that I thought could stand up to being tampered with.  But, when I found a Blueberry Buckle Muffin on Family Fun's site that seemed like it was the best place to start and became the inspiration for my muffin.   The biggest difference I noted is that my muffin topping sunk into the muffin, creating more of a gooey cinnamon center but I will not complain about that one time, and neither were the kids.  Seconds all around.  That never happens!!

So, here's my version, using all organic and gluten free ingredients:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

1 t vanilla extract

1 1/4 c rice flour

3/4 c garbanzo bean flour

2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

2 c blueberries, either fresh or frozen

Topping:

1/3 c sugar

1/4 c rice flour

2 t cinnamon

1/4 c garbanzo bean flour

1/4 c butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350, and grease a 12 cup muffin tin or line with paper cups.

Cream sugar and butter together, beat in eggs and milk and then add vanilla.  Mix all dry ingredients, except topping ingredients, in a bowl and then add to wet mixture.  Don't overmix, just until all is wet, and then add blueberries.  Gently incorporate them into the mix and then spoon mixture into muffin cups, about 3/4 of the way full.

Mix all topping ingredients together in a separate bowl and then sprinkle topping over each muffin.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until set.

 

I will make this recipe again, but I will try a less pronounced flour than garbanzo bean to pair with the rice.  While the rice has a grittier texture, it has a nice flavor, but the garbanzo bean was just a little stronger than I would have liked.

 

 

 

DIY Dishwasher Soap Packets and some other Wednesday ramblings...

I have become obsessed with making just about everything I can in my life.  I want it all homemade, and I want it done now!  Well, that's not entirely true.  I want it done along with everything else I need to get caught up on.  But I realized we were getting to the point in my stock of dishwasher packets that we'd be needing some soon and I wanted to give Lady with the Red Rocker's recipe a try before it was crunch time!

It really was super easy.

1 cup of borax

1 cup super washing soda

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup citric acid - I used the canning type, Lady with the Red Rocker uses lemishine

Mix all of that together and then start to spray ingredients with water, mixing in between sprays until the mixture holds a shape when pressed.  Then press into a wax paper lined muffin tin.

I did the muffin tin, still had mixture, filled up a play ice cube tray from the daycare crafts bin and still had more and then used the bottom of two dozen egg cartons.  All in all, it made 56 packets.

They're hardening now and I did use one this afternoon before hard just as a test.  And it worked well.  Well, I guess it did because the ONE time I don't want the boy to empty the dishwasher, he does.  So I have no idea of how they looked when the came out of the dishwasher.  But I don't see any dirty dishes in my cupboard so I think all is well.  :)

I love the fact that I'm making that many packets for about 8% of the price of what I've been paying.  That is some serious cash savings.  Even the hubby was impressed with that sort of math.

What's next on our homemade adventures? I think I hear buzzing...  Yes, we're headed to a beekeeping workshop Saturday morning and are hoping to bring home our very own hive.  I am so excited! Maybe next year we'll have our own honey.  I've also ordered a rain barrel that the conservation district was selling as part of the annual fundraiser so that will be our next project outside and will provide the water for the gardens hopefully.

And we have one more laundry detergent container to use up before I tackle making laundry soap, so I've got some time before that's homemade.  I did make a cake tonight...black magic.  It's just as good as I remembered from our last time making it.

But, for now, I'm headed off screen to catch up on some rest.  Good night everyone!

Tuesday...and I'm thankful for the rain!

Since planting the first garden bed over the weekend, I almost forgot to water it yesterday.  Call it old age or whatever, I mean I did turn 4-0 a few weeks ago, but these types of things slip my mind.  I'm a bit out of practice too having our "winter" off.  Speaking of the mild winter, I am still getting massive amounts of beautiful swiss chard from my garden!  It never wintered over.  A friend is picking some up tonight, we've been using it in our smoothies and I will get some frozen by the weekend because there is just too much to use fresh.  It's something completely apart from anything else I've done to go put a seed in the ground and watch it become a plant and then to be able to feed your family and even others with it.  It's magical!

Want to know what else is magical?  Heavy cream.  I am completely in love with the stuff these days.  Since I discovered how easy it is to make butter, I've been on a mission to find organic heavy cream.  Not an easy feat for some reason.  Half and half?  No issues but not heavy cream.  But I've discovered a creamery that sells direct from their farm half gallons of cream.  Half-Gallons.  Hurray for me.  And I went right to work making butter.  This stuff is so thick you could almost use it as is but I still made some of the most delicious and beautiful butter I've ever had.



I made about 3 pounds of butter out of 2/3 of a half gallon and I got 2 full cups of buttermilk as an extra.  And that is a wonderful perk because it adds a wonderful flavor to most any recipe. It's not the same as cultured buttermilk so don't think it can replace it in a recipe.  And I had no idea that sour cream really was sour cream.  Oh my...now I have to be able to let some of my actually spoil.  I don't know if I can manage it or not.

Really, I feel like I've stepped into a whole new world.  One filled with piles of mess in the kitchen as I head from project to project to project.  I'm trying to get myself on some sort of schedule now that bread making, butter making, wheat grinding and a host of other jobs fill my already jam-packed day. Wait, jam?  Oh yes, it's almost that time of year too!  I am making so much strawberry jam this year that I'll be sick of it.  It was the first thing that went from my canning stock this past year, so I know it was in demand.  That and black raspberry jelly.  It takes a lot of black raspberries to make jelly, not jam, but the result was amazing.  I will have to make some of that too!

Well, for now, the butter is made, the bread is rising and I think the coffeemaker just beeped.  Time for a few minutes of caffeine infused downtime for this busy lady.

Lava Cakes redone

I know I've mentioned before that one of my hubby's favorite desserts is lava cakes.  I make them at least once a week.  The boy and I like them as well, but we like ours cold and after they've been in the fridge overnight, they come out tasting like fudge.  Yummy!  So, since we eat this particular dessert so often, I wanted to try and experiment a bit with it and see if I could make it as healthy as a oozing chocolate dessert could possibly be.  Luckily, the hubby is pretty forgiving with my experiments because he understands it's all to make us healthier and still feed him dessert.  So, while stockpiling bulk foods last weekend, I decided to load up on carob chips.  This was really a stretch for me because when my mom tried carob chips, I remember them tasting awful as a kid.  So, as an adult, it's something I've avoided trying to expose my family too.  I bought the good chocolate, used it sparingly and figured I was okay.  But, that day, I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try.

First experiment?  Taste was okay but the cakes were a kind of grayish color.  Ugh.  Not appetizing to look at.  I had to rethink things....and then I thought maybe I was not tempering the batter enough because the melted carob had hardened up in some areas of the batter.  So, tonight was experiment #2. And.....voila!

 



The color was perfect and the consistency was spot on!  I couldn't resist a little addition of homemade whipped cream to the top.  The cream from the creamery this week was so thick that the whipped cream almost became butter before I could catch it. So heavenly!

Recipe time!

Carob and Peanut Butter Lava Cakes

4 T organic butter, softened

3 large eggs

1/3 cup sugar

8 oz carob chips, melted ( I used a scale, but about 1 cup plus about 3 T should get you there)

2 T organic peanut butter

1/3 cup flour

1/4 t salt

Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add peanut butter, flour and salt and mix well.  Melt carob chips over a double boiler and then spoon gently and slowly into mixed ingredients.  Blend well, but don't overwork.  Spoon into greased ramekins or muffin tins could be used if no ramekins are available.

Bake at 400 for 10 -12 minutes depending on the size of your baking dish.
I have to add how much personal satisfaction it is to cook with ingredients that I've made, or that are fresh and good for my family.  I started last week making our butter and it has such a wonderful flavor and consistency.  I was looking at a cost basis for starting to make it, but again have been surprised at how often something that costs less is so much better.   I also was blessed with a gift of farm fresh eggs from our neighbor last week and have been in heaven making use of them.  I know I still owe them a baked something in return, just looking for the right thing!  Our journey to making more and more of what we need and buying less and less processed has been a interesting one.  I never know what's going to be around the next corner.  But I know I will keep looking!!!

 

 

Getting Ready for Spring

We have been so busy here lately that my blog was looking a little neglected, so I thought I'd better catch everyone up.  I'm still here, busy living our homemade life and loving this beautiful weather we've had lately.

Yesterday, the hubby and I bought a new swing to hang from our deck and he replaced the sliding door screens while I got busy planting seeds in the garden.  He was also so sweet as to buy me a composter bin!  I've been wanting one so badly and now it sits right beside the garden and I can't wait to use my own compost in the garden.  I also had fun yesterday cutting our lawn with our own reel mower!!!  Yay for no gas used as well as a nice workout to boot.  Luckily there were only a few patches to mow that had gotten high and it didn't take me long.  I don't know if it will be as fun of a job come mid-July when it's super hot.  But it felt good knowing we're doing our part to create as little of an impact on the world from our patch of green as we can.  I also got some blackberry bushes, relocated my strawberry patch and added another blueberry bush.  Loving our garden!!

We're excited to be headed to a beekeeping workshop on Saturday and are hoping to be able to bring home a hive from one of the venders there.  So exciting when a plan comes together.  We've also started investigating bat houses and looking into adding more bird houses to our land.  It's going to be a little forest of activity soon.  I also scattered lots of wildflower seed at the bottom of our hill near the creek and I think we're going to stop mowing down there.  One less place to mow and make it more of a natural habitat for the bees, the birds and I guess the bats as well as the slithery ones that seem to be found down there as well.  Not my favorite things but as long as I don't encounter them too often, we're good.

I've just been a flurry of activity lately...made more more butter and it was even better than my first attempt, got caught up on my grain milling, made a lunch for my sister's family as they cleaned their new house (only a few minutes away - hurray!  So excited!!)   And then made the rounds for our groceries.  And once Saturday was done, it was off to be early because today the hubby and I ran our first trail half marathon.  Well, to be honest, it was his first half marathon race at all.  And he did awesome - beat my tired butt by almost 40 minutes!

So, we have a lot going on over here on our little farm wannabe.  Next week we'll hopefully get the first raised bed terraced onto the hillside and get the peas planted, and then maybe we can get the next bed in soon for the cucumbers and then the last one for the squash.  I'm hoping our terraced beds will really make a difference in how much we'll be able to produce and make more to preserve for next winter - which means less to buy!!  This week I'm also hoping to tackle homemade dish detergent packets for the dishwasher.  I'll post pics!

 

Oh My Vitamix, How I Love Thee...

Let me count the ways.

1. You are the best almond milk maker I've ever known.  It's the perfect texture each and every time. I don't even remember that other blender...

2. My morning smoothies are always smooth, not grainy or gritty, with no spinach leaf pieces to get caught in my teeth.

3. My teenage son is eating more fruit than he ever has because you make such awesome smoothies.  Now if we could only trick him with the veggies...

4. My morning mocha cappucino is so much easier when I pour all the ingredients in and let you do all the frothing, heating and mixing.  Heavenly.

5. Soup?  No problem.  Again, pour it in, let you do the work.  The tomato cheddar soup last week?  Awesome!

6. You are quickly replacing the food processor.  Thanks for taking over the butter making task last week and showing the food processor how it's supposed to be done.

7. Ice cream too?  Seriously.  I don't know how I can thank you.  That blueberry ice cream recipe was just the ticket.

8. Every day you find a new way to surprise me.  Yesterday I discovered The Vitamix Lady and she has given me even more ideas.  I know you're up to the challenge!

9. You are easy to clean, no matter what torture I put you through.  Dash of soap, some water, blend and voila,  perfect!

10. I am healthier since you came into my life.

Think I'm being dramatic?  I seriously am not.  The only other appliance in my kitchen that comes close to this much use is my breadmaker.  I had been hankering for a new ring for Valentine's Day/my birthday but then returned to my usual practical self and asked for this instead.  Wow...if I only had known how much of an impact it would make on my life, I wouldn't have hesitated one bit.  Yes, it's pricey, $450 seems like A LOT of money for a blender but seriously, I could probably trash about 1/2 the appliances in my kitchen and just have this and it would be okay.  And I never have to buy almond milk again which is quite a bit cost savings.  My almond milk costs about $1.50 a half gallon versus $3.09 in the store.  And we go through 2-3 a week.  And mine isn't processed through a factory with added stabilizers, etc.

But even all the actual cost savings aside, it is really changing my health.  I was having all kinds of nausea and digestive issues and then after getting this and committing to at least one green smoothie a day, I haven't had any nausea episodes in over 2 weeks, and before that, they were already dramatically decreasing with the extra greens, veggies and fruits I was getting.   I feel 100% better and I was feeling pretty good to begin with!

So, this is my love letter to my Vitamix, thanking it for coming into my life and making such a big difference.

 

Green Smoothie Recipe (my favorite version!)

Big Handful spinach, kale, chard - whatever you've got on hand.  2 cups at least

1/2 frozen banana

1 T powdered peanut butter

1/4 cup frozen mango

1 scoop ground chia seeds

1 scoop green powder (I've been using Garden of Life Perfect Food but your choice)

1/2 scoop ground flax seeds

1/2 cup almond milk

1 cup cold water

Blend until smooth.

 

 

Almond Loaf

As I continue on my never ending quest of how to use and not waste the leftover almond meal from my homemade almond milk, I stumbled on a great recipe for almond loaf.  Hmm.  I debated back and forth a few days, never sure if I wanted to give it a try or not.  I mean, how would it taste?  Would it be like bread?  Or cake?  So many questions later, I decided that I had to at least make it once.  I'm glad I did.  You can find the original recipe at Chocolate Chilli Mango and I didn't deviate much from it, except I didn't weigh things and I did swap for rum extract over almond.  I like the buttery tone it adds to it, so that was a win.  And I had used all of my dates up making the Almond Joy protein bites a few days ago, so I did use brown rice syrup instead.



After I baked it (which took about a half hour longer than the recipe listed) I couldn't wait to try it.  It tasted like a dense souffle.  Yum!  But it was more savory than sweet so I had to make a bit of caramel sauce to go with it and wow, that was the sweet treat I was hoping for!  Quite a pleasant surprise  and well worth the wait.

 

Almond Loaf

2 cups of leftover almond meal from milk making, or 2 cups of ground, sprouted almonds

5 T brown rice syrup

4 eggs (I was lucky enough to have a neighbor give us 2 dozen farm fresh eggs!  What a great recipe to showcase them!)

1 t vanilla extract

1 t rum extract

3 t baking powder

1 cup almond milk but I think it could go down to 3/4 cup depending on how wet your almonds are

Whisk eggs together in a medium bowl and then add all ingredients.  Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for about an hour and 10 minutes.  Check frequently as it may need less, may need more time.

Pull Apart Cinnamon Bread AKA Monkey Bread

We tend to get a little carried away in our house with the chocolate/peanut butter combo.  It's a well known fact how much we love it.  I love peanut butter so much that when I found organic peanut butter on sale the other day at Target, I cleaned off the shelf.  I had a cart full of organic peanut butter and organic strawberry preserves.  It probably looked like we were off to a big PB&J party.  Sigh.  See how easy it is to make me get excited about peanut butter?  So, the other night I decided that dessert would be different.  No chocolate.  No peanut butter.  I've made cinnamon pull apart bread many times before but this time, instead of just making my bread dough and rolling it in butter and cinnamon-sugar, I decided to follow the recipe on Smitten Kitchen.   Monkey Bread with Cream Cheese Glaze

Now, obviously, mine does NOT have a cream cheese glaze and I'm good with that.  I would like to remain somewhat true to my healthier nature.  I will say that this is one of the few desserts from Smitten Kitchen that I have not been completely enamored with.  Maybe because I'm used to a lighter bread?  I don't know.  It was delicious, just a bit heavier than we're used to.  The daycare kids loved having it for breakfast though and it was a big hit!

Give it a try and let me know what you think...I'd love to know if it's just me.  Maybe it was because I skipped the glaze...  ;)

 

First Experience with Cleaning Homemade

Cooking homemade foods?  Completely up my alley.  I love taking whole ingredients and whipping them into something delicious as well as healthy.  But as we're continuing on this journey of being as self-sufficient as possible and not contributing to the amazing amount of waste that is generated by the average household, we've made some big changes.  One of those changes is that I will no longer buy any cleaning products, instead choosing to make them as we run out of what we already have.  This will ensure that what I'm using is safer for us, the daycare kids and the dogs as well as being less expensive and having a lessened impact on the world around us.

Now, usually I just use a steam cleaner for the floors - it's as good as it gets other than using electricity.  Runs on water, washable microfiber cloths...sounds good.  And it is for the every other day running to keep things clean,  but not for the ground in dirt of our vinyl floor that I hate (and did not choose!) that came with our house.  So, I wanted to deep clean the floors but needed something to do it that would work.  I researched and found that white vinegar is a great floor cleaner when diluted with some warm water.   I put about a cup of white vinegar to about 6 cups of water and my scrub brush and microfiber cloth went to work.  In less than 30 minutes, I had hand scrubbed the whole floor and it looked fantastic!  It was a big area so it sounds like a long time but wasn't that bad.  And I take solace in the fact that I was working hard for 30 minutes, not just pushing my steamer back and forth.  :)  It was work, but the vinegar solution dried super clear and brought the dirt up that I didn't even know was there and just thought it was part of the floor.  I will be adding a vinegar wash once a month to the floors and am so glad I gave it a try.

Another big issue I tackled this week is paper towels.  What a money waster that has been in our lives!  The daycare kids use paper napkins after washing hands, we use paper towels for cleaning, mopping up spills, everything.  But no more!  I bought a massive stack of microfiber cloths from Sam's club last week...it was hard to reconcile the fact that they were made in China, but I tried to convince myself the offset of no paper towels would be worth it.  I still feel badly about it, but I'm getting there.  I did try to buy American made but couldn't find them.  I added regular hand towels to the daycare bathroom for the kids to use after hand washing and realized there is another benefit.  Reduced trash in that bathroom!  I still get plastic bags every other trip or so at the grocery store to have as bathroom trash liners because I change the trash in that bathroom once, sometimes twice a day.  But adding in real hand towels means that we went 2 days with one bag.  Huge difference!

I am looking forward to sharing with all of my followers as I change more and more of our lives to a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle.  My blog is a great place to document my love of cooking from scratch, but there is so much more to the journey than that.  We're striving to minimize our impact on the earth, be good stewards of all the blessings that God has given us and also to keep ourselves as healthy as possible by eating healthy foods and surrounding ourselves with less chemicals and processed products.  I hope that you're enjoying our journey.

Almond Joy Protein Bites

I love Larabars.  They are one of my favorite snacks before, after or even during a run and a sometimes meal replacement if I am in a hurry.  I have made my own versions in the past but started getting just a little lazy and slowly started buying them again.  But now that I have all of this almond meal laying around, it seems silly to work at finding a use for it, when I have something that I could be using it for that I love instead of paying those ridiculous prices in the store.  So, I thought and thought, checked out some recipes, and this is what I came up with...



They are so yummy and in single bite servings!  Yay for my new running fuel.  :)  But these could be used for anyone who wants a protein-filled energy boost at any time, not just for running, so give them a try.  You will think you're making candy when the smell of an almond joy wafts up from the food processor and the taste doesn't disappoint the senses!

Almond Joy Protein Bites

2 cups pitted dates

1 1/2 cups ground and peeled almonds (although unpeeled almonds would work also, it's just not what I used)

2 T melted coconut oil

1 large scoop of chocolate protein powder

1-2 T water or if you were wanting a caffeine boost, you could add coffee as well and it would serve double duty to also enhance the chocolate flavor.

Put all of the above ingredients except liquid into a food processor and pulse until well mixed and then add water slowly one tablespoon at a time because you might not need all of it.  Keep pulsing until mixture is sticking together and looks consistent.  Then form into balls and put on wax paper.  Pressing into a rectangle and cutting bars would work as well.  Your choice.  :)

I can't wait to give these a try out on the trails this weekend.  No chocolate chips to melt everywhere but still a chocolate bar.  Sounds like perfection!

Fresh Almond Milk is the best...but what do I do with the leftover almond meal?

I am on my fourth batch of homemade almond milk and I am in heaven!  I love the taste.  It has a much more pronounced almond flavor than store bought and it has a crispness to it that I am loving!  My vitamix makes it so much better than my old blender did, and I rationalize it's purchase so much with the reminder that things like this chip away at the cost little by little in savings both in lessened processing and chemicals, as well as cost.  But one part of the process really had me baffled.  What do I do with all of that wonderful almond meal left over?  I read recipes and discarded them one by one until finally I came upon a Chocolate Craisin cookie from Spicie Foodie.  Since I am a sucker for sweets, I had to give this one a try!  I did leave out the craisins because I wanted to experiment with something that maybe the daycare kiddos would eat, as well as hoping this could be something I could use on a long run for carb and protein refueling.  And they were pretty good.



I had to wash one down with some fresh almond milk too, and what a delicious combination that was!!  I wish my photo had gotten a better view of the cookies, but they were a nice texture.  Not too fluffy, not too dense and I think definitely a chewable texture to eat on the run, literally.  :-)  Next time, I might include the craisins, or at least raisins and I'm thinking of swapping out the ap flour for oat flour and make it more of an oatmeal cookie.  It could even be a raw cookie that way too.  So many possibilities!

 

 

 

 

Carrot Cake for My Birthday

I love cake.  It's one of my favorite desserts...so when my birthday comes around, I let myself enjoy the moment and eat cake!  The hubby and I were trying to decide what type of cake to make and I was actually getting ready to make my Black Magic cake from a few weeks ago when I suddenly had an urge to make carrot cake.  Did a quick look through the kitchen and checked off ingredients and set to work.

I used a Betty Crocker recipe, but I made some changes.  I cut the sugar down to 1 cup from 1 1/2 cups and I cut the oil to 1/2 oil, 1/2 applesauce.  True perfection!



It's such an easy recipe too!   Besides the shredding of the 3 cups of carrots (hubby's job - aren't I lucky?)  the rest of it came together super easy!

Here's my recipe

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

3 eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 t cinnamon

1 t baking soda

1 t vanilla

1/2 t salt

1/4 t ground nutmeg

3 cups shredded carrots

1 cup chopped nuts - I used walnuts

Preheat oven to 350, grease and flour 2 - 8" cake pans.  Mix sugar, oil, applesauce and eggs until blended.  Stir in remaining ingredients and beat for about 2 min on medium.  Fold in carrots and nuts.  Pour into pan.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  You can either serve as is or cool and add a cream cheese frosting.  (Which totally makes the carrot cake, so I'm not sure why you'd skip it!)

Cream Cheese Frosting

4 cups confectioners sugar

1 T milk

1 t vanilla

8 oz softened cream cheese

Beat with wire whisk on high until fluffy.  Spread on cooled cake.

 

 

Mexican Lasagna

I love layered casseroles.  They're so easy to make and they can use up so many of the "this and thats" that tend to accumulate through cooking.  This one used up some homemade salsa, chayote squash, roasted peppers and onions as well as some extra boned turkey meat that I'd frozen after making a roast.  Add to that some corn tortilla shells, cheese and pinto beans that I soaked overnight and there's a healthy lasagna!



Really, any combo of flavors could make for a great lasagna because it all just cooks together to combine something new.  And I got to clean out the freezer in the process!