What to do with a forgotten pound of carrots...

I was cleaning out the fridge when I discovered to my chagrin that I had a forgotten pound of carrots in the back for over a month that needed to be eaten quickly as they were on their last legs. My first thought was these carrot cake power bites that I found on the kitchn yesterday. They look delicious and would be great to take to work to snack on during long meetings of "welcome back teachers time!" but I decided they looked too sweet for what I wanted, and I didn't feel like getting out the food processor from the top of the closet. Also having an abundance of oats, I looked for recipes for carrot oatmeal muffins and found one from Kitchen Confidante that was not huge on the sugar and had the most carrot.

Carrot Oatmeal Muffins

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups coarsely grated carrots (that's about 5-6 large carrots)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (didn't have, oops, so I found out that you can use more baking powder in a 1:4 baking soda to baking powder ratio)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 c. raisins

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.  Use muffin tin liners or a light coating of cooking spray.

Grate your carrots!  It's a good arm work out...can you do it with both hands?  Then in a medium bowl add sugars, oil and egg to the carrots and mix well.  In a large bowl mix flour, oats, baking powder (and soda if you have it), the rest of the ingredients and I added about 1/4 cup of raisins.  Mix well, then add the carrot mixture to the flour mixture and combine well.

(*I've discovered that recipes that split the wet and dry ingredients don't ever tell you the bowl sizes so I always end up with the wet stuff in the big bowl and then have to either wash bowls half way through, or dirty a third bowl.  Lesson learned...wet in a medium bowl, dry in my favorite big bowl.)

Divide the batter evenly in the muffin pan until about 2/3 full.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Enjoy!

I had some extra batter, so why not make a loaf!

Mexican Rice Bowl

After getting back from vacation and then moving the fiance into his new place for grad school I had a hankering for Mexican, even though we had made tacos for 30 people the previous week.  Maybe it was because I was returning with a large can of taco seasoning?  Who knows.   However, I hate buying tortillas because I never end up using them all up, then they go moldy in the back of the fridge after using 2 of the 8.  What a waste.  There was an article about rice bowls (or grain bowls) as a great lunchtime meal in an old edition of Bon Appetite, so I decided to take that approach.

I made 1 cup of rice, and then was able to divide that into 5 of my pyrex bowls as the base.  I cooked about a pound of ground beef (97% lean) and then used the left-over taco seasoning for that and layered it on top of the rice.  Then made a pot of black beans (2 cans of black beans, 1 corn on the cob cut off, 1 can diced tomatoes, taco seasoning, cilantro, lime juice) for the next layer, and then topped it with diced fresh tomatoes, avocado, salsa and cilantro.  Thus, in about 40 minutes I had 5 meals for the week.

(If you're not dairy free, you could easily add cheese and sour cream on top)

I think grain bowls are the way to go for weekly lunches as they're filling and you can put some protein on them (even cook an egg on them in the microwave at work), then add salad bits, a sauce (like salsa, salad dressing or any other sauce) and you've got a complete meal.

You could go bbq...wild rice + pulled pork + slaw veggies + bbq sauce
You could go asian...jasmine rice + teriyaki chicken + frozen asian veg (reheated) + dash of soy sauce
Breakfast?  Hash browns + sausage + salad greens + poached egg (yes, you can poach an egg in the microwave! )

Possibilities are endless!

Pie Testing & Competition

With the family beach week coming the first week in August, and our 10th annual (maybe 11th) pie competition, I decided to start testing some pie recipes to figure out how to make a diary-free pie that I could eat that would also win over the judges, expected to range from age 4 to 25.

To start, I asked my friend Meg to do some research as she has an awesome food/life blog (www.megbollenback.com) and knows of lots of places to look for these recipes.  She sent me a list of links (bored at the airport on the way to vacation I'm guessing) so I looked through and found some I liked and wanted to try.

Up first was testing fillings.  I tried the recipe from Oh She Glows first for the Chilled Dark Chocolate Pie following the recipe closely, in a regular graham crust for my co-workers at our summer curriculum project.  The chocolate filling was dense, but cut easily when left in the fridge for 2 hours before serving, then served with cut up cherries on top.  Delicious, but possibly too rich for the little kids to earn a vote.

Round 2 I decided to modify the first filling to get it less rich with using all of the coconut milk (white cream and water).  It made too much filling (which makes a great pudding in the fridge), but was only slightly less rich.  Also, because I forgot about a crust, I ended up finding this recipe online for a simple no-roll crust and just used some almond milk to keep it diary-free.

The crust was a bit salty for me, but with the chocolate it was ok, however it was way too crumbly.  And of course, I forgot to take pictures.

Ran out of time to try more recipes due to moving CP to PA for grad school, so I decided to wing it at the beach.

Here's what I did:

Pie 1: competition

Graham Crust - store bought

Filling below

Coconut whipped cream

Strawberries

Pie 2: non-competition

Pecan-date crust

Filling

Coconut Whipped Cream

Strawberries

Crust: (http://minimalistbaker.com/6-ingredient-vegan-chocolate-silk-pie/)

·       1.5 cups raw walnuts (I used pecans)

·       1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

·       1 heaping (packed) cup pitted dates, soaked for 10 minutes in warm water and drained

1.     Prepare the crust by pulsing walnuts and cocoa powder in a food processor until it reaches a fine meal. Remove and set aside.

2.     Place soaked dates in the food processor and process until small bits remain and it’s sticky. Add back in the walnut-cocoa meal and process until well combined.

3.     Transfer to a glass pie pan lightly oiled with coconut oil. Alternatively, place parchment in the bottom for easy removal. Place a piece of plastic wrap over the crumbs and press with your hands to form a uniform crust that goes up the sides. Pop in the freezer to set.

 

Filling

For the filling:

·       1 bag dark chocolate chips (about 340 grams)

·       1 (15-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk, chilled in fridge overnight

·       Liquid sweetener, to taste (optional – I used 2 tbsp maple syrup)

·       Pinch of salt

·       1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4. For the filling: Chill can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight so the cream can solidify. When ready, open the can and carefully scoop out the solid white coconut cream into a pot, discarding the water. Add chocolate chips and stir until combined. Heat over low-medium heat until most of the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and stir in the optional sweetener, salt, and vanilla until smooth.

Read more: http://ohsheglows.com/2013/07/06/chilled-dark-chocolate-pie-with-toasted-almond-crust-and-strawberry-vanilla-compote/#ixzz3hlSNJ2UD

Coconut Whipped Cream

http://minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-coconut-whipped-cream/

Ingredients

·       1 14-ounce can full fat coconut milk 

·       1/4 - 3/4 cup icing/powdered sugar 

·       1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1.     Chill your coconut cream or coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight, being sure not to shake or tip the can to encourage separation of the cream and liquid.

2.     The next day, chill a large mixing bowl 10 minutes before whipping.

3.     Remove the coconut cream or milk from the fridge without tipping or shaking and remove the lid. Scrape out the top, thickened cream and leave the liquid behind (reserve for use in smoothies).

4.     Note: if your coconut milk didn't harden, you probably just got a dud can without the right fat content. In that case, you can try to salvage it with a bit of tapioca flour - 1 to 4 Tbsp - during the whipping process. That has worked for me several times.

5.     Place hardened cream in your chilled mixing bowl. Beat for 30 seconds with a mixer until creamy. Then add vanilla (optional) and powdered sugar and mix until creamy and smooth - about 1 minute. Taste and adjust sweetness as needed.

6.     Use immediately & spread over the chilled chocolate filling, or refrigerate - it will harden and set in the fridge the longer it's chilled. Will keep for up to 1 - 2 weeks!

Cover the top with sliced strawberries.

With competitors and some judges

I thought they were delicious and many people were amazed they were dairy free (that whipped coconut cream is delicious!), however due to the usurping of the older generation of judges (ages 15 and up), my pie only got 3rd place.  The winner was a pie made for the judges (ahem, cheaters) with pudding, whipped cream, rainbow sprinkles and minion twinkies on top.

I'll have to try again next year with some other recipes!