My Recipe: Vegan Carrot Cake

I went on a little baking spree last weekend. We had a bag of carrots sitting in the fridge and I decided the best way to use them would be to (clearly) make carrot cake! 

With school last semester I literally had hardly a moment to spare and I missed baking. I was so excited to try a new recipe, and of course had to document it. 

You want to start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.You're going to let the cake bake for about 40 minutes, or until it's nice and golden and a toothpick comes out clean. The ingredients are below.


Wet Ingredients:

- 3 cups grated carrot

- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup

- 3/4 cup almond-coconut milk (or any non-dairy milk of your choice)

- 1/3 cup vegetable/canola oil

- 2 tsp vanilla extract

- 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

- zest of 1/4 of an orange

 

Dry Ingredients:
- 1 cup all-purpose white flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- a pinch of salt





Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately. Sift the dry ingredients into the carrot mixture in thirds and gently fold until you get something that looks like the picture below! I've greased the sides of the loaf pan and cut a piece of parchment paper for the bottom (this really helps you get your cake out with nothing stuck to the bottom of the pan).

 

 


This is what the cake should look like when it's done.

I topped mine with an orange glaze and crushed walnuts! This is optional, but I would recommend it since it's so delicious.

The glaze is also ridiculously easy. Here's what you need:

- 1/2 cup icing sugar
- freshly squeezed orange juice (1/4 of a large orange, 1/2 of a small orange)
- 1 tsp orange zest (optional)

Just whisk together the above ingredients and your glaze is ready to go.

I let the cake cool for about 15 minutes, poured the glaze on top, finally sprinkled it with the crushed walnuts, and voila!

Recipe: Greek Quinoa Salad

Hey guys!

I made this Greek style Quinoa salad for a work potluck the other week and it was a hit. 

Quinoa is super easy to make, it is very filling, and easy to add to almost anything. It is one of the highest protein grains (about 14%). It is also a great source of iron and magnesium. 

I would recommend quinoa as a great replacement to rice and even pasta in some dishes! 

So this recipe was quite easy. I made a lot because it was for a large group...here are the ingredients and steps:

Ingredients:

1 cup of red quinoa
1 cup of golden quinoa
1 cucumber- diced
1 tomato- diced
1 green bellpepper- diced
1/2 a red onion- diced
Just under a 1/4 cup sliced kalamata olives
As much feta cheese as you like
Greek dressing to taste

Steps:

Boil the quinoa to cook it. It takes 2 cups of water for 1 cup of quinoa. In this case I used 4 cups of water. Once the water and quinoa are boiling, turn the heat to low or simmer. The quinoa is cooked once the water has been absorbed and the quinoa begins to sprout.

After it is cooked all you need to do is toss everything and you are good to go.

Recipe Review: Apple Chips

Hey guys!

So I ended up making the apple chips I had mentioned in my previous post...and they were delicious!

Here are some pics:

This was one HUGE honeycrisp apple, sprinkled with the teeniest amount of sugar and cinnamon.

Some of my slices were a bit thicker since I was in a crazy rush trying to slice the apple so I wouldn't be late to pick my sister up from school.
 
They were in the oven for about an hour and a half and the majority came out super crispy...like real chips :')

The thin ones were very crunchy and pretty sweet, while the slightly thicker ones were chewier and had a tangier/more apple-y taste to them, but both were super yummy.  

Next time I wouldn't include any sugar since they were more than sweet enough.

PS- The one apple made about a cereal bowl sized serving. The bottom picture is only showing about a third of the total.

Why Apples Rock

So I decided to write about apples because I LOVE them...especially honeycrisp apples...so tart, yet sweet, and absolutely delish. Apples are a great snack, healthy, and easy to pair with other foods.

I found a great article here outlining the many wonderful effects of apple phytochemicals. Also, stats from Nutrition Data has the composition of an apple. For example, 1 medium apple is only 95 cals, is a good source of vitamin C and fibre. OK, back to the phytochemicals, (which are basically chemicals in fruits and vegetables that provide benefits to us beyond our basic nutritional requirements) apples have lots- specifically flavonoids. According to the article I had previously mentioned, apples have been linked to help prevent cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. Apples have also been linked to help with weight loss, and help with asthma symptoms. Quercitin, a very active compound mainly found in the peel of apples, has proven anti-oxidant activity as well. I'm sure some of you are wondering if this stuff actually gets absorbed into your body after you eat an apple, and this is a good question. Phytochemical bioavailability increases when you eat your fruits and veggies with a little bit of fat/oil. The fat helps ensure your body takes up more of these good-for-you chemicals rather than having them leave your body. Processing apples (aka apple juice, applesauce, cider, etc.) decreases phytochemical levels so make sure you eat your whole apple avec peel a day to keep the doctor and chronic diseases away!

Apple Snacks

1. Slice an apple into rounds. Spread each round with a bit of almond/peanut butter and sprinkle with granola.

2. Cube an apple. Put in in a bowl and sprinkle some cinnamon on top. Microwave for 2 minutes, stir and microwave for another 2 minutes.

3. Slice an apple and have it with cheese.

4. Make apple chips. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 250 F. Thinly slice 2-3 apples. Toss apples in a cinnamon and brown sugar mix. Bake for about 2 hours (the apples slices should look quite dry). Let cool and enjoy!

Squash and Salad

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share some of the recipes I've made recently: a stuffed butternut squash, and an awesome apple salad. 

So let me start with the squash...I wanted something delicious and something that would make me feel warm when I looked at it to battle the winter blues. We had a lot of fresh cranberries left over from over the holidays so I thought that would be a yummy ingredient. I ended up googling (good old google!) squash with cranberries and I found this recipe and I used it as my guide! I'm pretty bad at following recipes and there is always a lot of estimations when I cook. Anyways, here are the ingredients:

- 1 butternut squash, cut in half lengthwise
- 2 handfuls of fresh cranberries
- 1/4 c of chopped walnuts
- 4 spoons of brown sugar (2 for each half)
- butter

Preheat the oven to 375 then prepare the squash. Just remove the seeds and layer the cranberries, walnuts, and sugar in each of the halves. I pressed butter into the surface of the squash, and covered my baking tray with foil. I baked it for 1 hour and 20 minutes at 375, and for the last 5 minutes I uncovered the tray and turned up the heat to 425 to make the cranberries all juicy and bubbly, and the squash more golden. It was super tasty and my family loved it!

By the time I was done the squash and it was baking away I was hungry for lunch. I hadn't made a big salad in a while and we had lots of brie cheese left (cheese= my love, my life, my everything) and I thought it would taste good with apples. I ended up mixing baby spinach, brie cheese, a cubed royal gala apple, sliced walnuts, dried cranberries, red onion, and a poppy seed dressing for a delicious and filling salad.