What can you do with a carrot?

Carrots are great. Crunchy and sweet, high in beta carotene, as well as a good source of vitamin C, vitamin K, dietary fiber and potassium. I tried 3 recipes and went through 4 pounds of carrots yesterday.

My first recipe was a dud. Down went 2 pounds of carrots into the trash can.

The second recipe I made was enchilada sauce with carrots. It was super simple and tasted delicious! I will post the recipe with pictures when I make the enchiladas later this week.

Finally, I made carrot cake. I got the recipe from a cookbook my Mom gave me called "Uprisings". The recipes are from a variety of whole grain bakeries throughout the United States. It is a cookbook I love and refer to often. Everything I make has turned out great. But I haven't used it in a while because everything has wheat in it. I am trying to live as gluten-free as possible and so I have avoided this book. But one of my summer goals is to do gluten-free baking, so I did some research. I found that gf oats when ground into a flour tend to make baked goods gummy, and brown rice flour tends to make baked goods grainy. Yet, when mixed together they balance out well. I happened to have both on hand, and substituted my gf flour mixture for the wheat flour in the recipe. It tasted wonderful and I will definitely be using this flour blend as a substitute in other recipes. At least until I can get my hands on other flours I want to try like buckwheat, sorghum, quinoa, and millet to name a few.

This recipe came from "Uprisings", and the only thing I changed is I decreased the honey from 1 1/3 cups to 3/4 cup. It was still plenty sweet for me but my husband says I am not a good judge of how sweet things should be. haha So taste the batter and add honey if you think it needs more. I thought everything about it was delicious and I might just go and grab me another piece. Enjoy!

Carrot Cake

Mix together:

1 cup oil (next time I might try 1/2 cup applesauce to replace 1/2 the oil and see how it tastes)

3/4 cup honey

3/4 cup flax seed mixture *(see below for explanation)

1 Tbl. vanilla

3 cups grated carrots

In separate bowl mix together:

2 cups gf oats ground into flour

2 cups brown rice flour

1 tsp. salt

1 Tbl. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. baking powder

Stir wet and dry ingredients. Pour into oiled 10" or 8x11" pan. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until center is firm.

*The flax seed mixture is to replace the eggs in the recipe. Take 1 cup whole flax seeds and grind in food processor until decimated. Add 3 cups water and blend. This should have the consistency of eggs. Then store whatever you don't use in the fridge for other recipes. Or you can buy ground flax from the store and mix 3 Tbl. of flax with 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbl. water. water to make a paste for this recipe. Flax seeds are a good source of whole fat so it is a good substitute for eggs and oil in baked goods.