Tag Archives: Carrots

Carrot, Zucchini Bread

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 9 March, 2014 None comments

Being on the health train we’ve attempted lately, I have been craving bread, carbs and flat out junk food. I want anything and everything that is terrible for you. Craving sugar, bread and donuts has been anything but unusual for me lately. Although our cupboards are filled with fruit and veggies I opted for a healthy bread that I was by far impressed with. Being as I am a sugar and carb gal, I was beyond shocked I was able to enjoy a slice without butter. Yes, withOUT butter. My heart probably thanked me and my tongue didn’t ask for some. So all around we were good!

Michael on the other hand doesn’t really care for all the bread, tortillas, bagels, English muffins or cinnamon rolls that Cooper and I devour. So although he thought it was good he really had no true insight because he could easily live without bread. He was not my captive audience on this particular dish; Cooper was. :)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, melted
1 cup honey
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
¼ cup apple juice (orange juice works too)
1 ½ tbsp vanilla
3 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
½ tsp salt
2 ½ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
1 tbsp sugar
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp allspice
2 large carrots, shredded (1 ½ cup)
1 large zucchini (1 ½ cup)
1 large apple (1 cup)
½ cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixer blend butter, sugar and eggs until well beaten. Add apple juice and vanilla and stir well.

Add all dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. Cream well.

Meanwhile, in a food processor shred carrots and zucchini. (This makes for an easy step)

Add carrots and zucchini to mixture.

With a food chopper, chop the apples into small pieces. I make sure they are extremely small for my son’s sake. Add to the mixture.

Mix well.

In two greased bread pans evenly divide the mixture and cook in the oven for 45-60 minutes depending how hot your oven runs. When a toothpick inserted comes out clean, your bread is done!

While I was making this bread my son was in his tent playing with balloons. This has been a normal activity for him lately. He has been loving his tent. Today he got extremely quiet while I was baking and almost too quite I knew I needed to check on him.

Here is what I found:

He got into the container of Peach O’s that my husband left out…. This was the funniest sight I’ve seen in quite awhile. When I peeked in the tent he had the entire Peach O in his mouth gnawing extremely fast trying to get a bite off of it.

Hahaha oh how I laughed so hard that he tried even harder to suck off all the sugar before I swept them all away. Sweet boy! It was so precious to see this sight that I gave him some bites to enjoy!

Now that I rescued my little man from this choking hazard I gave him lunch with some Peach O’s for dessert. :) He deserved it!

Toothpick inserted came out perfectly clean. This bread is extremely moist and tastes awesome! No butter needed!

Meatloaf Bites

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 8 March, 2014 None comments

Meatloaf Bites, okay don’t ride off this recipe without reading it first. This is actually by far the best “meatloaf” recipe you will encounter. Honestly, it is! It was so good, my husband had no idea it was considered to be meatloaf as he probably wouldn’t have ate it. He absolutely hates the word “meatloaf” believing that ruins the essence of what meat actually is.

So try this recipe before you use the good ol’ excuse that you don’t care for meatloaf (I’m thinking of my sister right now). If I can trick my husband, I sure can fool you by the end of the recipe that this is even called meatloaf bites. :)

So here we are and my husband had six in one sitting and I probably had the remaining six. Luckily they make 18 muffins so we had enough for Cooper as well. We all loved them. They are healthy, full of veggies and protein and even my little toddler ate them, mind you he can be very picky as most kids are. I was thrilled that he ate them and not only ate them but ate with satisfaction! :)

Ingredients:

1 lb Italian Sausage
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
½ cup tomatoes, chopped
½ cup flaxseed flour (almond meal or regular flour works too)
1 egg
1 tbsp Chia seeds
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp BBQ Sauce
1 tbsp relish
1 tsp salt/pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 tsb Italian seasoning

In a skillet add coconut oil, meat, onions, carrots and minced garlic.

Once cooked, add beaten egg and Dijon mustard…

Add relish, tomatoes, and BBQ sauce.

Add Chia seeds, flaxseed flour and remaining seasonings and mix well.

In greased muffin tins or muffin cups add 1/4 cup meat mixture to tin and bake at 400 for 18-20 or until beginning to crisp on the top.

Serve with fresh salad and fresh blue cheese dressing. :) Our favorite dressing!

Be prepared to be WOWWED! They are delicious!

Adapted from my friend’s original recipe! :)

Sweet Creamy Carrot Soup

Posted by Delightfully Doable on 15 November, 2013 None comments

Sweet Creamy Carrot Soup

I took a friend out to lunch the other day for her birthday. We went to Bridgeport; it is a large outside shopping center that has a lot of yummy restaurants. We were going to go to Pastini’s which I love, but as we were driving through the parking lot we saw a new restaurant Called Twig. From the outside it looked very intriguing that we decided to test it out. They had only been open for four days.

Their burgers looked delicious so I decided to get one; I am easily pleased with a big burger. This gorgonzola garlic burger came with a side of sweet carrot soup. My girlfriend got a fajita salad that actually was very tasty and had good size chunks of steak on it.

My soup came out first and was honestly the best thing I have had in a long time. This carrot soup was so sweet and had caramel drizzle on top. I gave some to Cooper and he absolutely loved it. I was raving about this soup, it was amazing, honestly amazing. Every Thursday they make this soup so I made a large mental note of that. My burger was absolutely amazing as well. It had full chunks of grilled garlic, a bbq spicy aioli and big chunks of gorgonzola. I was thoroughly impressed by this new restaurant and their prices were incredible for their taste. It was soooooo good. I will be taking my husband there and making sure it happens on a Thursday to make sure I get their carrot soup again. :)

After eating I still couldn’t forget about the soup. I decided to embark on this task since both Cooper and I loved it. I ran to Trader Joes on my way home and got some fresh carrots. I have never made carrot soup before but thought it couldn’t be that hard. Tonight was the night.

My husband got home and said it smelt so good in the house and asked what it was. I simply said “dinner” without emphasizing what kind of soup I had made. I dished him up a bowl and made him some toast to dip it in. He took one bite and was raving about it, literally! He asked what it was and finally I told him it was creamy carrot soup. He was utterly surprised but loved it and asked where I got the recipe. I explained my lunch date and how I was attempting to make it myself. He was very complimentary about my cooking (sweet man) and told me he doesn’t know how I do it; creating a recipe from scratch but loved it.

This recipe is super easy and quick. The only time restriction is chopping the carrots, celery and potatoes. You can chop them large because they will cook down. This is a great meal when you are busy and don’t have a lot of time.

Ingredients:

1lb peeled carrots, chopped
2 cups chopped celery
6 large red potatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tbsp Avocado Oil (EVOO works great too)
2-3 Garlic cloves, minced
2-3 cup water
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprkia
1 tbsp Oregano
2 Sprigs fresh Rosemary
1-2 tsp Salt
Dash of black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 can evaporated milk
½ cup half and half
Chicken Bouillon, scoop 2 tbsp or 3-4 cubes (I use Costco Better than Bouillon so it’s more of a paste)
1 tbsp Honey

In a large pot drizzle a little Oil and add carrots, celery, potatoes, onion, garlic and 2 cups water. Add in cumin, paprika and oregano stir well and top with Rosemary. Cook covered on low heat for 1-2 hours

Once vegetables are softened and cooked, transfer to a food processor.

Puree until fully smooth and transfer back to your large pot. Add in salt, pepper and garlic salt.

Add evaporated milk, ½ & ½, Chicken bouillon, and honey. Heat through and taste test to see if you have reached the desired sweetness you are looking for. :)