Showing posts with label Carrots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carrots. Show all posts

Monday, May 26, 2014

Asian Style Spiral Salad with Chicken




I bought myself a new toy for the kitchen: a Spiralizer.  I can't stop using it.  I tell you it is freaking awesome!

My kids can't wait to use it too.  They  eat more vegetables.  Heck, I am eating more vegetables.

The best new vegetable we have learned to LOVE LOVE LOVE-- are yellow beets.

They are my favorite.  Way better for a beet virgin like myself than the red beet.  Sorry red beet! I do love marinated red beets just not raw red beets.  Yeah, say that fast 10X's.


Maybe I am crazy and there is not a difference in flavor, but in my mind, the yellow beet, taste better.  It is a bit sweeter and not so earthy.

Before I went gluten free and started reading labels,  we used to eat this salad that had cabbage and a bag of Top Ramen.  I sort of miss that salad.  I miss the crunchy noodles, the crispy cabbage and the seasoning  from the packet.

After I made this salad I asked Cory if it reminded him of anything we have had before and he brought up the Top Ramen salad.  I had the same thought.

For some reason the dressing, the crunchy almonds and the spiraly vegetables made us believe that we were eating a very similar salad to the one we loved from our early days of marriage.  And you know that was a long time ago-- wink..wink

I added chicken for some protein and to help fill us up for dinner.  We are trying, and failing miserably on some nights, to not snack late into the night.

I committed a while back to eating more salads and this is one salad that the whole family has asked for several times.  It is a great way to involve your kids in meal planning, get them to try new vegetables and get creative.  Use any vegetable you want.

If you do get a Spiralizer (this is not a paid post-heck-they don't even know I bought one) I would recommend saving the tails.  When you put the vegetable onto the spiralizer you push and crank with one hand and hold the bowl with the other. The vegetable is being pushed through a metal tube and cut at the same time.  You are left with an assortment of "tails".  I tossed them into a baggie and froze them for when I make a vegetable broth or chicken noodle soup next.

This is a fun salad.  It is simple, and yet, you can do so much with it to add that gourmet flair.  I threw some black sesame seeds into ours for fun.

Enjoy!




Asian Style Spiral Salad

Makes 4 adult servings
Prep Time:  25 minutes
1 carrot, peeled
1 red or green apple
lemon juice (for apple)
1 yellow beet, peeled
1 zucchini, peel left on
4 large red radishes, peel left on
toasted almonds, optional
black sesame seeds, optional
cooked chicken pieces, optional
Meat is optional for this dish.  Chicken, beef or shrimp work well.  This is a great salad to use any leftover meat in the refrigerator from the night before, this is what we do.
Dressing:

Makes 1/4 cup 
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 
2 tablespoons Mirin.  
Mirin is a japanese sweet cooking rice wine.  It can be found in the asian section of most grocery stores.

1.  Spiral all of the vegetables into a large bowl.

2.  Prepare a small bowl with 1 cup of cold water and juice from half a lemon.  Spiral the apple and add to the lemon water.  This will prevent the apple from turning brown.

3.  Combine the two dressing ingredients into a jar with a lid.  Shake.  Pour over salad and toss.
4.  Salad is best served immediately.  Everything is crunchy and crisp.   Add any optional ingredients and toss again.  Leftovers should be stored in the refrigerator and will soften a bit as it sits in the dressing.



Written by Sherron Watson

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Roasted Carrots with Ginger-Honey Sauce


Carrots are a family favorite.  My kids love three vegetables: carrots, corn and peas.  

These carrots are a bit borderline as a kid friendly side dish or so I thought.  

I always make my recipes a few times before they are posted on the blog.  The first time I made these I used those fancy carrots with the pretty green tops still attached.  They usually come in a bundle of about 8 carrots and range in color from a red-orange to a yam-yellow.  
I buy them because they are pretty. I like pretty food.

Let me say that I should have bought three bundles because the kids loved them. My kids enjoy the flavor of ginger, lemon and honey together; I felt confident they would like them but, then again, getting them to actually try "just one" can sometimes prove to be more challenging.

Not this time. They swooped right in and gobbled up every single pretty carrot.

So I made them again, and again (you know for recipe testing purposes).

Just so you know, I used plain every day carrots for the other batches because Easter had passed and for some reason the cute bundles of pretty carrots were no longer available in my area.

Same result!  Kids ate them right up.  The one thing I had to do differently was cut the thicker carrots in half.  I tried to keep all of the whole carrots and pieces to about 1/2 an inch in thickness.

This recipe is simple and I like that.  Busy people sometimes need easy, delicious food. Oh, and pretty food too.


I have used these carrots as a side served with salad and chicken thighs and as an added garnishment for Carrot Peel Soup.   <-- That recipe is still being developed.  LOVE IT! Coming soon.

I would love to hear how your family enjoyed these tasty carrots.  

Drop me an email or comment on this post.

ENJOY




Roasted Carrots with Ginger-Honey Sauce

Makes 3 servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Bake Time: 15 minutes

1 small bunch of carrots, remove green tops
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

Sauce:

3 tablespoons honey
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon fresh ginger root
2 tablespoons butter, melted 
Salt and pepper



1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Toss carrots with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes.  If you don't use parchment paper be aware that the sauce may burn to a cookie sheet if left in the oven too long.

3.  While carrots are baking, combine sauce ingredients in a small bowl.

4.  Remove carrots from oven and, using half of the sauce, brush over the carrots. 

5.  Roast for 5 more minutes.  The sauce should be bubbly and the carrots starting to brown.

6.  Remove carrots to serving dish and pour the remaining sauce over the roasted carrots.

7.   Serve immediately.




Written by Sherron Watson

Monday, March 26, 2012

Carrot Cake


I did not grow up eating carrot cake.  I don't even remember my grandma making a carrot cake, EVER.  So I was caught off guard when I had the urge to make one myself.

I could not stand eating cooked carrots as a kid.  Just the smell would send me running to the bathroom in horror.  Raw carrots were okay once in a while, just not the cooked ones.

I can remember being at a church event about 20 years ago and being presented with the opportunity to test someone's "famous" dish.  Not wanting to say no or be unkind, I agreed.  We walked back to the kitchen and there before me was a HUGE bowl of cooked carrots that had been prepared with a ginger flavored sauce.



I found myself in an uncomfortable position….what to do, what to do.

Mentally I was freaking out, and outwardly I had the appearance of a refined lady.  I smiled, took the plate and took the first bite.  I waited.  I expected the carrots to remind me that they were not accepted by my body and to take off running to the nearest bathroom.  

I waited some more…and nothing!  I had been cured of my aversion to cooked carrots.  YEAH! 

To this day, I don't go out of my way to make them often, but I did get the recipe for the carrots I tasted above and have served them several times through out the last few years.  I will search for that recipe and share them this summer when I get some fresh carrots from the farmers market.

My feelings for this vegetable might explain why my family never made carrot cake…LOL  



I chose this recipe to make because it had so many fun ingredients: coconut, pineapple, pecans and carrots.  I felt like it would be a tropical paradise in every bite…and it was!    The title for this recipe has the word "best" included in it.  I can tell you for a fact that every recipe with this word does not make it the best every time.  I have been disappointed and so went into this with an understanding that it may or may not be the BEST.

I can tell you, after the fact, that it is pretty close to being the perfect carrot cake recipe.  I delivered half of this cake to my neighbor and he LOVED it, my husband ate the other half (just about) and the kids thought it was good too.

The cake is beautiful when cut, holds it's shape, stays moist and as it sits for a few days in the fridge, becomes a little bit better.

My daughter who is 5 is always telling me, "Mommy, when I am older, I will like that food".  She is much wiser then I ever was at her age.  She is right.  Our taste buds change and develop as we age and it's always a good idea to try new things throughout your life time.  I am glad that I did and the carrot lesson taught me to revisit some food items from my past that were not my favorites.  Since then I have discovered that I enjoy: beets, grits, beans, blue cheese and of course, carrots.

Enjoy your day!



Recipe:  Carrot Cake 

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups grated carrot
1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 (3 1/2-ounce) can flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Line 2 round cakepans with wax paper; lightly grease and flour wax paper. Set pans aside.

Stir together first 4 ingredients.
Beat eggs and next 4 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add flour mixture, beating at low speed until blended. Fold in carrot and next 3 ingredients. Pour batter into prepared cakepans.
Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pans on wire racks 15 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks. Cut the cakes in half so that you have four layers.  Spread Cream Cheese Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake.  See below to frost your cake with out having a ton of crumbs to deal with.

Recipe:  Cream Cheese Frosting

12 oz cream cheese, softened
1 stick of butter, softened
5-6 cups of powdered sugar
1 tsp of vanilla
3-4 T. milk,  I used coconut milk



Pictures below of instructions:

I shredded my own carrots.  One cup was about 2 medium size carrots.



I filled the cake pans this full and they baked wonderfully.  I was able to cut the cakes in half and this gave my my four layers.

Having the parchment in the bottom of the pans is amazing!  Your cakes will never stick.  Use a pencil to trace the bottom of your pan onto the parchment paper and cut out the circles.  Place them in the bottom and spray with oil and flour.  When your cake is done, turn them over onto a rack and peal off the paper.

Stack your slices and add the frosting to each layer.  Take a basting brush and dust off any crumbs on the plate and on the sides of the cake.  When frosting a cake you do not want lots of crumbs in your final layer of frosting.  By brushing off the crumbs you will eliminate some of this.

The next step is the under layer of frosting.  This is important because this the layer that traps those final crumbs.  I usually do a thin layer to fill in any holes and gaps, level the cake, and insure that the crumbs are all under control.  I take this cake and place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.  When I add the final layer of frosting it is amazing out simple and easy the process is.  




Donut Breakfast Casserole

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