Okay, I got this recipe from Alton Brown and over a hundred people rated it 5 stars!  I made a few alterations to it to make it more healthy! When you use fresh milled flour (you have to have a mill for that) it adds lots of fiber and vitamins.  No one knew that it was healthier! (The honey crystals can be found at breadbeckers.com.  I use it for all my sugar!  It tastes like sugar and vanilla mixed together.)  The regular sucannant can be bought at Target or a health food store.  It has a much stronger molasses flavor.  You can use all of the honey crystals if you don’t like the taste.  Some said it was the best carrot cake they’d ever eaten!

Carrot Cake:

Ingredients:

butter for the pan

12 ounces (about 2 1/2 C) flour  (I used fresh milled flour so I used 3 cups)

12 ounces grated carrots (abt. 6 med.) (I cut them up and threw them in my blender)

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1/4 t ground allspice

1/4 t ground cinnamon

1/4 t freshly ground nutmeg

1/2 t salt

10 ounces sugar (abt. 1 1/3 C)  I used Succanant with honey or honey crystals.

2 ounces dark brown sugar (abt. 1/4 C packed) I used regular Succanant.

3 large eggs

6 ounces plain yogurt

6 ounces vegetable oil

Directions: (preheat oven to 350 degrees)

Butter and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.  Line the bottom with parchment paper.  Set aside.

Put the carrots into a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt in the bowl of a food processor (I used my blender) and process for 5 seconds.  Add this mixture to the carrots and toss until well coated with the flour.

In the bowl of the food processor (or blender) combine sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and yogurt.  WIth the processor still running, drizzle in the vegetable oil.  Pour this mixture into the carrot mixture and stir until just combined!  Pour into the cake pans and bake on the middle rack for 35 minutes.  Reduce heat to 325 degrees and cook for about 15 minutes.

Remove pans from oven and allow to cool 15 min. in the pan.  After 15 min. turn the cake onto a rack and allow to cool completely.  Frost between each layer, tops and sides.

Frosting:

1 1/2 bars cream cheese

3 ounces unsalted butter (I use Earth’s Balance)

1 1/2 t vanilla

Apx. 3 cups of powdered sugar (you can put the succanant with honey in the blender to powder it)

Mix together slowly adding powdered sugar slowly.

First I apologize for not being around for a while. I have a really great excuse:  I have been cruising the Western Caribbean. Yup. Eating my way through Mexico, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.  If you haven’t done that, I highly recommend it.  Go on at least a one-week cruise.  Plan to be committed to being completely lazy, then have tons of fun, and expect to gain, well, tons of weight.  Our cruise director announced on the first night of the cruise that the average cruiser gains between 7 and 14 pounds on a one-week ocean-going cruise.  NO KIDDING! That was my reaction too.  I couldn’t imagaine how a person could eat and drink their way into that much extra fat and flab in such a short time.  I was certain I would NOT be one of those foolish gluttons.

Hi, My name is Criss, and I’m a Foolish Glutton.

There.  I’ve confessed.  I gained 8 pounds!  In one week!  It was truly “The Agony and the Ecstacy.”  I ate eggs benedict frequently, had a lovely country-themed-based lunch each day (Mexican, Greek, Chinese, Thai - all lo-cal….. NOT). Then I went to my cabin and prepared my mind for dinner: lobster tails, chateaubriand, rack of lamb, salmon and more.  I cannot even begin to describe the potatos, sauces, breads and cheeses.  And desserts?  OMG!!!!! Some evenings I had two!

So now I’m a bloated, stuffed, plump Christmas Glutton.  No more treats for me. I’ve already stored up more than my fair share of holiday extras.  Ellen and Sally, I should have taken my health-conscience chicks with me. Perhaps I would have only gained a couple of pounds.

Okay. Diet time it is…. back to eating healthy…..

While visions of sugarplums dance in my head.

I know that when I was a teen I was invincible.  I could eat anything and everything.  I knew more than my parents.  The older I get the more I see how clueless I was.  So how do you prove to your teens that what you eat does matter?  It does have a lasting affect on their body.  If anyone knows what to do with a teen please give me a clue.

I am going to Italy with my mom and sister!!!  No kids! No husband!  I still can’t believe it.  They are going to be alone for 12 days.  Scary to think of what Daddy is going to feed them.  Sooooo I decided to make big dinners between now and when I leave.  I am freezing half of each dinner.  That way they can take a bag out of the freezer in the morning.  Then they can have a healthy home made dinner.  If there are any other ideas to help me not worry about them.  Please let me know.

If anyone wants to check in on them and make sure they are brushing thier teeth feel free!!

Bonjoirno……I need to practice my Italian!!!!

Anyone ever go apple picking when they were young?  I remember going into the barn after picking the apples.  The smell of hot apple cider!!!!!!!!!!  So good!!! They would always have freshly dipped carmel apple also.  It was called Moo Ma’s Farm where I grew up and went apple picking.  I wish there was a place like that in south florida.  I guess I will have to go orange picking. 

Antoinette

I have now joined the world of slow cooking!!  I love it!  Who knew it would be so easy?  I am trying a chicken dish.  Chicken breast, broccoli slaw, cream of mushroom and a bunch of other stuff.  I will let you know how it turns out!  My pot roast last night was great.  Baby potatoes, carrots, mushrooms califlower.  My kids loved it.  Any easy recipes out there let me know!!!

Antoinette

It seems like so many people are wanting to lose weight, but resign themselves to being overweight.  Usually I hear them say things like, “I’ve tried everything.”  I think what they are really saying is that they’ve tried a ton of diets.  I guess that’s why I like the show “The Biggest Loser”.  They show real people eating well and exercising.  Hmmm… surprising that they lose weight!

Also, it was great seeing Bob the trainer say to throw out items in your house that contain fructose corn syrup!  It’s great to have someone giving healthy advice without any agenda other than to help people be healthy.

School work is just about done (dd was sick so she’s behind) and the weekend is upon us!  We are ready to wind down and go see the movie “Fireproof” tomorrow with some friends I think.  One thing I like to do when we go to the movies is to make my own popcorn and put it in baggies.  I use an air popper and coat it lightly with a mixture of coconut oil and Earth’s Balance butter.  It’s really good and not as bad for you as movie popcorn! Give it a shot!

I often wonder exactly what nutrients are in different foods. I wonder when I grab a “handful” of almonds, what am I getting- how many calories, how much good fat, what vitamins?…How much should I give my kids?  WELL, I found a great website where they have tested all the foods!

One area of nutrition that I was really interested in finding out about is the different types of wheat (hard red, white, spelt, etc.). I grind my own wheat to make fresh bread, cookies, cakes, (really not that hard, you just put it in a mill and it turns it into flour) and I knew that we were getting a lot of vitamins and fiber, but I didn’t know exactly what! When you buy bread at the store, all this good nutrition is taken out of regular wheat and then it is “enriched” with some of the vitamins so that it can have a shelf life and then they tell you it’s just as good!  Now that I am making my own bread each week, when we eat a sandwhich or toast for breakfast, I don’t worry about eating a nutrient depleted bread and I feel good about giving it to my family.  Oh, and all that fiber really works well! 

(Additional info. about fresh milled wheat can be found at breadbeckers.com)

SO, if you too are curious about what’s in food, go to this site and bookmark it! http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

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