Carrot Cake Cookies - Revised Recipe

One of the great things about blogging for me is that I become fearless in the kitchen because I can’t wait to post an awesome recipe I found on Pinterest (or from a LinkedIn Wellness Group or from Twitter). I am trying to remember where I found the following recipe initially. I am almost positive it was on Pinterest!  (If you're interested, you can follow me on Pinterest and Twitter as ConveyAwareness.)

I made Carrot Cake Cookies. I have changed the recipe a bit from the original due to some ingredient inconsistencies I found. (I commented on the author’s recipe so she is aware.) When I found the recipe I saw that it called for honey. I like local raw honey over store bought (it has healing properties and the taste is better). I needed to wait for the farmer’s market so I picked up some more from the Temecula Valley Honey Company and purchased the Mountain Sage flavor. (Next time I'm getting the Avocado flavor.) I am also slowly but surely getting away from using canola oil in my foods. I am replacing all canola oil with either coconut oil or unsweetened applesauce. Today I used the coconut oil.

Carrot Cake Cookies

Adapted from Skinny Scoop

1/3 cup of oil (I use coconut oil)

1/3 cup of honey (I use local raw honey)

3 tablespoons of brown sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 egg

3 tablespoons of orange juice (find lowest sugar content possible - great tip Skinny Scoop!)

½ teaspoon of baking soda

¼ teaspoon of salt

½ teaspoon of cinnamon

1 cup + 2 tablespoons of whole wheat flour

½ cup oats

2/3 cup of shredded carrots

Vanilla Glaze (optional)

1 cup of confectioner’s sugar

1 ½ tablespoons of milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon of lemon zest

½ teaspoon of fresh squeezed lemon

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the oil, honey, and brown sugar.  Add the vanilla. When mixed well, add the egg and orange juice mixing for an additional 30 seconds. Add the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add the flour and stir until absorbed.  Stir in the oats and mix.  Stir in the carrots and mix. (In the original recipe, she added toasted pecans. I opted out.)

Drop the cookies by the tablespoon onto parchment paper. Bake for 10-13 minutes or until lightly browned and no wet spot in the middle.

Let me tell you quickly about the inconsistencies. First, I am not a natural in the kitchen. I kind of have to figure things out by trial and error and I always have to read the recipe from start to finish.

The original recipe called for baking powder so that is what I used in the first two dozen. The cookies weren’t quite “cakey” - they had a dense texture but surprisingly they were moist. They had a great after taste but the initial taste was not too inviting. In the Skinny Scoop’s recipe, she calls for ingredients to make a cream cheese icing. I didn’t have any cream cheese on hand (plus I’m not a huge fan of it) so I looked up a quick vanilla glaze to use instead.

I decided to try the recipe again using baking soda. I am SO glad that I did! The cookies are moist and best of all CAKEY. There is no need for icing at all in this batch. I mean you can add it if you want but we chose not to.

All in all, it turned out to be a fruitful day in the kitchen.  I’m super happy about how the cookies taste with the use of the coconut oil in place of the other oil options. You ought to give my rendition of this recipe a try.

Buon Appetito!

These were made with baking powder. 

These were made with baking soda. 

Infused Garlic

In January, my son caught a bug. Everyone has been saying how “it’s going around”. We aren’t invincible though sometimes I feel like it when we take our fruit and vegetable capsules and/or chewables daily. We are around other children a lot so the likeliness of getting sick is higher.

So on a Saturday morning, my son started to cough and had a little congestion in his throat. He wasn’t miserable but I know when I act quickly on these little buggers it can make a big difference in the duration and outcome. I doubled him up on his chewables and Vitamin C. By the next day his cough had lessened and he still had congestion. We had done the hot showers in the bathroom, saline in his nose and cool mist humidifier in his room throughout the weekend. I had some Hyland’s cough syrup and gave that to him every 6 hours. By Monday he was sounding better but I thought one more day of ‘treating’ him would suffice before he went back to daycare.

I went online to a wellness group I’m a member of and asked what else I could do. So it was mentioned I should infuse garlic in local raw honey. Made sense!! Garlic is great for immunity and fighting infections and raw honey has so many healing properties. After infusing for 20 minutes, I removed the garlic and poured the honey into some yogurt. My son didn’t know there was garlic in there. He gobbled it up. Over the course of the day, I made him two more cups of yogurt with the infused garlic-honey.

On Tuesday, he woke up without congestion! Though a small cough remained, he was well enough to send to daycare. The childcare provider said that most of the children were out for the rest of the week due to illness and the kids that remained had some coughing. The other preventative step I took while my son fought off the congestion and cough was that while he was home in the mornings and evenings during the rest of the week I coated his feet with coconut oil and put on his socks. Coconut oil has wonderful healing properties as well.

I continued to offer the Hyland’s cough syrup 2x a day while treating him to hot steamy bathroom visits, coconut oil on his feet and of course, he doubled up on his fruit and vegetable chewables. By week’s end, he was well and had no cough or congestion.

When you can – treat naturally. What to keep on hand in your pantry at all times: 1) coconut oil, 2) garlic, 3) local raw honey. Be well!