Spiced Carrot Cookie

Ingredients:

• 1 egg, or egg replacement
• 1/2 cup of butter or margarine 
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup soy milk
• 2 tbsp mollases
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking power
• 4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground clove
• pinch of nutmeg
• pinch of allspice
• 1 large carrot, peeled and grated
• 1/4 cup sweetened coconut
• 1/2 cup of rolled oats
• 2 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup raisins, dried fruit of your choice

Add egg(or egg replacement), white and brown sugar, butter, soy milk and vanilla in a bowl.Blend on low until it is creamy. Add your spices and molasses, blend together until smooth. Add grated carrot, coconut and oats. Blend until the carrot is mixed into the batter.

In a separate bowl, mix flour and baking powder together. Add in 1/2 cup increments the batter, mixing on medium speed. You may need to add more or less flour. An easy way to judge is that this batter should be the consistency of play dough, slightly wet but easy to mold and should not crumble. You should be able to roll some dough into a ball and it should hold.

Stir in your raisins, cranberries, dry fruit(what ever combination you choose!). Use a table spoon to scoop 6 equal sections onto your cookie sheet. Roll each scoop into a ball and flatten the top slightly with a fork.

Bake at 350F for about 15 minutes. Cookies are done when they are slightly browned! Makes about 12 cookies.

Tips:

The measurements might be slightly off. I don't use measuring cups often when I am baking or cooking, and I forgot to measure for this recipe. I do a lot of guesstimating when baking, so all of these measurements are approximates!

If you want a stronger carrot taste, add more carrot and reduce the ginger.

You can add a variety of fruit to this recipe, some examples are raisins, dates, figs, dried apricot, or you could add walnuts, almonds, ect.


As always, if you have any comments or feedback on the recipes, I would love to hear it!



 

Pomegranate Drink

Call me crazy, but I get really excited over fruits and veggies. I love the wide variety of fruits available and how each and kind is different. Today I tried a pomegranate for the very first time, and sharing a few seeds with my boyfriend, I looked up and asked if it was possible to fall in love with fruit.

If you have never tried this beautiful fruit, I urge you to do so! To eat a pomegranate, you slice it in half and eat the seeds. There are several different methods that can be used on how to get the seeds out. I put mine in a bowl of cool water and gently separated the seeds from the fruit. The pomegranate juices do stain, so be careful!

This beautiful fruit has made it to the top of my favorite food list. The seeds are like delicate rubies. They are sweet, yet slightly tart. They are juicy and crisp at the same time. The fruit is beautiful, I don't know how else to describe it...If I could name one fruit that represented the feminine side of nature, it would be this fruit for it's blood red seeds.

You can eat the seeds by themselves, toss them into salads or make juice. Below is a recipe for a delicious vegan smoothie that is sure to make you smile.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
1/2 cup of mixed fruit(I used the frozen mixed fruit with strawberries, peaches, melon)
A handful of ice
1/2 cup of water

Blend the seeds first then add your fruit, ice and water. You may need to add more water depending on how thick or thin you like you drinks. You can also add half of a banana if you'd like. You could probably add any fruit you want to this, or some yogurt if you are eating dairy.

I hope you enjoy your pomegranate as much as I did!