Fast, easy AND delicious!

We are BIG fans of carrot cake here at the Carter house.

In fact, when Craig I got married, our wedding cake was a carrot cake. :)

I have tried  several recipes over the years,

but have never found one that we have loved enough to make again and again.

Now that 3/4 of our children are no longer residing here and with Craig being gone most of

every week to track meets, I haven't been baking a whole lot.

No sense baking when I would be the one eating the majority of the baked goods.

And if you've ever caught a glimpse of my girth,

you'll understand why I should avoid anything that could potentially add to it.

But, I found a recipe from good 'ol Martha Stewart that is fast, easy and delicious!

I would love to pass on the recipe to you!

:):):)

Spiced Carrot Cake

1/4 c vegetable oil    (I used butter) 

1 c all purpose flour (I used 1/2 c. wheat and 1/2 c. white flour)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I used pumpkin pie spice)

2 lg. eggs

1/2 c granulated sugar

1/3 c packed light brown sugar

1/3 c low-fat plain yogurt (I used an orange flavor because I didn't have plain and it was yummy!)

1 c finely chopped carrots

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease and flour an 8-inch baking dish.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk eggs, sugars, yogurt, and oil until smooth. Gently mix egg mixture into dry ingredients until moistened. Mix in carrots. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake 35-40 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 min. and turn out of pan. Cool completely right side up.

Apply glaze or confectioners sugar on top.

(Glaze- 1/2 c. confectioners sugar with enough liquid (water, milk, apple juice) to make an appropriate texture to drip over cake top. I made mine extra thin.)

This cake is healthier than most! It's light and fluffy and very tasty. If you like nuts, I think they could be easily added as well.

I usually always have shredded carrots in the freezer to use for recipes like this. When we have an over abundance of things like carrots, zucchini, peppers, onions or celery, I chop them in the food processor and freeze them in freezer bags in 1/2c. to 1c. portions. They can be thawed and put in recipes like this, or I even add them to soups and sauces.

                           I also wanted to share this fun little preschool activity that we did today.

We have been learning about our community helpers this week and today we talked about firefighters.

This was provided by a really great preschool mom. :)

The truck is a piece of bread with a square cut out of the top. It's covered with strawberry jam.

The window is a Cheezit. The ladder is made of pretzels.

The wheels are Oreo cookies with the creme filling removed. The light on top is a cherry. 

The kids had a blast making them AND eating them!

Enjoy your day!

Happy Love Day

I hope everyone has a wonderful day today, filled with  love and happiness!

I found a recipe in a magazine that I just LOVE!

I wanted to share because I think you will love it too!

They are called "White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cranberry Bars", but, on account of this being the LOVE day and all, (and the other name being just plain dumb)

let's call them

"LOVE Bars".

Love Bars

3/4 C. brown sugar

1/2 C. sugar

3/4 C. dried cranberries

2 C. oatmeal

1 C. flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 C. white chocolate chips

3/4 C. softened butter

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 C. milk

Preheat oven to 350* F.

Mix all ingredients together until you have a consistent batter. Spread batter evenly into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake 30 minutes. Allow bars to cool in the pan, and then cut into squares.

There you have it.

 Easy Peasy. 

And, very delish....promise.

Keep love around you, today and everyday.

Calling all turkeys!

Let me be clear....I am not calling any of you a turkey.

It's just that I love the whole "turkey" theme of Thanksgiving.

I love putting my turkey's out to display after storing away all the remnants of Halloween.

This little guy is one of my favorites.

And, this big fabric turkey makes me happy when I bring him out of the storage bin and sit him on the shelf. He is holding a rather large sign, but I think he's doing a great job at it.

I would like to believe that he is personally reminding us to remember to be thankful! :)

I love the turkey theme so much that I dedicate a whole preschool day to turkeys.

I call it.....(wait for it....) TURKEY DAY!

We make our own little turkey puppet to sing with one of my favorite Thanksgiving songs.

Albuquerque the Turkey

sung to "My Darlin, Clementine"

It goes a little something like this.....

Albuquerque, he's my turkey,

And he's feathered and he's fine.

And he wobbles and he gobbles,

And I'm awfully glad he's mine.

He's the best pet that you'll ever get,

Better than a dog or cat,

Albuquerque, he's my turkey,

And I'm awfully glad of that.

Albuquerque, he's my turkey,

He's so cozy in his bed,

Because for our Thanksgiving dinner,

We had scrambled eggs instead.

I know you will be singing this little ditty all day long now.

But.....just go with it.

 :):):)

Just wanted to share..........

Did you know that September is National Sewing Month?!?

Ya! It really is!!

For a gal whose BFF is her sewing machine, that's a great excuse to do some sewing.

So, do you want to know what I have been doing?

BAKING!

I bet you thought I was going to say sewing....

Sadly, I haven't been doing nearly as much sewing as I would like......

Crazy, isn't it?

You would think that I would have been cranking out the projects on account of there being a whole month dedicated to sewing!

Well, I had a hankering for some of my favorite muffins, so baking was in order.

(Even though it is still over 100* here!)

These are called Cranberry Oatmeal Muffins.

They are so delish that I am quite certain they will become a favorite of yours, too!

 

They are easy and healthy to make. They freeze really well so go ahead and make a double batch!

CRANBERRY OATMEAL MUFFINS

1 C. Oats (I use old fashioned oats)

1 C. Sour Cream or Yogurt (any flavor)

(I prefer yogurt...it makes the muffins lighter & fluffier)

1 C. Flour

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 C. Applesauce

1/2 C. Honey

1/2 C. Brown Sugar

(For the "ultra healthy" version, I cut the honey & sugar in half)

1 Egg

2 tsp. of grated Orange Peel

3/4 C. Dried Cranberries

Preheat oven to 400*.

 Soak oats in yogurt for a few minutes.

Sift dry ingredients and add to oat mixture.

In a separate bowl, combine egg, applesauce, honey and sugar.

Beat until well blended. 

Fold into dry ingredients.

Add orange peel and cranberries.

Stir gently to combine.

Cook 20 min. in a greased muffin tin.

So, there you have it!

I promise you will love these....even if you aren't a big cranberry fan.

They would be yummy warmed up with a little hot cocoa.

Especially all of you who are enjoying some cooler weather now that fall has hit just about everywhere but Arizona.

(yes. I am still whining about the heat- and, said whining, will more than likely continue until December.)

I shared this recipe with my friend Sharla. She blogged about these muffins and their yummyness but added a frosting to them!..........Go check it out!

Try it...you'll like it! (maybe)

I don't know about you, but I get in a real rutt sometimes when it comes to making dinner. I get tired of all the usual things and really need something different. However, I don't like to make things that take a long time or require me to turn the oven on for long periods....it's just too hot. SO, I get pretty excited when I happen across an easy recipe that actually tastes good.

I thought I would share it with you!

Orange Chicken and Rice

Prep time- 5 minutes
Cook time- 25 minutes
4 servings

1 cup rice
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup Orange juice
1/4 t. ground nutmeg
4 cooked chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces
11 oz. can of mandarin oranges, drained
1/4 c. cashews (can also use pecans or walnuts)

1. Combune rice, broth, juice and nutmeg in a pot over medium heat. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to simmer, and cook for 15 minutes.
2. Add chicken to rice, cook another 5-7 minutes or until rice is tender. Remove from heat and stir in oranges.
3. Sprinkle individual servings with nuts.

This was really yummy!

I used brown rice so it took a little longer to cook than white rice. When I make it again I will double the amount of rice I use so I will also double all of the liquids and nutmeg. I also used a little more nuts than the recipe called for. I also think I will add a little orange zest the next time I make this to really enhance the orange flavor.

I hope you like it as much as we did!
Have a great day!

It's time.....

......for MANGO SALSA! I look forward to mango season every year. When they go on sale I stock up. I let them sit for a few days to get good and ripe and then I make a whole lot of......THIS!! Oh, the deliciousness!!!! It's so yummy with chips, but it's great on a salad or on grilled chicken or fish. MMMmmmm! And so you can enjoy the scrummyness as well, here's the recipe!! Mango Salsa 3 mangoes 3 lg. tomatoes 1 lg. sweet onion 1-2 jalapenos 1 orange 1-2 limes 1 can crushed pineapple 1/2 bunch of cilantro 1 tsp. salt Peel mangoes. In a food processor, chop all mango, tomato, onion, jalapeno and cilantro, pouring into a large bowl as you go. Add the juice from the orange and limes. Add crushed pineapple. Add salt and stir together. So easy! (this can be frozen) Hope you like it!