Mmmm, these are so good!

I wanted to make something that could be versatile for me. Something I could have for breakfast alone, or crumbled over oatmeal, as a not-too-sweet dessert, or something to grab as just a snack.

These carrot cake bars work perfectly. Subtly sweet and packed with healthy whole ingredients, they are a great choice anytime!

Carrot cake breakfast bars

A healthy breakfast bar with the flavors of carrot cake.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: About 6 bars

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup raw cashews
• 3/4 cup raw almonds
• 1 and 1/2 cups shredded carrot (not packed, squeezed of juice)
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 1 tbsp. maple syrup
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• pinch of salt, nutmeg, and clove

Cooking Directions

1. Shred carrots then squeeze out excess liquid using cheesecloth or nut milk bag.
2. Run nuts through the food processor until pulverized.
3. Add all other ingredients to processor and pulse until fully incorporated.
4. Form mixture into a disc about and inch thick on a sheet lined with parchment paper.
5. Bake at 300 degrees for 50 minutes.
6. Cut into wedges and top with vanilla yogurt or cream cheese if desired.

The center is so soft and chewy, but they hold together nicely like an oatmeal square.

These would be insane with the cinnamon cream cheese spread I made for my apple bars a while back.

What is your go-to snack?

February 7, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 8 comments

Jeff and I just had a delicious mixed lunch of various yummy things.

Our favorite Pacific brand creamy tomato soup. We go through a carton of this stuff every week!

Some quinoa with chickpeas that I made in the rice cooker. Making it with vegetable broth rather than water makes it so much tastier.

Smashed avocado on toast with seaweed flake. We don’t use iodized salt in our house so I try to sneak seaweed in wherever I can to get in our proper iodine fix.

And some leftovers from last night: honey mustard salmon and sauteed veggies. I sliced up some red bell pepper, shiitakes, carrot, and gai lon broccoli (found this at the market and had to try it, it has a broccoli-like stalk but with leaves rather than florets.) I threw in some leftover brown rice, just a touch of soy sauce, and toasted sesame seeds to finish it off. So fresh!

Jeff made us our third round of tea for today to have with lunch. He likes to use the black tetsubin I got him for Christmas when he needs to make a lot of tea.

Awesome lunch of many of my favorite flavors!

Trying to decide what to do with the rest of our day. The sun is finally shining after nearly a week of rain and/or gloom.

What are your weekend plans?

February 5, 2011 Alayna Discussion 10 comments

Yesterday, I learned how to use the timer function on my rice cooker. Exciting, I know.

What this means is that now I can wake up to either hot creamy steel-cut oatmeal in the mornings, or as in todays’ case, fluffy brown rice.

This dish pictured below has been haunting the mind of my husband since last May when we honeymooned in Japan. Of all the delicious things we ate while there, he was struck most by a bowl of hot rice with a raw egg cracked into it, with various pickled and salted accompaniments.

It was just such a simple thing. It was so obvious that we could make that dish at home and have it whenever we wanted. I think that’s why he loved it so much, because he knew that that was a taste of Japan that he could take home.

8am the rice cooker beeps out it’s electronic rooster wake-up call. Fresh and bouncy brown sushi rice is steaming hot and ready to be fluffed.

In lieu of a completely raw egg, we went with a sunny side up. I don’t quite trust that the eggs we purchase in the supermarkets are fit for eating raw. If I could get my hands on some farm-fresh ones, then maybe.

Jeff got busy making tea while I dressed up our breakfasts with nori-tamago furikake and dots of sriracha.

Mmmm….there’s still enough liquid in the yolk to mix into the rice.

The yolk doesn’t exactly cook on the hot rice but it definitely firms a bit and becomes a creamy binder, making a texture almost like oatmeal.

We were both “mmm-ing” til we finished our bowls. I think I’d like to eat this with a little bit of chopped kim chee to remind me of the pickles that came with the original dish.

This was an easy breakfast that I know I’ll be making again and again. It’d be great for dinner with a bowl of miso soup too.

February 4, 2011 Alayna Discussion 5 comments