Category: Carrots

Carrot Tomato Cupcakes

7/31/2017

I am a firm believer that if kids grow it they will eat it.
However, it’s still fun to find “sneaky” ways to disguise vegetables into tasty treats. A healthy dose of carrot cupcakes is always a fun way to use the root vegetables and actually a common cake flavor today. However, topping it with a tomato frosting is a bit shocking and surprisingly yummy!

Try serving the carrot cupcake with tomato frosting as a side dish at dinner and surprise them when you tell them it’s their side of vegetables. Of course, I would also include the raw versions of the vegetables on the plate too and ask them to compare and contrast the flavor profiles between them. But that’s me!!!

Ingredients:
Cake
1 box pound cake (I like the Betty Crocker mix) – plus ingredients listed on box
1 bunch of grated carrots (about 1 cup)
1 tsp ginger spice
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Frosting
2 packages cream cheese
½ cup whipped cream
1/2 cup pureed tomato (remove skin first)
2 cups sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place paper baking cups in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. Mix cake mix as listed on box. Stir in ginger spice, pumpkin spice and carrots.
Cook cupcakes as directed on box and let cool.
While cooling, combine all frosting ingredients in mixer or with spoon. Mix until light and fluffy.
Using a spatula, add frosting to cupcakes.
Garnish with fresh basil leaves, if desired.

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Carrots

5/19/2017

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My favorite crop in the garden to grow has always been carrots.
I love when they little orange top peeks out of the dirt at me..

I love the feel of plucking it from the dirt. I love the crunch of the fresh bite, even when covered with dirt. Most importantly, I love the sense of accomplishment from eating a carrot that I grew all by myself.

When I was about 5 years old my father helped me plant my first garden and I remember the delight I had at the first sight of dazzling colors jumping out at me. Years later I am proud that my kids squeal with that same excitement, and although buying chilled bags of carrots is cheap and easy, they have learned the amazing tastes that come from fresh carrots they grow. (We have done taste tests between the bagged carrots and fresh ones. We discovered that the carrots that are oxygen-deprived in sealed plastic bags taste bitter and a bit metallic in flavor. WE also think that the sugar levels are lower. Although this is our own personal study.)

Carrots do not take up a whole bunch of space and may be a great addition to your learning garden adventures.
With just a few tricks and tips you can make the carrots you grow in your garden taste even better. First of all, find a nice sunny spot with good loamy soil. Have your kids remove any rocks or twigs in the ground. If these items aren’t removed they are like hurdles in the dirt and the carrots can’t grow over them.
Then it’s time to lightly scatter the lettuce sees onto the soil area. The seeds are tiny so I put them in a toothpick holder and let the kids lightly shake them out of the dispenser. Sprinkle the seeds with a thin layer of soil and then water.
We tend to water our carrots every other day. Also, because we all love the carrots so much, this year we have started succession planting with our carrots. This means that every 21 days we’re going to plant more seeds so we can get fresh carrots all season long.
The next big trick is to “thin” out the carrots as the leaves start to appear. Grab a ruler and make sure there are 3 inches between leaves. If you don’t thin them out the carrots won’t have room to grow. The more space they have to grow, the bigger the carrots will get. Make sense right?
When the orange roots start to peek out from the soil it’s time to harvest! When you pick out a carrot, be sure to cover the space back up with dirt so the nearby carrots can still continue growing!
Several varieties of carrot have been developed with taproots that attain different sizes and shapes. Imperator is the long, straight cylindrical type found in grocery stores. Other varieties such as Nantes, Danvers, or Chantenay are popular varieties for the home garden. Purple, yellow, red, and white carrots are available from many seed catalogs.