Mother's Day: Frosted "Carrot Cake" Bars

Happy Mother's Day to all the beautiful, hardworking mamas out there!

 

I've been looking for an excuse to make frosted carrot-cake-style dessert bars for a while. Mother's Day, with its lazy pace, and its glow of fresh tulips on the kitchen counter, seemed like the perfect time to indulge in some "leisure cooking." Except these bars aren't cooked, they're raw. And vegan. And sugar-free. And grain-free.

They're also completely scrumptious and decadent, a good dessert to eat with tea while you muse about the gifts and challenges of motherhood. Or, let's face it, while you chase your kids around a lot like usual. They don't slow down just because it's your special day, do they? Nope.

Speaking of the little one, Darwin loved these bars. He called them "breakfast cakes." He's trying to give me ideas.

Enjoy!

Frosted "Carrot Cake" Bars

Makes 4 Bars

Cake

1/2 cup EACH walnuts and raw cashews, ground into a course meal

6 medjool dates, mashed into paste

1 medium carrot, finely shredded

1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

dash nutmeg

Frosting

2 Tbls. coconut butter, softened

few drops vanilla extract

Optional Garnish

12 fresh carrot slivers

4 small parsley leaves

To make the cake, combine all ingredients, and knead with your hands until they form a kind of dough. Form dough into one large rectangular bar with your hands (it doesn't have to be perfect) and refrigerate on a plate 30 minutes or until firm.

Meanwhile, combine coconut butter and vanilla in a small bowl.

When dough is firm, remove from fridge and cut into 4 rectangular bars, reshaping corners and edges with your hands if necessary. Spread a small amount of frosting on top of each bar. Garnish with carrots and parsley if desired, and chill again until ready to eat.*

*Note: coconut frosting will harden under refrigeration, making a kind of shell. This is how I like it best. If you prefer a creamier topping, serve at room temperature.

My family went for a Mother's Day morning hike at one of our favorite nature parks. How did you celebrate the day?

looking at the fish pond

 

Simple Plates #20

We've had a busy few weeks here, with semester's end, and the tweaking and first submission of my book(!), so I've been doing mostly work-a-day cooking, without a whole lot of new recipes or experiments. Here are some of kiddo's plates from this week:

whole wheat pasta, avocado, clementine pieces, sweet potato black bean chili

broccoli, cheese and veggie quiche, watermelon chunks

I'm on a huge quiche kick lately. This one had mushrooms, spinach, onions, and red bell pepper.

fresh steamed carrots, roasted chicken, peas, fruit-sweetened breakfast cookies, red grapes

whole wheat pasta with kale and marinara sauce, fresh steamed carrots, red grapes

red grapes, broccoli, fresh steamed carrots, avocado

fruit-sweetened breakfast cookie, spinach and cottage cheese sauce, roasted chicken, pear slices

Darwin couldn't get enough of this cottage-cheese-spinach. I grated some garlic into the cheese, and ground in some black pepper before adding the steamed greens.

braised collards, peanut butter on sprouted grain toast, avocado, watermelon chunks

running at the prairie

red grapes, veggie quiche, cucumber slice, fresh steamed carrots

vegan black bean burger with cheddar and avocado, popcorn with olive oil and nutritional yeast, green salad

Thanks to Mark Bittman for the vegan burger recipe from last month's Vegetarian Times, made with black beans, rolled oats, carrots, onions, garlic, spices, and herbs.

banana-blueberry oats, country pea soup

Oh no! On this morning, we ran out of broccoli, our breakfast staple. I made a quick pea soup instead, with frozen peas, butter, onions, garlic, and homemade chicken stock.

spinach, real food macaroni and cheese, carrot sticks, apple slices

curry-roasted cauliflower and sweet potatoes, hummus, avocado, blueberries, toasted whole wheat pitas

apricot pieces, clementine pieces, broiled asparagus and carrot nest, whole wheat pasta

blueberries, sesame bok choy, avocado, hard-boiled egg, cheese, baked fork-mashed sweet potato

broccoli, fruit-sweetened banana nut muffins, blueberries

baked sweet potato stuffed with black beans and avocado

asparagus egg scramble, watermelon, blueberries

spinach, baked chicken, brown rice with roasted vegetables and herbs, fresh pineapple and blueberries

To make our favorite side-dish to roasted chicken, we pour the flavorful juice and ultra-tender vegetables from the chicken roasting pan into a pot of brown rice with a handful of chopped parsley.

Simple Plates #19

cottage cheese pancakes with berries and apple, steamed broccoli

kidney beans and carrots, avocado

grapes, peanut butter on sprouted grain toast, garlicky bell pepper spinach

whole plan yogurt with fresh strawberries, grass-fed beef chili, whole rye cracker, baked sweet potato

curried spinach and sweet potato stir-fry, clementine pieces, grapes, avocado, buttered whole rye cracker

whole wheat pasta with fresh tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, and turkey-veggie meatballs; garlicky kale; strawberries

clementine pieces, cheese omelet with herbs, sprouted grain toast, fresh steamed carrots

tropical strawberry snack, broiled asparagus, whole plain yogurt, lentil stew

clementine pieces; egg scramble with tomato, spinach and feta; whole wheat crackers

garbanzo beans, pear, whole plain yogurt, fresh steamed carrots, broiled asparagus

homemade hummus, baked sweet potato, apple slices

This hummus recipe uses the genius technique of pureeing the chickpeas when they're still warm, before the skins have toughened.

fresh steamed green beans, garlicky collard greens, clementine pieces, cream cheese sandwich on sprouted grain toast

smoothie of frozen banana, strawberries, blueberries, whole plain yogurt, kale, collard greens, and hemp seeds

Darwin is enduring a week of painful teething, and has been rejecting foods that require too much chewing. This smoothie was his easy-on-the-teeth breakfast one morning.

coconut-crusted sweet potato rounds, apple slices, avocado, peanut butter on sprouted grain toast

This is such a fun, dessert-like way to serve sweet potatoes (even with unsweetened coconut, as pictured.) Slice a baked sweet potato into rounds (cold from the fridge is fine), then press the rounds in shredded coconut and pop them into the toaster oven.

fresh green beans, brown rice with roasted vegetables, clementine pieces, baked chicken

uncured bacon; bananas, frozen blueberries, and fresh-frozen strawberries; steamed broccoli; whole plain yogurt

Darwin's first bacon! Uncured, nitrate-free, and humanely raised. He wasn't really sure about it.

cucumber/radish salad with balsamic vinaigrette, veggie quiche, grapes, whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce

I made the quiche crust right in the pie pan, by mixing whole wheat flour and melted butter with my hands, and pressing it up the sides. So easy!

strawberries, whole plain yogurt, cucumber salad, lentil stew

apple slices, toasted cheese on whole wheat pita, garlicky curly kale

lentil stew, clementine pieces, Spanish olives

strawberry, braised collards, cucumber/radish salad with feta cheese, mini baked salmon burgers

cheese omelet with parsley, cucumber, fresh carrots, tropical strawberry snack

apple slices, cream cheese/strawberry sandwich on sprouted grain toast, vegetable stew with collards and sweet potatoes

I'm in love with this stew, from Nava Atlas' wonderful new cookbook, Wild About Greens.

chickpea curry with whole plain yogurt, garlicky collard greens, clementine pieces

Strawberry Picking

U-pick season is in full swing here in Florida...

This was Darwin's first time in the field. We learned how to pick only when ripe ("pick the red ones, not the green ones,") how to spot strawberry-loving insects, and how to wait until our berries are weighed to eat them (well, mostly.)

We picked too many berries (it's so hard to stop!) so once home, I pureed and dehydrated some into fruit snacks. This is by far the cleanest way to serve strawberries to a toddler:

crispy tropical strawberry snacks (strawberries, bananas, unsweetened shredded coconut)

strawberry fruit leather