Carrot Frenzy

Yesterday after class I got straight to the cookin! I needed to get on the prep for the Green Chef competition since my dish was not a quick one. I guess I should tell you what I making huh? I decided to call my recipe "Died and Gone to Carrot Cake Heaven" which is a coconut, macademia nut, ginger, carrot cake layered with ginger infused coconut milk ice cream and garnished with coconut, candied shredded carrot.

My inspiration for the ice cream recipe came from Babbling Blueberry but I adapted it to be vegan and to suit my needs. I started by chopping up 3 0z. of fresh ginger.

I boiled the ginger for two minutes and then drained all the water.

Next I added 3/4 cup evaporated cane juice,1 1/2 cup coconut milk, 1/4 cup soy milk, 1 cup soy creamer. I let this steep for 35 minutes on low heat then switched the heat off when I noticed it starting to bubble too much and let it sit, lid on for the next 25 minutes. Total it was 1 hour of steeping.

Completely unrelated to the ice cream, I have my little sprouters all set up with cheese cloth! I got the step by step directions to do this from The Front Burner under Sprouting 101.

Lunch

For lunch I enjoyed a big ol' bowl of lentil soup. pita with tahini and guac, and a mate mojito soda.
This soda was delicious! It was minty and limey and very refreshing. Plus the green bottle made me feel like I was drinking beer in the afternoon so basically it made me feel hardcore. haha I'm so lame.
Now back to cooking and on to some shredding action.
At some point during the steeping of the ginger business I scooped out 1/4 cup of the mixture and reserved it in the fridge for this very moment. Rather than using eggs like most ice creams, I used arrowroot which has a thickening property. I mixed in two tablespoons but later added a third to the whole batch so when I made round two of all of this I added three all at the same time.

Next I removed the ginger from the pot and turned the heat back on just to re-warm the mixture.
After thoroughly whisking in the arrowroot mixture I strained everything into a pourable bowl using this very fine mesh strainer.
I placed that in the freezer for a quick cool down and got to work on the cake. I got the recipe for this from Vegan With a Vengeance whose author is the writer of the blog The Post Punk Kitchen. I have yet to make a single thing out of her cookbook that hasn't been absolutely amazing and pleasing to vegans and non vegans alike! I had a crazy murder mystery party for my 20th birthday and cooked everything out of her book. It was a feast I still remember slash crave.

Here we have:

• 1 cup pineapple juice (which I actually extracted from a can of crushed pineapple)
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 cup evaporated cane juice

To the liquids I added the drys which was:

• 2 1/3 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg

It smelled like carrot cake before the carrots even hit the scene y'all.
And of course, 2 cups of shredded carrots
1/4 cup chopped crystalized ginger,
and 1 cup unsweetened coconut.
Baked it in the oven at 350F for 42 minutes exactly.
Uh...yes, I licked the bowl. Do you even have to ask?

Snack

Once the cake was done and I took it out to cool, I decided it was 'now or never' if I was ever going to get my nails done. I snagged this chocolate cashew cookie Lärabar on the way out.
Definitely a keeper. Not super sweet but rich, bittersweet chocolate flavor.
I didn't want to have my acrylics ripped off and I also didn't want to keep them up so I asked to have them filled down and went with OPI Samoan Sand. I am in love with this color!
Soon as I got back I started the ice cream maker with my chilled coconut mixture. 30 minute spin.
I traced the loaf pan I would be putting my creation in and if you look closely on the cake you can see the outline. (Did you know if you click the pictures they get big? Pretty nifty.)
I cut out the slices from the baking dish and then sliced those in half. A perfect fit.
Those little nubs will not be going to waste. Can you say: taste testers!

Dinner

I was getting hungry, my appetite especially provoked by all the sweetness. I was in no mood to cook outside of my carrot frenzy so I busted out this Kashi frozen entree. These never disappoint and I have had this Black Bean Mango dish before.
I supplemented with a little of my homemade guac and some cholula.
When the ice cream was ready I spread a layer of ice cream evenly on all three of the loafs and topped it with the other slice of the cake. I popped those bad boys in the freezer to set. Kelsey and I split this little guy as a taste tester. One word: deadly.

My friend Tommy came over to get a little studying done before the quiz the next morning so I was a good little hostess and set out some of this curry spice popcorn I made.

I know that this was yesterday and trust me, I would really like to post about today because it was very eventful and fun but I am pooooped! And I have a performance tomorrow which trumps everything....even dishes. Sorry roomies! You know I always end up doing them. And I promise I will, just not tonight.

You know how tired I am? I can feel it in my eyeballs. That's not the usual for me. The other night I had a full on lucid dream where, within the first 30 seconds of my dream I turned to the people I was with and said hey, I'm dreaming right now. I felt totally awake and lucid but I knew that I was dreaming. They were all like, no you're not, come on! Pssh! But I said, Hey watch, I'll prove it. And then I pushed off the ground and started flying. It was the most amazing feeling. I could control my dream!! I've been crossing my fingers every night since then that it happens again cause that was just sick!

Anways, that should only serve as extra motivation for me to get into bed right now! Good night.