Lighten-up Carrot Cake

I baked a carrot cake for my husband's birthday this weekend.  I needed to redeem myself from this cake disaster so I probably shouldn't have messed around with the recipe.  But I did, and thankfully it still turned out well!  This is not the recipe for carrot cake you want to use if you a completely decadent, rich cake.  It uses whole wheat flour and less vegetable oil and icing than others I've made.

I used this recipe as a guide and tweaked it a bit, mostly by substituting whole wheat flour, and adding more spices and some applesauce.  What I especially like in this recipe was the cream cheese frosting that had lemon juice in it- it gave the cake a really nice flavor, different from the plain traditional frosting.

I wanted it to look pretty, and was not about to make little icing carrots like you sometimes see.  So I topped it with toasted coconut and pecans.  Just grabbed a handful of each, spread it out on a baking sheet, and put it in a 400 degree oven.  I took out and stirred every minute or two and took it out when it looked good to me- it only took a few minutes.

 

Lightened-up Carrot Cake

2 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 ¼ tea. Baking powder

1 tea. Baking soda

½ tea. Salt

1 ½ tea cinnamon

¼ tea. Nutmeg

¼ tea. Ginger

1/8 tea. Cloves

2 eggs

2 eggs whites

1 c. sugar

1 c. light brown sugar

½ c. applesauce

½ c. vegetable oil

3 c. grated carrots

Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar until combined;  beat in applesauce and oil.  Gradually add wet ingredients to dry, beating until combined.  Fold in carrots.  Pour mixture into two greased, 9 inch round pans.  Bake for 20-25 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Check here for the recipe for the icing.

I enjoyed this cake more knowing it wasn't so bad for me!

anti-extreme couponing

I recently watched TLC's new show "Extreme Couponing."  Have you seen it?  If you haven't- this is basically the jist of it: the women on the show go on one giant shopping trip and save something like 95% of the bill.  They do this by collecting many, MANY copies of coupon inserts that come in newspapers, matching the coupons they have with items at the store that are on sale, and shop on a day when the store is doubling or tripling coupons- so they get most of their items nearly or totally "free."  They buy multiples of the sale/coupon items so that they will not need to buy them again for a long time.

Sounds pretty good on the surface.  But to do this the women spend HOURS organizing and clipping coupons, as well as researching and planning their shopping trip.  And most disturbing was the way their couponing ways take over the house.  On the episode I saw the lady called her stash of coupon-ed goods her "stockpile."  Seriously.  They had entire rooms dedicated to storing all the stuff, but it seemed to overflow to closets and rooms all over the house.  One lady had metal shelves stocked with,  I don't know, laundry detergent or ketchup of something, IN THEIR BEDROOM.  Another lady had a literal tower of plastic egg crate bins filled with coupon flyers in what looks like it was once her kids' playroom.

I have been thinking about the whole idea of "shopping ahead" lately, even before I saw this show.  I know it is better to stock up on something you use when it is on sale, and I know that it is less expensive to buy in bulk or in greater volume.  But recently I became frustrated with how difficult to organize and messy and my pantry and cabinets were getting because they were just too full, and I decided to change the way I shop and just buy what I need from week to week.

I really do not need to have a several boxes of cake mix, 5 different shapes of pasta, and 2 "back-up" boxes of cheerios in my pantry.  I also do not need 25 rolls of toilet paper all at once, even if it is cheaper to buy them that way.

A few weeks ago I "splurged" and bought the smaller bottle of mouthwash that could actually fit in the medicine cabinet in our bathroom.  It has been so convenient (and easy to pour) that way- I have been using it more often!  Could I buy the big one, pour it into the smaller bottle for daily use, and store the large under the sink?  Yes, I thought about doing that.  But it's crowded enough down there.  And maybe the few cents per once differance isn't worth the time, effort, and inconvience.

So I have to say I am "anti-extreme couponing."  (Extreme anything is usually not a good thing)  I still use coupons and buy things on sale- but only if I need them.  The stores and manufacturers don't give us coupons to be nice- they want us to buy more stuff.  And we aren't really saving money if we are buying more than we can use or need. 

So if I run out of peanut butter and don't have an extra bottle in the pantry, it's okay.  I can wait till it goes on sale again.  I probably eat too much of it anyway, haha, but that is a different story : )

Where do you guys stand on the couponing/buying in bulk thing?

Happy Mother's Day

I have always loved and appreciated my mom, but becoming a mother myself has definitely made me appreciate her even more.  Motherhood is awesome, but exhausting. 

Before we had baby G I swept the kitchen floor once every week or two.  It really didn't get that dirty.  Now I sweep it two or three times a day, and honestly, it probably should be swept more than that.  Part of every snack and meal makes it way to the floor these days. 

Not only does having kids produce much more of a mess, it also makes it ten times more challenging to do the now increased cleaning that needs to be done.  Either I have to wait until he is sleeping, or sweep with a little person literally hanging on my legs, or trying to eat the cheerios out of the dirt pile.

This week I found myself wishing there was a drain in the middle of the room so I could just hose it all down at the end of the day.

But of course every time I look at that little face I know it is worth the hundreds of extra times I will need to sweep the kitchen floor.

This mother's day I am feeling very blessed to be a mother.