GF Carrot Cake Cupcakes w/Cashew frosting

I saw something the other day on instagram — it was a photo of a vegan carrot cake using real carrots and a bunch of other amazing ingredients. It planted a seed in my sugar-craving carrot cake loving brain 🥕 🍰 …. so today, once my work was done (and in light of the 25 degree temps and all-day snow we’ve had), I gave myself permission to play in the kitchen a bit. 👩‍🍳

I went looking for cupcakes, for easier freezing and sharing, and found THIS RECIPE.

I had all of the ingredients at home AND I’ve never made a frosting by blending nuts, so I thought- “ what the heck!” 😋 🥕

Whipped up the batter and mine was really dry/crumbly when all mixed together so I added more applesauce and a bit more olive oil. I am still using coconut flour in all of my baking experiments (and I think it does dry out the batter quite a bit). The only other modification I made was to reduce the sugar by about 1/2c., because — these things will also have frosting on them!

As has been the case with most items I’ve baked using coconut flour, out of the oven these muffins looked drier and crackier than a normal muffin would be BUT they tasted good! And mixing up the frosting was much easier than I expected. (I soaked the cashews for an hour as instructed and then added them + the other ingredients to my silver bullet mixer and gave it a whirl). It took a bit of coaxing, stirring, and starting again, but eventually I had frosting (ish -it still had some cashew chunks in it, but the bullet had had enough).

Once I popped them in the fridge for awhile and let them set up, I pulled one out for the final taste test. Honestly - as healthy as these are, they are REALLY good. Next time I’ll use a proper blender for the frosting.
And maybe grind up walnuts to sprinkle on the frosting. Overall though, highly recommend !

Butternut Squash & Bean Curry

YUM. I’ve been making this recipe for a few years now -it never fails to please the dinner guests, especially those who are vegan /dairy free / Gluten-free.

Plus it’s GORGEOUS with all of the pretty colors involved AND it freezes really well — I love enjoying the leftovers later!

RECIPE: https://www.lecreuset.co.za/recipes/butternut-squash-butter-bean-spinach-curry/

Notes:

I usually substitute a couple fresh jalapeños sliced finely for the “1 mild red chilli, seeds removed and chopped.”

I buy the squash precut from Sprouts (lazy, I know).

I add tomatoes because I like the POP of the color red in there.

Finally - I like serving this over rice; it feels more like a meal than simply soup, and it’s more filling (and lasts longer for leftovers, too!).

*Since we are currently dealing with shortages of many foods in stores, I was not able to buy Vegan broth this time so I used chicken broth - so if you’re serving vegans/vegetarians, you’ll obvi want to sub the broth for an animal-free option.

What’s leftover -What goes into the trash, what goes into recycle, and into compost? Well … I’ll tell you: 🗑 = the broth package since tetrapak isn’t recyclable. The Cans and plastic container go into ♻️ . Peels from onion and garlic go into compost bin 🌱!