French Roasted Beets

Who loves beets? Red beets - golden beets - beets, beets, beets. I participated in a top chef cooking competition at school last week and the secret ingredient was beets. Granted our team didn't win (we got a close 3rd place) but this appetizer was a big hit.

French Roasted Beets
3 beets - golden or red
A small log of goat cheese
Fresh basil - 8 leaves
Balsamic vinaigrette
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees
2. Cut the tops and bottoms off each beet; wash thoroughly
3. Take out a piece of tin foil big enough to wrap the beet
4. Drizzle olive oil over the beet; season with salt and pepper to taste
5. Seal the tin foil over the beet; repeat for each beet
6. Bake beets for 1 hr at 400 degrees
7. After an hour, take beets out of the oven and let cool for 15 min
8. Carefully peel each beet - the skin should come off easily with a fork
9. Cut each beet across the width (pretend like the beet is the globe; cut on the latitudinal)
10. Find a cookie cutter equivalent for an inch diameter circle - I used the top from a spice container; cut circles from the roasted beet slices
11. Lay the beet slices out on a tray
12. Scoop out goat cheese and put a small dollop on each beet circle
13. Add shredded basil on top of each beet circle
14. Drizzle balsamic vinaigrette on top

Serve with tooth picks. Enjoy!

Dairy-free Whole Wheat Carrot Cake

GrubGirl here, GrubDaddy's partner in crime. GrubDaddy has been on a bit of a hiatus, so I'm going to take over for a bit. My style is a little different from GrubDaddy's - a bit more natural, a bit less easy, much less dairy (GrubGirl's mortal enemy is lactose)...but still totally delicious. This post is in honor of GrubDaddy's birthday, which is coming up in two weeks - it's one of GrubDaddy's favorite bread loaf recipes. So without further ado, dairy-free whole wheat carrot cake. Happy birthday, GrubDaddy!

Dairy-Free Whole Wheat Carrot Cake

GrubDaddy and I got a juicer this summer, and I was determined to make use of the "leftovers." This recipe is based on "leftover" carrots from the juicer (make sure to only juice carrots for this recipe).

Carrot juice is delicious, and this carrot cake is pretty tasty too. Just a word of caution, our juicer spits out some hard carrot pieces, so you may need to do some manual "sifting" through the carrot leftovers to pick these out.

Ingredients
4 cups shredded carrots
1 1/4 cups of brown sugar
1/4 cup of EVOO
1 3/4 cups of apple sauce
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ginger
2 ripe bananas - mashed
 

 

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix ingredients together in a large mixing bowl; make sure to mix well
3. Refrigerate mixed ingredients for 30 - 60 min
4. Spray a 5" x 10" bread loaf pan with non-stick spray
5. Put ingredients into the bread loaf pan, it should fill the pan completely
6. Bake for 45 - 55 minutes (depending on your oven); I usually check after 45 minutes with a tooth-pick and then put it in for 5 - 10 minute increments until the toothpick comes out clean.
7. Let cool  for 10 - 15 minutes; serve and enjoy!