As I mentioned yesterday I’m in the midst of holiday freelance projects and completely buried up to my eyeballs in final papers for class. And really, it’s not that the work is all that difficult so much as it’s just there, looming and waiting for me to finish. Luckily, my boss is a complete saint and gave me the next two days off to spend finishing up my finals. Did I mention he’s a saint? Talk about a load off!
So this morning, before I dug into my latest data table, I perused Ashley’s post about her schedule. I truly admire anyone who can wake up and work out. Definitely a busy one that girl! But man, what I wouldn’t give to have TIME to work out an hour each day. One FULL hour! I don’t even have that. From the moment I wake up at 6 till the moment I hit the pillow sometime after midnight, my plate is constantly emptying and filling with more work to do. And like her, at some point it was going to catch up with me, and last night it did.
I meant only to sit on the couch through one episode of The Walking Dead (our new favorite show) and I crashed. I slept for four hours and woke up to walk to bed where I slept until eight this morning. I don’t remember the last time I slept that late. I feel SO much better though. I might even get to work out today!
The holidays are really the only time I cook gratuitously with butter…
With everything that’s going on, I definitely feel like the Holidays are getting away from us. We haven’t even started our shopping, our decorations still aren’t up, and we only just yesterday finalized our plans to go to Minnesota (assuming the weather doesn’t poop on us again). One of the biggest things I’m missing is all of the great baking I usually do. Hopefully these Carrot Cake Cookies aren’t the only thing I bake this season, although they have been a nice warm comfort as I write my paper this afternoon. Sometimes a little piece of me wishes I were a housewife.
Ingredients:
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 cups Old Fashioned Oats
2 sticks of softened butter
1 ½ cups shredded carrots
2 eggs at room temperature (or close to it)
1 cup raisins
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon salt
Directions:
1. Place softened butter and brown sugar into a stand mixer and mix for 3-4 minutes until fluffy. Fold in egg and vanilla and continue to mix lightly into the mixture. Add the remaining dry ingredients (leave out the oats!) and mix after each addition. Finally, fold in carrots, raisins and oats.
2. Refrigerate the dough to firm for 30 minutes, then preheat your oven to 350 degrees and dough onto lined cookie sheets.
3. Bake cookies for about 12-14 minutes at 350F and allow to cool for five minutes before transferring to a rack to cool.
If you absolutely love carrot anything like Neil and I do, these are amazing. We gobbled them up in a day, which makes only getting to the gym a few days a week a problem. They bake so perfectly I think they might also be good as whoopies. Has anyone ever made a carrot cookie whoopie pie? I still have carrots left, so I might have to experiment…
Edited to Add: I don’t know why my orange carrots are so orange in these pics, they are radiating aren’t they?
It’s the awesome new flash! Pictures are gorgeous! I will have to try this recipe. We love all things carrot too.