Healthy Carrot Cake - First Attempt

I will completely forget what I did this time around if I don't write this down.  The cake (quick bread) is still cooling, so I don't know how it's turned out yet.  I will add that later, along with changes for second attempt. 

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tbs ground flaxseed
1/2 cup quick cooking oats (or pulse some old fashioned rolled oats through a food processor a little, which is what I do)
1 cup shredded carrots (about two carrots; I ran mine through my salad shooter)
1 cup Medjool dates, pitted and chopped
1 sparse cup golden raisins
2 canned pineapple rings + about 2 tbs juice (I have a feeling I should've used more juice to brighten the flavor but I was afraid of making the batter too runny)
1 cup walnut pieces, dry toasted in pan
1 cup boiling water
about 1/2 cup date syrup (because that's how much was currently in the fridge)

Directions

1) Boil 1 cup water (I just did this with a glass measuring cup in the microwave) and cover dates and raisins with it.  Let cool a bit.

2) Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Spray inside of two small loaf pans with Pam.

3) Mix flour, salt, baking soda and powder, spices, flaxseed, and oats together in a large bow.

4) Pour water with dates and raisins into blender, add pineapple with juice, and blend for just a few seconds.  I should still have chunks of fruit in it.

5) Add walnuts, carrots, and wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir to incorporate.

6) Divide batter into loaf pans and bake for 25-30 minutes (I put them in for 25 minutes, at which point a toothpick came out clean but they still looked thin in the middle, so I let them sit in the oven with it off for about five more minutes, at which point I could smell them from outside the oven and they looked more done).  Let cool.

[Edited 5/18/2020: It's good.  It's pretty dense.  Tastes better (and sweeter) the next day.  I sliced it, put it in a sealed container, and stored it in the fridge, and it was better today than yesterday.  The fridge keeps it moist, which helps with the density.  Resembles the buttery, sugary carrot cake cookies I made a couple weeks ago by more than I'd dared to hope.  I wonder how this recipe would turn out if scooped into cookies on a cookie sheet instead of baked in loaf pans.  The only change I would definitely make for next time is changing the spice from 1 tsp cinnamon to 1.5 tsp and omitting the ginger and clove since those made it very closely resemble my pumpkin bread in aroma and flavor, which is fine but I want it to be different.  I'd also add 1 tsp vanilla.  I also wonder what would happen if I incorporated sourdough discard into the recipe.  Would it lighten it up?  It probably wouldn't hurt, but I'm not sure if/how much I would need to add other ingredients to correct the consistency.]

[Edited 6/4/20: For my second attempt, I altered the spices as noted above, forgot the vanilla again, and had no date syrup so I steeped a sparse cup of golden raisins and a slightly heaping cup of dates in hot water and then continued from there as before.  Good amount of sweetness and consistency.  There might've been more pineapple juice this time; I didn't measure.  It was good though.  Only changes for next time are to remember the vanilla and maybe increase the cinnamon to 2 tsp because it's currently a very mild flavor.  Maybe add the ginger back in too.  I also have pecan pieces again, so I would replace maybe half the walnuts with pecans.]

Meal Planning

I went grocery shopping a few days ago and won't be doing it again this week, so these are not the optimal conditions for meal planning, but whatever.  I need to figure out what I'm making this week.  It's Simran's last week of school, so I think pizza will be part of it.  Here is what I have to work with:  a red cabbage, 6 cups of broth I made a few days ago, plenty of lettuce, a little cashew yogurt (there was only one container at the store), brussel sprouts, and some tiny Yukon Gold potatoes.  Here is what I'm making:

Almost Instant Ramen (from The No Meat Athlete Cookbook)
Sameer is fasting today, so I'm going to make this for Simran and me.  If it's good, it'll be a great healthy recipe for using whatever I have on hand going forward.  It allows me to use some of the frozen shelled edamame and wild mushrooms in my freezer and some of the dried seaweed and soba noodles in my pantry.  These are all things I don't use much but have plenty of on hand from the few recipes I've made that call for them.

Vegan Methi Chik'n Curry and Aloo Matar and Brown Basmati Rice
This will be a good, warm, saucy meal for tomorrow, when the weather is supposed to be rainy and cool.

DIY Sandwiches
I want to make some sandwich bread of some nature so Sim and I can have a sandwich option on Sameer's fast days.

Homemade Pizza and Green Salad
I'm hoping to do this one Friday in honor of Simran's last official day of second grade.  I just don't want to heat the house up this much if it turns out to be hot out that day.




Avocado Grilled Enchiladas with Red Chile Pesto and Homecooked Black Beans
I think I have all the necessary ingredients to make this happen, or at least some makeshift version of it.  Saturday night dinner.


Tortilla Pie
Wednesday's meal because this involves heating up the oven and it's still supposed to be cool.  I'm making this to use up all the salsa in the fridge that Sameer asked me to buy and then said is the only brand he cannot stomach (it's Chi-Chi's restaurant style -- who knew).  I might incorporate some of the components of this tastier but less healthy recipe.  Not the cheese though.  Keeping this one vegan and oil free.



Healthy Carrot Cake  
I want to try making this recipe because carrot cake flavor would go well with the flavor of dates, which makes it more inclined to a no-added-sugar recipe like this one, and I want a new healthy, whole food dessert by next weekend (and it's getting increasingly difficult to have all the ingredients on hand for cherry chocolate chia pudding).  I would add applesauce to this recipe if I had some, in place of the carrot juice.  I do have canned pineapple though, which I've seen other carrot cake recipes call for, so I think I might put a bit of that in there, maybe after putting it through a food processor to break it down a bit.  Instead of chunks of dates, I think I'd like to use homemade date syrup, and whole wheat pastry flour in place of the whole wheat flour, and I will use golden raisins for the raisins.  I plan to throw in some ground flaxseed as emulsifier too.  I would use pecan pieces if I had any more, just because of personal preference, but I do have plenty of raw walnuts, which I will dry toast in a pan before adding them to the batter.  The flavor should be easy to make tasty.  Achieving the right texture is harder.  I think these changes will make it a bit less like a fruitcake in density and more like a quick bread though.

Meal Planning

Sameer has started intermittent fasting again three days per week, so I'm going to be doing real cooking less often, and Simran and I will eat easy dishes or leftovers on Sameer's fast days.  I'm putting in an order for more groceries today.  This is what I can either make from what I have now or from what I'm planning to order:

Almost Instant Ramen

Pinto Beans & Greens Enchiladas

Buddha Bowl

Creole Red Beans & Rice

Vegan Beef & Broccoli

Penne alla Vodka

Tofu Pot Pie

Vegan Shepherd's Pie 

Spaghetti & Meatless Balls

Homemade Pizza

The No Meat Athlete Cookbook (where the first three ecipes came from) has some more basic recipes I could make from things on hand, like pasta and lentil-based dishes.  I plan to try some easy ones of these on the nights Sameer is fasting.  The ramen will use up quite a few random things I have on hand (e.g., soba noodles, seaweed, adzuki beans, vegan kimchi) and the buddha bowl looks like it could be a particularly healthy lunch if it's something I like.