*This blog post is in collaboration with iHerb*
Spring is in the air! Can you feel it?
Ok, so maybe we did get a huge dump of snow here in #yeg over the weekend, but I still feel like Spring IS in the air. The weather is warming up, we’ve had daylight savings and so it’s now brighter out later, and the birds are chirping!
I don’t know about you, but the birth of Spring is one of my favourite times of year. It’s a reminder that winter is on its way out and Summer days are not far away. I can’t say how happy I am that I’m due in May this year and I’ll be able to get out of the house with the new babe to enjoy ample amounts of fresh air and ravine walks as I adjust into motherhood. There’s nothing that helps me combat feeling stressed or overwhelmed like spending time outdoors in the sunshine.
To bring a little Spring Sweetness to the blog, I’ve whipped up these tasty, healthy, and super easy Hemp & Honey Carrot Cake Oat Cups. Carrot cake has long been a Springtime favourite, enjoyed often at Easter (which is just around the corner), and there’s something about crunchy, bright carrots that says “Spring!” to me. Would you agree?
To make these tasty cups I used a ton of wholesome ingredients including protein-packed hemp seeds, organic carrots, gluten-free fibre-rich rolled oats, crunchy walnuts, naturally sweet sultana raisins, raw whipped honey that’s rich in minerals, and metabolism-boosting cinnamon….many of these ingredients I ordered conveniently online!
Although I sometimes naturally feel resistant to how fast technology is advancing, one thing I do not mind one teeny-tiny bit is the ease of ordering groceries online. If you are familiar with iHerb (and even if you aren’t),you’ll be happy to know that they have over 35,000 products and a huge online “grocery” section with a ton of healthy, organic and natural food products (over 5,000 in fact) that can be ordered with a few clicks of the mouse and delivered right to your door (…and doors in over 160 different countries!).
I’ve used iHerb in the past, so when they contacted me to review their online grocery shopping experience I was all for it. The ease of ordering was great, my products arrived in a timely manner, and I received all that I needed for this recipe.
In my opinion, time is money, and considering I spend so much time creating recipes for the blog, time spent grocery shopping can really add up. To be able to pop down at my computer, create grocery orders online, and have the products delivered to my door saves me the time it takes to go grocery shopping, drive to and from the store, and possibly drive around to other stores when I can’t find what I need… which used to happen a lot!
These tasty oat cups make a great breakfast addition, snack, or even a healthy dessert as they are naturally sweet and taste indulgent but contain tons of fibre, antioxidants, a nice amount of protein, and are the perfect bite-sized nourishment for Spring.
As I was creating these oat cups, I thought I’d make them again but instead of using honey to fill the indents in the cups, I’d swap it out for some dairy-free cream cheese to amp up the “carrot cake” flavour. If anyone gives this a try before I do, I’d love to hear how you like the variation!
- 1 cup gluten free rolled oats (I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Old Fashioned Oats)
- ¼ cup hemp seeds
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ginger
- ½ tsp cinnamon (I used Simply Organic Cinnamon)
- 6 tablespoons creamed raw honey or cinnamon honey (I used Madhava Organic Whipped Cinnamon Honey), divided
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ⅓ cup sultana raisins (I used Made In Nature Organic Sultana Raisins)
- ⅓ cup grated carrot
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 egg whites
- 2 tablespoons crushed walnuts
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and lightly grease a regular size muffin tin.
- In a bowl combine all of the ingredients except for the walnuts and 3 tablespoons of the honey.
- Let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes.
- Fold in the walnuts.
- Divide the mixture among eight muffin cups and with the back of a spoon put a small indent in the middle of the mixture in each cup.
- Bake the cups for 20 minutes, and for the last 3 minutes of baking, set the oven to broil just to get a little browning and crust on the top of the oat cups.
- Remove from the oven. You may want to deepen the indent in the middle slightly of each oatmeal cup with the back of a spoon again to make room for the honey filling.
- Allow the cups to cool completely before removing from the tin.
- Once cooled, remove the oat cups from the muffin tin and fill each cup indent with approximately 1 teaspoon of the remaining honey.
- Sprinkle with hemp seeds to garnish.
- Enjoy!
If you really want to increase the "carrot cake" taste of these cups, swap out the honey for the indents, and instead, fill them with regular or vegan cream cheese sweetened with honey.
If you’re interested in saving time, so you can spend that time doing other wonderful things, and you want to give ordering groceries online with iHerb a try, just click here as a new customer to get $5 off your first order! If you aren’t sure, be reassured that iHerb is a Google Trusted Store and has a stellar customer service team providing support to customers in 10 different languages. I really think you’ll love the online grocery shopping process as much as I do!
Have a wonderful day!
Christal
Nutritionist in the Kitch
