MoFo #18: Carrot cake dip!

After my successful pumpkin pie dip experiment earlier in MoFo, I started thinking a lot about sweeter, snackier dips.  Things my kid might get insanely excited about eating (due to dessert-iness) that I might also be insanely excited to serve him (due to healthy-ishness).  And the thing that kept floating to the top of my mental heap was carrot cake dip.  Behold:

Toasty walnuts, gently boiled carrots, flaked coconut and golden raisins, flavored with a few homey spices and slightly sweetened with brown sugar.  Mmmmm.  On its own, it's almost savory, but paired with slices of apple and asian pear, it's desserty and decadent tasting.  The Emperor loved and I did too.  Here's the recipe:

Carrot Cake Dip

2/3c walnuts

4 small carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks 

1/4c unsweetened coconut flakes

2 tbsps brown sugar, plus a tiny bit extra for sprinkling

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/4c non-dairy milk

1/4c golden raisins (or more to taste)

1.  Toast the walnuts over medium-low heat for 10 minutes or until fragrant and somewhat darkened.

2.  Meanwhile, bring a small pot of water to a boil and boil the carrots for 3-4 minutes, until just tender.

3.  Drain the carrots and immediately put them in cold water (or pour cold water over) to stop them cooking.

4.  Combine the toasted walnuts, cooked carrots, coconut flakes, brown sugar, cinnamon, and ginger in a food processor.  Pulse until everything is chopped up a bit.

5.  Pour the non-dairy milk in and puree for a minute or two.  The resulting dip will have some body left, it's not supposed to be smooth.

6.  Mix in the raisins by hand, then sprinkle the top with a tiny bit more brown sugar (~tsp) before serving.

My pictures of the day are actually pictures from yesterday (aaaah!).  The Emperor and I had lunch at Little Shanghai, an asian restaurant in downtown Santa Cruz that has its vegan items well-labelled on the menu.  They had a bunch of vegan things in their lunch special yesterday so we ended up getting a 4 item plate (with brown rice, cabbage pickle and miso soup) to split between the two of us.  (A great deal at something like $8.)  He surprised me by eating literally some of everything, including:  most of the miso soup, most of the tempeh, all of the mushrooms, several bites of tofu, several bites of carrot, a ton of brown rice, all the broccoli (I got nary a broc!), a vegetable cho ball, and all but one of the green beans.  Here he is gloating over taking the last green bean:

He's lucky I love him marginally more than I love green beans.

My Magician picture has nothing to do with food!  At some point yesterday, the Emperor decided to pull all his stuffed animals down and throw them, one by one, at his little brother.  They were both laughing hysterically the whole time so, you know, whatever.  Here's the Magician in the after math, swimming in animal friends:

Phew, I'm tired just remembering all the fun we had yesterday... or maybe I'm just tired!