My Birthday Eve

So last night, my dad and I made vegetable stir fried rice, using whole-grain brown rice, of course. It was delicious as always! It included zucchini, garlic, red & orange pepper, green onions, red onions, small portobello mushrooms, water chestnuts, snap peas, broccoli, bamboo shoots, carrots, and a scrambled egg. Whew! Hopefully I'm not forgetting anything.

After dinner, my dad wanted to surprise me with a little pre-birthday dessert: carrot cake (my favorite cake) and Tarimisu (because Italy has been on my mind lately). Though well intentioned, there was a reason I told him in the previous weeks that I wanted my cake to come from Whole Foods (this was before I decided I wanted to bake my cake myself). Though Whole Foods may not be perfect, there is a list of ingredients that Whole Foods will never carry in its stores, including any artificial colorings or flavorings. Here's the full list of ingredients listed as unacceptable in any Whole Foods products: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/about-our-products/quality-standards/unacceptable-ingredients-food

Not wanting to be rude, I did take a bite of each...ok two of the carrot cake. They were both so good! But, not good enough to tempt me to eat the whole thing. There's no reason why you can't bake a dessert with as few additives and artificial ingredients as possible. By cooking at home you have so much more control over not only what goes into your food, but the portions of things such as sugar and salt as well. I found a recipe for carrot cake that doesn't call for any sugar or oil! http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/carrot-cake-recipe.html I can't wait to try it!

Lesson: READ LABELS! You'll be shocked by what you find. For example, why does the white icing for the carrot cake below require six different kinds of artificial coloring?! 100 Days of Real Food has a great post about artificial food dyes. http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/03/13/real-food-tips-7-reasons-i-hate-artificial-food-dyes/

Carrot cake ingredients.

Tarimisu ingredients.