Vegan Carrot Zucchini Lime Bars (Chive Talking, Perennial Dividing and . . . The Scrappy Gremlin Quilt)

If a cake has vegetables in it, does that make it less of a cake and more of a food group? My guess is no. I've probably made over two dozen carrot cake recipes in my lifetime, they always begin the same way: shredding carrots. "Shredding" is labor intensive--more mess to clean up. So I'll make excuses to not attempt carrot cake baking and instead switch to an easy chocolate pan cake or cookies. That kind of thinking is no longer an option in my kitchen. I love carrot cake. There was once a time in my life when the only carrot cake I knew was a boxed kind. Such dark and sad days those were.

All week, I've been sneaking pieces of this cake into my daily food ritual. A small square for mid-morning, then a half-of-a-half piece while I'm making dinner, finally one regular slice for dessert. You get the picture. (Cutting into small squares helps with the guilt.)

See what I mean? Messy. But so worth it.

Baking the cake in a 9 x 13 pan yields a flatter cake. More portions. More carrot cake for us.

I played around with this recipe quite a bit. Here's some of the changes I made. Typically you'll find orange juice added to carrot cakes. I opted for lime instead. I love lime. And for more lime flavor boosting, I shredded lime zest over the top as well. Another change: I've seen carrot cake recipes calling for upwards of a half cup of oil! Clearly not where I wanted to go with my cake. Yes, some oil is required. But half a cup!? No thank you. I added coconut milk in lieu of the full oil amount. This cake is a keeper for sure. Not that I won't ever want to make a two-tiered carrot cake again, it's nice to know I can err on the side of more veggie, less fat (and less sugar, because I cut the sugar in half in this recipe, too) and still have an awesome carrot cake in snack-size portions!

Now let's move from the kitchen to the garden for a minute.   

I spent an entire day in the garden this week. The first days in the garden are some of the sorest I'll have. I felt every bit of my Almost Fifty this week. It took me two days to recover!

 First, I had some ornamental grasses I wanted to divide. For years. . . I've watched this clump of grass grow into a massive grass island worthy of its own zip code. Right now, the ground is in workable condition, meaning I can get my shovel into plants and under them for proper lift and removal into new spaces. Typically this would be nearly impossible or just plain nuts any other time of year because our ground is mostly clay and rock. The extra moisture we've had recently has helped the soil recover from last summer's drought. So divide I did. 

*Perennials are meant to be divided. Plus, it's a great money saver. 

Mama plant. . .

Baby plant. . . ready for new garden design area this spring!

So far, I've divided:

-ornamental grass

-lamb's ears

-creeping phlox

-chives

-garlic

I also transplanted three fruit trees. Thank god for ibuprofen. And running. Believe it or not, as sore as I get working in the garden, one of the sure-fire methods I use to recover is to get in a run of four miles. Works for me every time. Oh, and about ten hours of sleep. 

One quick note about chives. Chives love to be divided. Don't be afraid to take a shovel to these. You'll be rewarded with chives-galore! While I was laboring with the chives, I discovered I had garlic sprouting up all over my flower beds. In huge clumps! For a hot minute I was stumped. How did all this garlic get into all these odd nooks? Then I remembered my "garlic obsession" a few years back--placing cloves all over willy-nilly. I never harvested any of it, but cut it back when they flowered. Then left them. I had over fifty garlic plants to transplant this week! Garlic is a forgiving plant. I think that's why I went a little nuts with it before.

New garlic bed right before filling in the rows with dirt.

Meantime, my starter seeds of basil, leeks and tomatoes have finally emerged! Hooray! So far, so good. 

And my newest quilt endeavor:

Scrap-piecing. I have sooo many strips of fabric! How did this happen?! One would think all I do is quilt. And I don't. . . really. I knit. Knitting is my thing. I think quilting Gremlins spend time in my fabric and deliberately cut miles and miles of 2" strips to make me nuts. Something had to be done. Thus, Scrappy Gremlin Quilt begins.

Vegan Carrot Zucchini Lime Bars

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

pinch of salt

2 cups shredded carrots and zucchini (*use all carrot if you don't have zucchini or visa versa)

1/2 cup raw sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup coconut milk

1/3 cup water

zest of half a lime 

2 tablespoons lime juice

1/2 cup raisins

1/3 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray a 9 x 13 cake pan with nonstick baking spray. In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients: flours, baking soda, baking powder, Egg Replacer, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Whisk a couple of times. In a medium bowl, add the carrots/zucchini, sugar, oil, milk, water, lime zest, lime juice and stir together until well combined, then add this mixture to the flour ingredients in three separate additions. Stir with a large spoon until most of the flour is absorbed. A few dry spots are okay. Fold in the raisins and pecans. Spread into baking pan--all the way to the edges. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top begins to turn a golden color and the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the cake pan. Remove from oven, allow to cool completely. Frost with your favorite vegan buttercream frosting. Cut into small squares and store in fridge in an airtight container. For extra lime flavor, add lime zest over frosting. Enjoy!