Carrot Cake Oatmeal with Ginger Spiced Cashew Cream

I hope you all had a great weekend! I did 🙂 I went out for a delicious Thai dinner to celebrate a friend’s birthday, and went straight from there to a fun housewarming party. I also went to “The Food Show” in Auckland. I love going to these types of events, and it reminded me of EAT! Vancouver.

It’s always fun to check out the stalls and samples at food shows. It’s a great way to learn about new companies, and smaller, local companies that you might not have heard of. There were tons of vendors at The Food Show, selling everything from cheese to bread, granola bars to dumplings, soups, hot chocolate, yogurt, liqueurs, wines and beers.

Gin & Tonic samples? Don’t mind if I do…

New Zealand is obsessed with honey! I don’t blame them…it’s the best there is!

I can’t say no to delicious roasted nuts…I tried every kind!

These Bennet’s Chocolates were beautiful! I tried a passionfruit one…amazing!

I did not partake in the tequila samples.

I cannot say the same for the limoncello….

If you’re in New Zealand, check out when The Food Show is coming to your city!

After a few too many cheats on my “cheat day”, I wanted a fresh start this week. I needed a good healthy breakfast that would fill me up, and taste delicious while doing so! I came up with this carrot cake oatmeal, and it seriously hit the spot. Carrot cake is literally one of my favourite cakes ever…I cannot say no to it! This has all the same sort of flavours while containing faaaaar less sugar and of course, no flour. I even made a craaaazy good Ginger Spiced Cashew Cream to mimic the cream cheese icing that a carrot cake would have. Obviously this isn’t an exact substitute for carrot cake, but if I can eat a healthy breakfast that tastes like cake, I’m not gonna complain!!

Obviously the healthiest oats to use are steel-cut oats, which can take quite some time to cook. If you want to use those, I would cook them almost fully through and just added the remaining ingredients in the last 5 minutes or so.

For a really quick breakfast option, you can use regular oats and combine all the ingredients (minus ginger spiced cashew cream) in a jar and let them sit overnight. The oats will absorb the liquid and be ready to eat in the morning.

In this case, I used regular gluten-free oats and cooked them on the stove for about 5 minutes.

Try to stay away from instant oats, as they are so much more processed.

Cake for breakfast? Carrot cake inspired oatmeal using wholesome ingredients like oats, carrots, dates, coconut sugar, cashews, and spices. This makes enough to serve 2.

Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook time: 5 minutes Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:

• Oats – 2/3 cup
• Water or Almond Milk – 2 Cups
• Grated Carrot – 1 cup
• Dates – 1/4 cup, chopped
• Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp
• Cinnamon – 1 tsp
• Nutmeg – 1/8 tsp
• Sea Salt – A pinch
• Coconut Sugar – 1 Tbsp
• Shredded Coconut – 1 Tbsp

 

Ginger Spiced Cashew Cream

• Cashews – 1/2 cup
• Lemon Juice – 1 Tbsp
• Coconut Sugar – 1 Tbsp
• Ginger Powder (ground ginger) – 1/2 tsp
• Water – 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp

Combine ingredients for oatmeal in a pot and bring to a boil for 3-5 minutes, stirring, until oats are cooked.
For the Ginger Spiced Cashew Cream, combine all ingredients in a high-speed blender and process until smooth. If you need to add more water, add it a tablespoon at a time.
Divide oatmeal into two bowls, top with Ginger Spiced Cashew Cream and garnish with extra grated carrot, cinnamon, coconut, and coconut sugar.
Enjoy!