Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches

I recently got some super fun oatmeal from MyOatmeal.  Such a great company! I did a review on them which you can check out here.  One of the flavors I got to try was carrot cake.  It was so good!! I ate it like regular oatmeal, but then I wanted to try baking something a little more fun with it. I decided on Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches!

Oh my, these turned out amazing!!! Don't worry if you don't have special flavored oats, you can use regular oats for this recipe! In fact, you can also sub any type of flour.  

Ingredients you will need include....

Oatmeal!

 I just took the carrot cake oats and ground them into oat flour.  You can take plain oats to make oat flour, or use whatever kind you like.  

You also need cinnamon protein powder, carrots, egg substitute, fat free cream cheese, cinnamon, vanilla, baking powder, salt, and sweetener.

*You can use vanilla protein powder and add extra cinnamon*

*I used canned carrots, but you can use fresh and steam them*

Drain your carrots and then puree til it looks like baby food! If using fresh carrots just steam and puree them to get the same end product.  In fact, you could even just use actual baby food! Easy!

Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl except the cream cheese.  

We are saving that for our filling!

You should be able to get one dozen cookies from this batter.  Just make sure you get an even number so every cookie has a partner when we pair them up :)

The batter is super sticky so be sure to use a baking mat, parchment, or lots of non stick spray.  Into the oven for 10-12 minutes at 350.

While those are baking, we will mix up our cream cheese filing.  Super simple.  Just mix together as much cream cheese as you want with some cinnamon and sweetener.  

No exact measurements here.  I used 4 T of the cream cheese, but you can use more or less depending on how much you want for each sandwich.  

When the cookies are done, be sure to let them cool completely. 

 I stuck mine in the fridge for a few minutes to speed up the process. I am a bit impatient at times...

Perfect!

You could absolultely just eat the cookies like this and they will taste great! I guess they would just be carrot cookies though because carrot cake isn't really carrot cake without the cream cheese frosting!

If you did want to snack on a few of them plain, each one is only 23 calories!! 

Maybe I should have made an odd number of cookies so I could eat this little guy! You could always just eat two...They smell so good already and are super duper soft! 

Time to make sandwiches! I don't really think I need to explain to you how you make a cookie sandwich...right??

Does that look amazing or does that look amazing?! This double stuffed sandwich is only 55 calories! You know what that means...you can eat all 6 yourself! Yup, all the cookies and all the cream cheese filling is only about 330 calories! Some people refer to me as a magician...Just sayin! 

So there ya have it! Healthy and delicious carrot cake cookie sandwiches.  Go make some for yourself! And remember, you don't have to share :)

Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches

• 1 c canned carrots (240g)
• 1 scoop cinnamon protein powder (30g)
• 1/2 c oats ground to oat flour (20g)
• 3 T egg substitute (46g)
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1 t cinnamon
• dash salt
• sweetener to taste 

For Frosting:

• 4 T fat free cream cheese
• cinnamon and sweetener to taste

1. Drain and puree carrots.  

2. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

3. Drop batter onto cookie sheet (even number for sandwiches)

4. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

5. For frosting, mix together cream cheese, cinnamon, and sweetener.

6. Let cookies cool completely.

7. Spread frosting on cookie and top with another one! 

8. Makes 6 sandwiches.

For 6 cookie sandwiches - 55 calories each

332 calories

3g Fat

32g Carb

37g Protein

For 12 cookies without filling - 33 calories each

272 calories

3g Fat

28g Carb

30g Protein 

My Oatmeal Review

Oatmeal is such a great thing!! It's super healthy and so versatile.  You can eat a bowl of it for breakfast and you can bake all sorts of yummy treats with it! Cookies, bars, muffins... I got the opportunity to volunteer to do a review for a great oatmeal company. Free oatmeal?! Sign me up! The company is called MyOatmeal.  They have such a great concept.  You go online and create your very own oatmeal flavor! Every order is custom made.  Any flavor you can think of, you can make! Seriously! S'mores, apple pie, blueberry cheesecake, oatmeal raisin cookie, double fudge peanut butter brownie, and so many more!

I kept it somewhat simple and ordered carrot cake and red velvet cake.

These are huge bags by the way! Each bag has 11+ servings.  The ingredients list is super simple. Oats and natural flavors.  

You can add basically anything to your own order.  Dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and sweeteners.  You can also choose between quick oats, 5 grain rolled oats and flax, steel cut oats, smash blend oats, gluten free, and organic gluten free thick rolled oats.  I like quick oats the best, especially when I use them in baking.  

First up was the carrot cake oatmeal.  It smelled amazing! I could smell the carrot cake goodness as soon as I opened the resealable bag.  I knew I was in for a real treat. I kept my first meal with the oats pretty simple.  

Just a nice warm bowl of carrot cake oatmeal.  I just cooked the oats with water for 1:30.  I then stirred in a little unsweetened almond milk and a little fat free cream cheese.  After all, what is carrot cake without the cream cheese?! I topped it off with a drizzle of sugar free syrup.  

Amazing!!! I felt like I was eating carrot cake! Only this is way better for you :) So glad I ordered this flavor.  

Now for the red velvet cake.  Once again, I kept is somewhat simple so I could get the flavor of the oats.  

I cooked the oats the same way with only water.  No added milk this time but I did top this bowl off with some fat free reddi whip! 

Dessert in an bowl!!  I don't know exactly what they added to make this flavor, but they sure know what they are doing! Wow, just wow!

After enjoying some oats the "normal" way, I decided to have a little more fun.  We all know I love pancakes, I have made just about every flavor pancake you can imagine.  So of course I was going to make some carrot cake pancakes.

I just mixed 1 cup of the oats (40g) with 1 cup pureed carrots (240g), 3 T egg substitute (46g), 1 scoop cinnamon protein powder (30g), 1/2 t baking powder, 1 t cinnamon, a dash of salt, and some sweetener. 

Cooked them up like regular pancakes and boom!

That is one awesome breakfast!! Or lunch, dinner, snack, dessert...These were so good I could eat them any time! I have made carrot cake pancakes before, but these made my other ones seem like store bought frozen ones (ok, not that bad...) 

I had one more fun idea in mind...How about some Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches!?

Complete with cream cheese filling! These were soooo good!! I ground up the oatmeal into oat flour to make these delicious treats.  Perfection!! Check out my video to make some of these for yourself.  You will be glad you did :)

They turned out so good that I made a batch to eat plain too. 

These cookies are healthy, low fat, low carb, high protein and just plain yummy! 

I am so glad I got the chance to review some products from MyOatmeal!!  Such a great company.  I love them even more now because I found out it is run by a husband and wife! How cute is that?! You can really tell they put their heart and soul into this business!

I highly suggest you go order some.  Make sure you set aside a bit of time before you go to their site because you may be a little overwhelmed when you see all the flavor possibilities!! Seriously, I wanted to order so much more! As soon as I finish off these two bags (which won't take long) I think I want to try cookie dough and strawberry cheesecake :) 

New Wave Enviro Products - Litter Free Lunch Kit

I sometimes work very long days.  It is not all that rare for me to leave the house at 5:30am and not get home until after 7pm.  Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but that is a long time to be away from home.  The problem isn't so much being away from home, but being away from my refrigerator and pantry! I would absolutely consider myself a picky eater.  I would also consider myself a very healthy eater! For these reasons, I always, and I mean always, pack my food for the day.  Notice I said food, and not lunch! That's right, I will pack breakfast, lunch, snacks, and sometimes even dinner for the day.  I do this mainly so that I can have the food I want with me, but also because it is much cheaper than eating out for every meal. 

I know, I am rambling...anywho...I stumbled upon a company called New Wave Enviro Products.  I was looking for a new lunchbox and their website popped up.  I emailed them and the wonderful company sent me a litter free lunch kit to have in exchange for a review!

This super colorful lunchbox comes with all the tupperware you would need to pack whatever you might want for the day. Don't worry guys, they have manly ones too!

I seriously love that print!! So fun! The kids I nanny for are going to be so jealous :)

How awesome is that?! There are two little snack sized containers, a medium sized one, and a nice big deep one.  Also comes with the perfect sized water bottle!

Check out the inside.  It is the perfect size.  I will have plenty of room for all my food.  It is not obnoxiously big though so I don't feel like I am packing for a family of four!

  Completely insulated and even has a little pouch to store napkins, silverware, salt and pepper packets, a granola bar, or whatever else you may want!

 As I mentioned before, I don't just pack my lunch for work.  I pretty much always pack my breakfast too.  I don't like to eat before my early morning workout, so I always eat once I get to work.  I got my cereal in one tupperware (which can double as a bowl later) and some cut up strawberries stored seperately (don't want to mix them with the cereal quite yet)

The little bottle is perfect for my almond milk!! I know what you're thinking...don't worry, I did the leak test!

It passed with flying colors! Nothing worse than having liquid leak all through your bag...Been there! Not fun! No worries with this bottle. I even shook it up real good just to be sure.  Not a single drop escaped.

Ready for a snack? I love that there are different sized containers.  Just a handful of banana chips and a bunch of pretzels will be perfect to get me through the day.  

Normally I would just use little baggies for my snacks...but when I think about, that's pretty wasteful! Seriously, packing all that food every single day...that's a lot of bags being thrown away!  I know they aren't really expensive or anything, but it all adds up.  

 Why not invest a little in one of these litter free lunch kits and have containers you can use over and over again??  They are dishwasher safe too :) How perfect does that look? Notice my toddler utensils (not included) Yes, I use those on a regular basis...I call them my "travel size" utensils :) Remember, I am a nanny!! It's ok for me to use pink child's silverware!

 Here is a great example of an awesome lunch I might have.  A big salad, pretzels, strawberries, and some vanilla almonds.  Got my drink ready to go too! The kids and I eat lunch at the park a lot during the summer so this will be perfect! No more brown bagging it for me.

We already tested the bottle for leaks, but what about the containers? What if I want to pack some dressing for my salad?

 

No need to worry! These stay sealed to ensure not only a litter free lunch, but a mess free lunch too!

I love how everything fits in there perfectly!

Even with an ice pack in there, I have room for more! I could easily toss in a few protein bars and an apple in there.  Nice and roomy. 

This great company also has a line of BPA free bottles, water filter systems, and and stainless steel bottles and containers.  If you already pack your lunch, you should try one of these litter free lunch kits.  Get rid of those little baggies and ugly brown paper bags!! If you don't pack your lunch, you really need to start! It is a great way to save some money and you can always be sure you have a healthy and tasty lunch for the day :) Go here and see if they are sold in stores near you.  If not, you can simply buy one online. 

I am actually excited for work on Monday just because I want to pack another lunch in my new bag! 

Navitas Naturals Review

I love finding new and healthy snacks! I also love finding new products that I can use in my recipes :)  I am so glad I discovered Navitas Naturals! They are known as the Superfood Company and they absolutely live up to the name.  Some of the products they sell are nuts and seeds, dried fruit, acai, cacao, chia, gogi, flax, wheatgrass, pomegrante, trail mix, and a whole line of power snacks.  Honestly, I have never tried a lot of these types of foods so I was very excited when they sent me some samples to taste and review!

I knew I was going to be using the cacao powder in some of my favorite chocolatey recipes.  The dragon fruit slices sounded so fun and unique! Anything with a name like power snack was going to be perfect for me. 

I was thrilled to find out that this company is family owned! My parents own and operate a cookie business so I am a huge supporter of family run companies.  Their products are all organic, nutrient rich whole foods which are minimally processed to preserve all the goodness!

I tried the citrus chia superfood snacks first! All of their products are gluten free which is always an added bonus. 

One serving of these tasty treats has 120 calories 6.4F 15C 2P.  The ingredients are all natural and include things like raisins, dates, cashews, apricots, and chia.  No added sugar or artificial anything!

The texture of these is amazing!! Look at all the stuff in there! You can literally see all the seeds, nuts and fruit.  They were so soft and chewy and sweet! 

I love that they are all different sizes too.  Big ones, medium sized ones, and tiny bite sized ones.  Such a great snack for on the go.  They are filling will definetly keep you going for a while.  

I eat a lot of dried fruit, but I have never had anything as fun as dragon fruit slices! Each serving has 110 calories 1F 22C 2P.  Just check out that color! Gorgeous!!

These were amazing! 

They were nice and chewy and super sweet. They are coated in little black seeds that give this snack a nice little crunch too. 

I found out they get the fruit to make these from Thailand. How exotic!

The package suggested making a trail mix with this. Great idea!  

I made myself a super tasty and nutritious little sampler platter of dragon fruit slices, almonds, and some banana chips. Yum!!  These are going to be great in my lunches. 

Now for some baking! I am quite familiar with using cocoa powder, but have never actually used cacao powder...Turns out cocoa powder is usually processed, but this cacao is milled at a very low temperature to protect the nutrients and flavor :) I learned something new!

It smelled amazing!! So chocolatey!

I started out with a simple snack.  I mixed the cacao powder with some plain nonfat greek yogurt.

Sliced up some fresh strawberries for dipping and I was one happy girl!

This powder made something so simple into something so amazing!

Wow, just wow! The flavor is so much better than any other cocoa powder I have ever tried. 

 Since it was breakfast time, I decided pancakes were the perfect thing to make with my new ingredient.  Not just any pancakes, but my chocolate pumpkin pancakes! This recipe doesn't normally use cocoa powder but I knew it would be good to make them extra chocolatey. 

These might have been the best pancakes I ever made!! The powder mixed up so easily.  The chocolate flavor combined with the pumpkin was out of this world.  I know what I am using in all of my chocolatey recipes from now on!!

I am so happy that I stumbled upon this company! There is just one problem...I don't know what to try next! Maybe the dried golden berries, or the gogi cashews...the blueberry hemp power snacks sound awesome...I am sure cacao butter and cacao nibs would be great additions to my baking pantry...

I have seen some of these products in my local grocery store, but if you can't find them, simply go online and order some! You will not be disappointed! 

Jay Robb Protein Bar Review

I recently did a review on Jay Robb protein powder.  Such a great company, with amazing products!! For sure one of my favorite protein powders for baking, maybe even my most favorite! I have been a fan of Jay Robb for quite some time and I am shocked that I never knew they made protein bars too.  How was I missing out on such a great snack?! I was so excited that they sent me some to review :)

It's a good day when a package with that logo arrives at your doorstep.

The high protein bars come in three flavors.  Cashew coconut, fudge brownie, and peanut butter. 

I love how they are referred to as The "No Junk" Protein Bar. That is because they are made from the finest natural ingredients available! They have no soy protein, gluten, glycerin, marital, acesulfame-K, aspartame, fructose, corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, evaporated cane juice, artificial sweeteners, casein, MSG or tans-fats.  Just like they say, no junk!!

I couldn't decide which one to try first so I cut them up into bite sized pieces so I could taste them all immediately! 

Lovely little sampler platter.

 Fudge brownie was nice and chocolatey.  Super chewy and just the right amount of sweetness.  

This bar has 220 calories 9F 25C 15P.

It was good just as is, but then I decided to have a little more fun with it.  

I topped it off with a little hazelnut spread, and had myself a super tasty treat!

This is a perfect dessert for me!

 I was very excited for the peanut butter one.  I LOVE peanut butter so I knew it was going to be good.  220 calories 11F 23C 14P. 

I love soft and chewy protein bars.  It really is the best texture in my opinion.  

These are made with all organic nut butters too :)

 I had a super wonderful idea to try with this flavor.  First, I warmed it up in the microwave for about 10 seconds.  Then I flattened it out to make it into a cookie.  Lastly, I smothered it with peanut butter!

Oh my goodness!!! This was so good! It was like a warm and gooey peanut butter cookie.  One that is packed with protein and actually healthy! 

Last, but certainly not least was cashew coconut. I like how the bars all have very similar macros.  This one has 230 calories 10F 25C 14P. 

I am usually not the biggest fan of coconut flavored stuff, but this was great!! I loved the taste of cashew in there.  What a wonderful combination.  

There are actually pieces of cashews and coconut in there! I ate some of this bar just out of the wrapper and then I warmed up some of it in the microwave.  It was beyond delicious! Seriously, if you don't warm up your bars, you need to start trying it! 

I highly recommend giving these a try! They are healthy, tasty, and quite affordable! Truly an amazing company with amazing products :)  Go order some here right now!

 I think I just might be Jay Robb's #1 Fan!!

Bare Snacks Review

I love apples!! I eat at least one a day.  An apple a days keeps the doctor away!! Not really sure how true that is, but apples are super tasty.  I was pretty excited when I discovered Bare Snacks.  They have all kinds of apple chips! They also have new coconut chips and dried fruits like mango and apricots.  It was the apple chips that really caught my attention though.  I was so thankful when they sent me some samples to try!

One big bag and one single serve bag.  These chips are just like eating a real apple! All organic and natural :) The company is based in Washington State, right in the heart of apple country!

 I could not wait to rip open this bag.  

Sea salt caramel apple chips!! Oh my goodness...how amazing does that sound?!  These are going to make a great on-the-go snack! Perfectly packaged and no mess! I always pack my lunch for work and love finding new and fun snacks to include.  

The flavor in these chips was awesome.  I could taste the apple, caramel, and just the right hint of saltiness.  I have had lots of apple chips before but never with a flavor combo like these.  

How about a close up? I love how crunchy these are.  You aren't going to find any other chips as healthy as these.  They are baked to perfection.  Not freeze dried or fried like some apple snacks out there.  

Onto the big bag.  If you follow my blog you will probably notice that about 90% of my recipes have cinnamon in them! That is because cinnamon is wonderful!

Apples and cinnamon is such a great combo! Super crunchy again.  I love that there is skin left on the chips.  That is where most of the goodness is, right?!  They are made from real, organic apples, so it makes sense that there would be skin still on them. 

These chips also come in Fuji Red, Granny Smith, and Chile Lime flavor. I would say I got to try the two best kinds.

 I will take this over a bowl of greasy potato chips any day!!

I love that checklist! 

Awesome nutrition facts too.  Only 90 calories, fat free, and lots of fiber! Nothing wrong with some natural sugars :) 

Notice the ingredient list...short and sweet.  Only two ingredients and no added anything! Just a bag of all natural goodness.

I did not get to try the coconut chips, but I am sure they are amazing too! They come in super fun flavors like simply toasted, show me the honey, sweet 'n heat, chocolate bliss, and sea salt caramel.  I am gonna have to give those a try for sure!!

I have seen the apple chips in regular grocery stores before, but if you can't find them near you, just order some online. I highly suggest you give these a try.  I am so glad I did :)