Carrots as Natural Sweetener

What is one of the most healthiest foods? Carrots!! They are rich in Vitamin A. Carrots are one of my kids' favorite foods. They love to take them out of the fridge and snack on them hence my love for going to Aldi's and getting a 1# bag of the baby carrots for 69 cents!

Yesterday I was in the kitchen most of the day fixing a spaghetti dinner for my family and my hubby's work team. I got thinking about those little orange veggies as used them.

Did you know that you can use carrots as sweetener instead of adding sugar to your foods? Since my kids love them it is easy for me to add them to different dishes. Although I have a few that would rather eat them raw than cooked! Also, I have not gotten them to drink them in smoothies or juice yet!

I love to add shredded carrots to my tomato based dishes. I could just chop the carrots up but I have several who don't like seeing chunks of veggies, especially in their spaghetti sauce. To add the extra vitamins along with sweetening the dish, I shred the veggies that I am going to put in my tomato based dishes. Yesterday, in my big 6 quart crockpot that I filled about 3/4 full with spaghetti sauce I added about a 1/2 dozen baby carrots(that is all I had in the house) to my sauce. I find when I shred the carrots as the dish simmers the carrots pretty much disappears.

Also adding the carrots to the tomato based sauces it helps to neutralize the acid from the tomatoes. I have found that when I add carrots to the sauce I do not have near the problem of heartburn or feeling ill than when I forget to add the carrots.

So my tip for the day....add carrots to tomato based dishes for your sweetener and added vitamins!

For more kitchen tips, ideas or recipes; head over to Tammy's Recipes OR head over to Blessed with Grace!