Classic Carrot Cake Recipes

After spending my entire three-week Winter Break sinking my teeth into every single dessert I saw sugar cookies, hazelnut cake, raspberry truffles, and more I decided to skip all sweets as my New Year's Resolution during my sophomore year of college. Yes, I now bake and blog as a living And I enjoy a small treat once, twice, or sometimes three times a day. But that holiday season, my sweet tooth completely spiraled out of control! 

That year, I originally challenged myself to shoot for just one quarter 10 weeks, plus another week of finals without dessert. After those three months passed, resisting treats basically became second nature, so I decided to continue and see if I could go the entire year without a single dessert.

For the record Dark chocolate does NOT count as dessert. Just like your 8 glasses of water, a small square or two is a daily necessity!

The weekend my birthday rolled around in late June, I had to leave town for a few days. When I returned, I opened my apartment door and found bright purple and yellow crape paper strung all around the living room and hanging from the ceiling fan. Matching balloons came flying around the corner, closely followed by my two roommates shouting, Happy birthday!!

Ingredients:
for the cake

• 1 1/2c whole wheat flour (measured correctly)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 c maple syrup
• 1/2 c plain nonfat Greek yogurt
• 1/2 c nonfat milk
• 2 c freshly grated carrots (about 3 medium)

for the frosting

• 8 oz nonfat ricotta cheese
• 3 tbsp plain nonfat Greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp agave
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350'F, and coat a 9'-square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. To prepare the cake, whisk together the flour and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut oil, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the maple syrup and Greek yogurt, thoroughly mixing until no large clumps remain. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and milk, stirring just until incorporated, beginning and ending with the flour. (For best results, add the flour mixture in 3 equal parts and the milk in 2 equal parts.) Fold in the carrots.
3. ................................

for full recipes please see : amyshealthybaking.com

Much has been said about the latest in the healthcare sector. Politicians' continue to bicker and have no solid plan to replace the current plan. Certain Analysts believe if this Trump Administration plan passes the Senate their proposal will leave over 23 million people without coverage by the year 2026. The Affordable Care Act law is and was simply put in place to help the American people who were once unable to get any type of coverage, finally get the care he or she may need. Secondly, it has also helped more than enough individuals with pre-existing conditions get coverage as well. And thirdly there is the concern of affordability; this is for people who do not have enough money to pay for insurance on their own, the current law provides financial assistance for those eligible to receive money from the government.

The problem with today's guidelines are the plans are based on: age, geographic location, the ability to pay, the rising cost of medical technology and taxes. Notice there is nothing mentioned about your overall health conditions. Until the underwriting process is brought back into the equation, then insurers' will never be able to accurately measure their risk and set premium prices at affordable rates. The message to insurers' is the fact that no one should be denied health insurance due to their finances or health related conditions to help protect against their financial losses when and if they occurred.

During this era a majority of insurance companies especially those that specialize in the health sector jumped on the band wagon with lower premiums knowing financial assistance would be there to help pay for coverage. Plans were and are designed to basically take the American peoples' money first before paying any claims. Once the claims began to come from more than enough people, then insurers' realized their premiums were set too low and began experiencing financial losses. There is no coincidence today why as consumers we hear about large health carriers pulling out of the marketplace and are no longer willing to participate this coming 2018 season under the ACA format.

The solution for consumers, we have to educate ourselves and grasp a good understanding and not listen to all the rhetoric in the media. We need a suite of insurance products to benefit us in the event there are some types of loss. Whether its a loss of life, the inability to work for certain period of time, or failing health our money needs to be protected at reasonable rates. Do this now while you are still healthy with the right kind of life and health insurance plans; underwriting is the key.

There are more than enough life and health insurance companies who offer benefits to protect your money. They never moved into this whole affordable care dilemma. Insurance today is still being sold on the premise of an individual's risk factors. These type of plans whether they are: accident, cancer, critical illness, dread disease, hospitalization, preventive care and wellness, also known as MEC (minimum essential coverage) or life insurance policies are and will always be available.

The Affordable Care Act is a good law that needs to be revised and not replaced. In today's environment of government uncertainty, why listen to such chaos? "People perish because of a lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6a. Now that you have been given this knowledge, perish not; be encouraged and do the right thing for your family and your finances.

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