Riced Carrots/Sweet Potatos

How's it going everyone?!

              Welcome to the 1st edition of my new blogpost about health and wellness subjects that you may or may not have heard of.  My blog posts will primarily focus on different cooking ideas and strategies that you can prepare at home to show case your talents for friends, date nights, or potlucks. Just for the record I am not a professional or licensed chef however I do have quite a bit of experience cooking for picky eaters, kids who love to play with their food, and adults my age who are willing to try anything at least once.  So with out further ado I will give you the health benefits of both carrots and sweet potato's, the methods to prepare each, and the spark of imagination  that you can take to your own culinary cooking projects.

               Every child of the 80s/ and early90s has some recollection of bugs bunny chomping down carrots before he went on to tackle other looney tunes characters.  The truth is we all know carrots are great for your eyes but what most may not know is that carrots are also great for a whole host of other things.  According to top10homeremedies.com " eating carrots improves vision, fights cancer, combats cardiovascular diseases, improves oral health, protects the liver, maintains skin, promotes digestive health, prevents stroke, regulates blood sugar, and delays aging effects". The great thing about carrots like any other fruit or vegetable, is that you can find them in any local supermarket (although I do recommend buying organic) or you can grow them your self somewhere in your yard.
Now I know exactly what you are thinking, this all sounds great but how is it possible to turn something as hard as a carrot or a sweet potato  into something as small and granular as rice?  Well for that task you will need one spiralizer and one food processor (in my case I have two).  The spiralizer I use is an off shoot of the magic bullet series called the "Veggie Bullet" this bad boy has enough power to sprialize, chop, and shred any root vegetable you can think of.  Also I have a Cuisinart that performs similar functions. Before you turn any vegetable into a noodle though be sure to give it a really thorough wash under warm water.       After you finish washing and drying your veggies the next step that you will need to take is to choose a large carrot, wide in circumference, since smaller carrots usually break apart under the pressure of the bullet. I suggest picking about 4-5 carrots and spiralizing each until they have gone down to the stub, after that transpose all spiralized carrots into your Cuisinart. Just as a side note if you have children between the ages of 3-7 this is a great way to help them to get involved and develop an appreciation for whole foods and curb picky eater tendencies early on.  Once your carrot noodles are in the Cuisinart, pulse until the carrots are the consistency of rice.
               From this point moving forward is where you're imagination kicks in and you can really get in touch with your inner chef. At this point you can steam, fry, or bake the riced vegetables your preparing. Depending on what you plan on cooking riced carrots/sweet potatoes pair well with fish, poultry, pork or tofu. Usually I go with an oil base such as avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil etc. bring your pan or skillet to medium high heat and dump everything into the pan. Stir the vegetables and make sure all sides get a light glaze of oil and cook for roughly 10-12 min.
              Lastly the carrots will be hard going to the skillet or pan however give it an occasional stir every once in a while because they will soften overtime.  After the rice is complete voilà! Ready to serve with any other dish.  Feel free this recipe a try or if you have questions regarding anything mentioned feel free to reach out.