So . Many . CARROTS

So, in true American style, my sweet sweet man and I signed our lives away to Costco. The wonderful fluorescent world of mass production and over consumption so neatly packaged in the well oiled machine that is the Costco warehouse. Although we don't even venture down the bread and chip aisles, and I have to yell loudly to divert his attention from the tool aisle (as he diverts mine from the ice cream, fresh flowers, coffee, candy, clothes and free samples) we generally go for the produce, bulk meats, and paper products and the like. Anyway, on our last trip we bought the necessaries; toilet paper, ground beef, perrier, and yes... a 25lb bag of carrots. What, you ask, was I going to do with 25 pounds of carrots? No idea. But the American in me totally justified spending $15 on 25 POUNDS of carrots without a plan for the aforementioned carrots. Although my honey and I go through a lot of food, we can't seem to go through the produce fast enough. We buy in bulk and try to eat the perishables as quickly as possible, but sometimes they just go bad. I was determined to not let this happen. We had just finished eating all of the leftover carrot soup we had conjured up after the last 5 pound bag of carrots we were trying to salvage, so that was out of the question, so what was I to do?
We found a couple of recipes for carrot chips, Matt making long strips of carrots and baking them, while I shredded them and put them into any kind of slaw and cold salad I could think of. I also tried to use our mandolin to cut thin chips and bake them. This experiment did not go well as I lost more finger skin than I care to admit while slicing those orange sticks of doom.

And then I remembered... the juicer! TADA!!!! Then a flood of projects washed over this discovery that I had been meaning to try! I had been wanting to incorporate carrot juice in my soap making (the beta carotene is amazing for your skin, and the orange color would be amazing to try!) and had also been craving a cracker (sigh, I miss crackers... since embracing the paleo lifestyle I hadn't realized how much I miss having cheese and crackers as an afternoon snack). I wanted something fucking crunchy dammit. So here was my problem solved on 3 levels; 1) I would be able to put to good use the remainder of the Mt Everest pile of carrots in my fridge 2) I would be able to use the carrot juice to enhance my soaps 3) I would be able (theoretically) to use the carrot pulp to make a crunchy cracker alternative. YES! Success!

20 carrots made about 32 oz of juice! The pulp was enough to make two cookie sheet size batches of carrot crackers (I halved the batch, added; sage, thyme, basil, salt pepper, a little almond flour and coconut milk, rolled between parchment paper and baked for a million hours on low heat in the oven - it's still a work on progress, good thing i have another half batch!) AND being the lover of efficiency that I am, I even froze the carrot tops to put in our chicken stock, the next time we get a full chicken. Dang I'm good! These are the moments of domestic introverted bliss where I raise my fist in the air 'Breakfast Club' style and wait for the affirmation from the dog and two cats about how amazing I am, they usually agree.