Let's Talk with Nancy J. Cohen
Carrot Day on April 4
April 4, 2024
Happy International Carrot Day! Whether you wear an orange shirt or make a favorite carrot dish, this is the week to celebrate a healthy root vegetable. While carrots are rich in Vitamin A, their greens are also edible. Carrots can come in several colors and store well in the refrigerator. So how can you celebrate this holiday?
• Make your favorite carrot recipe. Would that be a carrot souffle, carrot soup or carrot cake?
• Nibble on raw carrots for a nutritious snack.
• Read up on carrot lore to learn more about this versatile veggie.
• Plant some carrots in your garden.
• Buy yourself the other kind of carat. Carat refers to the weight of precious stones. One carat equals 200 mg. Karat refers to the purity of gold.
• Use carrots in a meme like this one.
Here’s one of my favorite recipes that uses fresh cut carrots.
CHICKEN BEAN STEW
This is a tasty meal-in-one dish that serves as comfort food. Cut the cooked chicken breasts in half if you wish to stretch the portions.
Ingredients
5 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, cut into chunks
8 oz. fresh sliced carrots
1 tsp. chopped fresh garlic
14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes with juice
14.5 oz. can low sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup dry red wine (or more if needed to moisturize)
15 oz. can low sodium cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle flour on a plate and dredge chicken pieces to coat. Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a Dutch oven and brown chicken on all sides. Remove from pot. Deglaze with a bit of broth and add 1 Tbsp. oil. Stir in onion and carrots and sauté until onions wilt. Add garlic and stir. Add diced tomatoes with juice. Place chicken on top. Pour broth and red wine over chicken.
Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover pot, and cook in oven for 30 minutes. Add beans and stir. Cook for 30 minutes more or until chicken is done. Serves 4 to 6.
What is your favorite way to eat carrots?
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Posted in Let's Talk, with Nancy J. Cohen • Tags: Carrot Day, Chicken Bean Stew recipe, Easter Hair Hunt, Let's Talk, Nancy J Cohen, recipe | 50 Comments
I love to eat carrots in Carrot cake or baked in the oven with a Beef Pot Roast and potatoes, onions and carrots. Thank you for the recipe. Deborah
Your pot roast sounds delish. Great meal for cooler weather!
Happy Carrot Day, Nancy! I like to roast my carrots with a little olive oil and seasonings. I also enjoy them in stews and soups. Oddly, though, I’m not a big fan of carrot cake.
I’ll buy store-bought carrot cake. As for cooked carrots, I’ll only eat them in a stew or soup.
Mixed into carrot cake or as honey glazed carrot slices for me.
Honey-glazed sounds interesting but I’m not a big cooked-carrot fan.
I like carrots in carrot cake.
Me, too. That’s the best way to eat them! Although … I do like raw baby carrots for a nibble.
I agree every so often a raw carrot isn’t bad but carrots in carrot cake are the best.
I love raw carrots and homemade carrot cake. Sometimes a carrot cake bought from a bakery is too much like a spice cake with the carrots just thrown in.
This is true, but I like it either way as long as I don’t have to make it!
I love to eat baby carrots dipped in Ranch dressing and I like them in salads also and for sure in carrot cake. My husband makes our 12 yr old half Schnauzer chicken with rice and carrots in the crockpot that is his dinner every evening, he eats dry food in the morning. Our pup loves carrots also.
Chicken with rice and carrots sounds like a meal I would eat! Your pet is getting royal treatment. As for raw carrots, I like the baby ones, too.
Raw carrots are the best also I love carrot cake and morning glory muffins(lots of carrots in these.
Never heard of morning glory muffins before! I’ll have to look them up.
Ah, carrots. I did not like carrots for many, many years! I thought they were way too sweet to be vegetables (and I don’t eat sugar, so carrot cake and carrot muffins are not options for me). Somehow, about 5 years ago, when I was looking for a vegetable that I could eat raw as a snack, I decided to get a few carrots…. What a surprise it was when I discovered that I liked them! Eating them that way was almost like snacking on a fruit 😉 I think I’ll have to buy some on my next grocery shopping trip! Thank you for reminding me!
Yes, raw carrots are a crunchy, sweet and healthy snack!
Thanks for the recipe, Nancy! Sounds like a good way to get your carrots on this very auspicious day!
It helps to be reminded to eat our veggies, yes?
Oooh, I love carrots!!!
Then this is the holiday for you!
I really like carrots 🥕 My Dad made the best bown sugar carrots, I’ll have to ask my Sister if she knows how to make them. He never used a recipe, except for baking.
Brown sugar carrots sounds tasty.
I love carrots in carrot cake or cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting.
Both of those are yummy treats!
I love carrots both raw and cooked. I eat just about anything with carrots in it. And of course, I love carrot cake!
I need to learn more versatile recipes with carrots. Maybe a carrot soup.
I love glazed carrots and carrot cake.
Carrot cake is always a favorite.
My favorite way to eat carrots is to cut in coin shapes and steam them until tender then add butter. I basically like them fixed anyway.
Good that you like them. I am not fond of cooked carrots unless in a soup or stew.
We just planted 40 feet of carrots in our garden! Plus I have a window box of Parisienne (Tom Thumb) carrots inside and ready to head outside once the weather breaks. Of course, we will have twenty+ other types of plants in the garden, too. But we love carrots!
I’ll bet your carrots taste much sweeter than store-bought ones.
I love carrots with a roast in the crockpot or oven.
Yes, I like them that way, too. Good addition for a hearty meal.
Roasted carrots are a delicacy.
They can be good this way but I’ve no clue how to make them. A friend of mine roasts skinny carrots and those are tasty.
Carrot Cake for sure! Love it!🥰
Me, too! I can go for carrot cake anytime.
My favorite way to eat carrots is in carrot cake!
I tend to agree!
I like carrots raw, especially with ranch dressing. They’re also great in muffins and carrot cake.
I like the baby carrots raw by themselves.
I love steamed carrots and glazed carrots!
Those wouldn’t be my cooked veggies of choice but they are nutritious.
I use shredded carrots every weekeday in our lunch wraps.
Good idea. It’s easy to add shredded carrots that way.
And now I’m dying for carrot cake! I’d love to go to the restaurant that makes the best carrot cake in the world with a girlfriend and dig in with much ummm-ing, and ahhh-ing!
Yes, a good carrot cake is worth its carats in gold!
Anne is the winner of my drawing for a copy of Easter Hair Hunt. Thank you all for your comments!