The 10 Hour Carrots...and other things.

So, I've been having some trouble with my eyes, which is pretty run-of-the-mill for a person with Type 2 Diabetes and the daughter of two life-long near-sighted adults. Not good news for anyone, but especially not good for a photo-lovin' scrapbooker girl like myself. Not good at all.

So after consulting with my doctor, I'm taking a new horse-sized vision-protective vitamin and he said "Eat Carrots. You'll thank me when you are 60."

Newsflash...I have to this point in my 35 years on this planet hated carrots for um, yeah, all 35 years. (Hence, the eye issue.) I don't like anything orange. I don't like raw things. And I just don't like carrots. Or carrot juice. And I'm not a picky eater. It's just a carrot thing. I love to peel them...think they are beautiful when sliced on the bias...just hate to eat them.

But more than anything, I want good eyesight for all my days. So I swallow the horse-pill and am on a quest to conquer the disdain of the carrot. (Ideas welcome.)

So last week I bought a tiny little bag of tiny little mini carrots. Tried. No go. Feels like I'm eating rocks. Can't do raw. As an aside, do they actually come out of the ground that size? Or are they chopped down from life-sized carrots? I'm thinking of a wood lathe...insert the carrot, apply the blade, spin, watch as the big daddy carrot becomes a cute little mini carrot, stop the lathe, pop out the baby. So what happened to the rest of the carrot goodness that the carrot-lathe shaved off? Is it in a heap on the floor? How wasteful is that? Especially in the name of cuteness for carrots. I digress.

Also last week, I made one of my family's favorite meals--Roast and veggies in the slow cooker. I always put carrots in with the roast (for the last two hours) and everybody but me eats them. Even G, who tends to not like more things than he likes.

So with great hesitation, I tried the slow-cooked roast carrots. And to my great surprise, they were manageable. OK. I'm betting, given the presence of onion soup mix and broth, there's more sodium in this meal than is really supposed to be a good thing...and the carrots are well-done. No mush. Still very recognizable. (I use pretty large chucks, for easy avoidance.)

I ate a few and fished out a few more from the crock pot. I can manage cooked carrots, I told myself with an unhealthy dose of self-accomplishment. We have hope. They were actually pretty tasty.

But only carrots cooked in the slow cooker. Hmm. I make pot roast and veggies about 2-3 times a month. And I have to share the carrots...I can't keep them all to myself. Contemplation. We are either going to have to eat more pot roast (which isn't cheap) or I have to find a better solution.

So yesterday, we finished off the last of the pot roast and it occurred to me that there was plenty of juice (broth, juice, gravy, liquid, whatever) leftover...perhaps I could cook new carrots in that. (Can you hear the angels singing?) So today, my weekly shopping trip included full-sized really pretty (well, as carrots go) orange carrots. This afternoon I fished all the juice left from the pot roast out and heated it. Washed, peeled, fancy sliced about 12 large carrots and plopped them--along with some new celery and onion and a little extra broth into a pot and set them to simmer on the stove.

Can you say brilliant? I had carrots with dinner tonight and it was positively delightful. I didn't cook them very long--only about an hour and a half on very low heat. Still very much carrot-y...but not so much.

So, if you count the time it takes to cook the pot roast and then add the carrots into the remaining juices, it takes me about ten hours to cook these carrots, but at least they are good, right? :)

Incidentally, I am aware of the raw-foods movement and am somewhat informed about the nutrients that are lost during cooking. I get that a cooked carrot isn't as nutritionally helpful as a raw one to my sight. Hence, the horse-pill. If you read this blog much, you know I'm on the journey to better health, after living with bad food habits for most of my adult life. Please don't flog me. We are taking baby steps.

Do you have a favorite carrot recipe...besides carrot cake? Feel free to send it my way.

Sorry. I'm rattling. Actually, I think I started rattling about 6 paragraphs ago...thanks for sticking that out. :)

In other, non-carrot-ish news, I did a little garage sale shopping yesterday and today. Both days were very productive. Yesterday we went over to the downtown Ladies of Charity Stuff Galore Sale...now that was cool. Garage sale shopping in an air-conditioned environ. Who could ask for more than that? :) Today's find of the day was a mason's trowel for a dollar. Julian was thrilled. No weird people. No solicitations. It was a good day.

My sister is selling Avon now and enjoying it. I was impressed with her initiative at starting this when she moved here. She, too, shares my genetic predisposition toward entrepreneurialism. If you are local, shoot me an email if you would like an Avon catalog. Cool stuff...comes right to your door.

Speaking of my sister, Deb and I ventured out to a large consignment store in Dickson earlier in the week and found it to be a terrific place. Very clean, very well organized and very friendly. Oh and great prices too. :) We'll definitely be going back there and I can't wait to clean out my hall closet and take some items that no longer fit there to be consigned.

Garage sales, consignment shopping...I'm sounding really cheap these days, aren't I? Oh well. I'm not actually cheap...I have lots to do with my dollars and this helps them go farther and work harder. And I enjoy it.

Happy Father's Day.
May your eyes be strong and may your carrots be tasty.
Happy Sunday!