Autumnal Fresh Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Another sweet recipe!
Have you ever found yourself tasting a new recipe and realizing to your disappointment that it didn't live up to what you expected it to taste like? It wasn't necessarily BAD, but it wasn't anything to jump over either. Well last year I found a recipe for Fresh Apple Cinnamon Muffins and got SUPER EXCITED because they literally looked like what I hoped autumn would TASTE like, but to my dismay they tasted rather bland.

However, I played with the recipe a bunch, and am proud to present my redefined recipe for Fresh Apple Cinnamon Muffins that I actually DO really love eating.

These babies make your house smell AMAZING and they taste like fall food to me, and I absolutely adore making them. I made a batch for my boyfriend last week as a surprise breakfast and he loved them!

I included the original ingredient below just to show you the changes I made.

The ORIGINAL RECIPE CALLED FOR:

(I underlined everything I changed)

1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1 apple, peeled, cored, and finely chopped

4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) melted butter

1/3 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

As you can see from my underlining everywhere I changed the original recipe quite a bit, and I even added some vanilla for some extra flavor. 

Alright so for MY recipe you're going to need:

• 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup white sugar (you could also try brown sugar. I haven't tried that yet but I've been considering it. Let me know how it turns out)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup half and half or whole milk (I used half and half)
• 1 and 1/2 medium to large apples (the recipe tastes weird if you don't have enough apple), chopped into small CHUNKS (the previous recipe called for finely chopped)
• 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) melted butter
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans (this measurement is rough. Kinda like when you measure out chocolate chips for cookie dough. You're going to want a fair amount of nuts stirred into your batter, and then you're going to need about 1/4 cup extra to go on top of the muffins in the end, so just have a bag of nuts on hand to experiment with until you find what you like)
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

Makes: roughly 17 (used to make 12 but when I changed ingredients it screwed up the yield)

Cook time: 15-20 min (for me it only takes 15-16 minutes to bake these because I use a convection oven)

• Preheat oven to 375
• Line 1 and 1/2 cupcake/muffin tins with paper liners
• Peel and chop apples (this time I used 1 large apple and 1 small apple instead of 1/5 large)
• In a small bowl combine brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 cup chopped pecans. Adjust pecan amount to desire
• In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, salt, and APPROXIMATELY 1/2 cup pecans
• Whisk with a fork and add more pecans if necessary
• In a medium bowl, beat together the egg and half and half (or whole milk. I like to whip this until it's frothy but not thick
• Stir in chopped apple, and melted butter
• Add dry ingredients all at once (the original recipe calls for you to add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients but that took too much work and didn't taste any different)
• Stir until just mixed
• Scoop into muffin tins filling each cup about 2/3 full, and use a spoon to top off each muffin with a sprinkle of the cinnamon-brown-sugar-pecan topping
• Bake and enjoy :)

Let me know in the comments if you tried and enjoyed this recipe! Happy autumn to you all :)

Whipped Vanilla Cream Cake Frosting

This is a recipe that's been in my family for generations and generations. It's not in the least healthy, and it's also not an easy recipe to make so to all you baking wizards- this one's for you.

I decided to post it on my blog because Saturday was my mom's birthday and as a treat I made her cupcakes with this frosting, just like her mom used to make for her. I had to go dig out the recipe from her box on the top shelf of the pantry (we RARELY use paper-copy recipes anymore) and wowza was the handwriting tough to read.

It's unbelievably inconvenient to have such an important recipe exist on paper, in one person's house, in one recipe book. It's easy to lose, and the handwriting is a lot tougher to read than digital print. So better now than never- I bring you the family famous whipped vanilla cream cake frosting.

It doesn't actually have a name, but I don't know how else to describe it to you. It's soft and buttery and creamy and SO UNBELIEVABLY LIGHT. I've made it for friends before and asked them to describe it and they couldn't. Some people said it tasted creamy like milk, but had a hint of vanilla. Others just didn't have an answer. It's like whipped cream, except not at all. I don't know. You have to try it.

For my family this frosting ALWAYS goes on red velvet cake, but you can put it wherever you want. I know that the trend these days is to use cream cheese frosting on red velvet and if you try something else you're crazy, but I can honestly say that I like this frosting BETTER.

Awhile ago they did a cream cheese vs whipped vanilla frosting on red velvet cake bake-off on Food Network. That's how close a call these two recipes come.

What you're going to need:

• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup white flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup crisco
• 1 stick margarine (the recipe WILL NOT taste right if you don't use Blue Bonnet margarine. I don't know why, but my entire family swears by it for this recipe and this recipe only.)
• 2 tbsp vanilla (but be prepared to add more)

This is what the original recipe looks like, but the instructions weren't as explicit as I would have liked so I played around a bit with the recipe, and found my interpretation of it. Hopefully my instructions are much easier to interpret.

Makes: enough to frost one round cake or approximately 24 cupcakes

Cook time: Approximately 60 minutes (varies depending on how fast the frosting sauce cools)

• In a saucepan, combine the flour, milk, pinch of salt, and a tablespoon of the margarine listed in the ingredients. 
• Starting on low heat, stir sauce constantly (I used a whisk) as ingredients combine and melt together, and gradually increase heat to a maximum of medium (my max heat ended up being level 4). Stir heated sauce until thickened. It will be obvious when the sauce gets thick
• Turn off the stove and stick the saucepan containing the thickened white sauce in the fridge to cool. You need room temperature sauce for the next step. The sauce should take approximately 30 minutes to cool, and you should stir it approximately every 5-10 minutes to speed up the process.
• While the sauce is cooling, cream the crisco, the remaining margarine, sugar, and the vanilla in a mixer.
• When sauce is room temperature pour it into the creamed sugar mixture, and beat on high until fluffy. This will take longer than you expect. (It will take no time at all to turn into a fluffy-ish mixture but don't be fooled. If you end the process there your frosting will turn limp and runny when you go to frost the cake. I don't know for SURE but I don't think it's even POSSIBLE to over beat this frosting. Just whip it for like 3-5 minutes minimum).
• As you whip the frosting, be sure to pause every now and then to check the mixture to see if it's reached desired consistency. When you do this, also taste test it to see if it has enough vanilla flavoring. Liberally add more vanilla when needed. I've ended up doubling the vanilla before, but I didn't make that official in the recipe because it's all about the individual batch.
• When the frosting reaches the desired fluffiness you may spread it onto your cake/cupcakes or scoop it into a bag to pipe it onto your cake/cupcakes.
• Enjoy!

The frosting is usually fluffiest the day you make it. Each day following it loses its special lightness just a bit more. 

My family uses this recipe for EVERYTHING. Red velvet cake and this frosting are our birthday cakes, and our annual Christmas cake. If you ever muster up the courage to tackle this frosting project let me know how it tastes! It's literally my favorite. It will never get old.

When I make cupcakes with this recipe I put frosting on top AND in the middle as a creamy filling.

Paleo Waffle Recipe

Even if you've chosen to eat healthy clean and paleo, you can still have fun with sweets and treats every once in awhile. "Clean cheating" is PERFECT because even though you shouldn't eat like this all the time, you don't have to feel guilty when you do. I know I personally miss waffles a lot, so I decided to experiment with some paleo waffles for those mornings when you need a little something extra to brighten your day.

Alright so these kind-of have the appearance of whole grain waffles, or something gross like that but they're actually CHOCOLATE waffles because I found some 62% dark chocolate (dairy free and organic) in my pantry and decided to give it a whirl. In all honesty they LOOKED plenty chocolaty when I made them, but didn't taste very chocolatey at all so if you want to be healthier you can skip that step entirely. OR if you want to be unhealthier you can add MORE chocolate than I did (I only used 2 squares of the bar). OR if you're feeling crafty you can try throwing some chocolate protein powder into the blender. If you do, let me know how it turns out. I think I'll be trying that next time.

For this recipe you're going to need:

• 8 eggs
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour
• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla
• optional dark chocolate (I grated mine with a cheese grater to mix it in to the batter, but it was a lot of work, and didn't taste very strong so I think I'll stick to protein powder in future trials) or chocolate protein powder
• Coconut oil to cook with

You could also use vanilla protein powder and drop blueberries into the waffle iron before baking. Ooooooooh :)

You also need a blender.

Prep time: 5min

Bake time: Varies depending on size of waffle iron. My waffles took approximately 5min each.

Makes: Approximately 6, but you can make 8 if you have a smaller waffle iron

• Preheat your waffle iron
• Combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth and somewhat frothy (this only takes a minute or two max)
• Coat the iron lightly with coconut oil. I like to spoon some out of the jar, and drop it onto the hot iron while it's a solid, because it's easier for me to spread around when it's not pre-melted. Just personal preference
• Pour waffle batter into iron, adjusting amount for desired thickness. I liked my waffles pretty thin because they took less time to cook, and were chewy instead of soggy
• Cook until done. It's kind of hard to tell when they're golden brown, so I poke my waffles with my finger when I check them to see if they're soft and spongy, or if they need to cook longer. I don't know if that's smart or not, but I work in fine dining so I'm used to touching hot things. Make good choices :)

 This is the finished product for me. I tried some plain, and they taste very good. Vaguely of banana. Great results for such a simple recipe- will definitely be doing this again!

As I said above I tried to make mine chocolate, but it didn't taste like anything so I ended up spreading mine with a no-sugar-added (and chemical/sugar supplement free) dark cherry spread. That was DELICIOUS. My younger sister is a rather picky eater, but even she enjoyed these.

Nutrition Facts:
Calories: 150
Fat (g): 8.3
Carbs (g): 12.3
Protein (g): 7.9
*Protein (g) 25.9

*Protein if you added 1 scoop of either chocolate or vanilla protein powder

The fat is from the eggs, the carbs are from the bananas. If you're looking for a more protein-dense breakfast I recommend adding a scoop of either vanilla or chocolate protein powder to the waffles for sure. If you do that you will consume approximately 18g protein more per waffle, which makes this a PERFECT breakfast for athletes and bodybuilders. Great source of carbs and protein. Not bad for a clean cheat :)

Compare to nutrition facts in a Bisquick Belgian Waffle:
Calories: 360
Fat (g): 18
Carbs (g): 39
Protein (g): 9

Tropical Fruit Smoothie

For some reason today I was feeling very summery, and I wanted to create a fruit smoothie whose flavor could be described as "summer" or "vacation" or "tropical". Personally when I think tropical, what comes to mind is coconut, pineapple, mango- the works. On top of all that I've been really into incorporating a little extra protein in everything I eat... and here the challenge was born. Create a delicious, protein-rich fruit smoothie that TASTES LIKE AN ISLAND VACATION. Did I succeed? Let me know.

I also posted the nutrition facts below, just in case you're curious.

If you're interested in watching me make this smoothie, the link to my YouTube video is here.

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This is what you're going to need.

• 2/3 cup Naked protein mango juice
• 1/2 ripe banana
• 3/4 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 1 heaping serving of powdered fiber (okay holdup that ingredient is COMPLETELY optional. I unfortunately happen to have an extreme difficulty getting enough fiber even when I eat a diet bursting with fiber rich foods so I add fiber powder to my smoothies and juices all the time just to keep my digestion working. Yes, it makes me feel like a 90-year-old man. This step is completely optional, I actually DO NOT recommend following suit here because I have a fiber deficiency and you probably don't. I recommend skipping this step entirely- the only reason I included it in the recipe is 1. maybe you like very high fiber diets too and 2. it affects the nutrition facts I posted below. If you don't include the extra fiber here, subtract approximately 15 calories and 6 grams of fiber from your total nutrition facts. Okay continue.)
• 1/4 cup of water to dissolve the powdered fiber in BEFORE adding to your smoothie mix
• 1/2 cup cubed pineapple
• 1/2 cup frozen mango cubes
• 1 cup frozen peach slices

Prep time: 10-15min

Serves: 2

Basically what I do is I combine all of the non-frozen ingredients in the blender first, and then follow with the frozen ingredients to achieve a smooth, thick, creamy smoothie.

• Pour Naked protein mango juice, protein powder, and optional fiber dissolved in 1/4 cup water to blender
• Blend briefly to stir everything up. This will maintain the smooth texture of your smoothie
• Add the banana and pineapple chunks to the blender
• Blend briefly to combine
• Finally add in frozen mango and peach chunks and blend until all chunks are gone. Your smoothie should have a relatively thick, creamy consistency. If it is too thin for your liking, add a few more frozen peach or mango chunks. If it is too thick to pour you can either lightly tap the side of your blender as you pour it into a glass, or blend in a little bit of water to change the consistency.

When I've made it, no thickness adjustments were necessary.

Voila! You now have a very tropical, summery, island-tasting smoothie that is fantastically creamy and lovely for a hot summer day.

PRO TIP: If you want an island-tasting Popsicle (who doesn't?!) feel free to pour this recipe into Popsicle molds and freeze overnight. Tropical Popsicles would be a great treat for a hot summer night, or to bring to a pool party. Enjoy :)

I entered the ingredients into My Fitness Pal, and app that I've been using to keep track of my calories, macros, and nutrients. Below is a screenshot of the nutrition facts for this smoothie. Remember to subtract 15 calories and 6g of fiber if you did not include the additional fiber above. If you can't read the text in the picture because it is too small, I will type the highlights below.

Calories: 344

Fat (g): 0.7

Carbs (g): 69.8

Protein (g): 20

Potassium (mg): 478

Fiber (g): 10.8

Sugars (g): 41.8

Vitamin A (%): 47

Vitamin C (%): 313

Calcium (%): 9.2

Iron (%): 5.5

Now before you freak out about the sugar content in this smoothie, remember that the recipe makes approximately two full glasses. If you want to make one serving, you either need to cut the recipe in half, give one glass to a friend, or freeze the remaining in Popsicle form. I usually drink both glasses myself because I need the protein and fiber, and I am also NOT AFRAID OF SUGAR. All of the sugar in this smoothie comes from fruit, which means it is natural as opposed to process. Health nuts tend to stray from diets heavy in fruit because of their sugar content but that is simply not necessary. Is sugar in large quantities bad for you? Yes. Will eating a bunch of fruit kill you? No. Studies have actually shown that diets high in fruit are actually better for you.

I usually eat a high protein low carb diet, but you need carbs for energy and often don't get enough if you are an athlete. This smoothie is fantastic if you're eating too much protein and fat, because it will help you balance out your diet and keep your macros in line.

This smoothie is NOT PALEO, but if you substitute 2 tablespoons of unsweetened vanilla almond milk instead of the vanilla protein powder you can make this smoothie paleo-friendly.

This is a great breakfast on the go, and a fantastic summer treat. Be sure to let me know if you like it in the comments below. 

Açai Bowls

So this dish has been a trend that's popping up EVERYWHERE lately. I originally found out about it in Australia, but açai berries are showing up on the shelves of my local supermarkets making it super easy to get my hands on the ingredients in America!

Some background: Açai berries (pronounced ah-sah-EE) are the fruit of the açai palm tree indigenous to the Amazon of Brazil. The dark purple berries are rich with antioxidants, and fall under the category of superfoods, which is why they are such a health trend these days! I'm absolutely in love with them because they taste delicious and are very easy to make.

Recipes for this vary greatly so I'm just going to share mine. You can always try this, and make adjustments in the future to add your own spin on the dish.

What you're going to need:

• 1 ripe banana (or half a banana if you don't want to use banana as a topping)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 packet of frozen açai berry juice (thawed in warm water) (I couldn't find the Simply Balanced brand when looking online so I could link "açai berry juice" but I found another that will work just as well. I'm pretty sure I just picked mine up from Target)
• 1/2 serving of vanilla protein powder OR 1/2 teaspoon organic honey (to taste)
• 2 (or more) cups ice
• Additional toppings (other sliced fruit, nuts, ect)

• Throw half your banana in the blender, along with the coconut milk (honestly you're supposed to use anywhere between half a cup and a cup so I just play around with measurements), the thawed juice puree, the protein powder or honey (keep in mind that protein powder is NOT PALEO so when I'm feeling strict I'll sub with honey. If I don't it doesn't taste sweet enough to me), and the ice. 
• Blend until the mixture is a very very thick smoothie, one that you wouldn't want to try and suck down with a straw. You may need to stop blending once and awhile to stir the ice around if it's not getting completely mixed in, and you may also need to add more ice to reach the appropriate consistency. 
• After you finish that, pour your thick purple smoothie into a bowl and cut up the remaining banana and your other fruits and place it on top of the açai smoothie in the bowl. I used pecans and bananas the last time I made the recipe but I've done other fruit and nut combinations before. Try not to overdo it on nuts because that will add more fat to your healthy meal.

Açai bowls are perfect for breakfast, and I sometimes even eat them as an after-workout treat (like dessert!). I used My Fitness Pal to calculate the nutrition facts for an açai bowl with 1 banana, 3 tablespoons of pecans, and protein powder instead of honey as an example to provide below.

Example Nutrition Facts (with my toppings of choice):

Calories: 639

Fat (g): 35.1

Carbs (g): 55

Sugars (g): 24

Protein (g): 32.5

Vitamin A: 10.5%

Vitamin C: 30%

Calcium: 23%

Iron: 3%

The reason sugar looks so high is you have to keep in mind that this is a FRUIT. I personally don't care when I get calories and sugars from fruit, but that's just me. My biggest requirement was that it had good macros, and I was satisfied with the protein to fat ratio, and it helped me hit my daily carb goal. All in all I absolutely LOVE this recipe. Comment down below if you give it a try! :)

Banana Nut Muffins

Another recipe for you.

The only thing I hated about going paleo (besides giving up pasta) was the fact that I wouldn't be able to bake anymore. Baking is one of my passions, and I just assumed that when I threw sugar out the window I would have to get rid of baking too, but fortunately this is NOT true. There are plenty of paleo recipes out there, even for MUFFINS of all things. So in my excitement I headed out to the grocery store and picked up some paleo-friendly flours so I could give these recipes a whirl. One of my favorites by far is the Banana Nut Muffin recipe I found here. They're originally meant for macadamia nuts, but those are rather fatty and weren't in stock at my go-to grocery store when I was craving muffins so I had to get crafty and throw in walnuts instead. I stayed mostly true to the original recipe, but I strayed a little due to lack of correct ingredients.

So the original recipe calls for:

• 2/3 cup macadamia nuts of choice, chopped
• 2/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1 cup blanched almond flour
• ¼ cup organic coconut flour - source
• 3 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup raw creamy honey
• 1/3 cup organic coconut oil, melted and cooled
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp unrefined sea salt
• 1 tsp coconut water vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

I underlined the things I made slight adjustments to. Feel free to use the original recipe if you want, or follow my changes. Whatever is easiest for you.

First off, I didn't have macadamia nuts on hand so I used finely chopped walnuts, but I kept the measurement the same.

Secondly I didn't have the right number of ripe bananas on hand. Oops. I can't be alone here, please tell me this happens to other people too. The best bananas for baking are a darker yellow with some brown spots on them because they're the sweetest, and the mushiest, and the point of using bananas in paleo recipes is for the sugar. Duh. So the fact that I had 2 out of 3 bananas in the correct "state" was unfortunate because I really needed that last banana to be much more ripe. It was freshly bought, and completely yellow (I dont't think green would work...), so it clearly wasn't going to be mushy or sweet enough.

BUT DO I HAVE A TRICK FOR YOU.

The next time you're one ripe banana short you can fake the last banana's sweet taste and consistency. 

What I do is peel the yellow banana and put it in a separate bowl from my ripe bananas, and try to mash it with a fork the best I can, and then I add cocoanut milk, and a little bit of honey to the mashed banana bowl. This makes the banana SO much easier to continue mashing and stirring. Plus the honey will make it sweet enough to use in substitute for a ripe banana.

You're welcome.

I don't know if I would use that trick with ALL unripe bananas, because sometimes unripe bananas can irritate your mouth and tongue, and unfortunately that trait will be present in the muffin (irritating muffins are no fun) but if it doesn't bother you then go ahead and give it a try. 

I underlined the "cocoanut water vinegar" because I don't even know WHAT that is, and I didn't have any on me so I used pure unsweetened lemon juice instead. It worked just as well, and you can't taste the difference as far as I'm concerned.

Lastly I underlined vanilla because I am a total sucker for sweets, and 1 tsp did not look like enough vanilla to me so I may have used 2 generous teaspoons. You shouldn't do this if you want to minimize the sugar and fat content in your muffins, but it felt like a necessary change for me. In my defense I have this fantastic vanilla from Mexico (and I feel fancy because I didn't order it online, I literally went to Mexico and bought it, and then took it back in my suitcase), and it's to die for so I overuse it in everything.


I followed the baking instructions pretty closely, so I'll just copy-paste them below, and underline the replacements I made.


Preheat your oven to 350 degrees convection (I didn't even remember to turn on convection when I made these... oops).
Take out 2 muffin tins and place muffin liners inside.

• In a large bowl, add nuts, coconut, flours, baking soda, salt; mix to combine.
• To the same bowl, add eggs, bananas, honey, coconut oil, vinegar, vanilla; mix again to combine.
• Drop by tablespoons into the muffin tins. Fill 14 muffins full. *This will make 14 full sized muffins as long as there is no batter eaten in the process. (I made big muffins so I could make it 12. Too much work to use another pan for just 2 muffins you know?)
• Bake for about 30-35 minutes, rotating the pans at 20 minutes for best results. Let cool in pan for 5-10 minutes. Then move muffins to a cooling rack, which helps to firm up their bottoms. Enjoy!

Carrot Fries

I'm going to jump right in with a recipe for a healthy but TOTALLY DELICIOUS snack that I've been enjoying entirely too often. Maybe it's the fact that this is one of the easiest things I've ever made, or maybe it's how guilt free these fries are but either way I've been eating them by the batch.

The recipe is incredibly simple and you can find it almost anywhere if you google "carrot fries" (thank The Lord for the internet, right?) but I thought I'd post my take on the recipe anyways since it's something I've been eating so often.

A little background: I recently started the Paleo Diet, because I was inspired by a blog post about the 30 day paleo challenge. If you're interested you should click here. Anyways I didn't do the challenge laid out flawlessly for you in that blog because I'm less concerned with losing weight and more concerned with eating cleaner. Plus I'm a sucker for sweets and junk food, so when I found out about paleo spins on everyday recipes I couldn't resist.

These fries are totally paleo, there's barely any prep time, and they're wonderful to eat.

What you'll need is:

• Anywhere between 5-10 whole (I use ORGANIC) carrots (varies depending on how much you want to make)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder (optional)
• Italian seasoning (optional)

If you choose not to use the Italian seasoning I would definitely opt to use garlic powder instead, but I use them interchangeably. If you're feeling adventurous you could always use both.

The Italian seasoning I use is called Tuscany Blend, and it's actually a bread dipping sauce that's meant to go in olive oil, but I use it on literally everything. It's a great pasta topping, and if I'm short on time I throw it on pan fried chicken to make my cooking taste fancier. Feel free to improvise with your favorite seasoning instead.

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees

Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper

• Wash and peel each carrot
• Slice carrots once or twice horizontally until they're in pieces the length of a french fry
• Halve each carrot piece down the middle vertically, and then slice each half into small pieces about the width of a french fry (I usually go as thin as possible. The thicker they are the softer they'll be, and I like 'em crispier).
• Place the raw carrot fries onto the parchment paper, and spread them out (doesn't have to look pretty. Just make sure they're not in one big pile)
• Drizzle olive oil over the top of the carrot fries
• Sprinkle the salt, pepper, and additional seasonings onto carrot fries
• Bake in the oven for 24-30 minutes, pausing once halfway through to stir your fries around on the pan with a spatula (your bake time will depend HEAVILY on how big you made your carrot slices, and how crunchy you want them to turn out. I enjoy mine a little on the burnt side because then they're crunchier, but you will most likely need to play around with baking times until you get a batch just right. My first try was 24 minutes with very small thin carrot pieces, and that worked just fine. Later I tried 28 minutes with bigger carrot slices and they didn't get crispy enough so I should've left them in longer. Just guess and check.)

I actually whipped up a small batch today because I was in need of a fun snack, so I have a picture of the end result to show you, but I'm a horrible photographer. Oh well. I tried.

 Trust me, these are AMAZING.

I forced my sister to try one, and she enjoyed them even though she's a very picky eater.

I usually place them on a paper towel after I take them out of the oven because I overdo the olive oil a little bit, but that tends to make them a bit softer, so if you want the crunchiest fries I would leave them on the pan until they cool, and then drain them of their oils.