A sweet way to deal with carrots and beets.

I've always cooked from scratch. I enjoy cooking and love trying out new foods so I never thought my kids would be the kids that only want what's beige and comes in a packet from the store. They have their moments where I think we finally turned a corner but they tend to revert to wanting their food as beige as my mum's jumper collection.

I'm not going to tell you these are the healthiest treats or the best way of dealing with a rogue carrot or beet but I like them and so did the kids so it feels like a winner to me. If you like the idea of meeting the love child of chewy oatmeal cookies and carrot cake then you'll like these.

Carrot/ Beet breakfast Cookies

Ingredients

125g/ 4.5oz Flour

150g/ 5oz Rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

Pinch of salt

1/2 Teaspoon Mixed spice (See recipe for this below. In lieu of this you can use a little ginger and cinnamon or pumpkin spice mix which is similar)

125g/ 4.5oz Grated carrot/ beet (I used 2 small carrots and 2 small beets but you can use all carrot or all beets depending on what you have and what you fancy)

100g/ 3.5oz Dried fruit, chopped (I like raisins and chopped dates but can be anything you like: raisins, currants, figs, dates, apricots, blueberries, cranberries-your choice.)

100g/ 3.5oz Nuts, roughly chopped (I used hazelnuts but again you can use anything you fancy.)

100g 3.5oz Brown sugar

4 Tablespoons Honey (or Maple syrup)

100ml/ 3.5oz Oil (again, your choice depending on what you have to hand and what your preference is. I used olive oil)

Makes about 24

Preheat the oven to 356F

1 Mix together the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, mixed spice to ensure an even mix.

2. Add the grated carrot/ beets, dried fruit and nuts and mix again.

3. Combine the sugar, honey and oil and add to the dry ingredients. Mix well.

4. Pop scoops of about a Tablespoon (or use a small cookie scoop if you have one) on to a baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for about 10mins or until golden brown.

Mixed Spice blend

• 1 Tbs ground allspice

• 1 Tbs ground cinnamon

• 1 Tbs ground nutmeg

• 2 tsp ground mace

• 1 tsp ground cloves

• 1 tsp ground coriander

• 1 tsp ground Ginger

Simply combine and keep in an airtight container.