Carrot Cake Protein Cookies [Clean, Vegan, GF] and Bermuda on the Off-Season: What to Eat

Here is part two of Bermuda on the off-season. This week I’ll talk about some of the fabulous meals I had around the island! While we’re at it, I’ll give you these carrot cake protein cookies that are healthy enough for breakfast (or eat them for a snack, or even dessert!). They are clean, vegan and gluten-free.

Obviously, one of the most imporant things while on vacation is trying out local foods! If you missed last week’s post, I talked about what to do and where I stayed while travelling to Bermuda on their off-season. You can read that post here. There is also a recipe for Flourless Fudgy Apricot Muffins in that post, as well!

Time to get started on the eats!

Pro tip: Go during Restaurant Week! I’m not going to lie, Bermuda is an expensive island so be prepared for that. Luckily, Bermuda dollars to US dollars is 1:1, so they will take American money without question. (You may not get change in USD, though just FYI). Therefore, if you can purposely plan to go during their Restaurant week (technically it’s weeks), then it can help you save quite a bit! Many of the restaurants have lunch and dinner menus (ranging from around 22 dollars for lunch, to 32/42/52 dollar menus for dinner) which is a steal when you compare it to the regular menus. A helpful website for this was www.gotobermuda.com which had all the participating restaurants and associated menus. This first section will be about a couple of these meals that we had.

BLU Restaurant

We had gone thinking we were going to choose a 3 course menu from their last week of Restaurant Week, but when we got there, it turned out that the last menu was only for a few days at the very end of that week. Very sad. However, we decided to stay and it was amazing. They had these crunchy breadsticks for the table which were so good, so I highly recommend trying them. I ended up getting Pho for my appetizer, fish for my main course and what I thought was a banana cinnamon roll (not, btw. It was more like a…maybe crepe rolled banana…? ). Here is what my main dish looked like.

The Waterlot

This is, I believe, the oldest restaurant on the island. It is just down below the Fairmont hotel that I spoke about in the last post. It was a phenomenal meal from start to finish. The chairs were very comfortable, high backed chairs and the tables could overlook the water. For a surcharge, you could add on unlimited wine, or upgrade you cut of meat (if you ordered one). The bread basket was amazing ( I was a fan of the parmesan crusted brioche). The following picture is of my appetizer (beet and goat cheese), I had the filet mignon (AMAZING) for my main and a butterscotch toffee pudding cake (SO good. I was too full to eat it that night, so I ate it cold the next day. SO good.) They had family styled sides of mashed potatoes and carrots. Even with all that we still got several homemade chocolate truffles as an ending treat. Overall, it was a great meal and would highly recommend.

Wine Down Wednesday

I spoke about this event during my first post. I had forgotten that I had a picture of some of the wines sampled, but this is an excellent way to spend a Wednesday evening especially if you are a drinker. 30 dollars for an open bar of various reds, whites and sparklings.

The Swizzle Inn

This is a bar and restaurant just down from the Grotto Bay Resort. It is famous for the famous Bermuda drink, the Rum Swizzle. (Personally, I am not that much of a fan. They are very sweet for me. However, they had this monkey banana drink that was ON POINT. So good). We also got their nachos which were decent and a sausage reuben with sweet potato fries that was quite yummy. The green building in the picture is of an ice cream pallor. I was very sad to see that it was closed for the season. Just behind that is where Crystal Caves is.

Cafe Ole

This is the cafe that is associated with Crystal Caves. It would make for an excellent before, or after cave tour meal. I can only comment on their lunch, but DEFINITELY GET THE FISH SANDWICH WITH THE SWEET POTATO FRIES.

The fish sandwich is also something that the island is known for. I wish I would have gotten one too and not my turkey sandwich (even though it was quite tasty). It is a wahoo fish sandwich on a raisin bread with a special sauce. I’m not sure how they came up with the raisin bread part, but don’t be grossed out by it. It’s actually quite a tasty combination. I recommend getting it here at Cafe Ole because 1. it is HUGE 2. it was very reasonably priced and 3. You can sit outside! Here is a close up of the fish sandwich. Look how big!! You guys know I love volume.

Typical Sunday Cod and Potatoes

This next one is sort of random. We were told that we had to try a traditional cod and potato Bermudian breakfast. Now personally, that doesn’t sound all that appealing for breakfast, but I’m all about trying local cuisine. So, on Sunday morning we get on the bus and try to figure out where to get said meal. There was a guy on the bus talking about how he was going to get cod and potatoes at a place called the Parakeet as he went every Sunday. We thought we might just follow him, but when the stop came it looked very residential and he was the only one getting off, so thought it might be a bit..creepy to just follow him. So we continued on the bus and I saw this sign announcing a school cod and potatoes breakfast fundraiser. How great to get breakfast and support local kids, right?! So we got off to check it out. It was interesting to be sure and a large meal. It comes with cod (topped with a tomato and or onion sauce), avocado, potatoes, a boiled egg, half a banana, and a roll. I recommend trying out local culture while you are there. Do as the locals do, if you will. However, I can say that this still isn’t something I would normally go for as a breakfast meal.

The Parakeet

We were coming back from our hike at Horseshoe Beach and the surrounding beaches and were starving. We were on the bus asking the bus driver where we could find a place to eat and he suggested a local restaurant called the Parakeet. We remembered that is where the other guy had gotten off to go to get his cod and potatoes so we decided to try it. The bus driver told us where to get off, and still, as prior, we weren’t certain where the actual restaurant was.

As you can see, the restaurant itself is very unassuming. We had no idea that it was an actual restaurant as it just sort of blends in to the surrounding apartment complex. However, this was one of the BEST meals. I thought about my steak and eggs breakfast wrap for the duration of the trip and still occasionally think about it now. It was so good. I am also very partial to diners, and it definitely had that sort of feel. If I had to recommend one place it would be this, for sure. (Followed closely by The Waterlot).

So there is a wrap of some of my favorite meals on the island, and the places that I would recommend. I will just throw a few shout outs to the following eateries. 1. Nonna’s Kitchen. We had desperately wanted to try out this place for breakfast as it had such great reviews. Actually, we had planned an entire day in Hamilton around this fact. However, it turns out that they were closed on the weekends (not sure if this is year around, or just on the off-season), so unfortunately we could not try it out. We did go to a nearby Glaze (coffee shop with food) and I got a fantastic “Power Panini”. I was very surprised by it actually and would recommend. It had things like ham, egg, cheese, avocado, lettuce, tomato and I think some other yummy things pressed panini styled. It was very satisfying and filling. Writing this post makes me long for some of these meals again. Yum. I love eating so much, haha. I hope if you go, you get to try out some of these good eats. Please let me know if you do!

Now time to share my carrot cake protein cookie recipe. It is super easy and a great way to use some of the carrots you may have in your fridge! Besides, nothing says welcome spring like carrot cake, right? Enjoy!!!

Print

Carrot Cake Protein Cookies [Clean, Vegan, GF]

Prep Time 7 minutes

Cook Time 7 minutes

Total Time 14 minutes

Servings 14 cookies (approximately)

Author AZ@…And A Dash of Cinnamon

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup old fashioned oatmeal ground into flour
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 1 T almond butter
• 1 T psyllium husk powder
• few dashes cinnamon
• 1 dash ginger
• 2 dashes nutmeg
• 1/4 t vanilla
• 1 small carrot shredded
• handful raisins
• small handful walnuts broken into pieces
• water/liquid of choice

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a cookie sheet

2. Grind your oatmeal into flour and then mix it into a bowl with the following dry ingredients including the protein powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and pysllium husk powder. 

3. Shred your carrot and add to the mixture along with the vanilla extract and almond butter and mix. 

4. Fold in your raisins and walnut pieces

5. Slowly add water until a cookie batter forms

6. Spoon out your cookies onto the cookie sheet, flatten to your desired size (they will not spread or raise much)

7. Cook for approximately 7 minutes or until slightly brown and cripsy on the edges

8. Eat and enjoy!

Recipe Notes

I like to make my on the thinner side so that 1. I get more cookies out of a batch and 2. They are crispy on the outside and are slightly chewy on the inside. If you want them to be more chewy then I recommend leaving them on the thicker side when placing them on the cookie sheet.

I link up with Deborah and Sarah’s, and  the fit foodie mama’s Meatless Monday, #recipeoftheweek,What’s for Dinner

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