Cauliflower Crust Pizza – Recipe

OK, so here’s the recipe I’ve been using. Clearly I’m slightly obsessed, but when you’re trying to do a lower-carb/higher fat/moderate protein (LCHF) diet, there are some things you miss, and I miss pizza.

But not so much anymore. Really. This works pretty darn well for me.

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

For a low-carb (gluten free?) pizza, this one is the best I’ve found so far.
1/3 – 1/2 head cauliflower (I used about 1/2 for this one – it’s a forgiving recipe)
3.5 oz. grated parmesan, asiago, romano or other hard cheese
1.5 oz. shredded mozzarella
1 egg
(spices of your choosing – garlic, italian seasoning – skip salt, the cheese is salty)

Preheat oven to 400. Wash and dry the cauliflower (I use florets and stems) and chop it up in processor or chopper until resembles crumbs – then microwave for 3 minutes. Let it sit in microwave for about 5 minutes, then take it out and drain the cauliflower in cheesecloth or squeeze out excess water with paper towels. Add egg and cheese, and seasonings; mix in well.

Line a pizza pan or cookie sheet with parchment (I haven’t tried it without parchment, so I can’t tell you what would happen if you omit it)  then place the “dough” on and form into a circle. Pat well with your hands to make a nice shape. I make mine about 1/4 inch thick and then pat it again with paper towels once it is formed to get a little more moisture out. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden.

Remove the crust, turn oven to BROIL While the oven is heating, and add your sauce and a tiny bit more cheese (like an ounce – too much an it will be too cheesy), and any toppings you like. Place the pizza back in the oven to broil and watch it carefully. It only will take about 5 minutes for it to get toasty. If you don’t want to babysit it, you could skip the broiling part and just bake it for a bit more time.

Remove and enjoy.

It seems difficult, but it really isn’t once you do it a couple times. I haven’t gotten a crisp crust yet, but I’ve gotten a nice brown and a delicious flavor. Today I made sauce with 1 tomato and 1 can of tomato sauce (4oz) and some basil from my garden. Yum.

I’m going to add some flax or almond flour to my next pizza and see how that flies. This is pretty bare bones and works well.

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

IMG_20130530_201951_054

I’m slowly perfecting this. So far, I’m not really missing my regular pizzas.

This one I baked the crust for about 20 minutes first, then added toppings and broiled. I also dabbed the uncooked crust with a paper towel to remove moisture.

 

 

Low Carb Waffles

Years ago when I was lowcarbing I made this lowcarb pancake (I really kept up on that site, eh?). It was pretty tasty, but I don’t really carry ricotta cheese around the house often.

This morning we had a couple kids over at our house for a sleepover, and usually on the weekends I make some sort of breakfast (pancakes, waffles, etc.). It’s hot, and I really didn’t feel like heating up the oven, or standing over a skillet flipping pancakes, so I opted for waffles.

I made a mega batch, the boys ate like a wild pack of horses.

I’m not eating the traditional pancakes and waffles (wheat), but wanted to try making something different (yet clearly similar). This is what I came up with on the fly, with the ingredients I had on hand. I could have thrown in some flax or almond flour, but… just didn’t.

Low Carb Waffles (makes 4)
4 eggs
4 oz Greek yogurt
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Combine all and blend with hand blender until frothy. Pour into a pre-heated  waffle iron sprayed with non-stick spray.

Super simple, huh?

They turned out quite well. The only mishap was that the batter makes a little more than my iron can hold in one batch and I was not patient or careful. It over-flowed.

I don’t have any sugar-free pancake syrup, and didn’t really want to put DaVinci’s on top of it, so I went for some semi-whipped cream instead.

1.5 oz. heavy whipping cream, dash of cinnamon, 4 drops of liquid stevia. I used my handy frother again. It was such a small amount that a hand-blender, though it would probably do a better job, was really too big for the task.

It was pretty good. Eggy, naturally. But so many low-carb creations are eggy. It hit the spot, though, for me. Kind of a semi-waffle. I’m sure it would be improved with some almond flour or flax, but in a pinch, this was a nice change up from the regular old egg breakfast.

Butter In Your Coffee? Yes, I did!

Hello stranger! Maybe I’m the stranger. I don’t get to post here often, even though I like to. I guess I should make it a priority if it is something I enjoy, eh? I take all these pictures, and they sit. And wait. For the day that I remember to post them.

Have you heard of Bulletproof Coffee?

It will probably strike most people as kind of (very) weird. But I’m eating a lower carb/higher fat diet, and it fits in with that. It would fit in with any way of eating as a treat, but with this one (and maybe paleo), it is an OK normal.

 

Basically you take your cup of coffee, plop 14g of some good, grass-fed, unsalted butter in it.

There’s more.

Then you add coconut oil to it (I used 8g).

Then you whip it, or emulsify it. I used a stick blender.

It turns into a frothy substance that tastes delightful.

If using butter ooks you out, try cream. That is mighty tasty, too. Real cream, not half and half. I’ve taken my stick blender to my mug of coffee and cream, and it turns into something a tad more delightful. Kicks it up a notch. It’s like a coffee house drink without the coffee house prices.

I normally take a mug of tea or coffee to work, but I got up a half hour earlier and had my mug-o-goodness at home. I don’t know if I’ll be missing that at work, now, but it’s just one day. In addition to watching my food intake, I’ve been noting my water as well. I don’t always do well with water intake. So today I’ll have a little extra emphasis on water.

I’m already missing my warm mug at work and I’m not even there yet. Not a good sign.

I also had this for breakfast:

Yeah, it’s empty. It was Trader Joe’s Jalapeño Cilantro Hummus with celery sticks. I just wasn’t feeling a complicated breakfast today. I could eat that hummus with a spoon, it’s that good.

Before Carlito left, he showed me his most recent creation in Arts Medals class. They’re taking a field trip today.

He’s made a necklace and a ring so far, too. He seems to like the class. Dante took it, too, but I don’t remember getting anything home from him. Strange. He’s more of a perfectionist, and would just leave his things at school. Kids don’t know how much moms like to get that stuff, even if it isn’t perfect.

A Day Off

It really is nice when I have a day off of work and have an idea of how I am going to spend my time. So much time I waste, honestly. I don’t mean that I need to be running around like a chicken with her head cut off; that’s not good, either. But I feel like many times I go full speed ahead, and then need just as much time to recuperate. I’ve always been more of a short burst, sprinting type of person. But that’s not always good for you. So, on days like this when I have sort of a “map” of what my day looks like, I can breathe a little more.

Today I sprint very little.

The wrestling season (in high school) is at an end. The city banquet was the other day. Lootie won All-City title at 195. He was very pleased with this. We were all proud of his accomplishments this year. I still smile when I think of his phase of not wanting to touch people (how you accomplish this as a wrestler, yet to be determined) for an entire year. It led to him getting beat more than he’d like. He got over that, and has enjoyed the sport ever since.

Here’s the team. A good group of kids.

Lootie, after one of his matches, wearing his new headgear that wasn’t quite adjusted accordingly yet. Thankfully it didn’t cost him the match.

Kinda weird watching my little freaks become men.

Sophia was over yesterday with some boyfriend drama (really wish she didn’t bring it here), but after the initial blowout of emotions, we sat down to some of Lootie’s favorite soup (Italian Sausage Soup, AKA Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup, just her and I, and chatted.

We chatted! I’m sure many people chat with their 21 year old daughters, but it’s been a rocky road for us. Chatting about simple things can even be taken for granted. I didn’t even realize we were chatting about books and friends and soups – and not jobs, boyfriends and other stressful topics. I’m really thankful for that chat. I needed that chat.

I digress, eh?

So Carlito informed me that I will be making Whoopie Pies for the team banquet tonight. I made them this summer for Dante’s graduation  Now I realize I never even posted them here. That’s how often I post. Ahem. Anyway, he requested those, here are the ones I made this past summer. Our school colors are cardinal and gray.

 

(LATER) The ones above looked better than they tasted, in my opinion, but the kids loved them. This time I made them with less filling and no sprinkles. They were still gobbled up. I couldn’t seem to bring myself to eat one. I tried a bite and that was enough. I haven’t had much as the way of sweets go lately. Mostly chocolates, a McDonald’s cone, or a Skinny Cow sandwich. These weren’t on the top of my list to eat.

The banquet went well and everyone had a nice time. I can’t believe it is another season gone by for Carlito. Since my parents retiring and moving and Dante graduating, I still feel like I’ve been catapulted forward through time on a continual basis. Now the twins will be moving on to high-school in a few short months and what-what?! Even Carlito will joke saying, “You guys are going into 7th grade next year, right?” They ignore him.

 

 

Butter Dipped Biscuits

I love how the internet is like an open cookbook, accessible, vivid, and somewhat interactive. I can do without some of the 92-picture steps (and here is the tablespoon coming out of the drawer, dipping into the baking powder, coming out, being washed…), but I do enjoy the look inside other kitchens, even down to the utensils. So there it is.

The other day I was surfing for recipes, and came across one that doesn’t exactly fit into my calorie budget without a lot of accomodations, but I couldn’t resist: Butter Dipped Biscuits.

butterbiscuits

Super simple, very basic ingredients that you probably have on hand, and they are deeee-licious.

I found most recipes for these to be about the same, but am linking to the above source since it is her delicious picture (I didn’t bother with a picture of mine).

Butter Dipped Biscuits (food.com)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 3/4 cups buttermilk (or “soured milk”)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450F degrees. Spray an 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. In a microwave-safe bowl (or you can use the baking dish that you’ll be baking these in), melt butter in the microwave.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Pour in the buttermilk (add the last 1/2 cup slowly… you may not need it all). Stir until a loose dough forms. Batter will be a bit sticky.

Pour/press biscuit dough into baking dish (right on top of the melted butter). Take a sharp knife and cut the biscuit dough into 9 squares before baking.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes, rotating dish once during baking.

(If you don’t have buttermilk, “sour” your regular whole milk with vinegar. Use about 1T. per cup. Add vinegar to milk, stir, and let sit for about 5 minutes.)

They were very tasty, and very easy. I had a half of one with my diner, and savored every bite.

Easy Ricey Spaghetti And Meatballs (And Heart-Shaped Pizzas)

I’m trying to eliminate some of the things in my pantry and freezer. It’s working at about 50%, which is a start. Part of my aim is to cycle out what needs to be eaten (mainly in the freezer), and the other part is to save some money on groceries this month (pantry shopping). We had to replace tires on one of the cars, and have another unexpected expense with the van, so tightening the bootstrings even more is a must.

So I took an inventory of what I have in the freezer (up and down – one in the kitchen, one in the garage), and have tried to do what I can to rotate out some of the longer-standing items.

I can’t say I haven’t grocery shopped, but I have definitely shopped less, which is a win. I should say it is a “win” for the pocketbook, but a bit stressful on me trying to coordinate this fine dance. Some of my meals lately have been… less than spectacular. Some have been dandy, though, like the heart-shaped pizza I made yesterday.

We have a local pizza place that makes heart-shaped pizzas every Valentine’s Day. Initially we were going to order from there. So much easier (for me). The phone line was busy for half an hour. Once we got through, we learned the cost was $12 per pizza plus $2 per topping. Since the boys were off to wrestling, I figured I should be able to whip those up in the same time it would take to order out, and for less.

I made 2 pepperoni, and 2 of our favorite – sausage and banana pepper rings.

NOBODY complained. They rarely do when I make my own pizzas now at home. It’s very nice. We all like an ordered out pizza now and then, but it’s getting to where the ordered pizzas aren’t often as good as the ones made at home. These were no exception.

I had purchased two heart-shaped pans at Goodwill a while ago, thinking I might use them someday. They aren’t anything special. But lined with some olive oil and filled with dough, they were delicious.

That paired with some homemade brownies (I’ve yet to find a homeade version that is prepared over the boxed one):

And some strawberry milk (was NOT a hit, and I’m actually glad).

Today, though, a Friday, Frank’s working overtime (again). I’m tired. It’s been a long week and the last thing I wanted to do was to make another meal. I had eyed up the hot dogs earlier, figuring that could be a back-up plan, though I hate serving hot dogs. But it’s cheaper than $50 Chinese food.

But then I decided to make something I haven’t for a while. Rice Spaghetti. It is a one pot meal that is a breeze to throw together, and cooks up pretty fast.


Easy Rice Spaghetti & Meatballs

Ingredients
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1.5 cups brown rice
3 cups water
1 bag meatballs (I used Fit N’ Active Turkey meatballs from Aldi)

Directions
Put everything in a pot and stir.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 40 minutes or until rice is chewy tender, stirring occasionally. Don’t worry about removing the lid and stirring. All is good. After rice is done, vent lid and let sit for 5 minutes. Serve with olive oil and parmesan cheese. Serves 6.

I had mine with a glass of wine. Two of the boys ate theirs with leftover tortillas. I think they missed the point on it, but oh well.

 

It’s quite tasty.

Years ago, I’d whip up some rice, pour sauce over it, add some OO and cheese, and we’d dig in. It was decent eats on a budget. I’ve forgotten what a satisfying meal it can be. If you don’t have the meatballs, sub it for a veggie and add that on top. I was going to roast some broccoli, but I’m seriously THAT tired that it was too much work.

 

Two Ingredient Pancakes (Banana And Egg)

Supposedly this recipe is all over the internet, but I don’t recall seeing it until yesterday. I was immediately intrigued. Pancakes with only two ingrediants, eh? I guess it is Paleo, though I’m not too familiar with that, so I can’t claim it. It is a simple, no-frills breakfast, allowing for protein and fruit. I’m all in.

There are different ratios, but I went with the simple 1:1.

One banana.

One egg.

I was going to just make 1 batch, but instead I used the 3 black bananas I had and tripled it. I’m glad I did. It was genius  Maybe somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I would fail a batch, and need more to work with. In retrospect, pancakes (for me), generally start with one failed ‘cake, and the rest are beautiful, so this worked.

So I took my eggs and bananas and put them in my Ninja. I was going to just use my favorite little chopper, but the more I use my Ninja, the less I use my old faithful chopper. Kind of sad. I feel like I’m cheating on it.

Most people tend to mash theirs by hand – but I thought blending it to a liquid would be better. So I did. People also talked about adding baking powder and such to it – but I wanted to keep it simple. A true Two Ingredient Pancake.This was difficult for me, because I tend to like to experiment. But without starting with the simple base, you never know if your experiments worked. Beyond that, the verdicts for additions to this simple concoction weren’t too outstanding.

I do not like how precariously that is sitting on the edge of my counter. It didn’t fall, but just looking at it makes me think it will.

I heated my skillet to 350. I didn’t even bother with my beloved iron skillets because they aren’t the best behaved for me with pancakes, with their reputation for sticking. I didn’t want a bunch of added oils, either.

A few minutes later the edges looked like they were firming up. I tried to flip, and it gave me the whole accordian pancake look, like, I’m not ready. Soon there was a smell that one can only associate with food burning, and I had to flip it.

Batch #1, failed. Thankfully, Frank likes doughy pancakes.

Batch #2 I decided to turn the skillet down to 250. I read a tip about cooking a bit longer on lower heat, and that working better. I also used some non-stick spray. (I need to find and link to that blog, because she posted some very helpful tips… here it is: secrets to a perfect two-ingredient pancake.)

One worked great. Smelled great. The other, not so much. I think I was a bit jumpy on the gun. Out came my ipod timer.

Batch #3

Set the timer for 5 minutes to force my patience. That was the PERFECT amount of time, only I forgot the dang spray -gah- and had an issue… again. But they were cooked enough, and I saved them regardless. I ate one from #3, putting it on the bottom and topping it with the pretty one from #2. Spread a little peanut butter on them.

Yum.

Verdict: Pretty good. If you don’t like bananas then skip it. If you’re not much for bananas and peanut butter (I’m not, even though I ate it happily) – try syrup, jelly – or nothing. Mine were way sweet enough from the over-ripe bananas. Syurp would have been too much for me. As I ate them, I wondered if sweet potatoes would work in this kind of recipe. Hmm.

They weren’t light and fluffy like a pancake. They were actually a bit gooey, which is how my husband likes them. Kind of crepe-y. I liked that they were warm, and something different, had no egg and no flour. I’d like to make a few and see if they will hold to nuke on mornings where I don’t feel like making anything, and want something warm.

I think I would try these again for something different. They’re less than 200 calories and a relatively quick breakfast fix. A little vanilla in them might be nice. Or not.

Hello My Pretty

Happy Halloween. I have no costume. But I have candy to hand out in my bowl, which I carry around the neighborhood with me.
Actually, wait a minute. The twins are 13. My days of walking the kids around the neighborhood might just be over. See, I am accustomed to following the boys around the neighborhood. Since I’m not at home to hand out candies to the kiddos, I’d carry my bowl of candy with me, partaking in a mobile trick-or-treat.

But, the days of that might be over.

The twins are planning on going with friends. Carlito, too.

Hmm. Lightbulb moment for me.

Ah well. So maybe I’ll stay home for a while and hand out candy. Or maybe I’ll pop over to my girlfriend’s house and hand out candy there. I’ve done that nearly every year now. That’s fun, too. Then we head over to a friends and have chili or pizza, the kids watch TV and go through their loot. It’s great fun. A tradition I don’t want to see end anytime soon.

Yesterday I made these MummyDogs:

Sorry, now that I’m married to my iPod Touch, many of my pictures are snapped with the not-so-great camera. Better than nothing. Those were incredibly easy to make. All you need is a tube of the Pillsbury breadsticks and 12 hot dogs. Open the breadsticks and cut each stick into thirds (length-wise). Wrap the hot dog from “head” to “toe” with each piece of dough, leaving a bit of room for the eyes. Place on a parchment lined sheet (or sprayed pan) and bake at 375 for about 15 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool for a few minutes and apply the mustard eyes. Go here for step-by-step directions. I blotted off my hotdogs to help the dough adhere better. If you let the dough rest about 10 minutes before handling, it will be more pliable.

The kids ate them. I don’t know that they were appreciated as much as they would have been 5 years ago, but whatever.

I also made some cookies that did NOT turn out as intended (for pictures of how they are supposed to look, visit the website linked in the recipe).

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
2 sticks softened butter
3/4 Cup packed light brown sugar
1 Cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla
3 1/2 Cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 oz bag chocolate chips
1 bag Oreo Cookies, I used the double stuff

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a stand or electric mixer cream butter and sugars until well combined. Add in eggs and vanilla until well combined.
In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda. Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined. Using a cookie scoop take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo Cookie. Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of Oreo Cookie. Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo Cookie is enclosed with dough. Place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes or until cookies are baked to your liking. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Serve with a tall glass of milk, enjoy!
Makes about 2 dozen VERY LARGE Cookies – {picky-palate.com}

The above I hand formed. Painstakingly. It was not a pretty process. The dough was like wet sand mixed with glue. They turned out the size of a small saucepan (see above), or pancake.

I decided to make the rest in cupcake form, using dough-cookie-dough and popping them in the oven.

They leaked butter. Have you seen a baked good leak butter? I knew I had seen this recipe all over the place and the cookies, though seemingly under baked, did not leak butter. I salvaged the tops, baking and re-baking my cookies. But I had to admit: I had done something wrong.

Re-examining the recipe, I can see what I did. I used 3 eggs and only used 3 cups of flour. If you do the same, yours will leak butter, too! Well, if you put them in the muffin tins. If you put them on a pan, they will be extremely hard to work with and will spread like gossip in a girl’s bathroom. I still plan on eating one later. I don’t care. The ones that flattened turned out fine. The cupcake ones that are extremely… chewy Frank will like.

Have a great Halloween!

Therapeutic Baking: Apple Spice Scones

The temperatures are falling. The leaves are falling. It is impossible for me not to be in the kitchen baking with apples, pumpkins, spices. Simmering soups, pasta sauces.

It’s  therapeutic for me.

I’m pretty well stocked in the freezers, both upstairs and down. Stocking the freezer, then using it up can be therapeutic for me, too.
I see dollar bills when I’m able to tuck something in the freezer for later.

Monday I received another vegetable offering from Gramma Marge (yes, there was more eggplant); I baked part of it (the eggplant – more on that in another post), then chopped and froze the green peppers, adding to my freezer abundance. I still need small staples here and there, like milk or eggs, but I feel like I should be able to “shop the freezer” a bit over the next few days.
I refuse to go shopping this week.

Monday was baked eggplant.
Tuesday, spaghetti leftover from the eggplant, while using up 3 chicken breasts from the freezer. Yesterday I baked.
Wednesday is still in contemplation mode.

Back to baking. I found this recipe for Delightful Apple Spiced Scones with Spiced Glaze. I had all of the ingredients on hand, save the second apple and the buttermilk. But I still had some homemade applesauce dying to get used up and a great desire to bake something that smelled like fall.

I replaced the buttermilk with soured milk (milk with lemon juice – or vinegar added to), and used only one apple (skin on). Somewhere along the line I did something wrong, though. I got to the step where you combine everything and “stir until just moist” – that’s where things looked weird. My kneading was more like playing with something the consistency of oatmeal. What really kept coming to mind was the diaper contents of a baby transitioning to solids. But anyway.

I plopped the mess on my prepared pan, unable to score the scones, but not declaring disaster… yet.

The oven worked its magic on my ploppy mess, filling the house with aromas of fall – just what I wanted the boys to come home from school to.

Looked salvageable. It was very moist. I cut it into 18 pieces, and dredged them through the delicious glaze.
It was very moist, not making for an easy task.
The twins dug in immediately.

Sal thought they were good, Franny said good – but less (or no) apple next time.
I set a piece out for myself, warmed some coffee, and sat down to savor a bite.

The flavor was good, the texture… well, I was hoping for something a bit drier and less cake-like.
Since my photos don’t quite match (in the kneading stage), I’m figuring something went wrong in my process.

Today is my day off. Wednesdays are nice that way.
I’ll be doing loads of laundry, dusting, and cleaning. Visiting the doctor (hatehatehate, but a day off is a good day to do it), making dinner – still have to figure that one out, and keeping myself busy so that I’m not tempted to shop. It isn’t that I’m a shopoholic or anything. We’re working on paying our bills down, and I want as much money as possible going to that. With a full freezer, I figure I can lean on that more and keep out of the grocery store.

We shall see.