Cauliflower for Everyone!!!

Since the cauliflower pizza was such a hit I decided to keep on rolling with the cauliflower.  Hence, cauliflower for everyone!!!!

So yet another Skinnytaste recipe tonight, folks.

Whatcha Need

• 4 cups steamed cauliflower (roughly chopped)
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup Pecorino Romano
• 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup hot water
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Now this recipe makes 24 fritters roughly.  I didn’t need that many so I halved everything.

First you steam the cauliflower and chop it up.

I smashed it up some with my fork just to make sure it was in small enough pieces. Now add all the garlic, egg, flour, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper and mix it up some.

Add water while mixing to make it more batter like.

Now you put a bit of olive oil into a pan.  Enough to cover the bottom.  Using a quarter cup add clumps to the pan and let the bottom fry and bind together.  The mixture is piecey so does fall apart some, but they don’t have to be perfect circles. You will have some chunks that fall off.

Once you see the bottom start to brown, flip them and cook on the other side.  When cooked all the way, transfer them to a papertowel lined plate.  This will soak up any excess oil.  Once they are all done, I blot the top of them with paper towel as well.  You can see mine are far from perfectly shaped circles.  But ya know what?  They taste the same regardless of shape so who cares.

Now just remove the paper towel and you have a low cal, low carb side to go with any meat entree.

They were good.  Not my favorite Skinnytaste recipe I’ve tried so far, but good enough to eat.  I’m still undecided on if I would make them again. But I think its worth giving it a try to make up your own mind.

The specs of these directly from Skinnytaste are:

Servings: 12 • Size: 2 fritters • Old Points: 2 pts • Points+: 3 pts
Calories: 108.9 • Fat: 6.6 g • Protein: 3.8 g • Carb: 9.4 g • Fiber: 2.1 g 

Lasagna Without the Carbs. Delicioso.

I’m sure you are all super tired of me blogging all these Skinnytaste recipes. But I can’t help it. I find them on Pinterest and they look sooooo goooooood.

I’m a pasta LOVER. Lasagna, ravioli, shells, manicotti….. basically anything stuffed with cheese. But I’m cutting the carbs, so its been a long time since I’ve gotten to have any kind of wonderful pasta or bread. So I saw this zucchini lasagna and figured it was worth a shot.

So here’s the Pin:

Whatcha Need

• 1 lb 93% lean beef
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 onion
• 1 tsp olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 3 medium zucchini, sliced 1/8” thick
• 15 oz fat free ricotta
• 16 oz reduced fat mozzarella cheese, shredded (Weight Watchers)
• 1/4 cup Parmigiano Reggiano
• 1 large egg

You cook the meat just like you would for regular meat sauce. Toss the meat in the pan and brown it. Strain it to remove the grease. In the same pan put in the olive oil and saute the garlic and onions. The recipe calls for 3 gloves of garlic but I only used one. I thought 3 sounded like alot.

Once they are brown add the meat back in along with the tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper. Let that simmer on low for about a half an hour.

In the mean time either on a gas grill or in the broiler, broil your zucchinis. Just 1 or 2 minutes on each side is fine. You just want to soften them up a bit.

Remove them from heat and slice them about 1/8 inch thick give or take. Lay them all out and sprinkle with salt. They are very moist so the salt will suck up some of the moisture. After about 10 minutes blot them with a paper towel.

Now you have to prep your cheese mix. Add ricotta, egg and Parmesan cheese. Mix together well.

The layering of it works just like regular lasagna. Put down a small layer of meat sauce at the bottom of your pan. On top of that use strips of zucchini.

On top of the zucchini add a layer of your cheese. Then on top of that I put chunks of mozzarella cheese. I prefer fresh mozzarella rather than pre-shredded, but pre-shredded will work just fine.

Repeat layers until your ingredients are gone or the pan is full to the top.

I sprinkled some more Parmesan on top.

Bake at 350 covered for 45 minutes. Remove foil and continue cooking for an additional 15 minutes.

Tasted great! I didn’t even miss the noodles!

Here are the specs directly from Skinnytaste:

Calories: 418.8 • Fat: 17.6 g • Protein: 39.2 g • Carb: 20.9 g • Fiber: 3.1 g

Cauliflower Pizza Crust, Uhm What?

Who doesn’t love pizza? But SO MANY CALORIES!!!!

So a good friend of mine, Jessie down in Texas (you can find her here or here or @xoxojessicaxoxo on twitter), told me about the cauliflower pizza crust. Of course, I had to try it.

Whatcha Need

1/2 large head cauliflower (or 2+ cups shredded cauliflower)
1 large egg
1 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried minced garlic (or fresh garlic)
1/2 teaspoon onion salt

I used fresh mozzarella and shredded it myself because I LOVE fresh mozzarella. But you can absolutely use the pre-shredded kind.

So I shredded my cauliflower with a cheese grater. The recipe calls for 1/2 of the head of cauliflower but Jessie warned me that I may want to use more or else the crust comes out super thin. So I used the whole head.

Microwave it for 8 minutes to soften it up. Let it cool a bit and then add all the other ingredients. I added a little asiago cheese to the mozzarella simply because its delicious.

Mix it all up and form it into a circle on your pizza tray. I put foil down because my pizza tray has holes it it and I didn’t want anything to drip through and make a mess. I did spray the foil with no-stick spray.

Bake the crust at 450 for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Now add whatever toppings you want.

Turn your oven to broil and broil it for 3 or 4 minutes until the top looks done.

The crust yields about 115 calories for 1/4 of the pizza. If you add the calories from the toppings you will be at about 150 to 200 calories per 1/4 of the pizza. Far below what your local pizza shop or frozen pizza will clock in at. Plus its low carb. Win/win.

I will say when I was shredding the cauliflower I thought there was no way I was going to like this. Just the smell of the cauliflower was not attractive to me. So don’t let that fool you.

Once all said and done it was really good. And its super easy to make. I’ll definitely make this again.

Skinnytaste Wins at Life, Yet Again

Ok, so I promise I’ll get back into doing some neat little home projects soon. I have an AC Moore gift card I need to burn and I cannot WAIT to figure out what I want to do with it. So many choices.

But for now I have yet another delightful Skinnytaste recipe for you: Pork chops in a dijon sauce

Whatcha Need

• 1 tsp butter
• 4 pork chops (I used bone out because I have the hardest time with bone in meat for some reason)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• fresh ground pepper
• 3 tbsp chopped onion
• 3/4 cup fat free chicken stock
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp chopped, fresh herbs like parsley, chives, tarragon

First melt the butter in a pan on the stove and then add the pork chops. Throw some salt and pepper on top and let them cook on each side for about 7 minutes so they are cooked but not overdone.

Once done remove them from the pan but keep nearby in a warm place.

In the same pan throw in the onion and let cook for a few minutes until soft.

Now add the chicken broth. Bring it to a boil and let cook until its reduced to about a half a cup.

Now add the mustard and herbs.

Since you have to guess as to when the right amount of broth has cooked off, if you find there’s not enough left when you add the mustard and herbs you can add a touch of water to cut the thickness. Just mix it all up so you have a nice dijon sauce.

Now just spoon the sauce over the pork and you’re all done!

Here are the specs directly from Skinnytaste:

Servings: 4 • Serving Size: 1 chop • Old Points: 4 pts • Points+: 4 pts
Calories: 166.5 • Fat: 9.2 g • Carb: 2.6 g • Fiber: 0.2 g • Protein: 16.4 g

Husband tested, wife approved.

Sunday Is My Cooking Day

Whenever I decide to get adventerous with cooking its always on a Sunday. Let’s be honest, I don’t have time during the week. So Sunday it is!

This evenings adventure was chicken pillows with garlic smashed potatoes. When I first talked about this last week one evening when my sister-in-law (well, techincally not yet, but its too much to say soon-to-be sister-in-law) was here picking up her dog that we watch on Mondays her reaction was “Smashed potatoes, ew, chunks”. But of course then said “Will you blog about it?” So I can’t disappoint. She would cut me. Not really.

Let’s get to it.

Both of these receipies were of course found on Pinterest as pictured below:

So let’s do the Smashed Potatoes first. I tweaked the recipe a bit because my husband really likes some cream cheese in his mashed potatoes so I decided to throw a bit in here, too.

Whatcha Need:

- However many potatoes you want

- Butter

- Salt

- Minced garlic (I used a jar, I hate mincing my own garlic)

- Minced chives

First, you put the potatoes (whole) in a pot that can be covered and put in the oven. Turn the oven to 350 degrees. Put a pat of butter on each potato. Cover the pot and stick it in the oven for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, take them out, add more butter (which will melt on the heat of the pot) and roll the potatoes around so that they are coated in butter. Sprinkle salt on top and pop them back in for 45 minutes to an hour depending on how big the potatoes are.

Take them out of the oven and if you stab them with a fork and they are soft, they are done. Yes, the old “stick a fork in me, I’m done” trick.

One by one I put each potato in a bowl and smashed it up. I just used a fork. Easy enough. Once smashed I added a pat or two of butter, a sprinkle of chives, a spoon of the minced garlic and a couple hefty pats of cream cheese. Then kept mixing. The cream cheese and butter melt right in and make everything kind of half mashed half smashed like.

Just repeat until all potatoes have been smashed. The End.

Now for the chicken pillows.

Whatcha Need:

- One package of crescent rolls

- 4 ounces of cream cheese (softened)

- 1/4 cup of sour cream

- 1/4 teaspoon of salt

- 3/4 tablespoons dried chives

- 3/4 tablespoons fresh minced onion

- 1 1/2 cups chicken (this can be canned chicken or fresh chicken breasts, cooked and diced)

First mix the sour cream and cream cheese together. Then add the chives, onion and salt. Mix thoroughly.

Now add chicken to complete the mixture.

Open your pack of crescent rolls. You want to use two triangles together to form a sqaure/rectangle. Make sure you pinch the perforation together so that the mixture cannot leak out the bottom.

Add a bit of the mixture to the dough (in hindsight I should have used more).

Fold up the corners to make the “pillow”.

Now prepare a bowl of 1/4 cup melted butter and a bowl of Italian bread crumbs.

I put my four chicken pillows on a regular plate and spooned butter over each one. I then tilted each on up with a spoon to allow the extra butter to reach the underside as well. Once each pillow was coated with butter I spooned the bread crumbs over them as well. I picked each one up by the sides to get the bottoms and then placed each one on the tin foil lined cookie sheet.

Once all the pillows are coated put them in the oven at 350 for 20 - 25 minutes until browned.

In the meantime you can make gravy if you wish. I used one can of cream of chicken soup, 3/4 can of water and 1 package of chicken gravy seasoning and warmed it in a pot on the stove.

Finally I had my dinner of chicken pillows and garlic smashed potatoes.

The potatoes were very good. I haven’t eaten the chicken pillow yet but my husbands review says its good, but could have used some more seasoning in the interior mix. I’m wondering if some garlic powder or some kind of Italian spice mix would have been good. But for now I’m at least deeming this a success. I would definitely make it again but tweak the pillows a bit to give it some extra flavor.