As promised, today I have for you the recipe for that tasty Cheesy Cauliflower dish I made the other night for dinner. I was surprised by how filling this recipe is! If you are someone who loves cheddar on their veggies, you are sure to love this. Even better, it takes hardly any time to whip up and is the perfect combination of comfort and low-carb fare. Serves two as a main or four as a side dish.

Print

Cheesy Cauliflower

Have a hankering for some mac n' cheese but watching your carbs? This delicious recipe is sure to satisfy!

Course Main Course, Side Dish

Keyword Cauliflower, Comfort Food, Keto-Friendly, Low-Carb

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 c cauliflower finely chopped
• 1 oz cream cheese
• 1 oz mozzarella cheese shredded
• 3 oz cheddar cheese shredded
• ¼ c half and half
• ½ tsp Creole or Cajun seasoning blend (e.g. Tony's)
• salt to taste
• hot sauce as desired (e.g. Tabasco or Frank's Red Hot)

Instructions

• Begin by melting your butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add your cauliflower and saute until the cauliflower is lightly golden, about 5 minutes.
• Reduce your heat to low and add in the remaining ingredients. Stir constantly until the cheeses are completely melted and the cauliflower is evenly coated with the cheesy sauce. Give it a taste and adjust the salt as needed and add a few dashes of hot sauce, if desired. Top with a garnish of chopped chives and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Notes

Nutrition Facts per Serving (1/2 recipe): 366 calories, 30 g fat, 19 g saturated fat, 0 g trans fat, 757 mg sodium, 7 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 18 g protein, Vit C 78%, Vit A 12%, Calcium 16%, Iron 4%

The post Cheesy Cauliflower appeared first on The Diet Oracle.

Lately I’ve been seeing quite a few recipes for pizza made with a cauliflower crust, so when I spotted one in The Complete Guide to Fasting, I thought I’d better whip one up in honor of Pizza Sunday and June’s Diet of the Month! Around here, we have a tradition of pizza (usually homemade) for Sunday dinner and I was interested to see how this grain-free, cauliflower crust pizza would measure up against the more traditional crust made with flour, yeast, salt, and olive oil.

The recipe itself is super simple. You can either buy a head of cauliflower, chop it up, and pulse it in a food processor until it’s in small crumbles OR you can buy a bag pre-pulsed for you in the fresh produce section at pretty much any grocery store. In the recipe I used, you then take about 1 1/2 cups of your crumbles, mix it with 2 beaten eggs, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, and 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder. (Actually, the recipe in The Complete Guide to Fasting calls for a whole teaspoon of garlic powder, but I thought that was craziness so I used much less.)

Once you’ve got this mixture, spread it onto a pizza pan lined with parchment paper, roughly forming an 8″ circle. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until lightly golden. Remove from the oven, add your desired toppings (I used 1/3 cup homemade pizza sauce, 3 oz mozzarella cheese, 12 pepperoni slices, and fresh basil). Bake for another 10-15 minutes and then serve hot!

I thought this recipe was pretty good! The boys were even willing to give it a try and my brave 10-year-old concluded that he’d be willing to eat it, if that was all he had. (Very gracious of him.) It helps that the cauliflower is covered with all manner of delicious toppings and makes a rather neutral (albeit floppy) base. I think if I were to make this again, I would try baking the crust on my perforated metal pizza pan. I think the holes might help the crust to crisp up a bit more, thus creating a firmer foundation. As it stands, this crust pretty much required a fork until the last few bites.

By using a grain-free, cauliflower crust, this recipe brings pizza into the low-carb, keto-friendly, reduced-calorie realm. Despite all this, however, I can tell you that this pizza was quite filling. Of course, being covered with cheese and pepperoni helps. The entire recipe comes to 530 calories, 34 grams fat, 17 grams saturated fat, 15 grams carbohydrate, 5 grams fiber, and 41 grams protein. I could only eat about 2/3 of the pizza though, less than 350 calories’ worth. Not too shabby if you want to have your cake (or pizza, as the case may be) and eat it, too!

The post Homemade Pizza with a Cauliflower Crust appeared first on The Diet Oracle.

So let’s take a look at how Day 2 of my intermittent fasting (IMF) regimen went. Day 2 will be a repeat of Day 1 in which I skip breakfast, have lunch and dinner as usual, and no snacking after dinner. I will also continue, per Dr. Jason Fung’s recommendations, to focus on whole, unprocessed foods, natural fats, and limited refined grains.

Breakfast: Skipped. I drank a couple cups of coffee with half and half. I woke up pretty hungry and making breakfast for the boys didn’t help…that cinnamon toast smelled soooooo good.

Lunch: Today I made a BELT salad–bacon, egg, lettuce and tomato–with honey mustard dressing. Added some shaved Pecorino Romano for good measure, too. Yesterday I realized that I really needed to shift more calories to lunch to see if I could prevent the relentless hunger I’d experienced Wednesday. Doing so really helped!

Snack: Almonds

Dinner: Firecracker Zoodles! This was my first time using zoodles (spiralized zucchini) in place of pasta and they were alright. I definitely think they need a strong sauce to keep them palatable after the first few bites. This spicy sauce fit the bill perfectly! I think a lemon cream sauce might also work nicely. I’ll be sharing the recipe for Firecracker Zoodles soon, so stay tuned!

I should also note here that I ate less at dinner than anticipated. Given how hungry I’ve been, I thought I would once again want more than I had served myself, but I actually ended up eating less. I felt really full about 3/4 of the way into my plate of zoodles and couldn’t finish.

Once again, I carefully measured and journaled my food intake using the SparkPeople app and ended up eating 1386 calories with 59% from fat, 21% from carbs, and 20% from protein. Using this 6:18 intermittent fasting regimen in which I have a 6-hour window for meals followed by 18 hours of fasting, I continue to consume an amount of calories appropriate for weight loss without particularly trying to do so. This is, of course, one of the benefits of IMF offered by Dr. Jason Fung in his book.

In addition, because I am putting down such a high percentage of fat, I do believe that this has contributed to my feelings of fullness at mealtimes. Though I certainly still struggle with feeling super hungry throughout the morning and halfway between lunch and dinner, I am surprised by how quickly I feel full when I do eat.

As for weight change, today’s weight was down 2# from yesterday. Given my low carbohydrate intake, I really am not surprised. Most of this is likely water weight due to the low-carb nature of this fasting plan. What will be interesting to see is how my weight will fluctuate in the coming days and to what extent the scale will pop back up once I resume my normal eating routine.

Onward to Day 3…my first 24-hour fast! Technically, my fast has already begun since I will be fasting from dinner on Day 2 to dinner on Day 3. I have to admit, I am definitely nervous. I’ve already been struggling with hunger and I’m pretty sure tomorrow will be no cake walk. But we shall see! Check in tomorrow to see how it goes!

The post Intermittent Fasting: Day 2 appeared first on The Diet Oracle.