Calorie Wise Side Dish

    For any of my fellow calorie counters out there, who have been seeking a way to cut carbs from your diet, this is the answer you have been looking for. I was watching one of those Diet Shows like Bulging Brides, or what have you on a lazy Sunday morning. Then, low and behold, I came across this jewel of an idea.
    Instead of spending around 127 calories on a 1/2 cup of rice, we can spend no more than 25 calories on a whole cup of cauliflower "rice". This way we get to indulge in our favourite recipes without worrying about our waistlines.

Cauliflower "Rice":

Directions:

(1) Remove the leafy stem from the cauliflower.

(2) Break the cauliflower head down in to more manageable pieces.

(3) Working in batches, add the cauliflower florets into a food processor. Process until you achieve a crumbled texture similar to rice.

Before

After

(4) Store in a microwave safe container until ready to use.
(5) Once you are ready to make your cauliflower "rice", loosen the lid on your microwave container and
cook for four minutes on high in your microwave oven. Use as you would rice in a stir fry or under a curry.

Meatless Monday

    For a month or two now, I have been giving "Meatless Monday's" a try. "Meatless Monday" is a new food movement that spans all borders and demographic groups. The idea is to cut out meat one time per week, with the overall goal of  improving health, shrinking our carbon footprint (and our waste lines) as well as helping reduce global climate change.
    After all, if you eat less meat, you consume less saturated fat. This lowers your risk of heart disease and keeps cholesterol low. As an added bonus, it helps you maintain a healthy weight, and automatically adds more vegetable variety to your diet. I have also noticed the amount I spend on grocery's drop about $20.00 per week. That's $960.00 per year (I could plan a mini vacation for my family with that money now).
    I have to be honest, at first I thought that a "certain" member of my family would struggle with this change. But as of yet, I have had no complaints. I have just been planning very carefully, what type of vegetarian meals I choose to make. I don't think a tofu salad would go over very well at all.
    Since it was just me and the little guy this week I made something that I new he would really enjoy. I already had everything I needed on hand, so with his help, we made Pizza Margherita. Mmmm Mmmmm. It was delicious. Who says vegetarian food can't be wonderful.

Pizza Margherita

Pizza Margherita

Ingredients:

1 recipe Pizza Dough
1 cup Homemade Pizza Sauce
1 ball Mozzarella di Buffala (regular  fresh mozzarella will subsitute just fine)
8-10 leaves of Fresh Basil
Handful of Kalamata Olives, optional


Directions:

(1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees. While the oven is preheating, place pizza stone in oven to preheat as well. (If you do not have a pizza stone, a regular pizza pan will work fine. But you should really get one, they're fabulous. They about $13.00 at most kitchen specialty stores).
(2) Roll out the prepared pizza dough.
(3) Once the pizza stone has been heated through (this usually takes as long as the oven does), remove it from the oven, and sprinkle with cornmeal. The cornmeal will keep the dough from sticking. (You can do this with a pizza pan as well. It will save you the calories from the oil you would otherwize have to add to the pan).
(4) Place the rolled out dough onto the pizza stone. From this point on, the dough will begin cooking.
(5) Begin assembling the pizza. First add the sauce, and then the mozzarella.
(6) Place the stone back in the oven and bake the pizza for 10 minutes, or until the cheese has fully melted and has begun to brown.
(7) Once cooked, remove from oven and garnish with the fresh basil and kalamata olives.