Cauliflower Pizza Crust

I am so excited to share this recipe. I was skeptical about it at first but I am very very happy I tried it out. Not only did I end up with a yummy meal, but I managed to get an extra serving of veggies into my day.

Cauliflower in or on a pizza just didn’t sound delicious to me at all. I enjoy cauliflower raw with a side of my ranch spinach dip but I have never cared for cooked cauliflower. There’s something about the flavor that I just don’t like. I saw cauliflower pizza crusts popping up everywhere on Pinterest and I would skip right over them. Finally after a few months I decided to give it a go. The reviews have been great on a variety of recipes and the crust looked easy enough to make.

On a rainy day last week, when the house was a little cooler than normal, I turned my oven on and made pizza for lunch. Cooking the cauliflower before turning it into the crust was very easy since I used the microwave. I was happy that I had the windows open because cooked cauliflower isn’t the nicest smell to have linger indoors. I did have to add a little extra cooking time to the crust because I didn’t feel that it was cooked through. Every oven is different so I’ve kept the original times in the recipe below.

The pizza ended up being very rich and very yummy. I made a basic peperoni pizza because I thought that would be the best way to try it out. I ate a little less than two slices and I was full. Little one happily gobbled up his pizza and I’m sure he thought it was cool that mama let him eat pizza! I did find that this recipe needed to be eaten with a fork. The crust couldn’t be lifted the way a traditional bread crust could be. I’m looking forward to experimenting with other toppings in the future.

Enjoy!

1 cup cauliflower

¼ cup water
¾ mozzarella, shredded
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon garlic, crushed
½ teaspoon garlic salt
Olive oil

Pizza toppings

To rice your cauliflower, take one head of cauliflower, remove the stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to a food processor and pulse just until it looks like rice.

Place the riced cauliflower in a microwave safe bowl, add water and microwave for six to eight, stirring half-way through.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Spray a pizza pan or cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine the cauliflower, mozzarella cheese and egg together and stir until well incorporated. Add the oregano, garlic, and garlic salt. Transfer to the cookie sheet, and shape into a nine inch circle. Brush the crust with olive oil to help it brown in the oven.

Baked at 450 degrees F for 15 minutes, until the crust is browned and cooked through the middle.

Remove the crust from the oven, add your sauce and toppings. Place under a broiler at high heat until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Allow the pizza to cool slightly, then cut into slices and serve.

Adapted from stickafork.net/2012/04/16/cauliflower-crust-pizza/

Play Dough

Not everything I make in my kitchen is going to end up as a meal. As you know, based on my spice mix posts, I really like to make things myself when I can. Husband teases me for this but I gently remind him that my frugality is one of the reasons he loves me so much.

Little one hasn’t really been interested in play dough in the past but I have my fingers crossed that he will by the end of the day. I was looking through my Pinterest board of all the fun projects I have pinned for little one. The play dough pin caught my eye and I realized I had everything that we would need to make it hanging out in pantry (yes, I had cream of tartar for some reason).

I pulled all the ingredients together and made one color/batch of dough while little one napped. I figured that if he really likes it I can make more colors. If he’s not a fan I’m just out a few ingredients. I think this is the first time in weeks I’ve anxiously waited for little one to wake up from his nap!

Enjoy!

1 cup white flour

1 cup warm water

2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons cream of tartar

2 tablespoons cooking oil

3 oz. Jello

Mix all of the ingredients together in a small saucepan.  

Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously until it thickens into a ball of dough.  This step does take a little while.  Just keep stirring, you'll know it's ready when won't be able to stir anymore.

Once it has finished cooking, place the dough onto a silpat mat or floured cutting board and wait for it to cool.

Once it is cool (at least 20-30 minutes) let the little ones knead it, adding in flour until it is no longer sticky (about 1/2 cup).  At this point, you can add in extra food coloring to make the colors more vibrant, or even add glitter.  

When you are finished playing, store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.  It will keep for at least a few weeks in the refrigerator, with daily use.  If at any time it starts to be a little sticky, just add more flour.  

I napped this recipe from www.modernparentsmessykids.com/2012/05/play-dough.html

Toddler lunches

I have discovered a new challenge in my kitchen. Oddly enough, it’s cooking for little one. Ever since little one started eating solid food I’ve been cooking for him. I’ve been doing my best to make sure he has been eating yummy yet nutritious food. I’ve tried so hard to make sure that he was not a picky eater and would be willing in to try anything I put in front of him. So far I have succeeded but we are entering the picky toddler phase.

The pickyness isn’t the challenge. The challenge is figuring out what to feed him for lunch! I know it sounds silly, but for over a year little one was eating lunch at daycare every weekday. He would share dinner with us each night (unless what we were eating was SUPER messy or spicy) and then husband and I took the leftovers with us for lunch the next day. My meal servings haven’t changed but the number of servings I need to stretch for the three of us has.

My solution was a pretty simple one. Little one has a few extra meals planned for him each shopping trip. I make sure these recipes are delicious for him, somewhat healthy, fun and easy. I don’t want to wind up making tons of extra meals just to feed one toddler. These two recipes have really fit in nicely. Please keep in mind that most of the time little one is eating leftovers for lunch but these are for the times when left overs just don’t work for him.

Enjoy!

English Muffin Pizzas

½ English muffin

2 tablespoons pizza sauce

2 tablespoons mozzarella

1 tsp. Parmesan

Sprinkle pizza seasoning

Toast the English muffin. Top with pizza sauce, mozzarella, Parmesan and pizza seasoning. Add any additional pizza toppings if desired. Place English muffin under a broiler until cheese has melted. Cool and serve.

Mini Meatloaves

1 lb. ground beef

6 oz. Stove Top stuffing

1 cup water

1 tsp. garlic powder

¾ cup barbeque sauce

¾ cup cheddar, shredded

Heat oven to 375°F. Mix meat, stuffing mix, water and garlic powder until well blended. Press into 12 muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray.

Make indentation in center of each with back of spoon and fill evenly with barbeque sauce.

Bake 30 minutes. Top evenly with ¾ cheese and bake for five minutes. Let stand 10 min.

*Freeze cooked mini meatloaves in a large Ziploc to have on hand for easy lunches. Defrost in the morning and microwave for one minute before serving.

Adapted from www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/marvelous-mini-meatloaves-75574.aspx

Shrimp and Pasta

I have discovered a wonderful little perk to staying at home with little one (I hope I don’t jinx this by sharing). Now that little one spends all day with me he’s more likely to give me a little extra time in the kitchen to make lunch or dinner. I’ve realized that I’m less stressed at dinner because I no longer feel like a bad mom for having to ignore my child as soon as I picked him up from daycare. I wasn’t a bad mom for cooking dinner, far from it, but he could really give me a case of mommy guilt. Now that we spend all day together he is more than happy to spend a little bit of time playing independently so that I can get our meals ready.

I wish I had this recipe during the mommy guilt days. It’s quite yummy, low fat and came together in a snap. Since I spent such little time cooking the kitchen didn’t heat up too much which was a big plus! Little one really enjoyed this meal. I was very impressed that he started the meal by eating his artichokes, mushrooms and shrimp. I was so proud. Then he discovered the noodles and that was it. He refused to eat anything other than the noodles. Oh well, at least I know my child likes artichokes!

I had to make one “big” change to this recipe. The original recipe call for the veggies to be cooked in ½ cup dressing and then the entire dish drizzled with the remaining ¼ cup dressing before serving. I didn’t like the sweet taste this gave the dish so I shifted all of the dressing to be used to cook the veggies. The ¼ cup of dressing cannot be omitted or else the dish is too dry. The little change I made is using bottled Zesty Italian dressing. This dressing is used in so many Kraft recipes that it made more sense to just buy the entire bottle and keep it in the fridge for future use. Oh - I like to cut my shrimp in half lengthwise. It makes it look like there's more shrimp and it's easier for little ones to eat! The 19 shrimp that came in that bag below suddenly became 38 on the plate.

Enjoy!

½ lb. linguine

¾ cup Zesty Italian Dressing (fat free!)

8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 onion, diced

14 oz. artichoke hearts, drained, quartered

1lb. uncooked large shrimp, peeled, deveined

¼ cup Parmesan

Cook pasta in large pot as directed on package, omitting salt.

Heat dressing in large skillet on medium heat. Stir in mushrooms, onions and artichokes. Cook for three minutes or until the onions are crisp-tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in shrimp and parsley. Cook for two minutes or until the shrimp turn pink and vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.

Drain pasta and add to the shrimp mixture and toss lightly. Sprinkle with cheese.

Adapted from www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/low-fat-zesty-shrimp-pasta-53322.aspx?cm_mmc=eml-_-rbe-_-20120410-_-1061&cm_lm=4D7D535C64198320269D1D91F8C91141

French Pork Chops

Goodness! Is it ever hot outside! I am so thankful for air conditioning because we have been living in the world of 90 degree plus heat for the past few weeks. Last week we visited my parents and suffered through 100 degree days. Well, it’s July after all and what I hear is that this type of heat is great for tomatoes. And now I’m daydreaming of winter tomato based soups. Ahhhhh….

One of the challenges I have in this heat is keeping the house cool around dinner time. I finally smartened up in the kitchen with this meal and made something for dinner in the slow cooker. It’s so hard to pull myself away from the stove and oven. I love to chop and stir and season and it’s difficult to stir when you use a slow cooker. But in this heat you really can’t go wrong with a slow cooker.

I found this recipe years ago and tried it out for my then soon to be husband. He loved it. I happily added this to my rotation of meals that we have for dinner. I don’t make it too often since I’m not a huge pork fan, but I know husband loves pork so I like to make it for him a few times a year. And honestly, since I don’t really like pork I don’t want to spend a ton of time making it so this recipe is perfect!

I made very few changes to this recipe. I use fresh carrots instead of frozen since I typically have a huge container of carrots in the fridge for snacking. I slice the mushrooms myself if it’s cheaper to do so (it isn’t always which I find interesting). Usually cannellini beans are expensive, so I usually use great northern beans. Sometimes I use pork chops, sometimes I use boneless pork ribs. I may in the future try more than four cuts of meat as I always end up with lots of veggies at the end of the meal. I’ve also thought about adding some small red potatoes to the slow cooker. The few potatoes you get from the soup just aren’t enough for this potato fiend. The original recipe calls for a bread crumb topping but I omitted it because I don’t like bread crumb toppings.

If you don’t have herbs de Provence in your spice collection try making your own. I normally have to pick up some lavender from World Market but I have everything else that I need in my spice jars. I really believe in making my own spice mixes and making my own HDP helps me use some of my spices I don’t use very often.

Enjoy!

So fun to use dad's green tomatoes!

14 oz. sliced carrots

8 oz. sliced fresh button mushrooms

15 oz. canned whole peeled tomatoes

15 oz. great northern beans, drained

4 boneless, thick-cut, pork loin chops, rinsed and patted dry

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon herbs de Provence, divided

10 ¾ oz. cream of potato soup

¼ cup Dijon

1 tablespoon tomato paste

3 tablespoons dry sherry

Combine carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, and beans in the bottom of a 5-quart slow cooker.

Season pork chops with salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon of herbs de Provence. Place in slow cooker on top of vegetables.

In a small bowl, combine potato soup, Dijon, tomato paste, sherry, and 1 teaspoon of herbs de Provence. Pour over pork chops.

Cover and cook on low setting for 4 to 6 hours.

Adapted from www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/french-pork-chops-recipe/index.html