Pizza with a Cauliflower Crust ~ Healthy Back to School Snack!

September 11, 2015February 21, 20168 Comments

Your hungry kids need a snack when they come home from school. Surprise them with gluten free CAULIFLOWER CRUSTED PIZZA! I tested a few variations for a cauliflower pizza in my foody lab (kitchen). In one version, I used ground almonds in the crust. It had a grainy consistency. Perfect for a base as an appetizer or an hors d’oeuvres. Thumbs down for a kid’s pizza. In another version, I combined eggs and cauliflower plus my magic flavorings. My friend’s kids eyebrows went up on the first bite. Mikey likes it! A home run!

Here is the healthy, yummy RECIPE
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INGREDIENTS
1 cauliflower medium head about 2 lbs.
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup shredded part-skim milk mozzarella
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Wash and cut the cauliflower into florets and place in your food processor along with the garlic cloves. Pulse until fine, like rice.
3. Place cauliflower in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze out all liquid until very dry.
4. Place the cauliflower in a clean bowl and combine with mozzarella, Parmesan cheese, eggs, thyme, oregano, pepper and salt.
5. Place the cauliflower mix on a pizza pan (or baking sheet) lined with parchment and spread evenly with fingers or a rolling pin.

6. Bake in the oven until the crust is crisp and the edges are golden, about 25-30 minutes.
7. Allow the cauliflower to cool slightly while you assemble the toppings.
8. Add your favourite sauce and toppings. I used my baked tomato sauce as a topping.

9. Bake until cheese is melted and bubbly; about 15-20 minutes longer.

I left the kitchen and came back to take a picture of a slice and the pizza was all gone! The kids said the pizza monster was here . I enlarged part of the whole pizza to show you the added ham -for all you Carnevours. This veggie+(ham) powered pizza needs to make its way into your kitchen. Kids learn about gluten and grains from school. They may look forward to a gluten-free pizza. Today’s food buzz is “cauliflower” crusted pizza. Even though it has been around for a few years, there are still some people that have never heard of it. What’s neat is that it doesn’t taste like cauliflower.
FOOD TIP: Place a piece of parchment on top of the cauliflower mix and move a rolling pin over it. This will give you and even crust guided by the edges of the pizza pan. Make this crust in advance and refrigerate (up to 4 days). You can add the sauce and toppings later on. Use Asiago cheese in place of the mozzarella. Toppings: Add prosciutto, crushed red pepper flakes and basil (my favourite). YUM!

How do you fit parchment into a circular pan? First measure the diameter of the pan. Fold the parchment several times like you did when making a snowflake cut out in school and then cut to half the diameter of the pan. The parchment will now fit your pizza or cake pan.

Sun Dried Tomato Dip

April 10, 2015February 21, 2016Leave a comment

HEALTHY ‘TASTY’ DIP
Now that you have made your decorated goat cheese, you can make a tasty and healthy dip to serve with it. The dip is very versatile.This dip is great with crudités or crackers, on sandwiches, or with cold meats. It can be made a day or two in advance and served at your chalet, lake house, sailboat or right at home. People always enjoy this combination goat cheese /sun dried tomato spread. This pairing pops with flavour and is a big hit with my friends. I am often asked where I bought it! Instead of crackers or I prefer sourdough baguette slices. Crisp and tasty. Although crackers have evolved to gluten free and no preservatives which you can buy at your local supermarket. I find that most of these healthy crackers are very flavourful and will change the taste of my goat cheese / sun dried tomato dip. Over my years of reading about healthy foods, I would always come across the information that with respect to bread, we should eat rye bread or sour dough. I was puzzled by the sour dough as it was white bread after all. Then one day I came across some information that explained it.

RECIPE
Ingredients
1 package (3 1/2 oz) sun dried tomatoes
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup loosely packed basil leaves
1/4 cup loosely packed flat leaf parsley
2 garlic cloves peeled
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar substitute (optional)
1 green onion coarsely chopped including green tops

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Use the pulse feature until everything is chopped to a coarse consistency not liquid. Refrigerate until needed. The flavour is even better the next day. Serve at room temperature over goat cheese with toasts or crackers.

This is a tasty dip and will keep in your fridge for 7 to 10 days, limited only by the freshness of the herbs. You can then make this in advance or use up the left overs as a salad dressing, to toss your vegetables and some more olive before roasting or add to a soup for more flavour. The addition of mayonnaise or buttermilk will transform any leftover dips into sauces or salad dressings.

EVENING OUT: I just brought the sun dried dip to a birthday party last night. I paired it with a goat cheese log rolled in herbs. There were herb crackers and whole wheat sourdough croutes. This was a big hit! People kept going back again and again for more. They were addictive. This was more popular than the smoked salmon platter!

FOOD FACT: The acid in the sourdough slows down the absorption of the bread. That is how the San Francisco gold miners were able to sustain themselves all day long with just a loaf of sourdough bread. Hence the San Francisco sour dough loafs. The flour/simple carbohydrate is broken down into sugar which starts even in the mouth with salivary amylase and eating a slice of white bread is not so different than having a piece of pound cake as far as your body is concerned.

Do you want a piece of white bread? Then…eat sour dough bread. It is healthier!

Healthy Snacks and Appetizer

February 28, 2015March 5, 2015Leave a comment

Craving a snack? Need an appetizer to serve? Why bother with a cracker? Use nature’s vessel. Have you been putting your sandwich fixings in a piece of lettuce to avoid carbs and gluten? Well, now you can substitute a piece of endive for the proverbial cracker. You can use this for tuna salad, egg salad, salmon salad, Caesar salad, beet pomegranate orange salad, beet pomegranate feta salad, the list goes on….. It adds just a little bite to your snack. As much as I am an anchovy hater, I will even add some anchovy paste to my egg salad to give it a bite. When you bite into your food, you want it to just slightly bite you back. Yum! Yum!

Sun Dried Tomato Dip Recipe

February 26, 2015June 22, 2015Leave a comment

3/4 cup olive oi1
1 1/2 oz. re-hydrated sun dried tomatoes (not packed in oil)
2 tablespoons roasted red peppers
2 garlic cloves
2 sprigs Italian flat leaf parsley
5 basil leaves
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 green onion

Place all ingredients in blender or food processor and blend to a course consistency. The flavour will be better the following day as they permeate the oil. Serve with goat cheese, crudities, crackers or on cold meats. Delicious!

Decorated Goat Cheese

February 24, 2015February 24, 201514 Comments

Spring is just around the corner. Here is an idea that will wow your friends and welcome spring with a goat cheese appetizer. Have you seen those lovely decorated goat cheese rounds in your grocer’s deli case? They are so easy to make. Put a piece of plastic wrap in a small container that is a shape you wish to duplicate. Place a piece of washed herb, edible flower(s), olives, crushed coloured peppercorns, whatever you wish on top of the plastic wrap. Place a piece of goat cheese on top, pressing the sides into the corner of the container. I wrap the plastic wrap on top and at the end, press it on the counter top to flatten the base. Refrigerate overnight and you can unmould it onto your serving dish. It looks so much more appetizing when presented this way. Remember, the eye does half the eating. Beautiful!

FOOD FACTS: Some things you may not know about goat cheese. While cheese and milk from cows is most popular in the United States, on an international scale, goat cheese is actually more commonly consumed.
If you want to get technical, cheese made with goat milk has a higher amount of medium-chain fatty acids. You don’t necessarily have to know the science behind these acids, but they account for the cheese’s signature tangy flavor, and also make goat cheese easier on the digestive system, so those with lactose sensitivities often find goat cheese easier to digest.