Tag Archives: vegetable

Best Garlic Smashed Cauliflower, Ever!

So I have been totally slacking in my blogging duties. I apologize. I have many recipes to add and I’m going to start with this one. I love mashed potatoes. My favorite veggie of all time. But what I don’t love is the calories that go with it. For a while I have seen a few recipes from different sources that combine a potato and cauliflower. I know I’ve posted a recipe for my smashed cauliflower before but this one blows it away! I’m not kidding. The majority of the recipe is cauliflower which is low-calorie and good for you. But you will swear there is no cauliflower in this when you taste it. OMG! Oh and it has a bunch of garlic in it too! I made this last night as a side for our pork chops. I was so excited that I forgot to take a picture of it before we demolished it. The recipe makes 4 servings and the picture I have here is what was left. Needless to say I will most definitely be making this again, soon! One of the recipes I found used buttermilk but I didn’t have any so I used fat-free half-and-half. You can definitely use buttermilk or regular half-and-half, whatever you wish. But the great thing about this is that there is about 100 calories per serving! I know! So without further ado here is the recipe I came up with.

(See I told you there wasn’t much left!)

INGREDIENTS:

1 large potato, peeled and cut into small cubes

4 cups cauliflower florets, washed (a small head is probably fine)

¼ cup milk of your choice (buttermilk, half-and-half, regular milk…)

2 tablespoons butter substitute (I use I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter, light)

 6 cloves garlic, peeled

salt and pepper to taste (I did find that it does need salt so you may even want to add some to the water)

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Place the cauliflower, potato and garlic into a pot large enough to hold it all. Cover with water and bring to a boil.
  2. When it boils, lower the heat to a simmer and continue cooking for about 15-20 minutes. Making sure the cauliflower is very tender and soft.
  3. Drain and return to pot. Add the milk and butter. 
  4. Using a hand mixer or potato masher, mash till smooth! Add salt and pepper as needed.

Serve and be ready to be amazed! Makes 4 servings or 2 very large ones! 

Mock Fried Rice (revisited)

Hi everyone! This is a repost of a recipe that I had pretty much forgotten was sooo incredibly awesome. I made it again the other night and had it leftover for lunch two days in a row. And yes I know some of you are going, ewww… cauliflower. Stop it! Give this recipe a try. Honestly it tastes nothing like cauliflower and it certainly doesn’t look like it. That is the first step. Your brain sees fried rice so it convinces you it’s fried rice. But it is so much healthier for you! I made it this past week with chopped up chicken sausage. So it was sort of like pork fried rice, but with chicken sausage. Either way it was delicious. I had been making smashed cauliflower alot and was tired of it. I also grated the cauliflower by hand this time with a hand box grater. No more. Next time it’s back to the food processor. I managed to grate my finger as well. Not fun. I had the cauliflower in the fridge for about a week or more and I figured I’d better make it soon. So when I went to cut it up it started to crumble a bit so this recipe was perfect. And of course once again, I left out the green pepper. I hate green peppers.  So try it this weekend, this week, soon! It’s a great meal or side dish. 

**

Ok everyone who loves fried rice stand up! Stay standing if you love or even like cauliflower! And stay standing if you hate cauliflower! This recipe will make you question your taste buds! I am not joking. I found this recipe in George Stella’s “Livin’ Low Carb” cookbook. I of course tweaked it to my liking. He calls for diced green bell peppers in it but for all of you who know me, I hate bell peppers of any color! I know, I know, what kind of Italian doesn’t like bell peppers? Me! Anyway, this recipe is incredible. We make it quite a bit now too. If you weren’t told what it was you would think it was fried rice for sure. I also add either chopped shrimp, chicken or pork to it to make it even better. Usually about  ½ cup of whichever you choose is great. Cooked shrimp, cooked chicken or cooked pork. I am actually making it tonight and I have to improvise again. There are scallions in the recipe and I’m out of them! Which never happens because John loves scallions. But I do have red onion which he also loves so I am going to try that with it today. We shall see what happens. Also the recipe calls for you to grate the cauliflower. Use a food processor with a grating blade if you have one. This makes it soooo easy. I tried it the first time with a hand grater on the largest holes and needless to say I was sorry! It’s so hard to grasp the cauliflower when it gets smaller. Use a food processor or be careful with the grater!

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups raw cauliflower

2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil

2 tablespoons finely diced green bell peppers (ewww….)

4 tablespoons thinly sliced scallions (green and white parts)

½ cup cooked chopped shrimp, chicken or pork (or leave it out if you want to go vegetarian)

¼ teaspoon minced fresh garlic

3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

3 large eggs, beaten (I have used 2 and it seems fine also)

salt to taste if needed

DIRECTIONS:

1. Grate the cauliflower using a food processor!!! Use the grating blade. Take my word for it!

2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pepper and 3 tablespoons of the green onions and cook for 1 minute.

3. Add the cauliflower, shrimp, chicken or pork, and garlic and cook, stirring constantly for 4-5 minutes, until the cauliflower is tender

4. Add the soy sauce and stir. (Looking more like fried rice now isn’t it!) Add the eggs to one corner of the pan but don’t stir for 1 minute. This allows the eggs to cook for a bit, which will prevent them from completely breaking up and disappearing into the mix.

5. As soon as the eggs are soft-cooked, remove the skillet from the heat and gently fold the eggs into the mixture. Add salt or more soy sauce to taste. Garnish with the remaining 1 tablespoon scallions and serve.

Makes 4 servings

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