New fangled pizza

I tried this pizza recipe from the Girl Gone Primal site with mouth watering results. Girl is from Australia so I needed to translate the recipe into American, which was easy enough. I just happened to forget that in Australia they bake in Celsius, not fahrenheit. I expect you already see where I'm going with this... I preheated my oven to a whopping 200 degrees fahrenheit thinking to myself that temperature didn't seem hot enough to bake a pizza, but perhaps the cauliflower crust required a lower termperature. So I waited the recommended 15 minutes then looked for bubbling sides and brown center. Hmmm, nothing. Gave it another 15 minutes. Still nothing. The word "Celsius" grabbed my attention. Duh. Penny dropped. 200 degrees C equates to 400 degrees F... Took the pie from the oven and waited until the oven reached temp, popped it back in and after another 15 minutes the sides bubbled and center browned. Go figure.


Ingredients:
1 large head of cauliflower (I used frozen, last bag from my garden)
2 cups grated cheese, mozzarella, cheddar or a combo
2 eggs
Optional herbs (I used dried oregano and parsley)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit (ahem). Line pan or pizza stone with baking paper.

Rice the cauliflower by putting florets into a food processor and buzzing until finely processed (but not mushy). Place cauliflower into a microwave-safe bowl and zap for 6-8 minutes. Makes about 2 cups.

Mix eggs, cheese, and herbs together. Add to cauliflower (I let mine cool a tad so I didn't end up with scrambled cheesy eggs). Spread evenly over baking paper. Bake in oven until golden on top and starting to crisp around the edges, approximately 15 minutes.







Remove from oven and add desired toppings. I used canned mushrooms (because I rather like their rubbery texture on pizza), sliced Kalamata olives



a dash of red pepper flakes followed by sliced salami



then more cheese on top - I used pecorino (which has a nice bite) and some sharp cheddar.



Back in the oven for 15 minutes. You know what? It smelled just like regular pizza baking! And by now I was famished. So the final photo is a little fuzzy and I wasn't about to take time to shoot another one!



Yum! There are endless variations possible for this recipe. I'm going to plant a whole lot more cauliflower this year!

Right on track

I weighed in 12.6 pounds lighter this morning than when I began this lifestyle twelve weeks ago. As much as I'm into instant gratification, dropping one pound per week works for me. Ah, impatience... I've lost my tolerance to sugar. I ate a puff pastry fruit dessert on Saturday - politeness required me to eat the sugary thing. It was a concoction of puff pastry, sliced strawberrys, a dollop of "Cool Whip" sour cream and powdered sugar mixture, slivered almonds, and orange zest. I shuddered at the thought of "Cool Whip" entering my body - What is in that stuff? I was in the throes of a sugar rush an hour later

Primal Almost Lasagne

I made a batch of meatballs using ground beef and ground pork. Then steamed a half cabbage, cut into wedges. Placed the steamed cabbage in a baking dish then added a pint of marinara from last summers bounty Tossed on a handful of mozzarella cheese and a few meatballs Baked it at 350 degrees for 35 minutes And wished I'd cooked the entire cabbage. It went too fast...

Primal Crackers - Variation

Primal Crackers - Sesame/Mixed seeds Amazingly easy crackers
(I found the sesame seed taste too strong in the original recipe so reduced them and added some other seeds - with good result).
Ingredients:

1 cup each sunflower seeds

1/3 cup sesame seeds

1/3 cup ground flax seed

1/3 cup sunflower seed

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp chives diced (optional) 1/4 cup water In a food processor (or by hand), create a sort of flour from the sunflower seeds. It takes about 2 for the seeds to break down and turn into a more flour-like consistency, although it will be thicker and heavier. Add the next three ingredients and the spices. Pulse a few times (or mix in by hand), then slowly add water, stirring or pulsing until a thick paste forms that can be rolled out. Between two greased pieces of baking (parchment) paper, roll out the paste as thinly as you can while maintaining a uniform thickness. Remove the upper piece of parchment. Score the batter into squares with a sharp knife, and sprinkle with salt and pepper/herbs if you’d like. Bake at 350°F until golden and crisp, about 20 minutes. The outer edges tend to bake faster - I remove them before becoming too browned, then pop the pan back in the oven for the rest of the batch. Allow to cool thoroughly before gently breaking into squares as scored.