Single Serve Cheesy Mashed Cauliflower

Yesterday I posted the above picture on Facebook of my beautiful little lunch: about 2.5 oz. grilled salmon, along with a spear of brocolli (both leftover from a trip to TGI Friday's) along with a side of cheesy mashed cauliflower I made that morning.

Since I only wanted it that day, I made a single serving. I know some of you either live alone or have family who won't touch veggies with a ten-foot pole, so I though this recipe might be useful to you as well.

Nik's Single Serve Cheesy Mashed Cauliflower
Makes about 1/2 c. (ish) of mashed cauliflower. Divide that into as many portions as you see fit!

Ingredients:

• 4-6 frozen cauliflower florets 
• 1/4 c. (ish) of water
• 1 wedge of Laughing Cow Light spreadable cheese (any flavor you like - I use Garlic & Herb)
• 1 tbsp. shredded cheese of your choice
• 1 heaping tsp. grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Place florets and water in a bowl. Microwave on high for about 2 minutes. This should leave your florets pretty soft. If not, keep microwaving in 15 second increments until they are!

Drain the water and mash the florets (this can be done with a sturdy fork although for me any excuse to use my potato masher is a good one!).

While the florets are still hot, mix in your cheeses (Laughing Cow, shredded and parmesan), along with your salt and pepper. Mix in well.

I personally like to add parsely to the top (I'm a visual eater) but that's not necessary. If it's not hot enough for you, pop it back in the microwave about 30 seconds to reheat it through. 

Enjoy!

White Cheddar Cheesy Mashed Cauliflower

Before we get to this, let me introduce you to Annikki (pronounced "Ah-nick-eye").

You all know her best as "La Grande Diva," my precociously picky child (who, at the writing of this blog post is 14 years-old).

The story of how this side dish came to be has everything to do with her. You see, she's a "meat-and-potatoes" kind of kid so naturally, many of the dishes I present to you guys don't go over so well with her (she even hates Taco Casserole, if you can believe it).

But she's generally a good sport about trying things and when she's forced to eat vegetables she does not like (except peas, wherein she tries to fake anaphylaxis). All this is to say that because she is such a good sport, every once in a while I make a dinner that she likes, simply because it's what she likes. Last night's dinner was one such occasion.

The menu:

• Grilled steak (she covets steak but I rarely buy it, both because I have trouble eating it and because of my inherent distrust of the contents of most beef)
• Roasted red potatoes (for anyone who deeply  misses pictures of potatoes, I put one down yonder)
• Cheesy Cauliflower Mash: White Cheddar edition (great mac 'n cheese swap, by the way!)

It is that last that we will focus on today! This recipe is a bit different from my Four Cheese Mashed Cauliflower recipe, not only in its recipes but also in how I prepared it. So let's get started, shall we?

Before we get to the sauce, you should put a pot of water on to boil your cauliflower. I use bagged frozen for convenience but you can use fresh if you like (I recommend cutting it into florets before you begin).

Also preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Nik's Awesome Cheese Sauce

This iteration of Cheesy Mashed Cauliflower begins with cheese sauce. Have you all ever made cheese sauce? It's dreamy. It also tends to be carby and fatty but you can exert some control over both of those things with a few simple swaps. Here's the basic recipe to the sauce you see here.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. butter or butter substitute (I admit I used Blue Bonnet Light, which has half the calories of butter. You do what you think is best!)
• 2 tbsp. of flour of some sort (I used some of my last bag of now discontinued - sniff, sniff - Atkins Baking Mix that I re-sifted to get it to a super-fine texture but I imagine soy flour would do well here. Perhaps almond flour although I'm not sure what that'd do with the taste.)
• 1.5 c. cold milk (I used skim. Again, your choice!)
• 1.5 c. + 1/3 c. shredded white cheddar cheese (You can do reduced fat if you want. I did not.)
• 1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese (just because I like the taste of it! It's optional.)
• Any spices you like (I generally add garlic powder, a dash of salt, fresh ground black pepper and a "splick" of cayenne)

Directions:

Set a small pot over medium heat and let it get hot (about 3-ish mintues). Add butter and melt.

Add flour and stir until flour has absorbed the butter. It will look kind of like Play-Doh.

(This next part is tricky so if you have a better way, use it!)

With one hand, pour the milk into the pot. Be sure it is COLD! With the other hand, whisk the flour/butter mixture in. There may still be some flour bits floating around. Theoretically this shouldn't happen if the milk is cold and the flour/butter combo is hot but if it does you can fish them out with a slotted spoon.

Let this mixture come to a simmer, then add your white cheddar cheese (the 1.5 cups), Parmesan cheese and seasonings. Stir with a long wooden spoon until it thickens, usually about 2-3 minutes. If you're ready to mix it with your cauliflower (or chosen "thing"), do so. If not, keep the sauce going on low until you're ready to use it.

Now let's get back to that cauliflower.

At this point your water should be boiling. If you use frozen cauliflower, dump it in there and let the whole thing return to a boil. It cooks pretty fast (about 5 minutes or so). If you're using fresh add that and cook until very tender (about 7-8 minutes) for fresh.

Once your cauliflower is cooked, drain it and then mash it by whatever means you have available (I use a potato masher). 

Mix the cheese sauce into the cauliflower in the pot and then empty it into a casserole dish (I used an 8 x 8 Pyrex dish). Sprinkle the remaining 1/3 cup of cheese on top and add any other spices you like to the top (I usually do salt, pepper and a sprinkle of Herbs de Provence) and bake it for 30 minutes or until it is bubbling and the top is slightly browned.

Yep...my child loved her dinner. Oh yeah, here are the red potatoes in case anyone is interested. 

Yes, I had a few. Potatoes are not the enemy for me! 

BF Cook-along: Butter Garlic Herb Tilapia w/ Squash and Cheesy Cauliflower

Obligatory "Fed" Disclaimer: When clicking links in this blog post related to products, you will be redirected to sites where those products are available for purchase. If you purchase products through those links, a portion of the sale price is paid back to Bariatric Foodie. 

I really enjoy doing these cook-alongs on Facebook. It holds me accountable to cooking lunch for the week and gives you guys a look into my warped thought process!

So this week I got some beautiful stuff at the farmer's market, including HUGE zucchini (I always overbuy), some yellow squash (my grandma called them "crook-necks"). Since I had such an abundance I decided to start my cook-along there.

Indulge me a memory. As a kid my now late mother (who I call "Mama Foodie") did not believe in kitchen machinery. Food processors offended her sensibilities and a mandolin slicer? Get outta here! Nope. Instead...she had me.

Now when I was younger I resented this, especially because my brothers got to watch tv while I was being forced to chop veggie after veggie after veggie. But the good part about this (for you and for me) is that I can chop darn near anything, any way, really fast! These days I do so to honor my mom's memory. It almost feels like we're still cooking together.

S'anyway, that's all to say that when I looked at the whole squash and zucchini, in my mind's eye what I saw was this:

And I knew that I wanted to do a "flavor build-up" as I call it. In my world, this is where you layer flavors so that when they cook in an oven they all come together in a glorious marriage of nummyness! To start I made the world's simplest butter garlic herb sauce:

Nik's "Really Simple" Butter Garlic Herb Sauce

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp butter (if you don't use butter...use what you use)
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp Herbs de Provence (if you don't have this French herb blend handy use the herbs you like. Italian seasoning also works!)
• Salt/pepper to taste
• Optional (but I used) A splash (I'd estimate about 2-3 tbsp) white wine

Directions:

Set a pan over a medium flame and add your butter.

Once it melts, throw in the garlic and herbs and mix it with a whisk or a fork.

After it gets to a simmering boil, add the wine and cook an additional minute or two.

NOM! Once I tasted it I poured it over my veggies and I knew just what protein I wanted to stick on top. TILAPIA!

I love tilapia although I don't eat it very often (don't ask me why, there is no good reason!). So I put a few frozen filets on top of the veggies and seasoned them with salt, a generous dose of black pepper (I am a fan) and a sprinkle more of Herbs de Provence. And into a pre-heated 350 oven they went for 35 minutes! It came out looking (and smelling!) lovely. Check it:

Now, I'm all into eating healthy but I also whole-heartedly believe that every meal should have some little indulgence. One might argue that the butter in the fish is indulgence but considering the butter made up 200 calories, split among four portions, I think I have room to play with my food!

I had a bag of cauliflower I'd thawed then promptly forgot about it so I needed to use it. I wanted cheesy mashed cauliflower but my original recipe calls for more cauliflower than I had and, frankly, I didn't want to get stuck eating it for two weeks! So I worked out a quickie version.

Nik's Quicky Cheesy Mashed Cauliflower

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 shredded cheese of your choice
• 1 bag cauliflower florets, cooked and mashed
• An additional sprinkle of cheese over the top

Basically you make a simple pan cheese sauce by letting your milk come up to a slow simmer in a pan. Add the cheese once the milk is hot and stir well. I used the same pan I'd made the butter garlic herb sauce so I had that good pan crud (and residual butter!) working for me. You may have to stir a few moments to get it to melt down completely but eventually it should look like this:

Transfer your cauliflower to a pan (I used an 8x8) and pour the cheese on top. Sprinkle a little extra cheese on top (and to keep with the Herbs de Provence theme, I sprinkled some of that on too). Bake in a 350 oven for 30 minutes or until cheese on top is browned!

Who stole a bite???

I love these kinds of dinners. They confuse my kids because it feels like they have had a starch when they have not! But it's still good! 

If you wanna join in on the cook-along fun, be sure to tune into Bariatric Foodie's Facebook Page on Sunday nights. That's when I usually do a cook-along. If I do one during a different time I usually send out an event invite.

Until then, keep playing with your food!

PWYF Moment: Theresa's Cauliflower Tortillas/Huevos Rancheros

Another PWYF moment!!!

Today we celebrate Theresa, for answering the call when I shone the “Foodie light” (it’s like the bat light but it’s shaped like a cupcake) for someone to test out a neat recipe I found online for cauliflowertortillas. Yes, you read that right…cauliflower tortillas!

Click the link above for the recipe for the tortillas, but look what she made out of them!!!

HUEVOS RANCHEROS!

For those of you not familiar with the dish, it simply means “Ranch-style eggs” and consists of fried eggs, served on fried tortillas with tomato-chili sauce, refried beans, Mexican-style rice and sometimes avocado and guacamole.

So you can see why this dish needed some re-imagining, right?

Here’s what Theresa says about how she changed the dish. “We ate our tortillas  smothered in black beans and over med eggs...with a touch of greek yogurt.....a la Huevos Rancheros style!” I should also note:

• You can purchase tomato-chili sauce (it's basically taco sauce) from the store or you could sub in salsa
• You don't have to use black beans, you can use any beans you like. To cut down on the sodium, drain and rinse them first!
• Theresa found her plate so satisfying she didn't need a rice sub but if you want to extend the cauliflower love, I'm sure cauliflower rice might do nicely here too!

And can you believe I have even more PWYF fun for you tomorrow? What is it? You'll have to tune in and see! 

But if you come up with something neat in the kitchen, be sure to email both a picture and the recipe (or recipe link) to bariatricfoodie@yahoo.com. I'd love to feature you!

Faux-tato salad lives on!

A little Faux-tato salad...a little chicken...who needs those starchy carbs???

You wanna know how I come by about 89% of the Foodie-submitted posts on this blog?

I am watching you.

Yes, I am. And when one of you says, "Hey, Nik, I tried ______ and I really liked it!" I POUNCE! Because I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY do mean it when I say I love to see what you guys are doing in your kitchens! So I email you. Or message you. Or stalk you online (I only had to do that three times though) until you send me that recipe (with pics, please!).

Folks...don't make me work so hard. You know when you have a moment of Foodie genius. And most of you have smart phones, or at least phones capable of snapping and emailing a picture.

So when you have these moments of glory in the kitchen, when the entire fam is raving about what YOU just made for dinner and you're feeling pretty damn good because two months ago you didn't even know it was possible to eat healthfully and deliciously and you're beginning to think this whole WLS thing just might work out after all...hit a sista up with a recipe and a pic! There are other Foodies sitting where you were two months ago who will be eternally grateful. I'm just sayin.

(/end PSA)

So this recipe is a remix of a BF recipe. You might remember last week I mentioned faux-tato salad. I love the stuff! Me and potatoes? Enhh. I can eat them. But I'm not that passionate about them. But I do love potato salad. It's the quintessential summer food. So when former BF co-author Jen taught me to make faux-tato salad I was all in!

Apparently so was Dana. But like any good Foodie, he decided to play with his food to make it his fauxtato salad. Here's what he did:

(Nik Note: My profuse apologies for calling you a she, Dana. I was in auto-mode typing this post and I think my fingers took over my brain! Thank you for calling me out!)

Dana's Red Hot Faux-tato Salad

Ingredients:

1 large head fresh cauliflower

4 large eggs, hard boiled & diced up (I mash mine up with a potato masher)
1 medium sweet onion, chopped fine
1 c. Greek Yogurt
1/2 c. Kraft Low-Fat Horseradish-Dijon Reduced Fat Sandwich Shop Mayo
1/4 c. Horseradish Mustard from Aldi (Burman's??)
1/4 c. chopped dill pickles
1/2 bunch fresh Italian Parsley, minced
1/2 bunch fresh Dill, minced
Salt, Pepper and Garlic Powder (to taste)
1/4 c. (or more to taste) Frank's Red Hot sauce
2 tsp Paprika (plus a few splicks for garnish) Nik Note: Dana I love you for validating "splick" as a measurement. MWAH

From there you're going to use the same directions as Jen's Faux-tato salad, which are as follows.

Directions:

1. Fill a pot 1/2 full with cold water and a pinch of salt.
2. Remove the cauliflower florets from the stalk and put them into the pot of water. Bring it up to a rolling boil, then let it simmer for about 5 minutes or so until the cauliflower is fork tender. (If you have a rice cooker with a steamer insert, you can cook the cauliflower in the steamer. You could also put the florets in a microwave safe bowl with a little water in the bottom and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Poke a few holes in the plastic to vent it, then microwave for 4 or 5 minutes until the cauliflower is steamed.) OR you can buy 3 bags of that Birdseye Steam Fresh Cauliflower, nuke it, and skip all that stuff I said in the previous paragraph. Once the cauliflower is done, mash it up with a potato masher (or pulse it in the food processor) until it is the consistency of lumpy mashed potatoes. 
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the Greek yogurt, mayonnaise, and mustard until thoroughly combined. Add a pinch of salt, half a pinch of pepper, and a sprinkle of garlic powder. Now add the minced Parsley and Dill, pickle relish, and chopped onion, and whisk thoroughly.
4. Add the chopped eggs to the cauliflower, then combine the Greek yogurt mixture with the eggs and cauliflower. Fold it together with a rubber spatula until it is well mixed. NOW TASTE IT and adjust your seasonings. The mustard usually hides the "twang" of the Greek yogurt, but you may need more salt and pepper.