Hamburger Cauliflower Casserole

The other night, I was looking for something warm, filling, and quick to make for dinner. I came along this wonderful recipe, and decided to give it a go! Not only was it delicious, it was also super simple. Another great thing about this recipe is that it uses very few dishes =equaling= easy clean-up! My kind of dish! So, if you're looking for a quick, simple dinner, or you're just craving the taste of a yummy cheeseburger, give this dish a go! 

**Just a little note before we continue. I ended up doubling the recipe in order to have plenty of leftovers; therefore, the pictures are of a double batch, not the 8x8 dish batch that the recipe would produce!**

Hamburger Cauliflower Casserole

Adapted from SparkPeople user PILGRIMK's Recipe

The final product!

What You'll Need:

1 lb. ground beef (I used lean ground turkey)

1 t. onion powder

1 t. garlic powder

1/2 c. sour cream (I used reduced fat)

4 oz. cream cheese (I used reduced fat)

8 oz. frozen cauliflower

1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

*I also used a can of RO*TEL® tomatoes for a little kick!

*I also added a dash of salt, pepper, and oregano for more flavor

How to Throw It All Together:

Brown beef. Add onion powder, garlic powder, sour cream and cream cheese (and RO*TEL® tomatoes, salt, pepper, and oregano, if you so choose). Cook and stir until well blended. 

Cook cauliflower until very soft. Drain and pat with a paper towel to soak up excess moisture. Add to beef mixture. 

Ready to go in the oven!

Pour into a greased 8x8 pan, top with cheese, and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Now, just dish it out and serve it with (or without) the veggie of your choice! Ta-da!

My New Favorite Treat!

As a way of avoiding eating excess carbs, anything with a decent amount of sugar is out of the question. For some low carb eaters, this isn't a problem; however, for me, it most certainly is an issue. I love sweets! If I could eat dessert with every meal (and stay healthy), then I would in a heartbeat. Thankfully there are low carb alternatives to the regular sweet treats out there, and they are delicious! One that I stumbled upon recently... Low Carb Snickerdoodles!

Recipe for Low Carb Snickerdoodles

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user SHELLSLYN

 What You'll Need:

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups almond flour/meal

1 cup Splenda

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

~~~

2 Tbsp. Splenda

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

How to Make 'em:

Mix together all of the top ingredients. Cover and refrigerate dough for 1 hour.

Mix together bottom amount of Splenda and cinnamon, and keep in a small dish. Roll the dough into small balls, and then roll in the Splenda/cinnamon mixture.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet, and cook at 350 degrees for approximately 12-15 minutes.

~Number of Cookies= 20

Let cool and enjoy, or have a warm cookie paired with one scoop of Breyers' CarbSmart Vanilla Ice Cream! Yum!

Mamma Mia Pizzaria!

So, when I altered over to low carb livin', NEVER EVER did I think I'd be eating pizza again (without cheating)! However, when I was breezing through Food Network's collection of low carb recipes, I came across a most surprising and thrilling dish.... Low Carb Pizza!!! Now, you can have your Friday Night Pizza Fix, without taking in a huge amount of carbs!

Low Carb Pizza

Recipe courtesy of George Stella at Food Network with my own alterations/ alternate toppings!

Ingredients for the Crust:
1 1/2 cups soy flour
3 eggs
3/4 heavy cream
1/3 cup club soda
1 tsp. salt


Ingredients for the Sauce:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/8 diced red onion (I used a little extra!)
1 tsp. chopped garlic
3 large Roma tomatoes, diced
8 ounces no sugar added tomato sauce
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground pepper


As far as ingredients for the toppings, this may vary from person to person depending on what you like! The original recipe had some great options, but I chose to go with the following...


My Toppings:
Fresh Mozzarella
Grated Parmesan
Crumbled Feta
Hot Italian Sausage (Ground and Browned)
Fresh Baby Spinach


How To Throw It All Together:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Generously spray 2 (12-inch) pizza pans with nonstick vegetable oil cooking spray. In a medium bowl, stir together all of the crust ingredients to make a smooth, thick, pancake-like batter. Using a rubber spatula, spread the batter as thin and evenly as possible over the 2 pans.

Place pizza crusts on center racks of the oven and bake for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly golden brown and firm to touch.

Remove crusts from oven and increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees F.

Meanwhile, make the sauce: In a saucepan over medium heat, heat olive oil and then onions and garlic in oil, cooking just until softened and translucent. Add diced tomatoes and the remaining ingredients and simmer for about 2 minutes.

Almost ready!

Compile the pizzas: Spread the tomato sauce and then the mozzarella cheese evenly over both crusts. Top pizzas with ingredients of your choice!

Place the pizzas back in the oven to bake for another 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cheese melts and starts to brown. 

Enjoy your pizza, guilt free!

Steak and Potatoes... Well, Almost!

Last night for dinner we had a good ole' fashion meal of steak, mashed potatoes, and spinach salad. Mashed potatoes, as you know, are not low carb. So what's my secret... well those potatoes were not actually potatoes. I used a recipe for "Caulitators," also known as cauliflower mashed potatoes! This meal really hit the spot, and my husband said the caulitators would satisfy his craving for mashed potatoes any day! They were delicious! So here it is, the infamous Caulitators recipe.

Caulitators
Recipe from Spark People user SNAVELA1 with my own tips and comments!


What You'll Need:
1 head of Cauliflower (I used a bag of frozen Cauliflower)
1 cup of low sodium chicken broth
4 oz. cream cheese, 1/3 less fat
2 Tbsp. light butter (I used full fat unsalted butter)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. parsley (I actually omitted this due to not having any in the house!)
1/2 cup 2% Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

How to Throw It All Together:
Break apart head of cauliflower (or open bag of frozen cauliflower) and steam in pan with 1 cup of chicken broth until cauliflower is soft.


Drain broth and put cauliflower on paper towels to dry off the extra moisture.


Mix with a hand or standing mixer the cauliflower, cream cheese, butter, parsley, garlic powder and salt and pepper. <-- (I used an immersion blender in a bowl for this step, and it worked perfectly!)


Pour in a small casserole dish., and top with shredded cheese.


Bake for 15 minutes, at 350 degrees.

Number of Servings: 6


Cook your steak however you like it, and throw together a salad, and there you have it! A perfect low carb steak and "potatoes" meal!


**Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of this meal... they will have to be added at a later date!**

And So It Begins...

As of March 1st, I have been working towards my goal of getting healthy and staying healthy. After careful thought, my husband and I have decided to change to a low carbohydrate lifestyle (we're saying lifestyle as opposed to diet... makes it seem more concrete, right?!), paired with regular exercise. My goal in keeping this blog is to share and review recipes I've used, as well as to track my overall progress. Alright... here it goes!