Liz’s challenge-experiment-investigation: Cauliflower Pizza Crust and Zucchini Hashbrowns

Shhh. Don’t tell anyone about this. I’m working on my food consumption. I can’t call it a diet (the word diet transforms me into a hedonistic and rebellious glutton) so I have a few other alternate words and phrases.

• experiment
• detox-ish
• sugar investigation
• challenge
• And of course- food consumption tracking or rather, noticing.

I’m only 2 days into this journey, so I’m not ready to call it a streak. However, these two days have yielded both glorious and interesting results.

Monday’s find: What I am calling Zucchini Hash Browns.

I stole the concept from a fantastic zucchini cake dish created by a passionate and talented young Des Moines-based chef, Kris Van Tuyl when he came on Life Dare TV and showed us ladies how to create easy-to-like-yet-difficult vegetables. For several years after, I recreated the dish, continuing to attempt the consistency of cakes, adding more flour and breadcrumbs to thicken it up. However, my present challenge is about reducing sugar and processed foods so I did all the same actions- shredding, and seasoning, but limited the flour and breadcrumbs to 1/4 cup in total. You can see the results below. Fitting for breakfast, they looked like hash browns, tasted even better and satisfied me until lunch. (I’m one of those orally-driven and mindless snackers).

Here’s the show if you are interested…

Even more wonderful, considering this website is called “neadinspiration,” the share inspired people to try something different. I hate when someone gives you an idea but it’s almost impossible to execute. This one is seriously so simple and easy and delicious, what’s not to like. It’s important to insert here, I’m not proposing this is a substitute for omelets and toast and bacon. I like it ALL. I am searching for alternatives for every day life, but I reserve the right to indulge whenever I want. One day later, Jennifer R. tried it and I’m happy to say even her son likes it. (see below). Thank you for your interest. So often I think, why would ANYONE want to know what I’m eating but living well is inspiration and encouragement for a better life!

Tuesday’s treasure: Cauliflower Pizza Crust. A little more complicated but seriously org… well delicious.

I’m not going to say this was as easy as the zucchini hash browns to create, but it was equal parts amazing, delicious and so guilt-free healthy. Since less processed starch is one of my underlying goals, I wanted to find something that could beat crust or bread and create a pizza-like meal. I’m American. I love bread, so this was a tall order. Please know—I’m not trying to replace pizza, just reduce it’s presence in my life. Maybe you can relate. If so, continue on.

Since it’s more complicated, I took a few snaps to make it easy for you to follow. I used a recipe I found online as a baseline but I’ll tell you since heads of cauliflower are not consistent, you can’t get the same results each time without psychotically measuring everything out. Wing it! The seasonings make it so worth it.

Step 1-ish: Rice the cauliflower (cut it up into tiny little pieces)

I’ve done this a few times and small little pieces of cauliflower is important. I couldn’t get my food processor to work, so I took 1/2 head of cauliflower (it was slightly smaller than medium) and used a knife. It took about 5 minutes. I hate cutting up cauliflower by the way—it explodes everywhere. But I got through that part.

 Step 2: Place it in a microwave-safe dish (plasticware is easy) and cover it loosely (I used the lid that goes with the container).

Microwave for 10 minutes. It will be nice and mushy and ready to transform into…pizza crust! One thought: I’m sure there are people who don’t like the idea of putting it in the microwave and that’s okay. Steam it up if that makes you feel better. This recipe is designed to make you feel both loved and virtuous.

 

 

Step 3: Mix in the binding ingredients and seasoning and flatten it into a circle on a pizza pan.

I mushed the cooked cauliflower down with a fork and then added everything at once- a beaten egg (I just created a little space in the corner of the same container the cauliflower was in and whipped it up—I HATE dirty dishes), a 1/4 cup of cheese, pepper, salt and the spices I had on hand that sounded good (flake basil, ground thyme and onion powder in this case). I spent less than a minute trying to mush it up as best I can. I think I could have put it back in the microwave to make it mushier but I was feeling impatient (pretty normal for me with my ADHD and all) so I kept moving forward. When I was done mixing, I put the mix on a pizza pan I sprayed with Pam and flattened it and shaped the pile until it looked sort of like a pizza. Of course if you prefer squares or triangles, have at it- this is supposed to be your adventure.

Step 4: Stick the Cauliflower Pizza Crust-dough in a 425-degree oven for 25 minutes.

I think the timing depends on the thickness of your “crust,” and I was so hungry I checked it at 10 minutes and 15 minutes. This is what it looked like after 15 minutes so I took it out. Starting to look sort of interesting, isn’t it, slightly more edible? It definitely smelled like something worth eating at this point.

 

Step 5: Put your toppings on your Cauliflower pizza crust and stick it back into the oven.

I knew I would eat the whole thing (I have no control, hence the experiment-detox-consumption tracking), so I decided to only cover half of my pizza with toppings. I used what I had in the fridge—you can see zucchini (the other half from yesterday), tomatoes, green onions, some meat from a pasta dish I made on Saturday and a light tap of Parmesan cheese.

 

Step 6: If you don’t have veggies, take out your Cauliflower Pizza Crust, cut it up and eat!

I checked it after 2 minutes and decided to cut my pizza in half and remove the non-veggie laden portion from the oven. I cut it up into strips and scarfed it down (thank goodness—it helped me wait for the rest of it). It was a nice combination of crispy on the top and creamy on the bottom. I could also see using it as a roll up.

 

 

Step 7: Bake the final half of your Cauliflower Pizza Crust for 3-4 minutes.

I wanted the veggies to be cooked/ heated so I waited another 3-4 minutes before I took it out. The crust wasn’t as crispy as the non-veggie side but I used a knife and fork combo to eat it and each bite was truly fantastic. I ate every bit of it!

 

 

The proper summary—Pizza with Cauliflower Pizza Crust.

Ingredients (the way I made it)

Pizza crust

• 1/2 head cauliflower
• 1 medium egg
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 tsp flake sweet basil
• 1/4 tsp ground thyme
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• pinch salt
• pinch pepper

Toppings

• 1/2 c zucchini
• 1/2 c tomato
• 1/4 c green onions
• sprinkle Parmesean cheese
• bits of meat from my pasta dish – 1/4 cup

Calories: I ate the whole entire thing, and even with over-estimated calorie counting, it adds up to 423 calories. Nice, right?

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Spray a pizza pan or cookie sheet with spray oil.
3. Rice your cauliflower. The smaller the better.
4. Microwave, covered, for 10 minutes
5. Mix and mush cauliflower, egg, cheese and spices.
6. Spread a thin layer on your oiled pan.
7. Pull out after 10-15 minutes (should barely be brown) and place your toppings on the crust.
8. Finish out the veggies with another 5-7 minutes of baking.
9. Cut up and enjoy!

I loved it this crust. It was meant to be a substitute for my taste buds and it served and exceeded its purpose for me. Please note: It’s really not like actual crust. Don’t get mad. I’m going to use it again and again. It was so full of flavor and there is some sort of mental jubilation knowing it was so good for me and so low in calories. I didn’t feel hungry for hours. What do you think? Are you ready to try it? Post your results and even better, give me your recipe upgrades, improvements and ideas!

Stay tuned for more internal epiphanies and culinary discoveries!