Pizza Amore
My fam loves pizza. A few summers ago I think I averaged cooking at least 2 homemade pizzas a week. I like homemade pizzas better because I know exactly what is on it & can load it with different kinds of vegetables & the people will gobble it up. Tonight, I went into uncharted territory.
Henry is trying to lean up for lacrosse season. Being 16, it shouldn't take him that long. I hate teenage boys. They can burn 1000 calories by just blinking. That's fair, said no momma ever. I've been on a diet most of my life & I'm still trying to lose baby weight I gained when I was pregnant with Henry. Granted he is 16, but I still have about 10 pounds I need to get off. I'm thinking at this point it may just be a permanent part of the bod, boo. Anyway...
Henry started eating much leaner last week, aaannnddd he lost 5 pounds in one week. (Insert huge eye roll here.) All he did was cut down on his carb intake. Now he does have practice 5-6 days a week & the days he doesn't have practice he goes to the gym to box for 2 hours. He is not lacking in the workout department. But that's beside the point, he lost 5 POUNDS in 1 WEEK. Ugh.
The one thing he said he was missing was pizza. I mean, it's happy food, who wouldn't miss it? Since Hen is my favorite 16-year-old, I decided to help a brother out, and tonight I made him a pizza with a cauliflower crust. It can't be that difficult right? Here's what I found out. It's not that hard, but it is extremely time-consuming.
I bought a fresh head of cauliflower, cut it up & steamed it. After steaming it, I had to put the florets into a food processor to make it the consistency of cauliflower rice. This part is not difficult. It is actually pretty cool. It's the next part that is tricky & where I was lacking a little. Cauliflower has a ton of natural water in it. It's a veggie & it's good for you, so that's not surprising. The next step is to squeeze as much of the water out as you can. I realized pretty quickly didn't have the right equipment for it. I needed a cheesecloth bag & the only ones I have a tiny. (Like tea bag tiny) I decided to use a small slotted strainer. It worked ok, but cheesecloth would have been better.
The next thing is to mix an egg, cheese (I used shredded mozzarella), and dried basil in with the dehydrated cauliflower rice & stir it well. I then put parchment paper on my baking stone & spread the mixture on the parchment. One head of cauliflower made enough crust to fill my entire stone. On the recipe I used (which if you know me, you know I use a recipe more like guidelines) it says to cook the crust for 10 minutes. Well, in actuality, I cooked the crust for 40 minutes & could have cooked it for another 20. I'm thinking it took longer because I didn't get all the water out of the cauliflower. It was a little spongy. Oh yeah, there is one egg in it.
I topped the crust just like I do for any other pizza & put it back into the oven for 20 minutes. I have to admit it smelled pretty good. The big test was going to be when the guys tasted it. I didn't tell Hopson right off the bat, because I wanted to see what he said. He like it & so did Mr. Super Picky (Harry). Henry said he was just thankful to be able to eat pizza. So while it was labor intensive, I think it is a definite do again. I will get a cheesecloth to help me get all the water out of the cauliflower rice the next time I make it though. All in all, not a bad night cooking.
Here's to healthy eating & being a teenage boy who can lose 5 pounds a week.
Celebrating life!
~ashley
Henry is trying to lean up for lacrosse season. Being 16, it shouldn't take him that long. I hate teenage boys. They can burn 1000 calories by just blinking. That's fair, said no momma ever. I've been on a diet most of my life & I'm still trying to lose baby weight I gained when I was pregnant with Henry. Granted he is 16, but I still have about 10 pounds I need to get off. I'm thinking at this point it may just be a permanent part of the bod, boo. Anyway...
Henry started eating much leaner last week, aaannnddd he lost 5 pounds in one week. (Insert huge eye roll here.) All he did was cut down on his carb intake. Now he does have practice 5-6 days a week & the days he doesn't have practice he goes to the gym to box for 2 hours. He is not lacking in the workout department. But that's beside the point, he lost 5 POUNDS in 1 WEEK. Ugh.
The one thing he said he was missing was pizza. I mean, it's happy food, who wouldn't miss it? Since Hen is my favorite 16-year-old, I decided to help a brother out, and tonight I made him a pizza with a cauliflower crust. It can't be that difficult right? Here's what I found out. It's not that hard, but it is extremely time-consuming.
I bought a fresh head of cauliflower, cut it up & steamed it. After steaming it, I had to put the florets into a food processor to make it the consistency of cauliflower rice. This part is not difficult. It is actually pretty cool. It's the next part that is tricky & where I was lacking a little. Cauliflower has a ton of natural water in it. It's a veggie & it's good for you, so that's not surprising. The next step is to squeeze as much of the water out as you can. I realized pretty quickly didn't have the right equipment for it. I needed a cheesecloth bag & the only ones I have a tiny. (Like tea bag tiny) I decided to use a small slotted strainer. It worked ok, but cheesecloth would have been better.
 |
| 1 pizza crust ready to be topped |
I topped the crust just like I do for any other pizza & put it back into the oven for 20 minutes. I have to admit it smelled pretty good. The big test was going to be when the guys tasted it. I didn't tell Hopson right off the bat, because I wanted to see what he said. He like it & so did Mr. Super Picky (Harry). Henry said he was just thankful to be able to eat pizza. So while it was labor intensive, I think it is a definite do again. I will get a cheesecloth to help me get all the water out of the cauliflower rice the next time I make it though. All in all, not a bad night cooking.
Here's to healthy eating & being a teenage boy who can lose 5 pounds a week.
Celebrating life!
~ashley
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