You Don't Bring Me (Cauli)Flowers

Who knew that my favorite flower these days would end up being cauliflower?

It has become a staple in my rotation on the 17 Day Diet. I had no idea it was such a magical little vegetable!

Sure, I knew back from the Atkins Diet days you could mash it up with cream and salt and it was like mashed potato....but there's no butter or cream happening on the 17 DD.

What I found online was a veritable treasure trove of cauliflower recipes that were healthy and low calorie substitutes for some favorite foods. Missing fried rice? Guess what? Toss some raw cauliflower florets in the food processor for thirty pulses and it turns into a rice-like consistency. Throw it in the wok with some soy sauce, veggies and a raw egg and you come pretty close to getting your take-out fix without the carbs and grease!

Amongst all of the cauliflower-porn I found something I needed. Pizza crust. I needed pizza crust.

Every Friday night is pizza night in my house. We eat pizza and watch a movie...if the schedule allows.

I've been eating my salads, chicken, eggs, whatever while the boys are having their pizza each week. It doesn't bother me to the point of breaking down and having some...but it is one of my all time favorite foods. With the cauliflower crust recipe I had the potential of getting my pizza on again!

Check out this gorgeous specimen:

It looks amazing, right?

Guess what?

It WAS amazing!!!

A bit of a pain in the ass to make, but totally worth it. You see, when you put raw cauliflower in the Cuisinart it tends to get all over the place. Or maybe its just me. I'm not sure.

After pulsing, it gets cooked in the microwave and then has the life squeezed out of it so all of the water gets out. Mix it with egg, spices and cheese. I used fat free mozzarella and regular shredded Parmesan. Not the powdery kind in a can. That's just yucky.

The recipe suggests you use a rolling pin to roll out the crust between two sheets of wax paper...but you really can use your hands. No big deal.

The genius woman who created the recipe also has you making your own sauce. I was way too tired to deal with that...so I used jarred. I've found one at Whole Foods that I really like...365 brand organic marinara and it has no added sugar and low carbs.

The attached link has all of the instructions and photos. Make this. You WON'T be sorry. And you'll never look at a cauliflower the same way again!

Cauliflower Pizza With Spicy Tomato Basil Sauce