New York State of Mind

Living on Long Island for the first 25 years of my life has turned me into a bit of a snob.

A bagel snob.

There is nowhere else I have been (and I've been around) that beats the bagels of my youth. 

You just can't top a Long Island bagel!

As a kid, there were the basics. Plain, poppy, egg, sesame, salt, onion, everything and raisin. As I got older, they started making stupid crap like French Toast bagels and spinach bagels. Those are NOT bagels. 

For me, the ultimate is an "everything" bagel. Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, salt, minced onion and minced garlic. There are some places that throw in caraway seeds...but I hate those. Ick.

An everything bagel with lox spread, olive cream cheese, or just plain old cream cheese. Oh, mama! That is heaven!

Alas...bagels are the enemy. Carbs like that are not my friend.

But that doesn't mean I don't have a craving every once in a while!

Pinterest came along and gave me some inspiration with these Everything Bagel Cauliflower Rolls. 

Ingredients

1. 1 head cauliflower, riced (about 3 cups) - do this in the food processor
2. 2 tbsp almond flour
3. 1 tbsp coconut flour
4. 1 tbsp corn meal (not paleo- you can sub almond flour)
5. 2 eggs
6. 1/2 tsp garlic powder
7. 1/4 tsp sea salt

"Everything" Topping

1. 1/2 tsp poppy seeds
2. 1 tbsp sesame seeds
3. 1 tsp dried minced garlic
4. 1 tbsp dried minced onion
5. 1/2 tsp sea salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. In a food processor, or using a hand grater, pulse/grate cauliflower until rice consistency
3. In a bowl combine eggs, cauliflower rice, almond flour, coconut flour, corn meal, garlic powder, and salt   
   
4. In a separate bowl combine "everything" topping ingredients
5. Lay parchment paper on a baking sheet
6. Make 4 even sized balls and lay onto parchment paper
7. Sprinkle "everything" topping and slightly press them into the top
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until bread-like consistency (it might be longer depending on the size you make)
9. Optional: Broil on high for 3-5 minutes after baking - be careful! Mine got a bit too brown.
10. Optional: For extra crisp, remove from baking sheet and do the broiling step with the buns directly on the oven rack and try not to set the smoke alarm off like I did!
11. Remove from baking sheet and let cool directly on a cooling rack
12. Serve with your favorite sandwich ingredients  
    

So....how was this? Was it worth buying a bag of almond flour and coconut flour?

I think so! It wasn't a bagel by any means, but it did fit the bill for having something bread-like. I haven't had a sandwich that was 17 Day Diet appropriate in a long time. We were having breakfast for dinner, so I used a slice of turkey bacon, some avocado and a wedge of Laughing Cow Light.

So while it isn't taking me back to Long Island, it will keep me on track with my diet!

BBQ Chicken Pizza Redux

Let's move onto cookbook #10 of 98....

I bought this book sometime around the beginning of the show in 2006. I was easily swayed by the magic that happened on the ranch back then....before I knew that they worked the contestants like animals and that losing that much weight that quickly was a recipe for disaster. 

The Biggest Loser was and still is a big proponent of product placement. Big companies pay a ton of money to have the show pimp their product. Most of these products are full of chemicals, like sugar-free Jello, yogurts with aspartame, Subway, and Extra Sugar-Free Gum. No thanks.

But...the cookbook does have some pretty good ideas. 

I made turkey sausage and it was really good...no funky ingredients.

Then I saw a recipe for Thin-and-Crispy BBQ-Chicken Pizza Snack Wedges.

I love me some BBQ Chicken Pizza!

The best I have ever had is in Moorestown, NJ near my mother-in-law. It comes from Passariello's.

Hello gorgeous!

Well, that's not happening anytime soon.

The Biggest Loser recipe reminded me just how much I love the combination of the barbecue sauce, chicken, cheese, onion and cilantro...and had me wondering how I could make it work.

The base of the "pizza" was a tortilla in the original recipe. I subbed a cauliflower crust. My favorite recipe for that can be found here.

The chicken, onion, and fat-free cheddar were all totally 17 DD compliant. The cilantro is technically not allowed until Cycle 3...but I was going to be a rebel and eat that one teaspoon of it anyway!

Barbecue Sauce...notorious for sugar. What I didn't realize was that there are ZILLIONS of different sauces out there. I wasn't going to go for a sugar-free one because, well, ick. The dietician agreed with me in the Biggest Loser Cookbook and suggested to find a sauce with less than 7 grams of carbs per serving.

So, after squatting all over the condiment aisle at the store, I found this guy:

If you can see the label, there are six carbs and four grams of sugar in two tablespoons. Not bad.

I only used one tablespoon. Even better!

So while this may not be technically compliant, I think it's close enough. Plus, I can understand all of the ingredients.

Once the crust is made, it's super easy to throw together. The chicken can be pulled from an already cooked breast, or you can do what I did and thinly slice a chicken cutlet and cook with salt and pepper.

I made a bunch, so I can add some to other recipes or salad:

I spread the one tablespoon of barbecue sauce on the crust, added the fat-free cheddar, the chicken, the red onion and cilantro:

Threw it in the oven at 350 for 5 minutes and done!

I would have photographed it on a nice white plate, but it was stuck to the damn foil. Guess I should have used some PAM?

Regardless, it was SO GOOD! Totally hit the spot for me.

Despite my bad feelings about The Biggest Loser show, I am keeping this book. There were quite a few recipes that may not be great as they are written, but gave me some wonderful ideas.

Here's my take on the recipe:

BBQ Chicken Pizza with Cauliflower Crust

1 cauliflower crust (about the size of a large tortilla)
1 Tablespoon Stubbs BBQ Sauce
1/4 cup fat-free shredded cheddar
handful of grilled or shredded chicken
1 teaspoon of chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons slivered red onion

Preheat oven to 350.

Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray before putting crust on it. Spread BBQ sauce on, then cheese, chicken, onion and cilantro. Heat for 5 minutes. Enjoy!

I Did the Mash

Trying desperately to keep up with some new and compliant recipes. At the grocery store yesterday I had a run-in with Gingerbread Twix. I didn't buy them, but found myself pissed off that I couldn't. Instead I ended up with a cart that was full of healthy goodness, and just a tiny bit of racism.

For some reason Paula Deen's face is slapped on the package of the only brand of ground chicken breast my local market carries.

I would rather not buy anything that she was associated with but there are times where I just need my damn ground chicken breast and have to suck it up. 

Hence the racism in my cart.

But no Twix.

The cold is approaching and I find myself craving comfort food. The Italian Egg Drop Soup totally hit the spot the other day. Tonight I tried my hand at Cauliflower Mash.

The results were interesting, there were some things I would change the next time I made it…but I would surely make it again.

The original recipe called for cutting up a cauliflower into florets and roasting it with some cloves of garlic in the oven until it was soft enough to mash up.

No problem. Did it.

Grabbed my potato masher and went to work, but it just looked like fibrous shreds. It was not the mashed potato consistency that I was after. 

So…I had a few choices. The traditional blender, the food processor, or the immersion blender. I went with the fastest and least messiest option…the immersion blender. It wasn't as proficient as the other choices but it did get the job done.

Now that I had the right consistency I was supposed to add the rest of the ingredients. It called for olive oil, romano cheese, salt, pepper, and cream.

There was no way I was going to throw in 1/3 cup of olive oil and 1/3 cup of cream into the cauliflower so I did about 2 tablespoons of oil and 1 tablespoon of something that isn't necessarily 17 Day Diet compliant but probably should be in cycle 3. It's called Extra Thick Single Cream made by The Brooklyn Creamery Company. It has 30 calories, no sugars and 3.2 grams of fat in a tablespoon, so I threw it in there. Because I'm a rebel like that.

I did add about 1/4 cup of romano cheese…and boy was that pungent. I think next time I will go with the parmesan. I also put in a splash of chicken stock to wet it.

This isn't making a great impression, is it?

Well…it really did hit the spot as far as wanting something akin to mashed potato. Mine wasn't too pretty, so I will share someone else's version with you…

Here is a basic idea of what to do…but feel free to play with it.

1 head of cauliflower
4-6 cloves of garlic, peeled (I would use less…I found it to be too garlicky..and I usually enjoy roasted garlic)
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup romano or parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon of Extra Thick Single Cream
Chicken stock to moisten if needed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut the cauliflower into florets, peel the garlic, salt and pepper them and wrap in aluminum foil. Roast until very tender, about 50 minutes or until soft.

Use a blender or food processor to mix to desired consistency. Use a hand masher for a chunkier texture. Add olive oil, cheese, and cream, mix well. Season with more salt and pepper if needed.

Can me made ahead and reheated.

Experimenting with recipes found online can be tricky…sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. While I wouldn't rate this one as a true knockout dish, I would absolutely make it when I had that craving for something like mashed potato. Who knows…you may even want it at your holiday table this year?!?