Cauliflower

The title is short and sweet. This post is all about cauliflower. In my past life we might have had it occasionally steamed with butter, but not a standard vegetable for us. However now it's a must have every week. There is always something to do with it (chicken fried rice, lasagna, taco shells, bacon patties, etc). It's right up there with cabbage, a staple. 

I shared a few posts ago our mini pizzas that we make from Cavegirl. We still enjoy those little yummies, as do the neighborhood kids. However we've gone BIG on our pizza crusts. We modified another that we found for lasagna. A few months ago I tried this recipe for Cauliflower Lasagna from Popular Paleo for the first time. Be sure to save time to make the cauliflower sheets, which is about an hour to prep and bake. It was most certainly worth it as the whole family enjoyed this meal. It's been made a few times since then. 

However, the first time I made the sheets of cauliflower I baked an extra sheet. Since it wasn't needed I cut the extra sheet up into 6 equal chunks then stacked and wrapped them in tinfoil to store in the fridge. My parents had stopped over on their way to Alaska for the summer so I ended up passing it on to them. They later used the sheets and made some pizza's with it in their toaster oven and raved about it. As a result of mom and dads test I now make the sheets on prep day, cut to size for the 9x13 and store in the fridge until we are ready to use. 

The next time we made pizza's I used the recipe for the cauliflower lasagna sheets but I added 4 eggs instead of 2 and and extra tablespoon of italian seasoning. We followed the remainder of the recipe seasonings and baked on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. After the sheet was baked we placed our pizza sauce (organic tomato sauce with italian seasoning in it) and toppings on and baked at 350 for another 15 minutes. This is a standing favorite now in our house. Everyone gets their 1/4 of the sheet, even the little guy. I claim my corner with more veggies and olives on top so no one will touch it. 

 

In our house pizza is a close second to tacos. Pre paleo we enjoyed these goodies in flour shells and corn shells at least every other week. They were a standby quick meal. There was usually some taco meat prepped each week to use here and there. With going paleo we had the rug pulled out from under us with regards to tacos and taco salad for that matter (no chips). This was one of the first items I was challenged with finding a good solution for. As Mark's Daily Apple was one of my first paleo resources I began my search there with this recipe. You can't pick these up and eat them but you can stack all your taco goodies on top of them. They have great flavor and the family liked. The downside is you can't pick them up. (oh and they aren't made of cauliflower, which is the requirement for this post)

 I came across this next great Cauliflower Tortillas recipe by Slim Palate. The photos looked pretty. It look as if you would be able to pick the tortilla up filled with all it's yummy taco toppings. The boys were in charge of the menu the other day and found these on my Pinterest board so I was forced into trying them. They are very similar to how you make the lasagne cauliflower sheets but the prep is different. The only thing I changed was I didn't cook my riced cauliflower in the microwave. I have issues with cooking anything in the microwave. Occasionally we use it for reheating, but we strive to do that all on the stove. So instead of the microwave I cooked it for about 4-5 minutes in a skillet on the stove. I feel I got the same texture that was required, it looked like mash.

The recipe is right on with how many tortillas you can make. I love that it gives you a number so you can estimate the size better. I will be playing with the size and thickness in the future as everyone wanted them a little bit bigger. They came out a little smaller than a traditional corn tortilla.  

 They came out of the oven looking beautiful. At this stage I split the triple batch in half and saved some for Kevin and I for after our WOD and moved the other half to the skilled for browning for the boys so they could eat.

I added a little bit of bacon grease to the cast iron skilled and crisped up each side for about 1-2 minutes. This made a difference in the outside as the recipe said. I wouldn't skip this step. When Kevin and I arrived home later I reheated our tortillas by browning them and it worked great. So for prep weeks I'll be making these babies in advance and just hold on the skillet step until we are ready to eat. How great is that! I love things that can prep!

The boys inhaled their dinner before I got a chance to ask how they liked them. It was unanimous that these will be our 'taco shells' going forward. 

If you aren't a cauliflower fan I'd urge you to rethink this awesome veggie! It has so much potential that I'm quite sure it can do way more than whats above. 

Enjoy!