Friday, May 23, 2014

Loaded Cauliflower Modifié

Doesn't stuff sound fancy when you say it in French? I took Spanish in school and I'm a big fan of that language but French sure does make a recipe sound fancy.

So a friend posted this recipe on Facebook and I just started drooling all over the place because dang, it was just all bubbly and cheesy and bacon-y so most anyone would do the same thing. And it had cauliflower which is one of my most favorite vegetables because it's so versatile, so when I see a recipe that excites me and it has to do with cauliflower the odds of actually eating some vegetables skyrocket. Which is a good thing.

I mean seriously, just look at this:

photo credit: parkersgeneral.blogspot.com


So, even though I'm plush size (a recently coined term to describe the fact that I'm cuddly, you can use that) and I eat horribly and have no sense of portion control at times (at many, many times), I still love the challenge of trying to modify a recipe and cut the fat and calories, especially when it seems like a no-brainer, as in the case of this recipe.

We'll talk numbers. Here's how the original version breaks down. Thanks to myfitnesspal.com (the place where I'm supposed to be logging my food but ummm of late, not so much), I can plug in the ingredients and get some nutrition info. When this recipe was posted on Facebook it used Colby Jack cheese, so that's what I used. I also sauteed my mushrooms first with some butter and garlic powder, just to bring a little extra flavor. The serving size refers to 1/8 of a 13 x 9 pan.



IngredientsCaloriesCarbsFatProteinSodiumSugar
Cauliflower - Raw, 1 head, large (6-7" dia)2104511725220Ico_delete
Sour cream, 0.5 cup2465244610Ico_delete
Mushrooms - Raw, 1 cup, pieces or slices1520231Ico_delete
Land O Lakes - Butter With Olive Oil, 0.5 tbsp45050450Ico_delete
Market Pantry - Colby Jack Shredded Cheese, 2 Cup8001672481,6000Ico_delete
Oscar Mayer - Bacon, 6 slices (14g)210018127800Ico_delete
Best Foods - Mayonnaise - Real, 4 tbsp36004003600Ico_delete
Green Onion - Green Onion Raw (Whole), 3 medium (15 g)1530161Ico_delete
Add Ingredient

Total:1,90171160843,10722
Per Serving:238920113883
I wound up using 5 pieces of bacon on my modified version, simply because that's what fit on the small baking sheet I pulled out. For me, I found this to be plenty. And another note about my bacon: my favorite turkey bacon is the Oscar Mayer turkey bacon that looks like this:
 
photo credit: www.simplygroceries.com

But Target was out of that one so I used the Oscar Mayer Selects that's listed in my recipe. When I cook this bacon, I'm usually at work and I heat up a couple of pieces on a paper towel in the microwave for one minute and 30 seconds and it comes out pretty crispy. This time I cooked it in the oven (and I've had turkey bacon cooked in the oven before that was THE BOMB) but this came out a little limp, which made me sad, but it was still good. Next time around I would work on that and also use my old standby bacon even though it's loaded with nitrates. My other modification was with cheese. In addition to using the reduced fat version, I also used half as much. And I'm a cheese NUT, and I found this to be perfectly acceptable. I also used an orange cauliflower like this

photo credit: squashblossombabies.com

which I think adds to illusion of cheesiness. Anyway, here's how the modified version breaks down.

IngredientsCaloriesCarbsFatProteinSodiumSugar
Cauliflower - Raw, 1 head, large (6-7" dia)2104511725220Ico_delete
Market Pantry - Colby Jack Reduced Fat Shredded Cheese, 1 Cup360424326400Ico_delete
Oscar Mayer Selects-no Nitrates - Turkey Bacon, 5 slice150013107000Ico_delete
Land O Lakes - Butter With Olive Oil, 0.5 tbsp45050450Ico_delete
Green Onion - Green Onion Raw (Whole), 3 medium (15 g)1530161Ico_delete
Trader Joe's - Light Sour Cream, 4 tbsp (30 g)80454604Ico_delete
Best Foods - Light Mayonaise, 4 Tbsp (14g)14041405000Ico_delete
Add Ingredient

Total:1,0006062642,20325
Per Serving:1258882753
Pretty cool, right? And it was DELICIOUS. Another note about this stuff. The whole tablespoons and cups and stuff confuses me. Because I'm just not that bright. And I'm not a measurer. Which is not a real word. But if you scoop out 4 tablespoons of sour cream, for example, it makes almost half a cup. Even though when you Google how many tablespoons are in a cup, the answer is 16. So I don't know and maybe someone can help me with this because my brain hurts. I'm not a scientist or a recipe master or anything, I'm just telling you what I did and maybe you'll try it, too! 





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