Cauliflower Fried Rice

For a while now, I’ve heard about cauliflower fried rice and always wondered how cauliflower could match the consistency of rice itself. It wasn’t until I started the SCD and began experimenting with cauliflower more that I realized, strangely, it can take the place of rice and actually make you feel really full. I saw a handful of recipes for cauliflower fried rice on Pinterest and adapted one of my own. It’s a fairly easy recipe and took me 45 minutes to make, from start to finish.

Ingredients:

• 1 head cauliflower
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 c. green onions, chopped
• 1 small white onion, chopped
• 1 c. broccoli, cut into florets
• 1/2 tsp coconut oil
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp gluten-free soy sauce (omit for Specific Carbohydrate Diet)
• 1 tsp gluten-free Worcestershire sauce (omit for Specific Carbohydrate Diet)
• Sea salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste

Preparation:

Get your cauliflower and take off all its leaves, discarding them.

Rinse your cauliflower with water. Cut your cauliflower in half and then, into small pieces, cutting and discarding the stems, so that it fits nicely in your food processor.

Place your cauliflower inside your food processor. I used my Ninja.

Pulse the cauliflower until it resembles tiny, rice like pieces.

I pulsed mine into two batches, since I didn’t want to overflow my Ninja.

After pulsing (it took me about 3-4 pulses), remove the cauliflower and empty it into a bowl.

Now, chop up your onion, green onions garlic, broccoli, and set out your eggs.

Drizzle a large nonstick pan with olive oil.

Add your cauliflower.

Saute your cauliflower for 10 minutes. 5 minutes into it, add your broccoli.

After the full 10 minutes has passed since you started sauteing the cauliflower, add your onions and cook until translucent.

Add the coconut oil, wait a few seconds for it to melt, and start sauteing the garlic.

Add the green onions.

While the green onions are cooking, get a smaller nonstick pan for your eggs and spray with cooking oil.

Crack your eggs inside the pan.

Start scrambling your eggs inside the pan.

Once your eggs have scrambled, turn off the heat.

Add your soy sauce to the other pan with the cauliflower fried rice, as well as your Worcestershire sauce. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

Add the eggs to the cauliflower fried rice.

Mix everything together.

Remove from heat.

Voila!

Now, go see how many people you can fool into thinking this is real rice!

Enjoy!

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SCD Legal Stuffed Bell Peppers

A few months ago, I posted a stuffed bell peppers recipe that wasn’t SCD legal. Now that I’m on the SCD, I’d been wanting to modify that recipe. This afternoon, I did just that, and let me tell you, the stuffed bell peppers I made today taste 100 times better than my original recipe!

Ingredients:

• 12 red bell peppers
• 1 1/2 pounds lean ground turkey
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 1 c. fresh cilantro, chopped
• 3 cloves fresh garlic, chopped
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 3 c. Campbell’s tomato juice (in order for it to be SCD legal, the tomato juice you use can’t have tomato paste in it. It’s been reported that V8 has tomato paste, which is why I use Campbell’s brand.)
• 1/2 c. Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded
• 1/2 c. cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried Italian seasoning
• Sea salt (I love pink Himalayan sea salt!)
• Pepper

Preparation:

Just like my original recipe indicates, you’ll want to wash your bell peppers, cut the tops off, and remove the seeds and membranes. This time, I also kept the stems, instead of discarding them like last time. Place them in a pot of salted, boiling water. Boil for 7 minutes. When it’s time to remove them from heat and rinse them in a colander, the skins of your bell peppers should look shriveled up. This is what you want! Last time I made my stuffed bell peppers, the skins hadn’t wrinkled, yet, so the bell peppers were a little crunchy, even after being in the oven for so long.

Put your bell peppers aside to cool a bit and let’s move on to preparing the stuffing.

In a large nonstick pan, cook your ground turkey. Drain the fat in a bowl once the turkey has browned. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and saute your onions until they become translucent. Add the garlic, basil, oregano, Italian seasoning, tomatoes, cilantro, salt, and pepper. Add 2 cups of the tomato juice and stir your stuffing, so that it mixes well and the flavors distribute evenly.

Spray the bottom of a 13 x 9 Pyrex with cooking spray. Cover the entire bottom of the Pyrex with the remaining 1 cup of tomato juice. Grab each bell pepper, sprinkle the inside with sea salt, and stuff the bottom with a small amount of Jack and cheddar cheese. Add your stuffing so that it fills up half of your bell pepper, sprinkle with cheddar cheese, and fill the rest of your bell pepper up with more stuffing. Place your bell peppers on the tomato juice in the Pyrex.

Put your bell peppers inside a 350 degree heated oven with their lids on top. Cook for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, remove your bell peppers, take off their stems, and sprinkle your bell peppers with a mix of Jack and cheddar cheese. Place the stems inside the Pyrex but not on the bell peppers. Cook for 8 minutes, until your cheese nicely melts and browns.

I threw one green bell pepper in there for aesthetic purposes but generally speaking, red bell peppers are so much sweeter than their green counterparts and add so much more juicy flavor. Although my modified stuffed bell peppers recipe today had way fewer ingredients than my original stuffed bell peppers recipe, it tasted a whole lot better! I felt having fewer ingredients helped bring out all the flavors more. Also, boiling the bell peppers longer in water helped soften them, which added to this dish’s flavor.

On a side note, the stuffing obviously is enough for more than 3 bell peppers but that’s all I had on hand. I would guess this recipe could easily fill a dozen bell peppers total.

These stuffed bell peppers are ooey, gooey, cheesy, and delicious! I will definitely be making them more often in the future. I hope you try your hands at them. If you do, be sure to let me know how they turn out.

Enjoy!

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

When I found out about almond flour crust pizza, I thought whoever came up with it was brilliant. That’s until I heard about cauliflower crust pizza. I heard of this amazing pizza crust a few months ago and had been itching to try it ever since. But, since I didn’t have a food processor and didn’t feel like grating the cauliflower by hand, I put it off. Luckily, I just bought a food processor, so, I’ve been trying out all sorts of recipes, including this one!

I found two recipes online and switched between the two to make my pizza. The recipes can be found here:

• http://www.theluckypennyblog.com/2013/02/the-best-cauliflower-crust-pizza.html
• http://www.closetcooking.com/2013/02/cauliflower-pizza-crust-with-bbq.html

Basically, I’m going to list out which parts of the two recipes I followed. The recipes call for medium heads of cauliflower. The cauliflower I bought seemed large, so, I used only half of it, only to have to go back and repeat the process to use the other half, since it barely yielded any “dough.” After food processing my cauliflower, I microwaved it for 4 minutes, like the first blog, The Lucky Penny, says. I also used all of the ingredients she listed in order to make the crust (which, I must add, turned out to be amazing!), including the almond meal, minus the red pepper flakes (I used regular black pepper.) Adding the egg white is listed as optional but I advise you use it because it helps the dough bind together better. I found that without the egg white, my dough wasn’t adhesive.

I used Closet Cooking’s cooking times, since my pizza crust was pretty thick. I baked my crust for 20 minutes. You’ll notice when it’s done, as it’ll give off a nice light golden brown color. After taking it out of the oven, I layered my pizza with mozzarella cheese (as much as you want), spinach, green onions, red onions, tomatoes, and turkey pepperoni. For those on the SCD, we can’t eat commercially bought pizza sauce, so, I left that out. I then put a final layer of mozzarella cheese on top, in order make all the toppings stick. I put my pizza back in the oven and baked for 10 minutes and broiled for another 3 minutes. Just remove your pizza from the oven when your cheese melts and begins to bubble. When it’s ready, you’ll be able to tell.

My first impression of this pizza was that it’s absolutely incredible! My husband is often my guinea pig, since he gets to try my recipes before they, “hit the public.” He seriously couldn’t stop talking about how fabulous it tasted. You really can’t tell it’s not “real” pizza, either. The cauliflower taste isn’t even noticeable, especially since the pizza crust recipe is jam packed with all those flavorful herbs! Plus, the only real fattening part of this pizza is the cheese, so, really, how can you go wrong with this recipe? I can’t imagine how much more amazing it would have tasted had I added some sauce to it but we didn’t notice any difference in flavor.

The best part is that the actual crust looks like real pizza crust. Just be sure to ring out all the water after you microwave your cauliflower, so that your crust doesn’t become soggy. We probably wrung out about a cup of water. If you’re like me and don’t have much hand strength, ask your husband or significant other to ring it out for you!

Here’s the masterpiece, in all its magnificent glory:

I urge you all to try this incredible pizza! If you have kids and are trying to sneak some healthy options into their meals, I guarantee you they will love this and that they won’t be able to tell the difference!

Enjoy!

Hearty Vegetable Stew

I made this stew during winter, before I had started the SCD, and my husband and I really enjoyed it! It’s thick and full of flavor! It’s also the first stew I ever made, so, I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty it turned out. I’ve come to realize that stews are pretty much foolproof. The best part about stews is that although they sometimes require a lot of ingredients, you mostly just throw everything in one big pot and let the flavors all come together.

This stew is perfect for those cold fall and winter nights when you want something that will really warm you up.

Ingredients:

• 2 c. low sodium chicken broth
• 1 c. water
• 1/2 of a 15.5 oz can of garbanzo beans
• 1/2 of a 16 oz. can of kidney beans
• 1/2 of a 15.25 oz can of corn
• 1/2 of a 4 oz can of green chiles, chopped
• Handful of colorful mini bell peppers, chopped
• Handful of baby carrots
• 2 c. spinach, chopped
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 c. tomatoes, diced
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Preparation:

In a pot, saute the chopped red onions and garlic in olive oil. Add the green chilies and diced tomatoes, and continue sauteing. Remove everything from the pot and puree in a food processor; then, return to pot and add the chicken broth and water.

Add the garbanzo beans, kidney beans, corn, mini bell peppers, spinach, and baby carrots. Add the oregano, basil, rosemary, sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer on medium to low heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally in between. Remove from heat and enjoy!