Let's Cook - Cauliflower Pizza.

Hi there Folks,

I love pizza. Love love love! But, I'm trying so hard to watch what I eat and let's be honest, pizza is not the healthiest of foods! Which is a shame because it tastes so good. Now, I'd see some recipes for cauliflower pizza floating around Pinterest so I decided that I would give it a little go. I won't lie, I was sceptical, I don't mind cauliflower, especially when it's smothered in cheese sauce, but it's not my favourite vegetable. The recipe I used as my inspirations and guide is this one from Eating Bird Food. So here's how I did it...

It really is as simple as chopping up a cauliflower, blitzing it in the food processor, cooking it in the microwave (no need to add anything) for 8 minutes, mix it with some cheese, an egg, salt, pepper and herbs and form into a pizza base. It then needs baking in the oven at about 180°c for about 15 minutes or until it's golden. Then you just need to add your toppings, we had chicken, onions, peppers and spinach, and pop it back in the oven for 5-10 minutes to melt the cheese a bit. But just a note, your toppings need to be cooked before adding them seeing as it only gets cooked briefly.

And there you have it, it really is that easy. No hours of rising and kneading and knocking back...simple! The most important question though, does it taste good? The answer to that is YES! Ok, it's not a Domino's pizza but it is delicious and so much better for you. I imagine it'd be a great way to sneak veggies in for kiddies too...I asked my boyfriend to guess what it was made from and he literally had no idea it was cauliflower.

Have any of you tried making cauliflower pizza? Or do you know of any other healthier choice pizza variations that are out there? I'd love to hear!

Ciao for now,

JB.

Let's Cook - Rice Fakesagne.

Hi there Folks,

You may or may not have seen the post I did on Leek Lasagne a little while ago, where I replaced the lasagne sheets with cooked leeks for a lower carb option. Now I love lasagne, it's beautiful, but its just so calorie heavy, what with the pasta and the mince and the sauce and the cheese. So I wanted to try and make a lasagne with fewer calories so I can eat more chocolate...haha!

Our idea was to make a lasagne, but replace the pasta sheets with compacted rice. Now technically it's not lasagne at all, but I'm going to keep on calling it that because I can!

Here's how I did it...

First you need to make your basic bolognese, this can be with any meat of your choosing or of course veggie if you wanted. I used lean mince beef in ours. I also like to pack my bolognese with lots of veggies as this bulks it out without adding loads of calories so I added onion, pepper, mushrooms, grated carrot and the customary chopped tomatoes and passata...mmmm!

Once you have your bolognese, it;s just a case of layering it up with your rice and squidging it down. I also added a little bit of grated cheese between the layers seeing as I didn't use a bechamel sauce as I would normally do with lasagne. Then you just pop it under the grill to crisp up and Bob's your Uncle.

I must say it was realllllly tasty! And super filling too, to be honest, if we weren't greedy we could have easily eaten half of one each with a nice salad on the side, maybe I'll do that next time.

Does anyone have any other yummy fakesagne ideas they would like to share? Please do!

Ciao for now,

JB

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Let's Cook - Leek Lasagne.

Hi there Folks,

So I thought I would share a super yummy alternative to Lasagne, we've basically substituted the lasagne sheets for leeks! I first saw this recipe on The Hairy Dieters and thought I would give it a whirl. I didn't follow the actual recipe they did, I just made it up as per my usual style but I've linked it there for you in case you did want to follow the original recipe.

It is super simple to make, it basically involves just your standard mince bolognese, which I made in my slow cooker...in fact it doesn't even need to be mince really, it could be anything you like! And then your cheese sauce, so that could be a basic roux, or you could just put spready cheese like philadelphia on it, or whatever you fancy! The only bit that really requires work is getting your leeks prepared.

To make the leek sheets its best to use the widest leeks you can find as these will give you the wider sheets. Trim the ends off and rinse out any dirt that's collected between the layers. You then need to slice the leek lengthways, but only go half way through the width of the leek. This means that once they've been boiled, your leek sheets will be as wide as the whole circumference of the leek. You need to take the inner most layers out as they're too small to do anything with, so I just trimmed these up and put them in the bolognese. Once your leek is sliced, pop it into a pan of salted, boiling water - I did this in frying pan that was wide enough to lie the leeks down in. Boil the leeks for a good 10-15 minutes, you need to make sure they're nice and soft otherwise they can be a bit tough to cut and chew. Once they're cooked just separate and dry them with a clean tea towel and there you have your leek 'lasagne' sheets!

So basically you just then assemble your lasagne as you would do with a pasta lasagne - I do meat, sheets then cheese. Get them layered up, top with cheese and pop in the over for 15 mins to melt the cheese up :] One thing I will say is, try to make sure your bolognese and cheese sauce are a thick and sticky as possible. The leeks don't absorb any liquid like pasta sheets would, therefore I can turn out a bit watery.

Here's just another shot of the finished product for you to drool over!

Please let me know if you try this or if you have any more alternative pasta dish ideas!

Ciao for now,

JB