February 2015 – Our Effn Life

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

If you are looking for lower carb or no grain options in your meals, this recipe for a pizza crust is a surprising substitute. It has goat cream cheese in it, and that gives it a tangy, but mellow flavor.

Sundays seem to be a day of interesting recipes. I had read this recipe before the last shopping trip and had picked up the goat cream cheese that is called for. All the other ingredients are generally on hand anyway.

While it may be possible to make 1 big pizza, I suggest making 4 individual pizzas

1 medium-size cauliflower, grated or finely ground in a food processor.
3.5 ounces goat’s cream cheese
1 egg
Salt and black pepper

Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
To make the crust, add the cauliflower to a pot of boiling water and boil for 5 minutes.
Drain, then wrap in a thin towel or cheese cloth and squeeze out any excess water. I placed my towel in a colander and then twisted the towel to squeeze out the water. Note! The towel gets very hot soaking up the boiling water.
In a bowl, mix the grated cauliflower with the cream cheese and egg, and season. Do this while the cauliflower is still hot so that the cream cheese melts and mixes easily.
Divide the cauliflower mix into four portions and, using your hands, shape the crusts on the sheet. They should be about 1/2 inch thick. Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until firm and golden.
While the crusts are baking, prep your favorite toppings. I diced up 1 left over BBQ chick breast, 2 turkey sausage patties, 1 whole garlic (~6 cloves), a couple small tomatoes, and shredded some Colby cheese.
When the pizza crusts are ready, spread about 1 tablespoon sauce around and close to the edge. I used ready made pizza sauce. Add the rest of your toppings.
Bake the pizzas for about 10 minutes at 450F, until the cheese is golden.
Let pizzas set for a few minutes before serving.

Original recipe by Josephine Malene Kofod, atastylovestory.com

Chilled Sweet Potato Soup

I am writing about Sweet Potatoes again, as we have to finish the bag we bought last week. You may recall my remarks about throwing away food in my Grocery Shopping day article.

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The other night we simply peeled and boiled sweet potatoes then served with roasted chicken & green beans. Sweet potatoes with a little butter on them are just fantastic. However, this article is about a wonderful use for the left over potatoes.

Chilled Sweet Potato Soup

I can’t tell you the exact recipe… because hubby made it and isn’t positive how much of what went in.

That’s a Gourmet for you.

He did offer the ingredients:
Sweet potatoes
Water
Cream
Milk
Chicken broth
Turmeric
Vanilla
Salt
Pepper
Fresh garlic
Fresh ginger

Serve chilled (if you can wait that long) with a small dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of paprika.

Grocery Shopping day

I usually try to clear out the fridge before going grocery shopping. Some items get thrown out, which I really dislike. This week I was sad to see that I completely forgot about a papaya and that the avocados were just too ripe. So what to do with the small portions of different things still good? Well this week was pretty easy to figure out. I trimmed and cut up Brussel sprouts (guessing about 1/2 pound), a small yellow squash, and one head of a yellow cauliflower.

Toss them in a wok with some avocado oil.
Use whatever spices you prefer. Today I used pepper and some garlic spread powder.

Then when about half cooked, add a can of cooked chicken.
Makes 3 generous portions.

Lets Do That Then videos

Even though it has been a while since any new videos were made, I thought it would be fun to share a link to our LetsDoThatThen YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCidIarVqmA-Mbgzw910V5lA

Yam or Sweet Potato?

I had made some low carb crepes the other day and this morning our daughter asked (texted me from her bedroom…) if I would be making crepes again. I remarked I needed to figure out a filling and she suggested Sweet Potatoes. Hmm, that sounds pretty good, so thats what I did and the family really liked them! Find the recipe here Sweet Potato filling for crepes.
In our house, we are looking for natural, healthful, low carbohydrate, and low sugar foods. We rotate the items we bring home so that we do not eat the same thing every week and one of those items are Sweet Potatoes. I couldn’t remember the carbohydrate count of a sweet potato so I looked it up, and then thought, I should compare with yams. Well, it turns out that their overall carb count is close, but the grams of sugar are significantly less for a yam (150g serving = 0.8g sugar for a yam vs sweet potato’s 6.3g sugar). With that knowledge, I then wanted to know the difference between the two.

According to North Carolina SweetPotato Commision Inc.
A true yam is a starchy edible root of the Dioscorea genus, and is generally imported to America from the Caribbean. It is rough and scaly and very low in beta carotene. http://www.ncsweetpotatoes.com/sweet-potatoes-101/difference-between-yam-and-sweet-potato/

I then thought of the canned yams that were used by my mom to make Thanksgiving dinner, so I Googled canned yams and clicked on the image of the label I recognized.

Then I saw it! “Bruce’s YAMS CUT SWEET POTATOES IN SYRUP” WHAAAAT? I’ve been hoodwinked! Cruel awaking – all of my Thanksgiving memories just flooded back and I can’t decide if I feel betrayed or not!

So how do I tell the difference between the two?

Another Google search and I find this great flow chart.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/sweet-potatoes-or-yams_n_4325275.html

Now I know and now you know too!

Nutrition Facts:

2/3 cups (150g)	Yam	Sweet Potato
Calories	177	129
Carbohydrate	41.8	30.2
Fiber	6.1	4.5
Sugar	0.8	6.3

Sweet Potato filling for crepes

This has a lightly sweet mellow flavor, great for filling low carb crepes!

4 servings

Filling Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato
6 strips turkey bacon
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp sweetener (sugar, Splenda, stevia, brown sugar, etc)
3 tbsp butter (2 tsp softened, 1 cold)

Directions:

Cook bacon, then dice and divide into 6 equal portions.
Peel and cook sweet potato by your prefered method. For speed, I cut sweet potato in half, then wrap each half with plastic wrap and microwave for 3-4 minutes.
In a mixing bowl, mash sweet potatoes with fork
Add cinnamon, sweetener, 2 tbsp softened butter and mix well.
With open crepe on a plate, place 1/4 of mashed sweet potato across center.
Sprinkle 1 portion of bacon across the filling.
Fold sides of crepe over.
Repeat above steps for 3 remaining crepes.
Cut cold butter into very thin slices and place even amounts on top of each finished crepe
Sprinkle each with 1/4 of remaining bacon
Reheat each crepe in microwave for 30 seconds and serve.

Paleo Low Carb Crepes

Servings: 10

Ingredients:
6 large eggs
1 cup unsweetened almond milk or other non dairy milk
3 tbsp coconut flour, sifted
2 tsp coconut oil, melted, plus 2 tbsp for the pan
1/4 tsp sea salt

Directions:

Whisk together the crepe ingredients in a bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes while the pan heats so the coconut flour can absorb the liquid, then whisk again.
Heat a crepe pan or enameled skilled over the medium-high heat.
I found this heat too high for my pans, I used med-low instead.
Place 1 tablespoon of the coconut oil in the pan, swirling to coat the bottom and sides.
1/4 cup batter swirled around pan

Pour ¼ cup of the batter into the hot pan, turning the pan in a circular motion with one hand so the batter spreads thinly around the pan. Alternatively, very quickly use a spatula to spread the batter. Fill any holes with a drop of batter, making sure the pan is fully covered.
Cook for 1 minute, until the edges start to lift. Gently work a spatula under the crepe and flip it over. Cook on the second side for 15 seconds and turn out onto a plate.
Rolling crepe to loosen from pan without tearing

This took a little longer since I used a lower heat, but I was able to manage it better.
My added tip: If you have a pan like mine that seems to have a ‘hot spot’ where everything tends to stick, then I suggest that after gently working spatula under edge of crepe, roll the crepe up to be sure it is fully released from your pan, then unroll and flip.
Continue with the remaining batter, stacking the crepes on the plate as you work. Add a little more oil to the pan after about every 3 to 4 crepes if they begin to stick.

Thanks to Steven and Chris at LiveWell Network for posting this recipe from Against All Grain: Delectable Paleo Recipes to Eat Well & Feel Great, by Danielle Walker http://livewellnetwork.com/Steven-and-Chris/recipes/Paleo-Crepes/9304914