Making Good Choices Blog — A Journey through Food, Family and Fitness

Light & Healthy Pizza: Cauliflower Crusted Pizza!

by Nicole on January 27, 2012

Happy Friday!

I’m getting ready to go down to my basement for an at home workout. Thinking of doing 30 minutes of yoga and then a shoulder workout. I’ve been using Jamie Eason’s workouts as a guide because I really like them. She really developed a kick butt system.

Before I get my workout in, I wanted to share with you what I made for dinner last night. I got a text from one of my friends asking me to try this cauliflower crust pizza because she wanted to make it. Since I love a good challenge, I decided to make it last night. My sister had also found this on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago and pinned it, so she was equally as happy that I was making this.

A couple of notes about this:

It was dark, so my pictures stink. I’ll remake during the day and reshoot this so I have better pictures.
This was REALLY good…but PLEASE, DO NOT expect this to taste like good ol’ white crust pizza. If you’re looking for a healthy, light, pizza-ish dinner, make this. If you’re looking for NY style pizza, this isn’t it.
My husband HATES cauliflower and loved this.
My husband also asked, “so does this have the same nutritional benefits of eating cauliflower or no?” My sister’s response was, “no Nicole took all the benefits out before she baked it”. I had to laugh.
I was nervous that this pizza wouldn’t stay together when I cut into it, but it stayed together, actually, very well. I attribute that to the pizza pan used.

crust after pre-baked

Cauliflower Crust Pizza (serves 3)

Ingredients

inspired by Eat, Drink, Smile

Crust:

2 heads cauliflower
3 eggs
1/4 cup ground flax
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
3/4 tsp dried oregano

Toppings:

Sauce (I used a box of crushed tomatoes)
Fresh Mozzarella, sliced
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor pulse cauliflower until it’s well processed. Scrape down the sides as needed. Lay cauliflower out on a baking sheet, pre- sprayed with non-stick spray or using a slipat. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and place in a large bowl. Add eggs, grated cheese, flax and spices. Mix together well. Spoon “dough” onto a pizza stone, covered pizza pan* or baking sheet. Bake for 16-17 minutes. Remove from oven. Spoon sauce onto dough and season with spices. Add fresh mozzarella. Bake for 5-7 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

*I used this pizza pan, covered with a silicone mat. This pizza pan is the best option because of the holes that allows it to cook through and get semi crispy.

Let me know if you try it!

Happy, happy Friday! Have an amazing weekend!

and Happy Birthday to one of my best pals, Lauren!

4 comments

Snacks & Protein: Vanilla Goji Nut Balls

by Nicole on January 26, 2012

Morning!

How is everyone’s morning going? Did you have a healthy start to your day? It’s the 3rd week of January and it’s almost over! How are your resolutions & goals going? Are you sticking to them and seeing it through?

That was a lot of questions in a row…but I’m seriously wondering how you’re doing! The best part of my day is tweets, comments, messages and emails about you guys making healthy recipes, drinking smoothies, working out. It makes me so happy from the inside out. I do love cheerleading on social media sites!

I’m still going at my goals, drinking 3 water bottles a day. I think this is the farthest I’ve ever made it with water intake, so I’m pretty proud of myself! It IS getting easier and becoming part of my routine and habit. I hope you’re finding that too!

Other goal = make new snacks with more protein.

It’s no surprise to you that I love making balls. Nut balls that is. I love tweaking recipes and trying to make them well rounded in calories, fat and protein. Recently I’ve been pairing a nut ball with either chia pudding or a small smoothie to make it a mini meal.

Enter Vanilla Goji Nut Balls.

Filled with ALL good stuff like Vega, chia seeds and goji berries. A super ball. You know I love Vega and use it in almost everything I make, chia pudding, smoothies, etc. Plant based, great company, and all natural ingredients.

I know nut balls can be intimidating, but it truly is all dump in food processor and turn on. What can be easier than that? You are about 3 minutes away from an amazing snack! Stop being intimidated and make them!

You need minimal ingredients here, like almond meal (or almonds), Vega vanilla protein, vanilla extract, agave nectar, dates, goji berries and chia seeds! For the exact recipe, head over to the FitFluential blog…and while you’re at it check out some of the other inspiring guest blogs over there!

What are you doing to stick to your 2012 goals?

6 comments

Healthy SuperBowl Series: Mini Layered Dip with Chobani

January 25, 2012

Morning friends! Yesterday I told you how my favorite part of Super Bowl is the FOOD! Jill and I had lots of fun coming up with different recipes to share….and eat, obviously. I did have a bit of a belly ache from “trying out” all the food we made last week. In continuing with our [...]

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