Cauliflower Crust Craziness

After much carb inhalation in February (especially Week 7), I decided to do a few weeks of low carbing in March. It definitely helps in making me feel better overall. While carbs (bread, potatoes, and candy are favs for me) give me major instant gratification, later on, I am weighed down, both physically and mentally. The past few weeks, I have needed all the energy I can get, so doing this has been helpful.

Anywho, I decided to put my Pinterest pin to use and try this Cauliflower Crust Pizza.

I made this big one a few weeks ago and burnt the edge to a crisp.

Three main ingredients: 

1 head cauliflower, l egg, and 1 cup cheese of your choice.

Moooo.

The cauliflower goes in the food processor and is spun around until it's kind of grainy. Then into the microwave for 8 minutes. Then into a cheesecloth where the heck gets squeezed out of it, leaving you with a dry "dough" base. (Much too messy to show on film.)

Mix in your egg and cheese. I threw in some oregano too.

Shape them into little mini-crusts. Put on parchment paper. I don't know if you need cooking spray, but I just put it on. Last time I made this, I threw it straight on a baking sheet and it got really stuck and burnt (see top photo).

Bake at 450 for 15 minutes or so.
Then add your favorite toppings. Sausage and cheese for me. Bake at same temp until the cheese melts.

Then it gets too dark to take photos. So you use your iPhone and Instagram, which can make any bad photo look artistic with just a few taps.

It's good stuff, yo. (sigh, I can't believe I just wrote that.)

Week Fourteen and Fifteen, not so peachy keen

I'm glad there are only a few more "teen" weeks, since they wreak havoc on my rhyming prose.

My hopes of resuming weekending posts have disappeared like a steak in my dogs' food bowl. Real life is still tossing me around, although during Week Fourteen, I did find some time to meet up with friends for dinner a few nights.

This past week, a cold and allergies came a threatenin', so it was a lot of chicken soup. Stress is trying to catch up on me, but I'm still fighting. And eating.

Resuming proper weekending posts

I started up yesterday morning with a lovely message that I was being featured over at Shutter Sisters for their weekending feature. Happy dance happy dance! This was then proceeded by a mini freakout. Why? Because my weekending posts have been rather paltry.

"Ai spends her weekends "brunching" with friends and enjoying time outdoors."


More like "Ai spends her weekends going buggy-eyed from staring at a computer and working."  I have had a few lovely weekends since my last real (only?) weekending post, including two day trips to Napa and another brunch with college friends at our alma mater. Lots of photos but no time to post. So I thought I'd start this morning with my current weekend happenings. Hopefully I will get to posting the other weekending adventures before the year ends.

After doing my happy dance and then freak out, I needed some calming moments with a yoga class. The only thing this photo has to do with the yoga class is that it's a building across the street from the studio.

There is a day care center in this building (!)

Now thoroughly relaxed, I went off to the Farmer's Market. I wanted a little basket of strawberries. Well, for $10 you could get three. And then the lady practically forced me into buying double, for only $12! How could I resist?

Now relaxed but getting buried in strawberries, I headed home to work in the garden.  Oh, and deal with this guy.

He's not mine. I'm dog-sitting this weekend. He's 70 pounds of energetic puppiness. He's keeping my old guy busy.

My little guy is not a fan. Not a fan at all. If the pup gets too close or takes his toys, Archie starts snarling and baring his teeth; it's like he's possessed by the devil.

Gardening produced a few things for dinner. I think I pulled the carrots too early.

The evening was spent cleaning this mess.

Spooky glow of the chandelier

This morning, I woke up to the pup whining. Not quite ready to get out of bed, I caught up on some blog reading. And trying to figure out what to do with all my strawberries.

Luckily, I came across this post for Strawberry Crepes by Ez. I didn't have gluten-free flour though. I didn't really have much regular flour either. Or whipped cream. Or milk.... But I sure had a lot of strawberries!

So I made crepes with whole-wheat flour, almond milk, and marscapone.

The crepe turned out a bit thick, so it was more like a strawberry burrito. But a very tasty strawberry burrito.

A sausage link joins the party

Now that I am seriously carbed up, I need to clean up the mess in the kitchen and take this whining pup outside.

HAPPY WEEKENDING! 

(and happy easter too!)

March Mood Board

Despite the craziness of life right now, I still try to take time and smell the roses. Or in this case, the ranunculus, poppies, and blue bells. Which don't have much smell. But they sure are pretty!

The rain came down last week, giving life to these guys in my garden.

A rainbow of color, now tucked into a little glass.

I'm linking up with Karin A. I've been doing this for a few months now (February, January, November, October). It's so neat to see the progression of colors in my own backyard. 

365 + 1, Week Twelve and Thirteen, no calm foreseen

A poet I'm not. It's been another crazy two weeks. I'm pooped.



I've been really cutting down on carbs, although I give myself a day or two in the week to have a bit more, usually in the form of beer.



I forgot to take day 87 of food. So I took one of my extremely early morning cup of jo on day 88 to make up for it. Coffee is food!



Activity has pretty much been squeezing in walks with my dogs and spin.



Alas, could not squeeze much of anything in this past week.

After 91 days, I've done about 14 sessions of yoga, 19 spin classes, and run about 9 times. With the way my schedule has been lately, I've decided to drop this 366 project. For sure, I'll still be active, but how many times can I take an interesting photo of a spin class?

So it will just be 366 Days of Food. Only 275 more days to go!