Category Archives: Cauliflower pizza crust
Six months on Keto: thoughts and resolutions
Total weight loss: 35 pounds
For anything to be successful, one needs to look back over the successes and failures to plan for a better future.
Things I’ve learned:
Plan meals in advance
Always have keto-friendly snacks on hand
Always have keto-friendly cooking ingredients on hand
Remember which cheat meals didn’t satisfy
Keep a list of fast food keto-friendly foods in mind
Look at bread, rice, buns, tortillas, pasta, cakes, cookies, donuts, and other high carb food and think negative thoughts: “how pasty looking that is,” “it looks good, but it’ll make me feel lethargic and half-dead after I eat it,” “that rice under Chinese or Indian food, will make me gain, and really doesn’t have much flavor; cauliflower rice tastes just as good”
Even if you eat twice the amount of almonds you’ve planned, it’s still better than potato chips
Cheat meals/days must be thought out VERY carefully. Pick something that will really satisfy you and allow you to keep on the keto plan longer
Drink lots and lots and lots of water
Drinking no-carb alcohol may be okay, but keep it in limits. Over indulging makes me gain water weight and being drunk makes me really tempted to binge on whatever high carb party food is on the table.
There is ALMOST ALWAYS SOMETHING YOU CAN EAT in a fast food place or restaurant. For example, what about chicken marsala in an Italian place?
And there is usually some salad option anywhere you are. Burger joints, just remove the bun.
Mexican and Chinese restaurants give me the most difficulty, because any low carb option is not the reason I would go to the restaurant in the first place.
If you MUST go to a Chinese buffet (I attended a funeral dinner at one), you can find options, but they probably aren’t going to be your favorite General Tso’s. How about the salad bar choices? eggs? the insides of eggrolls, and I even ate the insides only of crab rangoons. Leaves quite a pile of discarded shells on the plate and look like you really waste food.
That’s all I can think of right now, but these ideas have helped me realize the first real weight loss I’ve achieved in more than 15 years! YAY KETO!
Day 41: Indian butter chicken cooked the right way
Weight loss to date: 14 pounds
Next weigh-in: Saturday, Feb 25th
I had another relaxing Sunday, yet accomplished a lot. Breakfast was at home. I ate the leftover pizza from last night while doing the NYT Sunday puzzle.
Lunch was piecemeal. I had a handful of almonds while I worked on websites. I did some laundry, cleaned the kitchen, and by then it was time to go tile the floor at the rental house. I grabbed the leftover 1/4 dish of Cincinnati chili and warmed it up when I got there. It wasn’t enough to call lunch, but it held me over until dinner.
Brandon made crackers from a recipe I found yesterday. They weren’t very good, but the jalapeno yogurt dip tasted very good on top. I guess we’ll all stick to bbq pork rinds to use for dipping.
For dinner, I decided to try to cook the Indian Butter chicken correctly this time. I microwaved it for 22 minutes on medium power, and it turned out well. I took a new picture of the way it is supposed to look, not dried up like my last venture.
I cooked a half a head of grated cauliflower in the microwave and served the butter chicken over the top. I certainly have eaten more cauliflower than I ever have in my life.
I had mousse for dessert.
It felt odd not to weigh myself this morning, but I am definitely going to hold out until next Saturday.
Day 40: Saturday night pizza
Weight loss to date: 14 pounds
Next weigh-in: Saturday, Feb 25
We decided to relax at home yesterday, and boy did I!
I started the morning playing around online. Unfortunately, I get caught up in what I’m working on (pictures for our new website) and I forget to eat breakfast. I finally decided to eat around 1 p.m. I did, however, have my allotted 28 almonds as a pre-breakfast snack.
When I finally set out for the kitchen, I warmed up a plate of Cincinnati chili. I guess that’s my go-to leftover. Since I was taking this relaxing thing seriously, I ate it while watching some of the TV shows I had recorded during the week. I discovered my appetite is not what it used to be, and I could only finish half the plate.
I went back to working on my site in the afternoon, and had no lunch to speak of. When I got hungry in the evening, I had another handful of almonds.
Rick and I played with some logo ideas for our business. We’ve been doing this for nearly 10 years, but we’ve never fully agreed on the logo. Time to get that ironed out, because there are lots of items we’d like to purchase: tshirts, hats, folders, bags. We worked until about 8, then it was time for Saturday night pizza.
I decided to try the cauliflower crust that I found on reddit. Brandon and Lindsey tried it before, and he gave me some advice on cooking it a little differently than the recipe online.
I processed a half a cauliflower, then micro’d a cup of it in a bowl. I added 1 egg, about 1 and 1/4 cups of mozarella cheese, a clove of garlic, some oregano, and some parsley. I glopped the whole mess onto a pizza pan lined with parchment paper and baked it at 410 for 10 minutes. (I have no idea how I arrived at that temp. 450 seemed to much, I guess)
I then removed the crust and turned it over. I baked it directly on the pan for another 10 minutes.
It looked pretty official. I should have taken a picture of just the crust, but I will next time. I topped the crust with mozzarella and Mexican blend grated cheeses, some Italian sausage that I cooked while waiting for the crust, some onions, and some sliced jalapenos.
At first I was a bit disappointed. When I cut the pizza, it was pretty gooey. However, I waited for Rick to finish cooking his English muffin pizzas, and by then the pizza was solid enough to pick up and eat like a real slice. I dipped each slice in sour cream (because I can!) and enjoyed it very much. Half the pizza was about 10 grams of carbs.
Dessert was chocolate mousse. What a life.