Creamed Garlic Cauliflower

Here is a recipe that you will really enjoy, especially if you are a mashed potato lover. Todd and I have reduced the amount of carbohydrates that we eat,  we completely avoid all refined carbohydrates and most starchy carbohydrates. As a result we have both lost over 20 pounds since March.

We do not however avoid vegetables, and one of the vegetable we have been loving to prepare is cauliflower. This cauliflower recipe is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

Recipe:

1 head of fresh cauliflower (I could probably use frozen, I just never have).
2 Tablespoons butter (use the real stuff, not margarine).
1/4 cup of cream
1 clove of garlic
salt & pepper to taste

#1. Cut up and boil your cauliflower until tender, this will take about 10 minutes or so. Then drain.

#2. Place the cooked cauliflower, butter, cream, clove of garlic and salt & pepper into the food processor and blend until creamy. You can also mash it with a fork, I have done this before; you have to put the garlic through a garlic press and it won't be creamy but it is still good.

 #3. Serve, we had our cauliflower along with a tossed salad with goat cheese, and grilled chicken sausages from Trader Joe's (the pesto chicken sausage [top one in the picture] was a little salty to me but good, the roasted tomato and peppers was just too spicy to eat, but Todd and Cort thought they were both great.

Ratatouille! (pronounced Rat-A-Tooey)

Is that summer squash in your garden (or your neighbor's) piling up on you? If so make this great tasting dish that was the subject of the animated movie Ratatouille. Do you remember the scene where all the rats came into the kitchen to help because the kitchen staff walked out when they discovered the rat in there working? I don't care how friendly those rats were, that scene gave me the chills. If you haven't seen the movie, rent it, its really fun to watch.

Usually you bake this in the oven, but it can also be simmered stove top. I decided to make it super easy and prepare it in a crock pot. The house smelled great when we came home to eat.

Ingredients:

Eggplant - 1 large or 2 small (I used 4 because they were the extra small ones I grew in my garden) cube into 1 inch pieces, salt (directions below) and rinse.
Sea Salt -1/4 cup
2 Zucchini - cubed into 1 inch pieces
2 yellow squash - cubed into 1 inch pieces
1 large onion - chopped
2 bell peppers (yellow, red and/or green) chopped
or 1/2 jar of roasted peppers - chopped
2 large tomatoes - cored & chopped or 1 can of diced tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic - minced
basil 1/4 cup fresh - chopped or 1 TBSP dried
1/3 cup  olive oil
black pepper and additional sea salt to taste.

Directions: 

Cube the eggplant and sprinkle with the sea salt (I use the pink Himalayan, but any other coarse salt will work as well. Let sit in a colander set in a bowl for an hour to drain the liquid out of the eggplant. Rinse eggplant in cold water to remove the salt.

Mix all of the ingredients and place into the crock pot, cook on high (4-6 hours) or low (8-10 hours) depending on your schedule.

When you are ready to eat you can add some grated Parmesan or Reggiano cheese  if you like.

Enjoy, its delicious.

Gazpacho Recipe

Gazpacho is a cold, raw and very refreshing vegetable soup, there is not a single standard recipe. In Spain each village or even home has their own version.

This is my recipe, it is mostly but not totally raw:

1 clove of garlic

1 cucumber (peel, remove the seeds and then chop)

1 large tomato (cored and chopped)

2 ears of fresh corn (cut the kernals off, you can use canned corn but fresh is much better)

1 onion (chopped)

1 jalapeno (minced, use as much or little as you like it depends on how spicey you like your soup.  Remember to be careful when handling jalapenos, wear gloves when handling to avoid burns and don't use the seeds unless you like it really hot)

2 lemons (juiced)

1 bottle of tomato juice

1/2 jar of roasted red bell pepper (chopped)

5 oz jar of slice green olives with pimento

Olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

Peel your garlic clove, slice it in half and rub the cut sides of both halves on the inside of the bowl you will be using to hold your soup. You will get the flavor of the garlic without it being too overwhelming.

Add the next 9 ingredients to the bowl and mix.

Drizzle with about a tablespoon of olive oil and add salt and pepper to taste and stir again.

Cover and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving.


Click Here for the video directions

Sugar

Here are the links that I referenced at today's Nutrition Connect.

Dr. Robert Lustig's  Sugar The Bitter Truth and Gary Taubes' NYT article Is Sugar Toxic?

I know that this is going to be really hard for a lot of people, sugar is near and dear to a lot of hearts. Read the article and watch the video (warning it is 90 minutes long) and decide for yourself.

I also highly recommend that you read Gary Taubes' book Good Calories Bad Calories it is going to make you rethink about all that you have learned about nutrition. Gary stated in the book (which took him 5 years of research in order to write) that when he started he had no idea that he would come to the conclusions that he did.

This is tough for me because not only have I had a love affair with sugar for the majority of my life, I am a nutritionist, I have been feeding my family and myself according to what I have been taught and thought to be true since 1997.

Please post your comments and email questions, if I can answer them I will, if I can't I will find someone who can.