Paleo Cauliflower French Fries, or Cauli with Nooch

Do you desperately miss the taste of a crispy french fry?  If so, you are IN LUCK today peeps.  These cauli fries are in-cred-ible.  They have an amazing french fry flavor, are super easy to make, and are baked, not fried, so no messy grease spatter all over the kitchen.  And they are super nutritious to boot, made with nutritional yeast.  Don't have any?  Get some.  It's inexpensive, and packed with vitamins and tons of protein.  It's not like regular yeast, and it imparts a savory, almost parmesan-ish flavor.  In this recipe, it just tastes deep and salty like a good ol' french fry should.  

Cauliflower French Fries, or Cauli with Nooch

 1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets
couple tablespoons EVOO
1 tbsp garlic powder
kosher salt, to taste
2 1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast

Put your cauli florets into a very large mixing bowl.  Preheat your oven to 400.  Toss your cauli with EVOO, start with 2 tbsp and see if that's enough, and then add in your garlic powder, about 1/2 tbsp of kosher salt, and your nooch.  Combine well and taste.  Adjust seasonings accordingly.  You may want them saltier, more garlicy, and more noochy.  This makes a nice coating on the cauli and after baking for about 40 minutes the fries will be crunchy and have an almost breaded texture to them.

Seriously, double this recipe.  You will want to eat the entire thing all by yourself.  No joke!

These make a great side dish to any meal.  I baked mine off at the same time as some noochy chicken thighs.  Easy and no muss no fuss.

What else is going on?  Not a whole lot.  I am doing a two-week trial at Pure Barre right now, which I first learned about earlier this year on our Aspen trip.  It's similar to Bar Method, but a little less stuffy.  Not as "formal" if you catch my drift.  I'm liking it, though not as much as my beloved Fusion.  You don't really sweat much, though it is hard as f*ck, and I often feel like I need to go home and hop on the treadmill afterwards.  But I'll keep at it until the two weeks are up and make my decision then!

In other food news, have you ever made shakshuka?  It's an israeli dish that basically is just eggs baked in spicy tomato sauce.  Easy and yummy, especially if you can get your hands on some clean arrabiata sauce.  You simmer your sauce until it's warmed through, drop in your eggs, and bake at 425 for 10 minutes.  Easy!

I'm thinking of making my thai chicken soup again, but this time with shrimp.  And snow peas. Sounds good eh?

Alrighty folks.  I'll leave with you some goofy selfies from this week.  I am enjoying super bright nail polish and clashing weird outfits lately.  Anything to spice up cold and dreary January right? XoXoGFG

Whole30 Week 3 Eats/Update

I am going to be totally 100% honest here.  How am I doing on the Whole30?  Good and bad, in equal parts.  Here is the good:

-I have finally broken free of my desire for sweetened coffee!  This is huge, probably the biggest thing for me.  I don't care to sweeten my daily cup o' joe anymore and I am truly ecstatic over this.  Some cinnamon and cream and I am good to go.
-I am totally dunzo with peanuts and beans, and don't miss them in the least.  They make me uncomfortable and give me crazy nausea.  Good riddance.
-I'm fine with drinking water, tea, or decaf coffee, whereas I used to crave  diet drinks.
-I do not miss treats, cookies, etc at all.
-I do not miss cheese at all, goodbye cheese.  (I do continue to use cream and butter though.)
-Starch is a big problem for me, intestinally.  Anytime I ingest any amount of starch I pay for it big time.  I have felt much better eliminating starches from my diet.

The Bad:
-8 weeks of absolutely nothing sweet at all has been rough.  It was fine the first 6 weeks or so, but now I am just dying for a little dried fruit.  That's all I want!  No cookies or treats, just some dried fruit as a snack.  I have had some here and there and then felt really guilty.  I have been able to stop myself, but a few times I have soooo wanted to go to town on something and just barely been able to walk away.
-I am tired of snacking on nuts and I overindulge and then feel gross.  It is annoying to only be able to snack on protein and nuts.  I keep lots of veggies in the house but they need some sort of preparation/thawing and that is not really what a snack is, essentially.  Snacks are my downfall!
-I have not done as good a job as I hoped I would.  Taking bites and tastes of things I shouldn't.  However, I have been 100% faithful to the no peanuts and no beans.
-My blood sugars have been a little wacko, I can't pinpoint why exactly.  I feel like things I used to ingest without issue are now giving me a lot of trouble.  I'll have to continue to monitor this.  I have not been using any sweeteners of any kind, so I know it's not that.  It could just be my diabetes progressing, who knows.
-My tummy has actually been kind of bothering me.  No discernible pattern to it, it could be anything, I could have a bug, not be drinking enough water, I don't know.  I'm not sure why, but I felt amazing during my sweetener detox, and then now that I am doing Whole30 I've had some problems.  It very well could be that I was super strict on my detox but once I got into Whole30 mode I relaxed a little, and that's whats bothering me.  I am going to try to be way more compliant and see if that helps.

All in all, I'm still pretty happy with where I am.  No sweetener in my coffee is great, and I think I've broken my treat-addiction, which is thrilling, for serious.  I'm not sure there is a way I'll be able to incorporate any amount of fruit back into my diet without some major blood sugar issues, but I'll try, once Whole30 is over.  I am also stoked to have successfully rid my diet of cheese, beans, and peanuts.  That is major improvement for me.

Annnnyyyways folks, lets talk Whole30 eats shall we?  This week is an interesting one!  I whipped up some cod with an onion curry sauce on Monday, and some crazy good spiced carrots.  These carrots will change what you think of carrots forever.  Make them ASAP!  Here is the recipe.   The cod was super simple.  Saute some onions until browned, sprinkle about 2 tsp of curry powder over, pour in two tbsp of broth, reduce, and pour over sauteed cod (which I also sprinkled liberally with curry powder).  Takes maybe 20 min. tops.

We are also going to have some Nom Nom Paleo inspired bacon-avocado sammies with a fried-egg topped salad, and tomorrow I am super pumped to make some slow cooker ribs with my own Paleo Barbecue Sauce recipe.  The sauce is simmering on the stove right now and smells awesome.  With the ribs I'm going to make a quick side dish of sauteed cabbage and 'shrooms.

And that's about it folks.  I am thrilled to officially be on vacation through 1/3!  I'll be in Chicago with family for a wedding for about a week, so I'm not sure how much cooking I'll be doing, but hopefully I'll have some fun posts and positive Whole30 updates for you.  I also need to do a Justus Drugstore restaurant review, an amazing locovore farm-to-table nose-to-tail joint located in bumblef*ck Smithville, MO.  Truly an incredible meal.  I'll do a recap when I have a bit more time.

Lastly- some stupid fun pics.  What do you think- have I gone off the deep end?

Lemony Kale Avocado Salad, and DIY Legwarmers

I waffled about posting this recipe because it's so darn easy- but hey, when searching for it, I couldn't find anything like it, so maybe this will be helpful to someone looking for an easy kale salad!

Lemony Kale and Avocado Salad
1 bag washed and chopped kale (TJ's has a great product)
juice of half a lemon
kosher salt
1/3 cup pine nuts
1 avocado
EVOO

In a very large salad bowl, dump your kale and pour about 3 tbsp of EVOO in and start massaging with your hands.  This will take probably 3-4 minutes until the kale has wilted a bit and is bright green.  Do not skip this step!  Then squeeze your juice from the half lemon and massage for another minute.  Sprinkle liberally with sea or kosher salt, then toss in cubed avocado and your pine nuts.  This is a delish salad that you CAN make ahead of time, as the kale is quite firm and won't get soggy very quickly.

In other news, I finally tried the DIY legwarmers for under your boots as seen on Pinterest.  DO IT!  Cut off the sleeves of an old ratty sweater and put them on under your boots for extra cuteness and extra comfort.  It's fun!  I have to careful I don't get carried away cutting up all my sweaters.