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

Carrot Fries

See previous post for a pic!  Nope, those weren't sweet potato fries, they were carrot fries!  Ok ok, maybe calling them fries is a bit of a stretch.  But so is calling oven-baked sweet potato fries a french fry.  And these carrot fries are a similar texture to sweet potato fries.  I made mine pretty salty, to mute the overly sweet taste oven baked carrots can get.  They were really yummy, and a nice lower-starch alternative to sweet potato fries, which I can't really eat anyways. 


Carrot Fries
6-8 med/large carrots (you could use your veg peeler to get the skins off first, but I didn't) sliced lengthwise and then halved again, and then cut into very thin sticks.  The thinner they're cut the crisper they'll turn out.
1 tbsp kosher/sea salt
2 tbsp EVOO
optional:  1/2 tsp cayenne, or black pepper

Preheat your oven to 450.  On a large baking sheet toss your carrots together with your EVOO and seasonings, make sure they are all coated well and spread out evenly so they crisp up rather than steam.  I baked mine for 30 minutes, but start checking at 25.  I wanted mine as crisp as possible rather than soggy, and I ended up burning a few in the process, which is fine because this makes quite a lot! 

Once again, we ate these with my homemade ketchup, but some homemade/organic ranch would be awesome too!  Have fun guys! XoXoGFG