Amazing Collie Flower

Amazing Collie Flower
Author: Anne
Ingredients
  • See below
Instructions
  1. See below
Serving size: 1 whole medium sized head raw Calories: 146 Fat: 1.6 Carbohydrates: 29 Protein: 11

Our Food of the Month is cauliflower, which is a little unlikely given that it has to share March with Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes, but so it goes.

Cauliflower is most fabulous because of its chameleon-like qualities, but let’s start with its nutritional profile. An entire head of cauliflower has about 210 calories, so in the unlikely event that you eat the whole thing, it won’t trash your nutrition for the day and you’ll get trace fat, about 45g of carbs (about half each of fiber and sugar), and 16g of complete protein in the deal. It delivers some vitamin C and traces of other macronutrients, and contains mostly water. Not everyone loves the flavor, but it’s mild and makes a good vehicle for dominant tastes like baba ghanouj (eggplant-based version of hummus, with garlic, tahini / sesame paste, salt, and lemon).

Like most “solid” veggies (others: broccoli, peppers, okra – the ones that aren’t leafy and floppy), cauliflower is awesome when roasted. Chop it up or buy florets, toss with olive oil and some garlic or garlic salt, and roast at 350′ for about 20 minutes to make a delicious side dish. You can notch it up a little like this with pine nuts (pricey!) if you’re feeling gourmet or if your mom is visiting.

Roasted Cauli

 

Now for the “chameleon” part of the story: cauliflower can stand in for mashed potatoes, rice, and even the flour in pizza crust, all of which come in handy if you are avoiding carbs or not having a training day. Really! In order of increasing complexity, here’s what I mean.

1. Cauli puree: steam cauliflower – chop it up, put it in a pot in or over a little water, and boil the water for about 20 minutes until the cauli gets tender (don’t let the water dry up). Carefully slide the tender cauli into the blender or food processor, and puree. You can add a little almond or coconut milk, oil, butter, garlic, chives or sliced green onions, or anything else you would normally put in mashed potatoes (did I mention garlic?). Cauli puree is great on its own, as a side dish, under grilled meats and fish as itself or with the faux-tato alias (faux-tato?? yep, it’s mine and you can’t have it), or as a topping for meat pies or stew.

Caramelized Diver Scallops, Cauliflower Puree, Capers, Almonds, Golden Raisins. Ommmmmm.

Caramelized Diver Scallops, Cauliflower Puree, Capers, Almonds, Golden Raisins. Ommmmmm.

2. Cauli rice: it’s pretty easy to turn cauli into rice if you have a food processor; it’s harder with a knife, but can be done. I use this blade:

calui blade

After chopping a head of cauli, shoving it through the food processor, and steaming it, I have this:

cauli rice raw

This riced cauli is ready for makeup. Let’s head east…it works great with Cajun food, in place of rice in jambalaya – especially under ample Tabasco sauce. The resulting dish is not as heavy as Mama’s jambalaya or gumbo. Much further east, you can sauté it with an egg and some soy sauce to make faux-ried rice. (Get it? foh-ryed? fried? Okay, I’ll stop.)

Tonight, we made slow cooker soy ginger chicken (thighs, soy sauce, ginger, carrots, and chopped onion in the slow cooker for 6 hours on low), and enjoyed it with stir-fried veggies on top of cauli rice. Bok choy – chopped and stir fried – works well with this too.

Blurry but delicious

Blurry but delicious

 

cauli rice

Saucy…after the chicken was gone.

 Of course, I hit it with Sriracha chili garlic sauce, but I put that stuff on everything these days.

 3. Cauli pizza crust: you can make wheat-free crusts with just egg, but cauli works a lot better. I’m a fan of both white pizzas and pizzas with loads of sauce. The recipe shown HERE gives you a set of instructions, and you can choose how you top it. Other DNA chefs have shared their cauli pizzas, which you can top with fresh chopped tomato (or sauce, but check for added sugar), grated parmesan and/or mozzarella (dairy splurge!), GARLIC, oregano / basil / Italian seasoning, and whatever else you like – mushrooms, sausage, pepper…BACON. If in doubt, bake at 350′ for 20 minutes. I find that baking the crust on its own first prepares it to take the toppings and crisp up a bit – less soggy.

Cauli Porn

Cauli Porn

Feel free to share your favorite cauliflower recipes here. If you’ve never tried it, you should!

Comfort Food for Cold Weather: Chili

We’ve had quite the cold snap lately, and cold weather means comfort food: soups, stews, and CHILI. The latter of these comes in all varieties, as seen at cook-offs everywhere. Maybe you prefer your grandma’s recipe. I can’t get past Cinci chili. I was stuck in Ohio for almost 2 years, and Cincinnati chili was my favorite part – the finely ground meat and touch of cinnamon and chocolate are irresistible. I also love Southwest heat, and fortunately, blending the two works!

Without further ado, here’s AJ’s “clean” Cinci-Mex Chili recipe.  You can spice this up with chili powder or finely diced peppers if desired. The recipe combines the Mexican mole flavor with Cincinnati style chili – go 5 ways if you like! (look it up if you don’t know what I mean by “5 ways”)

If you’re early in your nutrition plan, skip the spaghetti squash, and be aware that tomatoes have a lot of carbohydrate. Kidney beans are also not ideal – legumes, antinutrients….

Ingredients:

  • 16 ounces chorizo sausage (nitrite-free, preferably; Mexican, not Spanish, which is hard sausage)
  • 1 yellow onion , diced
  • 1 1/4 cup tomato sauce, or pureed/strained tomato
  • 1 1/4 cup beef broth
  • 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 2 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1 spaghetti squash
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 15-ounce can red kidney beans, optional (LEGUME!! not ideal)
  1. Preheat oven to 400′.
  2. Cut spaghetti squash in half lengthwise. Roast halved spaghetti squash at 400′ for 30 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, preheat stock pot on medium 1-2 minutes.
  4. Add chorizo and 1/2 c onions (and optional diced hot peppers to taste); cook 2-3 mins, stirring to crumble meat, or until onions soften.
  5. Combine chili powder, cocoa powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and cumin, then add to meat. Stir and cook 1-2 minutes.
  6. Stir in tomato sauce, broth, vanilla, and cider vinegar.
  7. Cook 8-10 mins or until chili thickens.
  8. OPTIONAL – Heat kidney beans (rinsed and drained) in a small pan.
  9. Scoop spaghetti squash into individual bowls with a fork.
  10. Top with heap of chili. Top with onions, kidney beans, and/or cheese, to taste. Add hot sauce if desired.
  11. Enjoy!!

Laissez les bons temps rouler! It’s Mardi Gras!

One of my favorite holidays is Mardi Gras. I met my husband at a Mardi Gras party (in my squadron, surrounded by fighter pilots, including my boss who was making hurricanes), and I just love the idea of an all-out city-wide no-rules party. In addition to beads (um, the beads are great but the associated activities aren’t really my thing) and the parades, the FOOD from the Big Easy is great – spicy comfort food…what’s not to love?

Well, the grains involved! Unfortunately, beignets are not in the nutrition plan, though the chicory coffee is still good to go. If you are eating rice, gumbo and jambalaya are still a go, without corn. If you aren’t eating rice, you can approximate with cauliflower rice. PaleOMG has a good recipe here for pork, shrimp, and chicken sausage gumbo. Note: they forgot the okra!

YUMbo!!

What about the legendary beverages of New Orleans, particularly Hurricanes? Alcohol is a toxin and it gets in front of the other macros in the digestion line, so if you’re going to drink, it’s a cheat day and don’t whine if your performance is off afterwards. Enjoy and don’t feel guilty (assuming you are not swilling passion fruit juice with rum on a regular basis!)

Another Mardi Gras favorite is the King Cake. You can read about King Cakes here – they are essentially huge cinnamon rolls, or other stuffed bread/cakes, with a plastic baby (or marble) hidden inside, iced with purple, green, and yellow frosting and sugar. King Cakes are also not in your macros! The story is that whoever finds the baby in their slice of King Cake gets good luck, or gets to buy the next King Cake, or gets to wash the dishes, depending who you ask.

Traditional King Cake, accessorized

While I do not pretend that “paleo” baked goods are anything that a caveman would have found or eaten – the concentrations of sugars, nuts, etc. are too high – most of the almond flour and coconut flour recipes on the web are at least made with real food. These “paleo” baked treats, including this one, are once-in-a-while indulgences for holidays and special occasions, not something you want to keep on hand all the time. Their advantage is that the absence of refined sugars and wheat flours makes them less offensive to your system, so you shouldn’t experience the same stomachache, headache, sugar rush, etc. that you might get from a conventional baked good, and your body should be able to process them more efficiently.

In this spirit, I present the following King Cake approximation recipe. It’s a vanilla cake, rather than a cinnamon roll (my cinnamon roll recipe has a lot of palm sugar in the filling),  and I baked in a marble instead of the plastic baby. Incidentally, I still have the baby from the 1999 Mardi Gras party where I met Rick. I guess it works! — AJ

 

“PALEO” KING CAKE

Part 1: THE CAKE

Option A: Adapted from Perfect Vanilla Cake

Preheat oven to 350º

  • 8 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups coconut milk (canned) or cream
  • 1 ½ T vanilla extract
  • 1 cup palm sugar (or other natural sweetener; 3/4 c agave or maple syrup will work, but are sugary) – I buy my palm sugar from Amazon
  • 1 cup blanched almond flour
  • 1 cup coconut flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt
  • Scant 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 T cinnamon (or more if you like)
  • Stevia if more sweetness is desired

Note on sweetener amount: you can further reduce the sugar and use more stevia, but it’s better with at least a little of some type of real sugar, since sugar contributes to a good crumb texture. Stevia is a dried plant; Splenda and Sweet ‘n’ Low come from a lab, so we don’t recommend those.

1. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, coconut milk, vanilla extract and palm sugar.

2. In a smaller bowl, combine almond flour, coconut flour, salt and baking soda.

3. Mix dry ingredients into wet with a handheld mixer. Add stevia to taste.

4. Grease a bundt pan or angel food pan (or other cake pan if you don’t have a round one with a hole in the middle) with melted coconut oil or butter, and pour in batter.

5. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until a knife inserted comes out clean.

6. Cool for 1 hour.

You can bake a non-melting item like a glass marble into the cake, or push a plastic baby or other small trinket into the cake before turning it out of the pan, AFTER baking. No melted plastic babies, please…that’s a buzzkill.

Option B: make a cinnamon roll and connect the ends. Cinnamon roll recipe:

Dough: mix the first three ingredients, then mix in the rest. Roll into a long rectangle, about 1/4-1/2″ thick.

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup or honey
  • 1/4 cup ghee or coconut oil (melted)
  • 2 1/2 cups almond flour
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda

Filling: mix 2 T melted ghee, butter, or coconut oil, 2 T cinnamon, and 3 T palm sugar. Spread all over the dough rectangle, and then carefully roll up the rectangle to make a long cinnamon roll snake. Connect the ends to make a donut shape, and bake for 25 mins in a 350′ oven.

Option A produces a more spongy, soft cake; option B is more authentic, but a little denser and less soft. Hey, I told you this recipe is an approximation!

Part 2: The Icing, adapted from Elana Amsterdam’s recipes – marshmallow frosting; you could also use her coconut cream frosting recipe (probably half of it, not the whole thing), but it’s a bit more work and requires a lot of some expensive ingredients.

  • 1/2 c agave nectar (high in fructose and not the best choice, but honey makes it too sickly sweet and the flavor is off – I tried it)
  • 2 egg whites
  1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the agave nectar to a boil, stirring frequently. Decrease the heat to low and simmer for 4 to 8 minutes, watching constantly and stirring occasionally, until the agave darkens slightly from its original color.
  2. In a large bowl, whip the egg whites to stiff peaks. Drizzle the agave slowly into the egg whites, whisking continuously until blended. Divide into 3 bowls, color one purple, one yellow, and one green, and ice the cooled cake.
  3. Surround with beads, masks, etc. and call your friends over to share!
AJ's King Cake, minus the beads and feathers

AJ’s King Cake, minus the beads and feathers

 

Thanksgiving Menu – What to Eat?

We at DNA do not always agree on nutrition for special occasions. While we all subscribe to the same science-based approach to nutrition, holidays present unique challenges. December is a minefield of sugary treats and beverages, and is best approached in moderation – choose your exceptions, and make them infrequent and worthwhile (skip the corn-based eggnog but drink the real homemade stuff). Thanksgiving, however, is just one big day of eating…plus leftovers!

David believes that you train and eat well all year, and that eating whatever foods that your family traditionally enjoys on Thanksgiving is a healthy and appropriate. He says that you should enjoy yourself, eat what you like, and not feel guilty!

AJ makes exceptions at times (birthday cake, wine…) but doesn’t like to feel crummy after a big meal, and really enjoys cooking whole foods. She prefers some alternatives to the traditional starch-fest, and won’t touch a white roll with a 10-foot pole.

We encourage you to post Thanksgiving recipes here or on the Phase I & IV Nutrition Group Page. Meanwhile, you can download AJ’s Thanksgiving Menu, complete with recipes and a shopping list. Pick one to try and take to a friend’s house. Alternatively, go to Mom’s and ENJOY the candied yams – it’s a special occasion!

AJ’S THANKSGIVING MENU & RECIPES  – click to download

Hey Pumpkin!

Pumpkin season is here! Pumpkin is a GREAT way to get your carbs, plenty of micronutrients, and a heap of cinnamon, which is a great replacement for sweetener and thus can help with weight loss. You can buy it in a can – make sure you’re getting PUMPKIN, and not PUMPKIN PIE FILLING. Making your own puree is easy too:

  • Get a small pumpkin – jack ‘o’ lanterns are not great for eating
  • Cut it in half, place seed-side down, and roast at 375′ for 35 minutes
  • Let it cool, scrape out the seeds, scoop the meat from the shell, and puree it in a blender or food processor – add water to make it smooth
Alternatively, don’t puree it, but scoop the meat out and slice it into cubes for use in savory recipes, such as pumpkin and chicken curry.
Pumpkin soup is delicious and easy to make:
  • 1 onion, chopped fine
  • 2 cloves garlic , chopped fine
  • 1 14-oz can coconut milk (low fat or full fat)
  • 14oz pumpkin puree
  • 1.5c broth – vegetable or chicken
  • 1 tsp curry powder
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • fresh cilantro leaves and sliced green onions for garnish
Saute the onion and garlic for 5 minutes over medium-high heat, and then mix in the rest of the ingredients (except the garnish) and simmer for 10 minutes. Spoon into bowls and sprinkle the garnish on top. You can also puree this soup to make it smoother.

I like pumpkin pie just as well without a crust. You can make it as a custard with this recipe:

  • 2 cups pureed pumpkin
  • 2 cups (1 can) coconut milk
  • 1t cinnamon
  • 1/2t ginger
  • 1/4t cloves
  • 1/4t salt
  • 1/2t vanilla
  • sweetener: stevia to taste, or 1/2c of any of these: honey, applesauce, palm sugar (low glycemic). Use as little as possible, and you can combine them too.
  • 2 eggs

Mix all ingredients, and pour into a pie pan or into ramekins. Place the containers in a water bath – use a bigger pan and set the containers into it, and then fill with hot water, being careful not to slosh it into the pumpkin mix. Bake at 350′ for 40 minutes and test with a knife for doneness.

Another easy treat is Pumpkin Ice Cream – recipes here and here.

This link has a mess of great pumpkin recipes, and you can find a lot online.

Bonus: butternut squash works in most pumpkin recipes, which is smoother and delicious but also more starchy, with a different carb composition.

The Sweetener Spectrum

 

Oh baby.

Our clients often ask about how to sweeten foods in the absence of sugar, and which sweeteners are the best ones to use. We all understand that processed white sugar and corn products (such as high fructose corn syrup) cause insulin spikes and leptin disruption that can trigger inflammation, and over time, systemic inflammation. Systemic inflammation, in turn, stresses your system, pumps up your cortisol level (the stress hormone), and causes your immune system to work extra hard all the time, thus opening the door to all sorts of minor and major diseases. Sweetness is also an addictive taste – your brain is hardwired to seek it, as it generally means easy-burning fuel, so your inability to resist a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie is not entirely your fault. Further, your brain is also hardwired to eat all of the food available,

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Coco Loco: Fabulous Coconut

Coconut is enjoying significant attention as the new hot thing in kitchens across America, for good reason. It’s not a grain and therefore does not lead to inflammation as grains do; its sugar content is relatively low, and while high in satisfying healthy saturated fat (YES! I said “healthy saturated fat”), it has less fat than tree nuts. Technically, it’s a drupe, which is a fruit, a nut. (For the record, peanuts are not nuts either – they’re legumes and they contain antinutrients.)

Coconut can be found in many forms, most of which are minimally processed. You can find most of these at Sprouts, Whole Foods, or Trader Joe’s, except for coconut flour, which you can buy online.

Coconut water has

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Substitute Teaching, Part 3: Breakfast “..Wait, I can eat that?!”

Ah, the standard American breakfast: eggs, bacon, toast, orange juice, coffee. Perhaps you prefer the Belgian waffles with sugary strawberries and whipped cream, with coffee. As a kid, I was a HUGE fan of IHOP’s chocolate chip pancakes, which I probably enjoyed with milk. And whipped cream. And more chocolate. Yum!

Cleaning up your nutrition means saying goodbye to some of your old breakfast favorites, but honestly, you won’t miss toast after a while. Fortunately, eggs and bacon are still on the menu! Juice is a no-go because of the unnaturally high sugar concentrations, but coffee is okay.

Oatmeal, French toast, and pancakes are right out.

Or are they?

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Substitute Teaching, Part 2: The Wonders of Cauliflower

More than meets the eye…

Who knew that cauliflower had such potential?

An entire medium-sized head of cauliflower has 11g of protein, 30g of carbohydrates (15g of sugar), and 1g of fat, for a total of 144 calories. Cauli comes in many colors and varieties; recipes here have been tested with the standard white variety that you will find at the store.

Apart from being a great raw vehicle for guac (avocado, lime, salt garlic, cilantro mashed together, all to taste) and other dips, cauli is a great stand-in for mashed potatoes and can work as a crust too. Here are a few favorites.

1. Pureed cauli: steam it (or microwave for 4 minutes in a bowl with a bit of water), and then puree in a food processor or blender. Oil is optional. Spread on a plate and put something else delicious on top. Makes a great “polenta” sub, or just call it what it is…cauli puree.

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GUILT FREE French toast with strawberries and cream


We train hard and eat healthy to be able to afford the fun stuff. Guess what? The fun stuff doesn’t have to be complete trash! This treat is one the whole family will enjoy!

How?… make bread with almond flour and coconut oil (see zucchini bread). Beat an egg with 1t cinnamon (more or less to taste) and 1/2t vanilla. Dip a slice of bread in the egg mixture and cook on a griddle or frying pan on medium for about 5 minutes, until golden brown.

For the strawberries and cream, just slice some strawberries and mix with whipped cream, which has only fat – no carbs, no sugar. It’s naturally sweet, but you can mix in a little bit of Splenda, stevia, or honey if it works with your macros and if you want a bit more sweetness.  Dollop on top of the French toast. There you go – delicious strawberry and cream !!!! 🙂

Submitted by Norma S.

Substitute Teaching, Part 1

Establishing a new eating pattern is a major lifestyle change, which works best when you discover new and delicious ways to meet your nutritional needs, rather than imitating your old diet. For example, pasta and sandwiches can be replaced with meat, vegetables, and interesting salads. However, food is very central to our cultures and behavior. Certain foods make us happy and remind us of celebrations of the past; hence the popularity of “comfort food,” just like Mom made it.

Therefore, while we recommend recreating your meals instead of substituting the old ones, we will be providing suggestions for delicious substitutes for popular foods, many of which are gluten-laden disasters. We will be starting a “Sub Board” at DNA, where you can write down foods that you want to substitute, and answers will magically show up for all to see and share. Three such examples follow, and for a fourth, see LeeAat’s mini pizzas with cauliflower crusts!

1. Spaghetti

Let’s start easy: spaghetti squash is a GREAT sub for spaghetti. It has 10g of carbs in 1 cup, about 1g of protein, and trace fat. According to Livestrong, it also has Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids.

It’s easy to cook – just cut it in half, lay the halves face down on a cookie sheet, and bake it for about 30 minutes in the oven at 400′. Let it cool a bit, flip it over, and scrape it out with a fork. LOAD with a meat and tomato sauce, or anything else that works with your macros. Nom nom!

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The Crust

Part of embracing whole food and leaving gluten in your past is to change what you eat, not to mimic old favorites. Having said that, I am the queen of “clean” treats – I make a mean banana-coconut-zucchini bread (the banana adds the sweetness, and coconut flour and egg create structure), and can do some pretty amazing things with almond flour.

Some foods are really tough to ditch. While this list varies among people, certain “off limits” foods are more popular than others. For example, most people who ditch added sugars don’t crave soda after a while – it’s just too sickly sweet and tastes of chemicals. (When I get beverage-bored, lemon in water or plain old seltzer do the trick. Wine is another topic entirely, though.) Pizza, on the other hand, is really delicious and can include plenty of healthy veggies…snuggled in between a thick antinutrient-laden dough mattress and a questionable cheese blanket, and often polluted with added sugars and other nasty stuff.

What’s a college student to do?

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Read the Label!

Note to all clients, visitors, stalkers, etc:

Before you eat something that comes in a package, READ THE LABEL.

You may be very surprised at what you see. We all know that processed food is often packed with unwelcome corn syrup, salt, chemicals (preservatives, additives), artificial flavoring and sweeteners, and occasionally downright unappealing additives.

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What’s in season? Zucchini!

One of the best ways to get great nutrition is to eat locally-grown produce in season. Food is usually in abundance, and therefore cheaper, in season, and is also fresher, having ripened on its own (without chemicals) and traveled less distance to arrive on your plate.

Believe it or not, Community Gardens of Tucson, Tucson Organic Gardners, and similar organizations have no trouble growing veggies right here in the hot desert. My garden is currently churning out tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini. I have a fridge full of huge zucchini, most of which may be unfortunately too hard to eat (vegetables are best when young and tender). I’ve been cooking zucchini at almost every meal, and am still not sick of it. Yet.

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