Cauliflower Two Ways {Pinned and Tried}

The food of this week apparently was Cauliflower. We are eating very healthy and trying out new recipes. This week I tried two new recipes I had pinned on Pinterest- one that we absolutely loved and one that didn't make the cut.

Number one was Creamy Cauliflower Sauce from pinchofyum.com. (Click for recipe). I used it as pasta sauce on veggie noodles with broccoli and chicken. (Side note: I was extra excited to try this out in my new Blentec blender with the "sauces" button, which worked flawlessly by the way. Not an endorsement, just love my blender!) I served it to my family without telling them what it was. They all told me it smelled amazing and then they tasted it- and LOVED it. They didn't even realize it was cauliflower sauce until after their plates were empty. We definitely will be making this again. And again times infinity.

Big mom hi-five in the air for me! Lindsay from pinchofyum also uses it for creamy garlic rice and chicken alfredo pizza sauce, which I would love to try.

via

The second recipe was basically substituting a cauliflower mixture for pizza crust. I used a cheesy cauliflower breadstick recipe I had pinned and basically made a pizza crust with it. I followed all the directions, multiplying times four to feed the family and putting it on a cookie sheet. After cooking for 40 min, I spread a little bit of red sauce on and sprinkled pizza seasoning and cheese over the top the same way I do homemade pizza. After cooling for a few minutes I cut with a pizza cutter into "breadsticks." Unfortunately, it didn't go over great. I liked the taste but the rest of the family thought the cauliflower taste was too strong. Also, even after all that baking, they still were limp and kind of like an omelet consistency. Maybe it needed to cook longer? I guess we'll never know since I won't be cooking it again :( But I praised my family for trying something new and humoring me! I served it with a delicious spinach salad so they weren't too starving :)

So those were our dinner adventures this week! Have you tried anything new lately?

~Rebecca

What I am reading about: Healthy Eating

Every time I see an article on fake sugars, I read it and every time I read it, I find my suspicions are true: they are NO GOOD. I know from personal experience: my mom gets migraines from Aspartame and my children get diarrhea from Sucralose.
Then my mom gave me this book to read: Sweet Deception: Why Splenda, NutraSweet, and the FDA May be Hazardous to your Health; by Dr. Joseph Mercola. Just a few pages in this book and it was enough to convince me to never eat these chemicals or give them to my family ever again. The most frustrating thing to me is that because of politics and money, the FDA who is supposed to be keeping us safe from this stuff, turn a blind eye and approve it for us to eat in our everyday food.
Here is just a very small portion of the long list of complaints reported from aspartame consumers: cancer in animals, headaches and migraines, dizziness, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, seizures, swelling, speech impairment, sleep problems, breathing difficulty.... and the list goes on and on. I highly recommend this book, if just to get the word out. It is something the general population really needs to know. Start checking all food labels and make it a goal to banish these artificial sweeteners from your life for good!
While I am on the subject, I thought I would share with you four other books we have read in my home and that we highly recommend to others. Not only have we read these books, but we have tried at least one or two recipes in each of them that we have continue in our everyday life. Of course, sometimes we are "healthier" than others, but the point is that knowledge is power, right? One other thing: it is important to keep in mind that this is NOT about dieting. It is about creating a healthy LIFESTYLE by changing habits and being aware of how you must take care of your body for the rest of your life. And in my case, trying to raise and teach my children these habits from the beginning. So, here they are:

Eating Well for Optimum Health, by Dr. Andrew Weil
We never buy margarine anymore, always ground turkey instead of beef, and we love his recipe for preparing broccoli until it's cooked crisp tender with a little olive oil and red pepper flakes.

The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood, by Dr William Sears, his wife and sons.
This pumps you up to get your kids eating healthy and we like the Chocolate Oatmeal Flax Cookies, they are much like the ones made by Kashi.

You on a Diet by Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz
Great for jumpstarting your new, healthy lifestyle! And overall great knowledge of how it all works.

The Abs Diet by David Zinczenko
This book was recommended to my husband by a good friend who is an Olympic-level skier from Lake Tahoe. It is very informative and we love every single shake recipe we have tried from this book.

I LOVE TO HELP: free mammograms

A favor to ask, it only takes a minute: The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to underprivileged women. It takes less than 2o seconds to go to their site and click on 'donating a mammogram' for free (pink window in the middle).

It doesnt cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsers / advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammograms in exchange for advertising.

Here is the website: http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

Tell 10 friends today!

To find out more about breast cancer and why I care click here.

THANK YOU

A SUBJECT THAT IS NEAR AND DEAR

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women, except for skin cancers. The chance of developing invasive breast cancer at some time in a woman's life is a little less than 1 in 8 (12%).

The American Cancer Society's most recent estimates for breast cancer in the United States are for 2009:

• about 192,370 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women

• about 62,280 new cases of carcinoma in situ (CIS) will be diagnosed (CIS is non-invasive and is the earliest form of breast cancer).

• about 40,170 women will die from breast cancer

After increasing for more than 2 decades, female breast cancer incidence rates decreased by about 2% per year from 1999 to 2006. This decrease may be due at least in part to less use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) after the results of the Women's Health Initiative were published in 2002. This study linked HRT use to an increased risk of breast cancer and heart diseases.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, exceeded only by lung cancer. The chance that breast cancer will be responsible for a woman's death is about 1 in 35 (about 3%). Death rates from breast cancer have been declining since about 1990, with larger decreases in women younger than 50. These decreases are believed to be the result of earlier detection through screening and increased awareness, as well as improved treatment.

At this time there are over 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States. (This includes women still being treated and those who have completed treatment.)
Information taken from the American Cancer Society Website

Image by myself, taken in honor of my mother.

In my life, my mother, grandmother, two aunts, and my sister-in-law's mother have had breast cancer. Of these five, three have survived. I will never forget the fear and panic I felt when I was told "I have cancer" from my mom, or again "Grandma has breast cancer." I will never forget watching my sister in law, as a young, new wife, deal with losing her mother to this disease. Or when I showed up at the hospital after she gave birth to her firstborn, a daughter, and seeing my own mother in the room, but only a framed picture of hers by the bedside.
Statistically, about 1 in 8 women will develop some form of breast cancer in their life. And 1 in 35 will die.
I am grateful that "they" have created a month for Breast Cancer Awareness. That is why I chose to write about this topic- because I want all who know me to increase or start their awareness, NOW. PLEASE do your monthly self-breast exams and check with your doctor regularly. Even if you do find a lump, taking care of it in the early stages increases your chances of survival DRAMATICALLY. We lost my aunt because even though she found a lump, she waited to go to the doctor until it was too late.
I am so grateful I still have my mom, my grandma, and my other aunt in my life. PLEASE be aware and help spread the knowledge of this disease to those you love. This October, THINK PINK!
~ R