Sometimes, it feels like I'm in a never-ending food cycle. I'll say that I'm going to eat healthy, manage to do so for a day or two, and then get super tempted by ice cream or pizza and throw away all my hard work. Luckily, I've managed to find some healthy alternatives to some of my least healthy vices to keep me on track.
Cauliflower Pizza Crust
Everybody loves pizza, but pizza dough can be greasy, starchy, and not very nutritious. Luckily, it's super easy to make it out of ground cauliflower! Plus, since this recipe uses cottage cheese instead goat or cream cheeses, it's way lower in fat! Do not attempt this if you don't have a food processor. I was chopping cauliflower for about an hour. The link also includes a list of toppings if you're not feeling creative. I, personally, like to spread half an avocado on my pizza and top it with a fried egg.
Ingredients:
1 large head of cauliflower
1/2 cup cottage cheese
2 eggs
Directions:
First, preheat your oven to 400. Chop the cauliflower just enough for it to fit in the food processor and then mix it until it gets a rice-like consistency. Then microwave (or steam) for 3-4 minutes, wrap in cheese cloth (or paper towel, if you're cheap like me), and squeeze out as much water as possible. Put it back in the bowl, add the eggs and cottage cheese, and mix with your hands until they all start to bind together. Finally, shape into pizzas (I usually make two small pizzas, but you could also do one large one.) on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake for 10-15 minutes*** (longer for the one large pizza). Then you can top it with anything that you want and it's so yummy!
***This recipe technically says to bake for about 25 minutes, but mine was done in way less.
Banana Ice Cream
You may have heard of this one before, but frozen bananas make a surprisingly good ice cream and all that you need are the bananas and some flavoring! You can watch the video in the link, but it's really pretty simple.
Ingredients:
Frozen bananas
Flavoring (Oreos, cocoa powder, peanut butter....)
Directions:
Freeze the bananas for at least two hours. Then, chop and blend in a heavy-duty blender or food processor. Add in the flavoring and blend again, then pour into a container and freeze until solid. That's really all that there is to it!
If you're not into bananas, the cocoa powder is supposedly an extra good bet for you because it masks the banana flavor.
Portobello Pizzas
I just really like pizza, OK? What better way is there to make a healthy pizza than by using a topping that I already love (i.e. the mushrooms) as the crust? It's brilliant! This recipe is a little bit more complicated than the past two, so I'll let you read the original instead of running the risk of messing it up here.
(Healthy) Double Chocolate Muffins
This recipe is for all of the chocoholics out there, courtesy of my little sister Katie. I'm still not sure how she found them, but they are heavenly and not too bad for you! They substitute all of the bad things in baking (flour, vegetable oil, sugar, milk chocolate) for things that are significantly better (wheat flour, olive oil, applesauce, and dark chocolate), so have at it!
Ingredients:
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup sugar (or natural sweetener like Stevia)
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract (or just another tsp vanilla)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 tsp baking soda
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a six-cup jumbo muffin tin (8-10 smaller cups) or put in cupcake papers. In a small bowl, mix applesauce, sugar, olive oil, vanilla, and almond extract, then set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix together both of these bowls, then fold in the chocolate chips. Pour into muffin tins and then bake for 20 minutes. Enjoy!
Healthy Burrito Bowl
I love Chipotle, but it can get expensive and unhealthy. It's a good thing that I have this recipe to make up for it! Again, I'll let you read the website for the instructions, but definitely make this super yummy dish!
Misc.
In case you want more healthy tips and tricks, keep these in mind!
1. Cottage cheese works just as well as sour cream in Mexican food (and mashed potatoes) and it is significantly healthier.
2. Applesauce and honey are great alternatives to sugar in most recipes (also, applesauce can be used instead of eggs while baking, if you're going vegan).
3. Pureed cauliflower is a super healthy and super tasty alternative to mashed potatoes. If you don't like the cauliflower taste or texture, try doing half and half! That way, you still get the potatoes that you love, but with significantly fewer calories.
4. Olive oil is much healthier than vegetable oils and it can be used in most recipes (google "olive oil brownies"), although it does have a distinctive taste. Coconut oil is another great option!
5. Spaghetti squash is, in my opinion, even tastier than normal spaghetti and it's obviously much healthier. Give it a try!
