Loaded Cauliflower Modifié

Doesn't stuff sound fancy when you say it in French? I took Spanish in school and I'm a big fan of that language but French sure does make a recipe sound fancy.

So a friend posted this recipe on Facebook and I just started drooling all over the place because dang, it was just all bubbly and cheesy and bacon-y so most anyone would do the same thing. And it had cauliflower which is one of my most favorite vegetables because it's so versatile, so when I see a recipe that excites me and it has to do with cauliflower the odds of actually eating some vegetables skyrocket. Which is a good thing.

I mean seriously, just look at this:

photo credit: parkersgeneral.blogspot.com

So, even though I'm plush size (a recently coined term to describe the fact that I'm cuddly, you can use that) and I eat horribly and have no sense of portion control at times (at many, many times), I still love the challenge of trying to modify a recipe and cut the fat and calories, especially when it seems like a no-brainer, as in the case of this recipe.

We'll talk numbers. Here's how the original version breaks down. Thanks to myfitnesspal.com (the place where I'm supposed to be logging my food but ummm of late, not so much), I can plug in the ingredients and get some nutrition info. When this recipe was posted on Facebook it used Colby Jack cheese, so that's what I used. I also sauteed my mushrooms first with some butter and garlic powder, just to bring a little extra flavor. The serving size refers to 1/8 of a 13 x 9 pan.

Ingredients	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
Cauliflower - Raw, 1 head, large (6-7" dia)	210	45	1	17	252	20
Sour cream, 0.5 cup	246	5	24	4	61	0
Mushrooms - Raw, 1 cup, pieces or slices	15	2	0	2	3	1
Land O Lakes - Butter With Olive Oil, 0.5 tbsp	45	0	5	0	45	0
Market Pantry - Colby Jack Shredded Cheese, 2 Cup	800	16	72	48	1,600	0
Oscar Mayer - Bacon, 6 slices (14g)	210	0	18	12	780	0
Best Foods - Mayonnaise - Real, 4 tbsp	360	0	40	0	360	0
Green Onion - Green Onion Raw (Whole), 3 medium (15 g)	15	3	0	1	6	1
Add Ingredient

Total:	1,901	71	160	84	3,107	22
Per Serving:	238	9	20	11	388	3

I wound up using 5 pieces of bacon on my modified version, simply because that's what fit on the small baking sheet I pulled out. For me, I found this to be plenty. And another note about my bacon: my favorite turkey bacon is the Oscar Mayer turkey bacon that looks like this:

 

photo credit: www.simplygroceries.com

But Target was out of that one so I used the Oscar Mayer Selects that's listed in my recipe. When I cook this bacon, I'm usually at work and I heat up a couple of pieces on a paper towel in the microwave for one minute and 30 seconds and it comes out pretty crispy. This time I cooked it in the oven (and I've had turkey bacon cooked in the oven before that was THE BOMB) but this came out a little limp, which made me sad, but it was still good. Next time around I would work on that and also use my old standby bacon even though it's loaded with nitrates. My other modification was with cheese. In addition to using the reduced fat version, I also used half as much. And I'm a cheese NUT, and I found this to be perfectly acceptable. I also used an orange cauliflower like this

photo credit: squashblossombabies.com

which I think adds to illusion of cheesiness. Anyway, here's how the modified version breaks down.

Ingredients	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
Cauliflower - Raw, 1 head, large (6-7" dia)	210	45	1	17	252	20
Market Pantry - Colby Jack Reduced Fat Shredded Cheese, 1 Cup	360	4	24	32	640	0
Oscar Mayer Selects-no Nitrates - Turkey Bacon, 5 slice	150	0	13	10	700	0
Land O Lakes - Butter With Olive Oil, 0.5 tbsp	45	0	5	0	45	0
Green Onion - Green Onion Raw (Whole), 3 medium (15 g)	15	3	0	1	6	1
Trader Joe's - Light Sour Cream, 4 tbsp (30 g)	80	4	5	4	60	4
Best Foods - Light Mayonaise, 4 Tbsp (14g)	140	4	14	0	500	0
Add Ingredient

Total:	1,000	60	62	64	2,203	25
Per Serving:	125	8	8	8	275	3

Pretty cool, right? And it was DELICIOUS. Another note about this stuff. The whole tablespoons and cups and stuff confuses me. Because I'm just not that bright. And I'm not a measurer. Which is not a real word. But if you scoop out 4 tablespoons of sour cream, for example, it makes almost half a cup. Even though when you Google how many tablespoons are in a cup, the answer is 16. So I don't know and maybe someone can help me with this because my brain hurts. I'm not a scientist or a recipe master or anything, I'm just telling you what I did and maybe you'll try it, too!