Last night I told you about my renewed plan to get healthy. Here it is in summary:

• Step 1 – Start seeing a dietitian.
• Step 2 – Write down what I eat.
• Step 3 – Keep to 1,500 calories per day (no restrictions on carbs or other food groups, just watch my portion sizes. Eat slowly and take breaks during my meals.)
• Step 4 – Plan my meals for the week.

Another one of my takeaways is to try to come up with our dinner menus on the weekends. Brett and I often find ourselves wandering the grocery store after work and opting for some bad meal choices. This way, we plan in advance and have everything on hand for later in the week.

Here is one of the first recipes we tried and it is a WINNER! I’ve heard of the rumors of this one for a little while now but was reluctant to try it. Really? A pizza that doesn’t use dough for a crust, but instead uses cauliflower. So, it’s low carb and veggie friendly? Yup!

I must thank Pinterest again for introducing me to this recipe (courtesy of Eat. Drink. Smile.) that I doubled the original recipe so it was enough for a hearty dinner for both Brett and I. Honestly, I found two slices more than enough for me (although Brett went through four – I’m not going to argue with that choice, though, since it’s miles healthier than a regular pizza slice!)

What You Need

• 2 cups cooked, riced cauliflower
• 2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• olive oil (optional)
• pizza sauce, shredded cheese and your choice of toppings

Getting Started

To start, you’ll need to rice the cauliflower. We bought a medium-sized head and were able to get three pizzas out of it. We just kept the riced cauliflower (uncooked) in baggies in the fridge until we were ready to use them. It will last about a week or so. It came in handy for a quick lunch on the weekend. First, chop the cauliflower into florets. Then, with a box grater, you can grate the cauliflower until all of it has been completed. (You also could use a food processor – just be careful that you don’t make a puree out of it.)

Next, you need to cook the cauliflower. The easiest method is to place the portion you’re using into a microwave-safe bowl and cook on high for about 7-8 minutes. (The second time we made the crust, we actually forgot this step and we found it didn’t really make too much of a difference or not. So, if you’re strapped for time or don’t have a microwave, you should be fairly safe. You could also steam the cauliflower on the stove as an alternative.)

Putting It All Together

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. (I tested this out on two different cookie sheets – I found my Goldtouch® one from Williams Sonoma worked the best to get the slices off cleanly. My cheaper baking sheet from store unknown had a little trouble, even with the cooking spray.)

Mix together the cauliflower, egg and mozzarella in a bowl. Stir in oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt. Place the mixture on the cookie sheet and pat it out until you get about a 9 to 10-inch round crust. Make sure it’s relatively the same level throughout – otherwise some areas could cook faster and you might have some burned spots. Now, you’re going to prebake this in the preheated over for about 15 minutes.

Pictured above: Sauteeing the mushrooms while the pizza crust is in the oven. I took about a cup of freshly sliced mushrooms, some olive oil and fresh cracked pepper until they were just soft enough.

Remove the pizza crust from the oven. Switch the oven to the broil setting and…Now comes the fun part – toppings! You can do whatever you want here. We went with a bottled pizza sauce (used about 2-3 tablespoons), then added a little extra mozzarella and parmesan cheese, turkey pepperoni, fresh basil and some sauteed mushrooms. (Note: if you’re using items such as carmelized onions or sausage, they’ll need to be cooked first. The pizza doesn’t spend too much time in the oven with the toppings on it.)

Place under a broiler at high heat until the cheese is melted, bubbly and just browned. It will only need about 3 to 4 minutes so don’t go too far away.

Now, slice into this bad boy and tell me what you think? I don’t know if I’ll be making frozen pizzas anymore since this one is SO easy to do. (Of course I’ll still be getting my Ned’s when I’m in MKE or Lou Malnati’s in Chicago – you can NEVER take the real thing outta this girl!)

I hope you enjoy!!