Grilling Season is Here!

The cold weather stuck around for an unusually long time this year, but that didn't stop us from kicking off grilling season on Memorial Day weekend with a family gathering.  DJ was pumped to have everyone over this spring in particular because we just got a new grill.  The one that came with the house finally conked out.  DJ had suspected there was something wrong with the old grill for a while - it wasn't cooking evenly and nothing ever had that smoky grill taste to it no matter what method he tried.  With an opportunity to choose something exactly to his liking, he opted for a smaller size but with a built in smoker and rotisserie!  Can't wait to try the rotisserie (blog post will, of course, mark that occasion), but DJ stuck to his tried and true grilled meats for the first few uses to break Juicy in.  (Yes, we named the grill.)

the fam braving the chilly Memorial Day air to gather around the smoky goodness

Da Guys coming by to enjoy some steak on a much warmer weekend

DJ's aptly themed Father's Day gifts for this year; Grill Sergeant indeed!

Whole Foods Cauliflower Pizza Crust

For the past few months, we have been making the conscious effort to remove sugar and processed foods from our diet.  While we've always tried to eat relatively healthy, we certainly relied a lot on jarred sauces, marinades, dressings, and carbs to flesh out flavors in our meals.  This new way of eating has been rewarding, but also challenging as it pushes us to rethink how we prepare food.

One thing we both enjoy is a good slice of pizza, which is clearly packed with sugars in both the crust and the sauce.  We had heard about cauliflower pizza crust and gotten curious.  But then Mel read reviews of the Trader Joe's version that likened it to cardboard and "no amount of cheese could save it."  So we weren't running to try it.  (If cheese can't save you, then really there's no hope.)  Then Mel noticed a cauliflower crust in the freezer section of Whole Foods and figured we might as well give it a chance.

Super simple to prepare, very quick to cook, and great nutrition facts.  Winning so far!

Looks a bit bland out of the box, so we placed our expectations very low and deemed this an experiment.

For the sauce, we heated a bit of Pomi Strained Tomatoes with fresh cut cherry tomatoes, salt and dried Italian seasoning mix.  We spread it evenly across the crust and topped it with copious amounts of shredded cheese.

We baked it for longer than recommended on the box - basically until the cheese was fully melted and the crust had browned.  Probably about 20 minutes total with lots of peeking to make sure we didn't overdo it.

End result - we were shocked.  It was actually good!  And not in a "making excuses / it's not as terrible as we thought it would be" way.  Like, in an "actually tasty / if you hadn't told us it was cauliflower, we might not have noticed" way.  One thing we may try next time is baking it directly on the metal cookie sheet instead of leaving it on its cardboard tray so that the bottom crust will get a little crispier.  Other than that - holy moly, it's a winner!  We will definitely be sure our freezer is always stocked with at least one of these crusts for quick, last minute, easy comfort food meals.


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 ADDENDUM

 2/19/2020:  We use this crust quite often now, and can confirm that it is best to remove the cardboard tray and place the crust on a greased cookie sheet.  Makes it much crispier.