You can eat pizza on South Beach Phase 1! Let me repeat... YOU CAN EAT PIZZA ON SOUTH BEACH PHASE 1!
My fiance's face lit up when I told him I was making him fresh pizza! It is one of our favorite food groups! Pizza makes just about anything better!
After eating this South Beach Phase 1 friendly and gluten free pizza, my fiance remarked that if he didn't know this wasn't real pizza dough he would've been fooled! That is a ringing endorsement from someone who spent his college years working at a pizza shop!
Just make sure you give yourself a little extra time. Making the dough takes patience and a good clean up crew!
Cauliflower Crust Pizza
1 head cauliflower
1 egg
1/2 cup goat cheese
1 tbsp. oregano
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
Pizza Toppings (Use what YOU love)
1 cup pizza sauce or more to cover your dough
1 cup low fat mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup chopped green peppers
12 slices of pepperoni
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Fill a large pot half full of water and bring to a boil. Remove the core and stems from the cauliflower. Only use the florets. Working in batches grind cauliflower in food processor into what looks like rice.
Then boil cauliflower in salted water for 4 minutes. Strain into a colander.
Make sure to do this following step to ensure CRISPY CRUST...
Put the cauliflower in a dish towel and ring out the excess moisture. It will look like THIS when you're done!
In a large bowl mix cauliflower, egg, cheese, and spices. Then on a parchment lined sheet pan form your dough building height around the edges to give it a "crust" type look.
Bake crust 40-45 minutes or until crust turns a beautiful brown color. My crust here needed to bake longer. You want it to be much more brown.
Once it's browned remove and add your favorite toppings. Start with the pizza sauce. Then add a small amount of cheese.
DO NOT ADD TOO MANY TOPPINGS.
This is not regular crust and will not hold up to the weight of too many toppings. After adding the pepperoni and bell peppers add a small layer of cheese.
Place under broiler for up to 5 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly!
It's Pizza Time!!! Nom nom nom-a-licious-ness!
You can make double the amount for the crust and freeze it for next time!
It's a delicious alternative to a devilish temptress! Make this pizza and see if you can fool your family!
I suggest doing South Beach with a friend or a significant other. That way you can torture yourself each day when you get on the scale to find that your partner is losing more weight and losing it much faster than you. My fiance steps on the scale every morning first thing every to find that somehow, somewhere the day before a pound of fat has lost it's way. Then it's my turn to step on the scale. Grrrrr.... that's the sound I've been making while my fiance just stands there grinning. Men! They always lose weight faster than women.
I must disclose that I lost 25 lbs. on South Beach in three months. Now I'm trying to lose 10 more pounds. This is the last 10 pounds that will put me back at the weight I maintained all through my twenties. You know back when we really didn't appreciate how skinny we actually were. So obviously this is going to take some patience on my part, and I'm willing to do it.
So far my fiance has lost 3 lbs. That's a pound a day! Me? The scale says I've lost 1 pound! Nine more to go!
Even if you're not on South Beach, you have to whip up this recipe! It packs lots of lean protein and tons of flavor!
Baked Lemon Chicken & Brussels
1 lb. chicken breasts
1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 cup chicken stock
1 lemon
1 lb. brussel sprouts
2 tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In large cast iron skillet (or oven proof skillet) heat 2 tbsp. olive oil on medium-high. Salt and pepper the chicken breasts and add to the skillet. Once you add them, don't touch them. Let them brown 3 to 4 minutes per side. Then flip once and let them brown the same amount of time on the other side. Then remove from skillet. You will continue cooking them in the oven.
Turn the heat down to medium, and add chopped onions to the skillet. Let saute a few minutes then add the garlic. Add brussel sprouts (I like to chop them in half) and let saute and begin to get nice color on them. Add 1 cup chicken stock and zest and juice of one lemon. Stir to combine.
Add chicken breast back to the pan moving them around until they are sunk into the bottom of the pan.
Place entire skillet in oven and bake 12-15 minutes depending on how large of a chicken breast. Once the juices run clear the chicken is done.
It's the lemon that makes this dish sing, plus the way the brussel sprouts get all yummy soaking up the chicken bits from the bottom of the pan while they bake! Serve this up with a glass of sparkling water and feel the pounds melt away! YUM!
Day one on South Beach Phase 1 was tough! I ain't gonna lie! My fiance has jumped on board with me like he did last year, and it's because he saw such great results. With this diet, you are resetting your glycemic index by not eating any carbohydrates, sugar, or drinking any alcohol the first two weeks. Then you slowly begin to add back in the carbs that are good for you. Yeah South Beach is not new, and most people have probably tried it once or twice. But IT WORKS!
My fiance is losing about a pound a day. He was still drinking alcohol. His favorite are microbrews; the heavier the better. So Phase 1 has been particularly hard for him, but he's getting through it like a trooper.
I quit drinking a while ago, so all I am cutting out are my Totinos pizzas basically. Seriously I lost 25 lbs. between June and September, so these next 10 lbs. are not going to be as easy. The scale says I've lost 2 lbs. Fair enough! I'm gonna keep going knowing these last few pounds are quite fond of me, and their departure will take more work.
To keep it interesting, I've been making fun meals every night. Here's what I made on day two!
Stuffed Peppers Without Rice
1 lb. lean ground beef
4 bell peppers
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 tbsp. worcesterchire sauce
1 tbsp. onion powder
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. red pepper flake
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cut the tops off the bell peppers and remove the stems. Reserve the tops and chop. Chop onions and garlic.
Fill large dutch oven 3/4 of the way full with water and bring to a boil. Place bell peppers in water and boil 5 minutes. Drain and set to the side.
In large oven proof pan saute the onions about 3 to 5 minutes on medium-high heat. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and worcesterchire sauce. Add a little salt and pepper to taste. Turn the heat down, simmer a few minutes, then remove from the heat.
In large bowl combine ground beef, spices, and fresh parsley. Add 1 cup of the sauteed tomato mixture to the beef. Add breadcrumbs and one egg. (Breadcrumbs are not a part of South Beach Phase 1, but you can not make this without them. Normally this recipe calls for cooked rice, and we are cutting way down on the carbs by omitting the rice.) Mix gently until all ingredients are combined.
Place each bell pepper in the large oven proof pan on top of the sauce. Fill each pepper with the ground beef mixture. Spoon some of the sauce from the bottom of the pan on top of the peppers. Bake 55 to 65 minutes.
Just before the peppers are done, you can add a little cheese to the top during the last 5 minutes of baking. Let the cheese melt and remove the peppers from the oven.
Let the pepper sit a couple minutes to cool off. Yum!
Every January I start South Beach Phase 1 to reset my glycemic index. I'm no doctor, but what I understand about glycemic index is that when it is super high you are eating the wrong type of carbs (the bad ones..the ones that TASTE AWESOME), and they are breaking down too fast in your body. It's that feeling of hunger you get after scarfing down a fast food combo meal thirty minutes after you eat it.
Now I'm not much a fast food eater. Mostly because we don't have fast food in Seattle. There's no place in the city where you can drive your car through the drive thru and order up a double whopper. Ok wait, I take that back. There is ONE Taco Bell/ KFC in lower Queen Anne, but they close super early. By the time I'm craving fast food, they are already shut down for the night. Don't get me wrong! I luuuuuurve to eat junk food! My craving? Totinos Frozen Pizzas! My fiance refers to them as ketchup on a cracker! And aren't those ketchup crackers delicious?!!
So here's what I do to get back on track for the new year, AND to lose weight without a tremendous amount of exercise. I mean let's be honest, it's cold outside. I ain't ridin' my bike this time of year. I still dance a couple times a week for several hours, but I'm not out there in the rain training for no dadgum marathon.
The idea with South Beach Phase 1 is to clean out your system of all the bad carbs, sugar, and alcohol. Here's what I did.
Day One- South Beach Phase 1
Turkey Taco Bites
Turkey:
1 lb. ground turkey
2 cloves garlic
1/2 onion
1 package of Taco seasoning
1 cup chicken stock
Pico De Gallo:
1 container grape tomatoes sliced in half
1/2 chopped onion
1 minced jalapeno
1 lime squeezed
1 cup fresh chopped cilantro
1 tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 head of cabbage
Brown the turkey on medium-high heat in skillet. Once it's browned add onions then garlic. Let the onions soften. Add cup of chicken stock and the package of Taco seasoning and mix together. Let this simmer until the chicken stock begins to thicken. Then turn off the heat.
In bowl add all pico de gallo ingredients and mix to combine. If you can make this ahead of time and refrigerate for a few hours, it only gets better.
Cut cabbage into 4 quarters. Remove core. Use one cabbage leaf to pile up a big mound of the ground taco turkey! Then top with fresh pico de gallo.
You can add cheese to this or quacamole. Just be careful not to over do it.
These are crunchy, spicy, and super delicious! We snacked on them for a couple days!
I will be posting more of my South Beach Phase 1 recipes. Follow my blog to get updates!
Ever since my fiance built our queen size bed out of two Ikea bookshelves and one trip to the hardware store, I've been thinking about a really cool upcylced headboard for it.
I make him sounds like Superman when it comes to building things, and in my mind that's not far off. If I give him an idea, suddenly he makes it happen. It's so much fun! Like POOF! Here ya go! This time it's a headboard out of upcycled wood siding!
First we made a trip to The ReStore in Ballard. There we found some really cool wood siding off an old house. We picked out 11 pieces, and they charged us twenty cents/ foot. We ended up paying $35.00 for all of it. What a bargin!
One quick trip to Home Depot for various pieces of wood, one gallon of floor polyurethane, and hardware, and we (I use this term loosely when it comes to "our" projects) were ready to start the headboard. Check out this massive saw they let you use at the store to cut your wood!
My fiance made the backing for the headboard out of a piece of OSB.
Then he measured and cut the wood siding from 11 pieces into 22 pieces.
My fiance actually let me touch the nail gun! Weeeeee!
Then the gun was promptly taken back, and I was handed a bottle of wood glue. Why can't I do the cool stuff?!!!
Apparently I do not have the proper training for a nail gun. My skill set is more in line with holding the glue. But then....
I was asked to be the Project Manger! I got to design the placement of all of the wood siding and how high each of them would be arranged on the headboard.
Before each board was glued then nailed into the back of the headboard, I had to decide where it would be placed.
Since I AM the Project Manager, I told my one employee to write my name with the wood glue! He was laughing, so I think that's why the (n n a) of DeAnna looks a little funny.
Almost done!
Here it is! Our upcyled wood siding headboard!
Now we've somehow gotta get this sucker up four flights of stairs. We've always managed, so hopefully this time will work as well. Otherwise it won't be fun to disassemble this piece! HA!
Once we get it up to our condo and attached to the bed, I will make sure to take a final picture. For now I wanted to admire more of my fiance's handy work! Thank you honey! Once again, you have impressed me with your ability to build dang near ANYthing I can dream up!
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