I could not wait to get my hands on one big, yummy cauliflower! My family dislikes cauliflower (sigh) I truly I wish I could say they loved it as much as I do, but that would be a lie. So I made my favorite, Roasted Cauliflower Bites! It’s late in the week and I normally go shopping on Sunday’s, which also means we are low on food options. Well, this isn’t entirely true. I’m the shopper, organizer and meal planner so I know what’s available, if it doesn’t come in a box the rest of the family feels as if they are lost. I have been secretly plotting against my family, they have no clue it’s coming, none. Slowly, I have been eliminating the boxed snacks from our cabinets. Slow is key. Sometimes I wonder if my husband notices, but then again, I think he is catching on. I’d like to say that we are a processed-free house but it isn’t so. I call it a work in progress, wink wink. I think he may be on to something when he asks to go shopping with me…oh yes, he loves to shop with me.
So Lately, we have been shopping all together. I have my prepared list and give him part of it. With one child in his hands and one in mine, we are off shopping and we “race” to the finish. I give him a small list, maybe five or six items, for a few reasons: 1. It’s a big store, I don’t want him to get lost 2. I try to keep him focused 3. I want to get out too! What I have noticed is that we now take two carts, which means we go home with even more food. If we stuck to the list, we would be probably stick to the budget, unfortunately we end up spending an additional $50-75 in food! What could be the cause? His cart is full of boxed snacks. (Yes, I’m slapping my forehead!) Sometimes it’s hard when the paths are not meeting!
Back to my cauliflower. We are low on snack foods and I felt the 3pm snack wave hit me hard. We usually eat dinner between 4:30-5pm so I started to prepare my plan, I mean meal early. Roasting cauliflower is quite easy, the difficult level is very low and the outcome is quite delicious. The trick is not to soak your cauliflower with oil. If you use too much oil it gets soggy. Think popcorn oozing with butter and only the taste of butter, no crunch or texture. You don’t want that right? I used 1 teaspoon and to be honest, I feel like I should have used less. You can also spice up this recipe with red pepper flakes, garlic powder, garlic salt, cinnamon, Parmesan cheese, really any spices you have! Be creative and let it go! I enjoy a simple salt so I can taste the beauty of just the cauliflower. You’re looking for a slight brown in color, perhaps a little darker if you like a crunch. After fifteen minutes, I stirred those babies up. There’s nothing worst than burnt cauliflower, yuck!
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So by now you may be a little confused of all my jibberish and honestly I don’t blame you, let’s put the pieces together. My body was craving cauliflower, maybe for its good source of Vitamin C or the amazing Vitamin B(s) that I always seem to lack, either way, I wanted it badly. To say the least, I was very satisfied, my family not so much. Experts say to try a new food at least ten times, so this is try number one. For some reason I thought the white colored foods were more appealing to children but they have some how rejected my mashed potatoes and now my cauliflower…sigh. My goal is by the end of this summer, to have my children and my husband eating more wholesome foods and less processed foods. This is our secret and my challenge. Do you have an eating challenge in your family? Please share! For now, I’ll just keep purchasing more cauliflower and sneaking it in their foods. 🙂
Blessings,
Mama