completely healthy "mac 'n' cheese"!

Healthy "comfort foods" are pretty hard to come by sometimes. And especially when you're trying to find a substitution for a creamy, soft white pasta dish. This recipe however, blew all my expections out of the water. Especially considering it uses all sorts of substitutions (like almond meal instead of breadcrumbs, and coconut milk instead of dairy milk) that you'd think would make it just that bit less pleasant. But no! This recipe is creamy, thick, more-ish and tastes anything but healthy.

And it's all thanks to the guys at "Thank God it's Paleo".

So ok, there is no 'mac' here.. it's all cauliflower. But with the bacon and cheese (yes, there is cheese but that's the only 'cheat'), and cauliflower cut up into small florets, the pleasure factor is just as high.

Ingredients

5 Thick Slices Bacon

1 Can Coconut Milk

1 T Arrowroot Powder, dissolved in 1 T Water (cornflour can be used instead)

4 oz Gruyere Cheese, grated

4 oz Raw Milk Cheddar, grated

1 t Black Pepper

1/8 t Nutmeg

1 Head Cauliflower

1/2 c Almond Meal

1/2 c Parmesan cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Chop the cauliflower into florets, then set aside. Fry the bacon until crisp, then chop into bits.  Set aside.

Over medium heat, heat the coconut milk almost to a boil in a large saucepan or stockpot.  Whisk in the arrowroot powder and continue stirring until slightly thickened.  Remove from heat and whisk in Gruyere and Cheddar, then the pepper and nutmeg, and then the diced bacon.

Add the cauliflower and stir well to coat with the cheese sauce.  Pour everything into a baking dish.

Blend the almond meal and Parmigiano together and sprinkle over the mac & cheese.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Bake at 200C for 40 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Yum.

:: black bean brownies ::

If you're on Pinterest, and are anything like me, you pin-and-pin-and-pin-and-pin.... but never actually quite get back to most (95%) of them.

So the other day when I had the afternoon off, I got busy and tried not one but THREE super healthy recipes. They all 'worked' to some degree but I'd have to say they destinctly fell into "gold/silver/bronze" catagories.

Today I'm sharing "bronze" which I don't really like much, but Jason is loving it (???). He is very good & eats all sorts of weird things that I make, but when something is too 'odd' he usually leaves it for me. So I'm confused as to why he digs these "Black Bean Brownies".

Website claims that they were really similar to Starbucks Brownies and they are lovely and moist but I found the bean 'powderiness' a turn-off as well as a beany taste. It could also be the taste of Stevia that's wreaking it for me, as I used half that and half honey (the recipe called for agave syrup). You might just have to give it a go yourself.

I pinned the recipe from here, but I can't find it on there anymore so you'll just have to trust me :).

Black Bean Brownies

Prep time: 10mins

Cooking time: 30 mins

1 tin black beans (I used kidney beans) rinsed well

1 Tab instant coffee

1 Tab cinnamon

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 bananas

1/3 cup agave nectar (I used honey & a bit of stevia)

1 Tab vanilla

1/4 cup oat flour (I used coconut flour coz I had it)

Method:

Preheat over to 180C (350F). Spray a square pan with cooking spray.

Throw everything in blender. Blend, scrape then blend again. Pour batter in pan.

Bake 30mins.

(It came out really stiff. This is the mixture before I pressed it down with my fingers.)

News Flash!!

GUESS WHAT.

Just as I was typing the recipe out, I realized I made a mistake. I doubled the mixture but I DIDN'T DOUBLE THE BANANAS. I believe that would make a huge difference. Not only to bananas add sweetnes (which I felt this lacked) but it also wouldn't have been so stiff in the blender.

So make sure you double your BANANAS!! lol