[Recipe] Cauliflower Bacon Fried Rice + Teriyaki Beef Tips

Here's a fun little recipe I got to cook last night! I found a great Cauliflower Fried Rice recipe online and changed it a little to suit my needs - and it was the first time I've worked with Cauliflower in this way.

One of the things about this meal is being that it's an Asian style - the cooking happens very quickly. That being said - I was moving around like a mad man and didn't get pictures of the process, but I will explain what I did.

This recipe I break down into 3 servings, so here's everything you need and the nutrition information of the recipe.

Where it says "5 cups Cauliflower" - it's just one whole head of Cauliflower, minus the leaves and the main stalk. 

Here's a picture of my favorite ingredients from the list that I keep in my cupboard for anytime I do Asian styled recipes - and all were used in this recipe.

Kikkomans

I prefer Swerve Sweetener but I was out - so I grabbed the Harris Teeter brand in a pinch.

Sesame Oil (only in bulk on Amazon - you're local store should have it.)

Rice Vinegar

If you want to make this today - go to the Asian isle of your local grocery store or to an Asian grocery store and you should be able to find all of this (except Swerve or Erythitol).

Now for cooking.. I use two pans - a deep frying pan for the sauce/beef and a Wok for the fried rice. You wanna get the Wok hot as hell before you even begin cooking so put it on high heat first before you start prepping and let it just heat up. You want the "Flavor of the Wok" and the Wok cooking everything without adding oil and such. (Really stove tops can't get Wok's hot enough to really work the way they are supposed to - but they do fine for this home style cooking. If you ever have the opportunity to use a Large Wok on like a propane heated element - you'll really enjoy that!)

By this time I assume you have both pans on high and warming.

Now, I cook these at the same time - but I'm trained in a kitchen. If you aren't feel free to make these one at a time - as I make them to start my meals on the following day, it doesn't matter to me on what order I make them in, as they get tupper wared anyway.

Beef Tips First. 

Cut the Beef into small tips (unless you buy them already ready for pan frying).

You wanna throw them in the frying pan (I like to put a spritz of Pam Olive or Butter oil down before doing so) and sear them very quickly.. (I like my meat rare so I'm talking 1 minute to 2 max)

As soon as they are browning to your liking remove from heat on a plate and let them rest.

In the same frying pan drop to medium/high and put the following in: 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1tbls rice vinegar, 2tbls Swerve (or other sweetener), 1tbls Minced garlic, 1tsp minced ginger

Begin stirring.

At this time if I got a lot of evaporation I'll usually add a little more water/soy sauce by sight.

In a separate glass, mix 1/4 cup water and your 1tsp of Cream of Tartar (Xantham Gum is actually preferred for sauce thickening, but I have never found it at my local grocery stores)

Once that's mixed and looking milky, drop the heat to low and as it starts to lower throw in the Water/tartar mixture and wisk with the rest of the sauce, keep on low as it thickens up.

Once it's thick to your liking, throw in the beef tips, stir and get it all good and lathered up, and cover. Leave on low for 5-10 minutes depending on how rare you like your Beef.

Excuse the mess - I was wisking hella hard and my stove tops always cause everything to run to the sides of the pan lol.

This is done, you can remove to cool or if you cooked at the same time, serve!

Cauliflower Bacon Fried Rice

First of all, you wanna prepare the Cauliflower by removing the main stalk and greens, then tearing the cauliflower into small leafettes. Grab your Food Processor and throw the cauliflower in it as you shred it to little bitty pieces! 

Once you've done that to the whole thing you wanna put it on a plate that has a paper towel on it, then put a paper towel on top and start pressing it with your body weight - you want to dry the cauliflower out as much as possible. There are ways to do a quick bake of it to crisp it up - but I'm ok with hand drying it like this.

Prep 3-4 green onions(scallions) up about half way from the bulb. 

Take 3 slices of bacon and slice thin into tiny strips. 

Your prep is done!

Now - Throw the bacon into the Wok and start crisping it up - I like mine crispy on the almost burnt side - but cook to your liking, then remove the bacon onto paper towels (leave the fat in the pan).

Pour the Cauliflower straight into the pan on top of the bacon fat, add your 2tbls of Soy sauce and mix it all up as it fries. Once mixed, push off to the side of the wok and on the empty space drop your Scallions, 2tbls Sesame oil, 1tsp minced garlic, 1tsp minced ginger let that get warm for 30 secs - 1 minute then mix it all together. Add heavy black pepper here if you like or salt to your liking, but mix well for about a minute then push it off to the side again.

In the empty area drop 2 large eggs, I wisk it for a quick scramble, you can do whatever you like.. and then mix it in with the rice mixture, once mixed in drop the bacon on top and mix some more as you remove from heat!

All Done!

Looks strange but tastes amazing. My cleaning lady is quoted as saying "This is better than rice at a Japanese restaurant"

You can serve as you wish now - or do what I did and break it up into 3rds in tupper ware to eat for dinner this Monday-Wednesday.

Feel free to add chives or Sesame seeds at this point for aesthetics and taste; I put the extra sauce in the pan too to add to the overall taste of everything. I'll be eating my first round of this for dinner tonight and I can't wait.

Here's to much more usage of Cauliflower - it's fun, simple, and fairly quick to mess with. I felt it would be daunting but really it wasn't bad at all.

And for a 500 or so calorie meal with 13g net carbs - it's not too shabby especially because my lunch will be some fat bombing (or i'll lunch this and have a night full of hot wings!)

Keep Calm, Keto On.

See you at the Bottom

-Freeze

Recipe was inspired by Ruled.me's Cauliflower Rice. 

Cheating: Why It Shouldn't Be a Thing.

I found myself thinking about addiction this morning, specifically after reading a title to a Reddit post that read 

"I had to accept failure as part of this process in order to actually see results"

It got me thinking a simple thought - Do you? Do we? Do we have to accept failure as part of the process of weight loss?

It got me thinking, because the fact is that those of us who want to lose weight will struggle for years and years - and sometimes a lifetime - are addicted. We are addicts to food - or to laziness - or to just not caring about health. We are addicts. 

Addiction is a fuckwhore of a beast - and there are infinite things we as Humans can be addicted to - but we all know the main ones. Alcoholism, Drug Addiction, Smoking, Obesity/Eating.

Weight loss and healthy eating are the only one of those 4 that it is a standard rule of thumb that it's ok to take a cheat day. Why? Why is it ok to cheat on our diets - but not ok to cheat on alcoholism and drug addiction?

Some people will say because if you cheat/relapse on drugs or alcohol it will put you into a downward spiral, cause you to undo all the good you did, and make it exponentially harder to get out of the rut and get clean again.

Isn't it the EXACT same in eating?

Think about it: You're 30 days in and feeling great, the cravings for sweets and bad food has subsided mostly - and then you justify a cheat day (which is really just giving into a craving).

Then the next day, since you cheated you justify the next day and say it's ok - I'll start back tomorrow. Fast Forward 3 months, you never got back onto your diet - you gained back everything you lost and maybe more - and now it's harder to start again.

I'm speaking to myself here too - I often justify cheating and then find myself in the rollercoaster of weight loss constantly. I started Keto almost 2 years ago and after losing 40 here and gaining back, 50 here, gaining back, ect.. I'm no better for it - I'm still obese, I never dropped below 360 - and I always cheated and bounced back to newer and higher weights.

Today I ask you to ask yourself, as I am - is cheating really necessary?

I think the answer is no.

When we can finally become strong enough to tell ourselves no - that's when we can beat the addiction - and hopefully finish the race to healthier, fitter us's.

See you at bottom.

-Freeze

[Recipe] Chicken Crust Alfredo Pizza!

Hello friends!

I am back with another recipe! I saw a friend who had gastric post a pizza where the recipe called for chicken as the crust; and I couldn't believe I had not thought about that before!

So here I present to you a high protein/ SUPER low carb pizza (I have plans to make a buffalo version in the future)

First up, Sorry for the tall photos, I didn't think to turn the camera :/ This is 1.4lbs of chicken breast I had left over from cooking my weekly meals the other day; so I threw it in the Food Processor on shred and it turned into this! 

Covered it in wax paper and began rolling it out!

It's fine that it doesn't go all the way to the edges, I got it nice and thin though :)

I used 1/2 cup of Bertoli's Alfredo Sauce  which was one of the lowest carb Alfredo Sauces I have found!

1 Cup of Kraft Mozzerella on top of the sauce

28 Hormel Pepperonis, which is 2 servings.

1 Serving of the Hormel Pork Sausage! 

1 serving of black olives because I love black olives.

** I did forget to take a picture after throwing another cup of Mozzerella on top of the pizza. Essentially, I used one whole 2 cup bag for this recipe; 1 cup as the base 1 cup on top.

After baking at 400 for 16 minutes viola; we have this beautiful mother fucker. (Yes I gave to clean my stove.. did a lot of cooking this week and I am lazy)

Here is the entire pizza; just under 2,000 calories for the whole thing and only 14g of carbs.. However...

Let's break it up into a 1/4 pizza serving; and we have just under 500 calories, 4g carbs, and amazing macros all around! 

Now some advice that I didn't do: as I ate it the chicken broke apart some (which I didn't care about.. but you might). Use 1 cup of Parmesan cheese or something similar and mix it with the chicken; should help bind it all together real good. Maybe even an egg or two. I will test this hypothesis out on the next go round!

Until next time

-Freeze

Klean Keto is Far Superior to Whatever the Fuck I Was Doing the Last Two Times

Keto ultimately failed for me the last 2 times I tried it. I understand why now. As I did research and spoke with people about ketogenic diets, the main theme that was thrown around a lot was "calories don't matter, it's all about the carbs"... I think that is skewed. I was told that it didn't matter what I ate and how much, as long as I was under 20g of carbs for the day.

That usually ended up with me eating a bag of pork rinds at night because I was so hungry. That then led to me using French Onion dip with my pork rinds. Still under 20g carbs per day, so it had to be ok right?

Wrong.

What it did was make me lose weight at such a slow pace, that I ended up giving up both times. The first time i went from 395 to 360 over the course of about 3 months. Granted, a lot of cheating happened, but I was always super strict with my carbs when not on a cheat day.. Still super slow.

The second time I went from 390 to 365, but that included 2 weekends back to back where i walked miles a day working conventions; a lot of exertion while not eating a lot (too busy). I was actually 372 before the weekend, so that 7 pounds was literally busting my ass all weekend. This was another 60 day time frame. Then I just started justifying cheating, and well, the rest is history.

2 months later; I had gained back up to 385. I decided to make the change but to do it different this time. If you go back to the beginnings of this blog, you will see that I lost substantial weight a few years ago eating small meals throughout the day. My best friend encouraged me to do that again.

So what I decided to do was a hybrid, a cleaner Keto diet, without all the cheeses and "this is high in fat, low carb, so binge on it" foods. No more night snacks, no more justifications, just clean ketosis. I call it Klean Keto.

My diet is Chicken, Beef, Broccoli, and Avocado. Mostly. In my last post I showed you what a day looks like. I have taken the 1/4th avocado out of each of the meals, and instead use a whole one at night in an Avocado Chocolate milkshake thats about 4-5g net carbs.

I was challenged by a vendor for VapeMania 15, Shawn, to a weight loss challenge. He had recently started Keto. He probably didn't know I had been cheating for 2 months solid. He also probably didn't know that I had just started back on my diet 2 days prior. Either way, I accepted. On Sept 4th, 2015 at VapeMania 15 (my convention) we will have an official weigh in to see who lost the most. The loser will donate $500 to the winner's charity, and wear a dress and make up the second day of the convention. This challenge has really gotten me more excited.

So what's the secret?

It feels like a game, a sport; and I don't fucking lose.

I started 11 days ago. 7 days ago I weighed in at 383.3, the next day I weighed 385.5. This morning, I weighed 372.6

Already in 11 days, I am lighter than I was going into that convention. I am feeling way better, I am abstaining from snacking at night, and I am losing the weight.

The other change is I'm actually going to the gym. Not every day, not yet. I'm slowly building myself back up to it, and within a couple weeks I expect to be able to work out 5-7 days a week again. I had a panic attack trying to do cardio 2 nights ago, and I think it's because I was trying to push myself too hard a little too soon, so I got off the eliptical, went and worked out weights for an hour, did some abs, then came back and did another spurt of cardio. It was a total of 15 minutes on the elliptical; but it's a start.

I expect to be able to go a full hour by July 11th, easy. The panic attack thing sucks, and I know I just have to fight through that shit.

I am not going to lose this competition, and I'm not going to quit. I am the type of person who is completely content with eating the same thing every day; so this is easy for me. Tomorrow I cook the next week's food, and that's a 2 hour workout in itself too!

I am more active already, I've chosen to go walk around the mall and Barnes and Nobles a few times already in the past week, when normally I'd choose to be stationary. I am wanting to move more; and that's a good thing.

Here's to July 11th, where I'll give an update on my weight and cardio time, and keep talking about how this cleaner keto is superior to lazier keto.

-Freeze

Keto and Gluten Free Snack: Moon Cheese

Got a new snack in today that ended up being super freaking tasty!

MOON CHEESE!

That's right. Moon Cheese. What I love is that it's simply cheese. Pepper Jack and Gouda are both 0 Carbs per serving. The Cheddar does have 1g of carbs per serving. My favorite of the 3 is Pepper Jack for sure. It's got this nice taste on the first bite that transforms into a spicy note as it is chewed. I can't wait to see what more these guys come out with (including BIGGER BAGS!)

Get it right here: 

It's tough to find on Amazon; but it is there! 

What cool little snacks have you found like this?

Quick and Easy: Rotisserie Chicken Salad

This is the southern way of doing a chicken salad!

First grab your ingredients. I got a Rotisserie Chicken at Food Lion for like 6 bucks.

Then Duke's Mayo (no carbs) and Mt Olive Sugar Free Sweet Relish (pretty low carb)

Pull the chicken. Takes about 5-10 minutes, making sure you dont get a bunch of little bones in there is the toughest part.

Mix in 2 cups of Mayo (or less or more, depending on how creamy you like it)

I mixed in half a jar of relish. And Voila. Done.

I just got in these stellar Pyrex Mixing Bowls for less then 20 bucks. Good deal and super sturdy. Comes with the lids for super convenience.

Here's 1/4th of the whole thing, I ate about 1/4th. You are welcome to break it up into smaller servings

Here's the entire nutritional info for the entire bowl. 

I think one of our under-utilized fat bomb style foods is Mayo. Especially one like Duke's which is 0 carbs. When you need some fat to satiate you I think it's a perfect option. 

Enjoy! I know I did. Feel free to adjust the mayo/relish to your tasting. Add some Frank's Red Hot to give it a buffalo chicken salad taste to it! Whatever your heart desires!

Black'N'Bleu Casserole - Keto Style!

I am back with a new variation on a popular dish in the keto world. A lot of places you will see tons of casseroles; and even cheeseburger casseroles. I scoured and just couldn't find a Black and Bleu casserole; so I figured.. Hell lemme see if I can nail this.

The sauce recipe I did find somewhere else; and damnit if it isn't a perfect burger sauce.

Sauce:
1 8oz block of Cream Cheese
1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1/2 cup Yellow Mustard
1/2 cup Reduced Sugar Ketchup

Warm the cream cheese ( I microwaved for 2 minutes) then add the other 3 ingredients and stir.

Add together and stir

The Result: this amazing sauce that tastes like a burger straight up. 

Set that aside and lets get to cooking. Preheat that oven to Tree fiddy. (350 for those playing at home)

Ingredients:

Bleu Cheese ( I ended up with about 1.7lbs of it. Maybe a little too much, but I love Bleu Cheese)

3lbs Ground Beef ( I buy 73/27)

2 Packs thick Bacon (about 24 slices)

The Sauce

Steak Seasoning

Pickles. I found some <1g carb="" kosher="" p="" pickles="">

Here is 1/2 of the cheese I had. Try to slice and be careful, it crumbles easily.

One of the few good slices. The rest was a crumbled mess!

Get that bacon cooking. 

Of course dry it on up some. Some people like their bacon more crispy, feel free. 

Brown that beautiful beef right on up. I mixed in plenty of steak seasoning during this process. This was also cooked in the left over bacon grease like a boss.

This stuff my man. You'll see the cheese behind it, I ended up not using that cheese in this recipe.

Nice and brown. Drain that bad boy and mix in some more seasoning and get it nice and yummy

Spray non stick stuff on the pan; then throw on the sauce.

Mix it in. This right here smells like a Big Mac. If you don't want bleu cheese you can literally just eat this part and it's probably amazing.

But me, I go on the wild side. Here is the bleu cheese. Again, probably a little too much but I love that shit.

Boom, bacon on top. I covered this entire dish!

Wrapped it in foil, threw it in the over for 45 minutes at 350.

Then pulled it out, uncovered and gave it a 15 minute rest.

This is the result:

This is after the 15 minute rest.

Here's 1/6 of the whole thing; one serving. It didn't hold up well tonight, tomorrow will be better I'm sure.

I enjoyed this; but again I love bleu cheese. I wish the cheese would have melted better so I'm going to have to experiment on that. I think a real creamy melty bleu cheese would have made this even better, it was SUPER rich (if you are not a huge fan of Bleu cheese) if that's the case, i'd half the amount of bleu cheese or maybe try a dressing or something. I'll experiment more with it but I loved this.

Here's the total nutrition:

This is the entire dish

Here is 1/6th of the dish; or a serving. I'm sure you can break it down more but being that I do intermittent fasting this stayed within my macros and kept me under my caloric goal for the day.

Let me know what ya think! 

-Freeze

PS: I forgot to add pickles. UGH. I'll do it tomorrow and see if it enhances it any!

Chocolate Raspberry Kiss Bulletproof Coffee

Bulletproof Coffee (BPC from here on out) is the fuel that ketoers run off of. The bad thing about BPC is that it can be very bland and boring. If you like black coffee, more power to you, but there are a lot of people who come into the ketogenic diet who can't drink black coffee or who don't like black coffee. I am one of those people.

This BPC recipe is one that I came up with on my own. I love The Fresh Market's seasonal Chocolate  Raspberry Kiss Coffee and I wanted to create a BPC recipe around it. My recipe is for a 24 oz. container of coffee. This is my breakfast in the morning and packs a walloping 439 calories per serving. I've added my recipe to MyFitnessPal so it's easy for you to find: Chocolate Raspberry Kiss BPC.

Here's what you'll need:
24 oz (3 cups) The Fresh Market Chocolate Raspberry Kiss Coffee
4 TBSPs Heavy Whipping Cream
1 tsp Natural, Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 TBSP Butter
1 TBSP Coconut Oil
1 TBSP Torani Sugar Free Chocolate Syrup
1/2 TBSP Torani Sugar Free Raspberry Syrup

I like to prep my cup the night before, so I'll measure out the butter, coconut oil, SF sryups, cocoa powder, and cream into my travel mug. The morning of, I'll brew my coffee as normal and then pour part of it over my pre-prepped items. Using my frother I mix everything together and then gradually add more coffee until everything is all blended together.

Here are the stats for it:

This stuff is really, really good. If you like raspberries and chocolate you should definitely check this one out! Be sure to get your hands on a bag of this blend because it sells out fast!