Mama's Cauliflower Spaghetti

Last week, I made a recipe from my childhood that I haven't eaten in years. My mama was raised in an Italian neighborhood of New York, and she picked up lots of yummy recipes that I managed to learn through osmosis. It's a simple, vegetarian meal that I loved more and more the older I got.

Cauliflower Spaghetti:

1 large or two small heads of cauliflower
small yellow onion, diced
2 cloves/2 tsp minced garlic
1 lb. spaghetti (I used multi-grain)
olive oil
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon salt

Preheat oven to 400. Rinse and divide the cauliflower into flowerets, place on a silpat-lined baking sheet, brush with olive oil and put the pan in to roast (around 20-25 minutes. (If I'm in a hurry, I've also just boiled the cauliflower and pasta at the same time, veggie first, but roasted tastes better.)

While waiting for the cauliflower, fill a large stockpot with water, then add the salt and glug of oil; prepare pasta as directed. DO NOT overcook noodles. Next, in a large skillet, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil. Add one or two ladles of the pasta water to the skillet; drain the spaghetti and add pasta to the saute. Remove the roasted cauliflower and add to the pan, too. Mix in the Parmesan cheese and more olive oil if dry, and ENJOY!!

Fitness Challenge - Day 41 of 56

Well, today was an exercise in making the best choices possible while eating out. Mike's been released back to work so his driving schedule doesn't give him weekends off and only 24 hours notice of a "tomorrow" schedule. So, we have to schedule celebrations on the fly and usually at non-traditional times since mealtimes tend to be heavy commuting times, too.

We took Mikey's momma Karen out to breakfast/brunch today for Mother's Day, and met halfway in Vancouver so Mike could still get to work by 1pm today. The restaurant Karen chose didn't open until 11am so we ended up at Shari's Restaurant just down the street. Shari's is a traditional American restaurant ... with LOTS of mega-calorie choices.

In my best choices scenario, I ordered a Cinnama-sation French Toast Breakfast with the toppings on the side (caramel sauce, candied pecans and whipped cream) --- I didn't eat them except for to dip my fork tines into the caramel sauce a couple of times for the sugar hit), the 2 eggs scrambled, the 2 sl. bacon and an order of grapes instead of 2 links of sausage.

My calorie count from SparkPeople as close as I could get:


Shari's French Toast (3 pc), 1 serving 466 (I had 2 pc of Cinnama ... hope it's close)
Scrambled Egg, 2 large 203
Bacon (1 slice), 2 serving 40
Grapes, 1 cup, seedless 60
Breakfast TOTALS: 769 cal

If I had eaten the breakfast as presented on the menu, it would have been almost double or 1496 calories .... WOW.

Even more depressing, a breakfast I've eaten before - Flat Iron Steak with Stuffed Hashbrown Platter with Sourdough Toast -- has 1721 calories. That's MORE than my daily allocation of calories these days!!