Fit Food Fun: March 2014

Baked Cauliflower with Pasta Sauce (GF)

Ahhhhh...finally a weekend to relax and catch up on my blog. If you all didn't know, the hubs and I just got back from a fun trip just last Monday. We went to Disneyland for 7 days. If you have never been to Disney, well 7 days is a pretty long time to be there. Ha! But I loved every second of it. I did take my hubs to San Diego, Hollywood, and Venice Beach. He's only visited San Fransisco and so it was my opportunity to show him places I used to visit when I used to live 6 hrs away (Scottsdale, AZ). We had lots of fun, but we were tired! We were ready to go home and see our pups, Chief and Sarge.

Well, let me tell you exactly how we ended up being in California by accident. So awhile back, like 10 months ago, I registered for the Disney Princess Run half marathon. Well, I bought everything, booked our hotel, park tickets, car rental, and San Diego Zoo tickets through Costco (if you have membership with them and want to travel anywhere, they have great prices and packages). We had to book our flight separately, but that was no biggie. About a week before our trip, I get an email from "Disney" giving me details about weekend of the race and our way around DISNEYWORLD! Ummm...WHAT?! Yep, I had booked the wrong Disney...so long story short, I never got to run my Princess Run. Boo! Instead, the hubs wanted to go to Cali for a relaxing trip. I was in tears, but there's always next year. Ha! Moral of the story, make sure you read everything before you book any of your trips.

Ok, so I'm sure you've been patiently waiting for the recipe. This Baked Cauliflower with Pasta Sauce is amazing! I know I say that about all of my recipes, but I wouldn't post them if it weren't true. Ha! But seriously, this stuff is so yummy. How many of you love traveling and eating at new places? All of us, right? After a while, we all get tired of eating out all the time. I get tired of eating out after day 1 of any trip. I wanted to come home and make something hearty, healthy, delicious, and gluten free. That's how I ended up with this gorgeous creation! Check it out

You won't miss the pasta! Trust me, my hubs didn't and he's a pasta man.

So enough of the teasing, here's the recipe!

Baked Cauliflower with Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

1 Head of Cauliflower cut in florets
small green bell pepper, diced
small red bell pepper, diced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 TBS Mediterranean oil (Olive or Coconut oil is great too)
1 lb of lean ground turkey
1 cup of diced roma tomatoes
1 1/2 cup of your favorite marinara sauce (I love Gina Rispoli, all natural and organic, yum!)
sea salt and pepper to taste

*I added mozzarella and Parmesan cheese to the turkey mixture and baked it. I only added about 1/2 cup of mozzarella and sprinkled a bit of Parm.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F* While oven is preheating, cut the cauliflower in florets and place in a large bowl. Drizzle a little bit of Mediterranean oil (or your favorite healthy oil), salt and pepper. Place in a oven proof baking dish. By now, the oven should be preheated, so go ahead and place the cauliflower to bake for 25 minutes or until browned.
While the cauliflower is baking, dice the peppers and tomatoes. Set aside. Dice the onions and cook in pan with the TBS of oil. When the onions look translucent add the ground turkey and cook till browned.
Add the bell peppers to the turkey mixture and cook till tender. Then add the roma tomatoes and cook for about 3 minutes.
Add the marinara sauce to the mixture and let it simmer till the cauliflower is done baking. Should be about 10 minutes or so.
Take out cauliflower when done and if you are mixing in the cheese that I suggested above, add it to the pasta sauce. Add pasta sauce mixture to baked cauliflower and mix a little bit.
Put the pasta back in the oven and let it cook for about 12 minutes. Let it cool off a bit before serving. Add some crush red pepper and a little bit of parmesan for a little kick. Yum!
Enjoy!