I’m always on a constant search to find new ways to enjoy food…and get my husband to eat vegetables. This is the perfect recipe for both because the one thing I really miss in my life is pizza. Until now, we’ve been making pizzas on bagel thins or English muffins, but I worry about the carbohydrate intake. Needless to say, we don’t have those too often.

The cauliflower pizza crust was something my husband was definitely weary of because he doesn’t do a lot of veggies. But I heard no complaints from him and he actually enjoyed it. Please remember that the cauliflower crust is not like bread and you may not be able to pick it up and eat it like real pizza.

Also, I adapted the recipe below to suit my needs. Here is how I did it:

1. I used frozen cauliflower. I steamed it in my steamer for about 10 minutes and used my Oster 3-in-1 Hand blender to chop it up. *If you don’t have a hand blender, you should definitely get one. It’s something that I use often and saves so much time. You can make soups, chop things…it’s just the best!

2. I didn’t use a cup of cheese; I used a 1/4 cup Fat Free Mozzarella cheese. In my opinion, a full cup of cheese seems like too much just for the crust considering you’re going to put toppings on your pizza too and cheese is bound to be one of those toppings. This is the easiest way to cut fat. But I’m huge on portion size, so that may just be my issue.

3. I substituted two egg whites for the egg. Just makes it a little healthier, cuts the calories and cholesterol and works just the same.

4. And I didn’t use the extra virgin olive oil. Even though it’s a good fat, I try to say away from it. If it bothers you that your crust doesn’t brown then maybe you could try an egg white egg wash or something. I just left the crust in the over a little longer so it would brown.

5. Garlic salt is a no no to me. I just chopped up some fresh garlic with the with the cauliflower.

Recipes are just a road map to making something your own. I have included the original recipe below. You might not want to take my suggestions so I wanted to include the original recipe. And your toppings should be precooked before putting them on the crust.

Recipe courtesy of Eat.Drink.Smile

Ingredients:
1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/2 tsp garlic salt
olive oil (optional)

pizza sauce, shredded cheese and your choice of toppings*

Directions:

To “Rice” the Cauliflower:
Take 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (If you don’t have a food processor, you can grate the whole head with a cheese grater). Place the riced cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes. There is no need to add water, as the natural moisture in the cauliflower is enough to cook itself.

One large head should produce approximately 3 cups of riced cauliflower. The remainder can be used to make additional pizza crusts immediately, or can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.

To Make the Pizza Crust:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, egg and mozzarella. Add oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt, stir. Transfer to the cookie sheet, and using your hands, pat out into a 9″ round. Optional: Brush olive oil over top of mixture to help with browning.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven. To the crust, add sauce, toppings and cheese. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes).

I don’t know what it is about Valentine’s Day but it always brings out the wrong type of emotion in my life. Maybe because I spent so many years not having anyone to celebrate this Hallmark holiday with. Now I’m married and I would actually like to celebrate the holiday.

This morning the husband and I had a little tizzy about the upcoming holiday because we were talking about gifts. He told me no gifts because there’s Christmas and birthdays. Well why no gifts? I understand our anniversary is right after Christmas. This year for our anniversary we didn’t do gifts because we did Christmas up so well. But Christmas gifts and Valentine’s Day gifts are two different animals. Christmas gifts are things you want to buy people, Valentine’s Day gifts are just the gifts that show that you care. Kind of ridiculous I know. Why should you have to give a gift to let someone know that you care? Simply put, you don’t. You should show that person you care all year round. Valentine’s Day gifts don’t have to expensive…or don’t have to cost anything at all. It could be a hand written note or a lovely poem or something home made. That’s what Valentine’s Day is about, putting in the effort to show someone that you care.

I guess my issue here was I’ve been really thinking about what I was going to do for my husband for Valentine’s Day and it just seems like he wasn’t thinking about it at all. He’s kind of just brushed it off like another day and has moved on because there is Christmas and birthdays for gifts. And then I got: “Well most people give chocolates or flowers. We can’t have chocolate and you don’t like flowers.” True statement, but you can’t search your imagination for something else? I guess it’s about the trying part with me.

Plus, Valentine’s Day is day of love. A day of celebration for your spouse, parents, kids, siblings, friends…and whoever else is important in your life. We should all take the time to share with them why they are important in our lives and that we love them.

I’m a natural gift giver. I like to give gifts. I like to make things for people. I just like to show I care. And I guess sometimes I would just like it back. I’m not saying that my husband doesn’t appreciate me because I know that he does. Romance is not dead fellows. A woman still wants to be romanced and doted on in life and Valentine’s Day is the day to that for your lady. I’ve probably opened up a whole set of worms with this post, but here are my words…and that is how I feel.

He says no gifts, but I’m going to do something just because that’s the type of person that I am. And I guess maybe it’s unfair that I would expect something from him too because he’s not me. He is his own person. But the whole conversation just left me feeling slightly empty.

How sad is that? The constant hunching over and cutting really got to me. And you know what the first thing I said to my husband was? “I thought that was a fat people problem.” But he assured me, it’s just a getting older problem. I stopped podcasting about Vampire Diaries a couple of weeks ago to allow me to have free time to do other things (like blogging and perusing my creative endeavors). I’ve been pretty on the move lately, but I try to make at least one thing every Sunday. First I started with Kindle cases:

And then I thought I would tackle my biggest project to date: a t-shirt blanket.

You see, I’m trying to take back my closet. I’ve been donating boatloads of clothes to Goodwill because I simply can’t fit them anymore. But I quickly learned that I have a lot of t-shirts and most of them I didn’t want to throw away. They hold memories, Ole Miss memories. I can’t think about throwing out an Ole Miss t-shirt. In fact, it was kind of hard for me to cut a couple of these suckers to make a blanket. But I did for the love of keeping the shirts, just not in my closet…and it was the best thing I could have done. Now I can keep the blanket with all of those memories.

There are a few things I learned from this project that I would like to share with everyone because I like to make lists.

1. Hunching over for long or even short periods of time will do a number on your back. I really should have done my work at the kitchen table that was level with my seat instead of hunching over the guest bed doing this. Now I have a huge annoyance (pain) in my life. *I call it an annoyance because I have a very high threshold for pain and people aren’t use to hearing me complain about pain…so it must be really hurting now. But the thing is, it’s not really hurting me, it’s just annoying me. I can’t stand it.

2. You want to make a t-shirt blanket? Well then you’re going to need a lot of interfacing. And even if you think you have enough, it’s best to get a little extra. I went through A LOT of interfacing. Thank goodness the stuff is only fifty cents a yard. But I felt so legit when I went to the fabric store to get more interfacing because I ran out and the lady cutting the fabric commented on how much I was using. I told her what I was making and she said, “Enough said. I’ve been there. Are you sure you’re getting enough?” I felt like at the moment I was being induced into the craft lady club and I was pleased.

3. I made my blanket out of 25 shirts and I still have more. Do you think I have too many shirts from Ole Miss days that I couldn’t part with? I might have an Ole Miss problem if I’m holding on to the t-shirts for the memories. Especially since I really didn’t want to cut my Ole Miss Band shirt and the Harvard of the South shirt. It was a very emotional experience for me.

4. The sewing is not what takes so long with this project. It’s the prep. Cutting the t-shirts, fusing the interfacing on…and then you can finally get the the sewing. I spent more time cutting and fusing than actual sewing.

But it’s finished now and I love it! Well worth the time, effort and the annoyance.

Granted I envisioned it looking different. I had also tripped the front pockets off all the shirt ans I was going to use those in a border. But when I finally got to the sewing part, I decided two things: 1. I wanted to get this project done because I had been working on it all day. Plus my back was really hurting. and 2. The blanket turned out way bigger than I expected which is fine.

The border would have made the blanket even bigger and there would have been more fabric to cut. I just decided to end it at this, which is fine for a nice casual blanket. I’m really pleased with the outcome and I think it looks great. Not so bad for someone who taught herself to sew and only made pillows and really dinky looking blankets. It’s my biggest sewing success so far!

Sign the petition!

Have you ever tried just plain Greek yogurt? I think it’s the nastiest stuff I’ve ever had. When I first started on my lifestyle change all I ever heard how Greek yogurt is so good for you and it’s so delicious. Greek yogurt may be delicious when it comes packaged with a high sugar fruit concoction on the side or even with honey, but alone…it’s just plain nasty. I remember a day back in January when I literally had to force feed myself this yogurt with my own mashed up fruit in it, all I can say was it wasn’t a pretty sight! I soon come to realize that Greek yogurt wasn’t worth my time and I didn’t care how much extra protein in each container. So I just stopped eating it.

Until I realized that all those people did have the right ideas about Greek yogurt with adding stuff to it make it better. Now I use it for everything that I can’t have the full fatty version of in life. Yes my friends, every time that I see a recipe calls for sour cream or mayonnaise…I reach for the Greek yogurt. My latest Greek yogurt phase has become sauces. Just call me Angela the saucier. But one important thing, Greek yogurt will curdle at the sign of any heat and become something you don’t want to look at. I warned you!

So here is just a quick rundown of the sauces I have made with a Greek yogurt base:

• Creamy mustard sauce (used in my Light Version of Chicken Salad)
• Ranch “dressing”: I saw a ranch packet at the grocery store yesterday and decided I would give it a try.  I two (2) tablespoons of the ranch packet, one 6 oz container of Greek yogurt, and half a cup of skim milk and mixed it all together. It tastes the same a ranch dressing (because of the packet seasoning) but it’s just not as thick as ranch dressing.  I’m sure you could double the Greek yogurt though and it would be thicker.  I didn’t because I only had one container of yogurt.
• A lemon dill sauce:  Again, one 6 oz container of Greek yogurt, 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard, lemon zest, 1/8 cup lemon juice, dill.  Mix it all together and let it sit for about 30 minutes in the fridge before serving.  I put it on salmon and the next day on a chicken breast.  It was delicious.
• Creamy Blueberry sauce: 6 oz container of yogurt, puree a cup of blueberries.  Mix it together.  I like to use this as a side to my low fat/low sugar apple crisp. I guess that’s a recipe I should share with my blog readers too.

* I use Yoplait plain Greek yogurt.

It’s kind of like Ghost Writer. “We don’t know where he came from; he just showed up one night.” That’s what happened with our anniversary photo. I really wanted to wear a dress so I went to the Gap to search the clearance rack and found this dress that was probably like a cabillion dollars on sale for $20! My husband who has never ever been in a Gap store found shirt for $10 that just happened to match my dress. And that is how our anniversary picture became a Gap advertisement.

I am wearing some not Chuck Taylors in the picture because none of my shoes fit me anymore. Lose weight = drop two shoe sizes. This should make me happy but it doesn’t because I don’t want to have to go out to buy new shoes. I’m not really a shoe gal, but I guess I must buy shoes now.

Back to my anniversary, two years ago I married an amazing man. I don’t want to say all those cliche things that people always say about marrying my best friend (which I did) and being really happy (which I am). Honestly, the people who knew me P.M. (Pre Marriage) were probably ready to drown me in a lake because I wasn’t really happy at all. I can say this now because hindsight is 20/20 you know. But A.M. (After Marriage) I am much happier. I see the brighter side of things, I make things work and I don’t stress like I once did. I owe this to my husband because he balances out my high strungness and makes me stop and think about things…instead of just stressing. He’s a really good person who has taught me the ways of being a better person. Plus, he really makes me laugh and smile when I’m not interested in doing so and that’s a hard thing. So he’s pretty much the best person in the world for me and I love him. Now I’m ending the mushy stuff so you can see the Gap ad!

And I took these photos myself because we’re too cheap to pay anyone to do it…and I like to fancy myself a photographer.

Love chicken salad, but don’t like all the fat from the mayo? Here’s a lighter version of Chicken Salad that is light all the way around except on flavor.

What You Need:
12 oz Skinless Chicken Breast Tenderloins
1 Cup of Greek Yogurt
2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1/4 cup of Dijon Mustard
1 Cup of Celery
1 Cup of Grapes, chopped in halves
1 Tbsp Tarragon
1 tsp Red Pepper Flake
Pepper to taste

1.Place chicken tenderloins in a pot that’s just about large enough to fit them. Fill pot with your poaching liquid of choice. I just used water but a good veggie or chicken stock would be good too.
2. Bring pot to a boil and then simmer for 15 minutes to make sure chicken is cooked through.
2. While that is cooking, it’s time to prepare the everything else. In a bowl combine, the Greek yogurt, apple cider vinegar, mustard, tarragon, red pepper flake and pepper. Mix together well and set aside.
3. Chop the celery stalks and grapes and add to the yogurt mixture.
4. When the chicken is finished, use a knife and fork to shred the chicken into nice manageable pieces for eating. Let the chicken cool before adding to the yogurt sauce.
5. When chicken is cool, add to the yogurt sauce. Coat the chicken with the sauce.

And you’re done. This would be great on sandwiches but I chose a plate of romaine lettuce with tomatoes. This recipe makes 4 – 6 servings. Enjoy.

4.

A year ago my husband and I decided that we should lose some weight. Why you might ask? Well you see we were extremely obese and just fat. Plus, for the first time I was actually happy with everything in my life besides my weight and we both needed to be happy about that. It’s amazing how people will look at you when you’re fat and we just didn’t want to be those people anymore.

January 2011:

It wasn’t really just about losing weight; it was about changing our lifestyle and our relationship with food. It was very hard in the beginning but I was completely determined to make it through. I remember the first day I took my husband to the gym with me, he was a little afraid. People do look at you funny when you’re fat, but people must remember…they won’t look at you funny if you’re fat at the gym. Those people who see you every day and watch transform become your friends and a huge support system for you. So if you need to lose the weight, going to the gym is not the place where you should have fear. And most of the time, it’s just in your mind.

April 2011:

My biggest problem was the adjustment to my social agenda. Food is always a huge part of the hanging out with friends and entertaining. I think it was harder for the people in my life to realize that the friends that once ate anything whenever they wanted just didn’t do that anymore. We educated ourselves about food and learned what we should, could and won’t eat. And yes, that cut out a lot of restaurants and the way I cooked our food. Fast food was pretty much out of the picture and so was red meat. (We still have beef from time to time, especially when I’m suffering from iron issues.) But we do a lot of chicken and a lot of fish. I was always told that should stay away from potatoes and such but I would rather work out than not eat potatoes. No, I don’t eat fries fried in grease, but baked of course…and it’s really all about portion control. Did you know that when you go to restaurant the portion size is for 2 people and not one? Those are just things that people need to pay attention too so you know how much you’re eating. Fat grams, sodium, sugars…all those things are just as important as calories.

And yes, from time to time we do eat at those places where you shouldn’t, we just do it in moderation and we definitely don’t go crazy.

June 2011:

Working out has become a part of our life. We enjoy going to the gym. Does that mean that every day is we are all gung ho about working out? Not a chance. There are some days we don’t feel like going to the gym and we push through. There are days that our bodies just tell us no way and we don’t go at all. I work out 6 days a week, three days a week a work out for 2 hours. My husband works out 5-6 days a week for 45 minutes to an hour. It doesn’t take up a lot of time and it’s time well invested in ourselves. We always complained before that we didn’t have time for the gym so we didn’t make it apart of life. That time was spent watching TV or eating or something not productive. But I found since I started going to the gym, I still has as much time as I did before and do pretty much all the same things. The biggest difference now is I don’t waste time. And yes, we do still work out when go out of town. We try our best not to have that interfere with our vacation plans and the others around us.

July 2011:

Support is such a big deal when losing weight. Everyone needs that one person to help them through to talk to and someone who will hold them accountable. That person has been my husband. I’ve lost a lot of weight, but I’m so incredibly proud of my husband. He’s done an amazing job and has lost 199 pounds in his year. He’s lost a person my size! Can you believe that? I do know that I could have done this without him BUT it would have been a lot harder. I just would have stumbled a few times along the way. But knowing that we were in it together just made it better. And now we have this amazing story to tell and we can tell it together.

September 2011:

When you’re fat, overweight…whatever (I don’t like to sugar coat the phrase), you spend a lot of money of clothes. We had to shuffle off to the larger specialty store to buy clothes and didn’t have a lot of options. I went from a size 28 to a size 12 and a 2XL shirt to a medium. Do you know how excited I was the first time I put on a pair of Old Navy jeans? Or the first pair of Gap pants I bought last week? I’m extremely satisfied. When I was in high school I shopped at Gap and Old Navy but I had to buy men’s clothes because I couldn’t fit in the ladies sizes, so this was a HUGE deal for me…and will continue to be a huge deal. This will never be something I take for granted ever again. And I’ve also lost some shoe sizes. I wore a 12 and now I’m in 10. Who would have thought I would have been able to lose a shoe size?

December 2011:

People don’t look at us the same way. People don’t pity us and really want to talk to us. This is a good and bad thing. I like that people have noticed that I’ve lost the weight, but it makes me feel bad at the same time. I’m still the same person. I’m just as approachable as I was last year. I still laugh at the same jokes and tell the same stories…except now I’m not as fat. Overweight people are treated so badly for no reason at all. It disgusts me at how we treat each other because of the fat on their body or their lack of being healthy. Sometimes people just don’t know how to change and they need help. So help them and don’t punish them.

In my mind, I will always be an overweight person because it’s something I have been my entire life. I will gladly tell my story as a way to inspire and I will always support the people who really need it. I’ve been there, gone through it and I’m still growing through it. There is one thing I know for sure though; I will never go back to being that person. I’ve worked too hard and too long.

January 2011:

And here we are today, still working towards a goal but happy! This has been an eye opening experience that has completely changed my life. To all the people who said we couldn’t/wouldn’t do it or the people who tried to sabotage us along the way, this post is for you. I can’t speak for my husband, but I TRULY feel like I can do anything now. Not because I’m skinnier but because this was one of the hardest and easiest things I’ve ever done. I’m not saying I have pushed through to the other side, but I do see the finish line in sight. It’s been a long journey but not an impossible one. When we started I would get frustrated because I didn’t see the results instantly, but you must remember that weight loss is slow road and you have to stick with it…even when you want to give up. My husband always tells me, it took years and years for us to put it on so it’s going to take time to get it off. And that’s so true, but if you’re focused it won’t take as long to get it off.

There were weeks when I didn’t lose any weight at all and one week that I ever gained. It’s hard but I used that as my motivation to keep pushing forward. Anyone can do it; you just have to believe in yourself!

I also wanted to add that we don’t do anything out of the ordinary. This was not a diet; it was just a lifestyle change. We went with something simple; watching what we eat and working out. There’s no extreme dieting going on here because we didn’t want to have to get off a program to get back into the real world.

New Year’s Resolutions have always been bogus to me.  People make these resolutions to do something and never really follow through.  Every year when I write this post I say the same thing…blah blah blah.  I just really don’t like New Year’s Resolutions.  In 2011, I tackled the goal of weight loss and improving my lifestyle.  That was a huge under taking for me but I accomplished a lot.  How much you might ask?  I can’t tell you now, because that’s another blog post.  Because I took on such a strong journey of weight loss and lifestyle improvement, I kind of let other goals I had fall by the wayside.  Not because I didn’t want to accomplish them, because my weight loss became my issue of 2011.

So what’s going to be my issue for 2012?  One word: Business.  I really want to improve my skills, take more pictures and really get my graphic design and photography business going.  Now is the time for me to make this happen and now that I’m living healthier and managing my schedule better, I know it’s something that I need to do.  Every year it makes my list and every year it never happens.  But after having the great 2011 I did have, I know that I can do anything if I put my mind to it.

But this is also a time to reflect on my goals for 2011:

1. Eating better to get rid of bad habits. (check)

2. Get my butt to the gym and get the hubby to go along. (check)

3. Make more time for myself to read books and watch television and do things I want to do.  (check)

4. Save more money.  There’s no check for this one.  All the things I said I wasn’t going to buy, I bought.  Where I was more frugal with my money this year, I didn’t manage to save much.

5. Get my business going strong.  I let this go.

Which leads me to my list of goals for 2012:

1. Get my business going strong.

That’s all I want to do.  And I figure if there is just one goal (even if it’s a big one) that’s one thing that I have to accomplish throughtout 2012.  And like I said, I’ve already done so much, this one thing won’t break me.  Plus, if this is the one thing I do in 2012…I’ll be happy. So what does this all entail?  Building my brand (by blogging, crafting, taking pictures), taking pictures for money and honing my skills!

Note: This book was provided to me early by NetGalley and Harlequin Teen for review purposes only.

Expected publication: January 31, 2012 by HarlequinTeen

Manderly Academy’s “it” girl, Becca Normandy, has been missing for months and the students at the school really haven’t gotten over it. In fact, most students are hoping Becca comes back alive to reclaim her Queen B title so that doesn’t make things easy on the new girl who is accepted into the school in Becca’s place. The New Girl by Paige Harbison centers around the new girl coming to Manderly Academy and dealing with the legacy that Becca Normandy has left behind. It’s not until the last few pages of the book that we find out the new girls name but that doesn’t mean we don’t learn about her along the way.

The book is an interesting read, but not something that is going to wow the reader. The book was impossible to put down because page after page I was looking for the big moment to hit…and I’m not really sure that it ever came. It tells the story of the new girl trying to fit into her new life which happens to mirror the same struggles that Becca left behind. There’s trying to make friends, dealing with a distraught roommate and of course a love triangle featuring Becca’s old love interests.

The one thing the book has going for it was the character development. Even though Becca wasn’t around for the story and was just someone people talked about, I really came to know Becca and love and dislike many parts of her. These moments were exposed through the circumstances and situations that faced the new girl which greatly mirrored each other. While we were getting to know Becca, we were also getting to know the “new girl” and how she reacted to the similar situations that Becca faced, but handled much differently.

The book was a good read, but it was missing the big moment and maybe that was something I was building up in my own head. It never came so the big reveal of the book was finding out the “new girl’s” name…and then the book was over. Like I mentioned before, the book was not bad at all. This book was kind of like getting to know a new friend and then friendship growing into a unbreakable bond of friendship.