Phood Phun with Phlip... Cauliflower Croquettes

I initially came up with this recipe March 14, 2013.

Wait.

                Let me begin by explaining culinary substitutions…  This recipe INITIALLY used leftover mashed potatoes and, since we committed to getting our weight and lab numbers to levels that wouldn’t make our doctors sweat, we had to learn to use other things.  In this case, cauliflower became the move.  No, you cannot expect cauliflower to be potatoes, or even quite taste like them.  Only to take the necessary consistency to stand in for them without containing THIRTY-SEVEN grams of carbohydrates for just one potato in a recipe that would call for at least two or three.

Now…

I initially came up with the original version of this recipe March 14, 2013 when I was slumming and refusing to throw out leftovers and instead repurposed them.

The beauty of this one is that it can (and should) be planned for.  Some of these things are best worked cold, I will explain in detail.

                First of all, you will need:

1 fresh (or one bag of frozen) cauliflower, 1-2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts (or 3 boneless/skinless thighs), ¼ cup diced onions/peppers, seasonings of your choosing, ¼ cup grated parmesan, 1 cup shredded cheese of your choosing and 2 eggs (not pictured)

Try, if you can, to cook the cauliflower and chicken earlier in the day or even the night before.  Frozen cauliflower can be steamed in the microwave or stovetop and then drained of all the water you can get off of it. 

Mash it as you would potatoes, and this will need to be as fine a mash as you can get without liquefying them.

Roast or bake the chicken:

(I did mine on the NuWave to be able to do everything at one time)

And then dice it  as finely as you can with the knives and ability afforded to you:

Put them somewhere to cool.  You’re cooling them as much as possible because you will be adding eggs before baking and you don’t want to cook the eggs when they hit hot cauliflower/chicken.

Everything from here is pretty straightforward…

In a large enough bowl, EVERYTHING goes in, including the eggs.  Mix it all up well and keep in mind that these will need to remain firm enough to hold in the next step.

Form patties about the size of a big hamburger and--…

-WAIT-

After you form the “hamburger” patty, you can either:
a – place directly on a lined and sprayed cooking sheet, or…
b – roll in more parmesan (if you have it to spare) and then place on a lined/sprayed cooking sheet.

(I went with a this time)

Spray the tops too and place the cooking sheet into a waiting 350° oven.

I tend to deal in appearances and not time, pulling things out and calling them done when they APPEAR as they should to me.

Now you call your wonderful woman to plate it pretty with the salad you'll eat with it:

This way of eating has done wonders for our creativity in the kitchen and the hand it has had on her A1c numbers and our weight and my blood pressure are apparent as well.  For those keeping score, as well, in the "low carb is expensive" camp...
Cauliflower: $2.39/fresh, $0.99/frozen
Parmesan: $1.89 (but this is the same container from last week)
Eggs: $0.89

Cheese: $1.99
Chicken: $4ish
Onion: $1.18 frozen

With this, the "high" total is $12.34 if you MUST buy everything (which you shouldn't) and this should yield enough to feed four people.