UPDATE: This post was updated January 3, 2024 to include the recipe card for this cauliflower mac n cheese. A great way to hide veggies!
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I always hit my snooze at least once. Although I used to be a complete night owl, that’s turned around the older I’ve gotten. I don’t know what flips that switch? Hannah and Jacob can work from 5:00 to noon – come home, nap for four hours, stay up until two and then sleep until eleven the next morning. Ah to be in your mid-20’s again!
And for those of you who have been with me since nearly the beginning, can you believe Hannah is going to be 25 years old in a little over a month??!! She was 16 when I started this blog. And Joe will turn 28 this year – crazy!
So after hitting the snooze the first time, the second time (and I build in my snoozes so I am never running late) I reach for my phone, and check the weather. Yesterday it said 13 degrees. But it was sunny! Thanks Jenn for this picture (I stole it from my sister!)
I don’t even mind the cold when it’s sunny. It had me thinking, and I’ll have to look this up, but we might have had the least snowy January on record! Of course, that means we’ll have a snow storm at the end of March. I don’t mind late spring snow though, because it never lasts long.
I had simple egg sammie with fruit for breakfast yesterday. 7 smart points. While this was good as I was eating it yesterday I thought, “I should really bring my panini maker to work!” Ha!
Work was steady busy. Nothing crazy, just one thing right after another. I am not pushing my cough any more than I have to, so decided to eat lunch in the tenant lounge again. More turkey chili with cucumbers as chips instead of tortilla chips – saved me 4 smart points right there. Lunch came in at 7 points as well.
I normally pack way more fruit in my lunch bag than I usually eat, and was glad I did because on the train ride home I was starving for some reason. I ate a banana and a kiwi on the train ride home – that hit the spot.
I had an idea for dinner for an open face type of burger. I made cauliflower mac n cheese the night before last (I had to rewrite the recipe because when I looked back at my recipe it was when Weight Watchers was points plus, and a one cup serving based on those ingredients came in at 9 smart points!). I ate it when it was really warm out of the oven and it was a bit runny, not at all like I remembered. But after it cooled on the stove, it came together really well, like a regular mac n cheese. My idea was to make cauliflower mac n cheese “cakes” for the base of my baby burgers. It was either going to turn out really well or really bad – that’s usually how it goes with my cooking! Here is the recipe for the mac n cheese.
Cauliflower Mac N Cheese
One way for me to eat veggies is blending them into sauces, like this cheesy cauliflower mac n cheese. Delish!
Ingredients
- 1 head cauliflower (about 4 cups)
- 2 cups chicken broth (or veggie broth)
- 3 ounces good sharp cheddar cheese, divided
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 tablespoon dried onion
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 16 ounces leftover COOKED pasta (not 16 ounces dried)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400 degrees.
- Microwave the cauliflower in the microwave, about 5 minutes or until fork tender.
- If you don't have cooked pasta, cook pasta according to package instructions and drain. Add to a casserole dish.
- Place all the remaining ingredients, except for one ounce cheddar cheese, in the food processor and process until smooth.
- Pour over the cooked pasta and stir to combine. Top with additional ounce of cheese, a bit more dried parsley and bake for 20 minutes.
- Enjoy!
Notes
This recipe is 6 WW points per serving as of the date of this publication. Click here for the WW tracker.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 211Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 16mgSodium: 808mgCarbohydrates: 29gFiber: 4gSugar: 3gProtein: 10g
I put the recipe into the Weight Watcher recipe app, and it comes in at 6 smart points per cup, 3 points per half cup. For dinner last night I scooped out 1/2 a cup and divided that into two “cakes.” Since the mac n cheese was cold, it held together just fine. I heated up a pan with some Pam and a bit of coconut oil, and seared off each side of the cake for about 2 minutes a side – just until golden brown, then set those aside.
I cooked up two 3 ounce sirloin patties that I seasoned with just salt and pepper, and some Boar’s Head goat cheese. I put the baby burgers on top of my cauliflower cakes, then topped with Plochman’s angry mustard, some baby greens and had some sautéed mushrooms on the side. This plate came in at 10 smart points and was delicious!
The mac n cheese cakes had a nice little crusty to them, but were gooey and cheesy on the inside. Hannah fixed the mushrooms – they are delicious and she won’t share the recipe with either Jacob or me! After dinner I still had 6 points left for the day and ate 6 points of crack I mean granola to end out the day with 30 smart points.
I am really excited about tomorrow’s post, because Weight Watchers is talking about #freshfoodsFeb!
I watch a lot of youtube videos of other Weight Watchers who post “what I ate on 30 points with Weight Watchers” and I know I am probably the exception to the rule – someone who works a full day and enjoy coming home to cook, but a lot of these videos rely on so much processed food:
And trust me, I am not knocking that if that works for you. My goal for February though is to have at least two or three (5-7 ingredient or less) dinner ideas that use whole foods and no packaged goods. Work permitting of course, but it would be great if I could get someone to cook outside their comfort zone and cook from scratch just one night a week.
Alright, time to get my show on the road. Question of the Day: Do you rely on processed food in your weekly meal planning? Very curious to hear about it in the comments below!
Here is a Tuesday Thought for you – make it a great day!
Sorry Biz, but work is a bullshit excuse to use processed foods. I work fulltime too, I do everything at home (cleaning, cooking, laundry etc.) and I hardly use processed foods. It’s not that difficult to make things from scratch. Processed foods contains so much sugar/salt, it’s not good for our health.
And how difficult is it to count points if you don’t have the nutrition info? If you weigh what you use, you just put that in the app.
YUMMMMMMMMM! Just printed this to make tonight! You have the best recipes 🙂
Thanks Tracey! Have a great day my friend ????????
Hey Biz
I try really hard not to have a lot of processed foods. But the sister and I are hooked on 1 pts tortilla shells with air fried chicken..yum.
That is one thing I really like about the new Weight Watchers program…it seems that you are better off eating from the outside of the store and not relying on 100 calorie packs.
Yep, that is true! You should always shop the perimeter of the store. And truth be told, I do love the bagel thins and the Ole 1 point wraps 😀
I just love how I can still fit in my pizza, a burger, etc. into my meal plan and not feel guilty about it – just make it fit into my points 😀
That looks super cheesy for just 3oz of cheese! I would try that!
How is it that our kids age but we don’t ?
We rarely eat processed foods. My husband like meat, a potato and a veggie at every meal, as plain as possible. Occasionally I’ll rebel and serve Idahoan Instant Potatoes because I love them. When the kids were growing up and living home, it was the same. Maybe Kraft mac and cheese occasionally, or a random hamburger helper here and there. Now that they are all married, they all cook from scratch too. It’s trendy!
My sister and her family LOVE instant potatoes – and they grew up on Kraft mac n cheese, so much so when her kids would come over and I would make homemade mac n cheese and they would ask where the bright orange cheese was 😛
For everything there is a season!
I think people use processed foods for a lot of reasons:
1. People don’t know how to cook
2. People don’t have time to cook
3. People don’t like to cook
And probably a lot of other little reasons that boil down to the three above.
I know that 15 years ago when I first used WW, I would buy their frozen dinners and eat them a few times a week because that was at least *one* meal that I didn’t have to do a lot of counting for (and back then the program was a bit different). In order for me to lose the weight on WW, it basically had to become a part-time job. I worked full time, and then used 10-20 hours a week of brain power to shop, cook, plan, and count.
(It’s the same if you are counting calories.)
Then I got much better at creating recipes where I already knew the points…eventually no more processed foods. But let’s face it, now I have a full time job and 2 kids. Simply grocery shopping, planning, cooking, packing lunches, for 3 people for 7 days is EXHAUSTING. You’d better believe that once a week is frozen pizza, and once a week is chicken fingers. I also buy my veggie burgers instead of making them like I used to.
I get a produce box and buy extra produce and we still run out on Weds night or Thursday. Sigh. I cook a TON but growing boys can eat a ton. Plus I probably eat 2 lbs of produce a day on my own.
Um, four people. I meant 4 people. With the exception that I don’t pack lunch for the school kid.
You make some great points Marcia – and I know you do an amazing job cooking for your family – I can’t imagine how much the boys are going to eat when they get bigger!
I try not to use too many – but there are definitely some – namely Kodiak Cakes, Halo Top ice cream, Jello sugar-free pudding, Garden Lites souffles, VitaTops – just to name a few. I try and batch cook on my days off so I have lots in my freezer to grab from for work lunches which is helpful.
Your cauliflower mac looks really awesome – do you think if you used a lower fat cheese that it would lower the points? I think that as a side with tilapia or another fish would be a really nice dinner! I’m gonna try it
I would try the 50% reduced fat Cabot if you can find it – it melts really well unlike some of the lower fat cheeses.
I don’t have a Whole Foods near me to get the Halo Top – but that’s probably a good thing!
I eat very little processed foods but my schedule is flexible so I can cook at home. If it wasn’t I’d spend the weekend making soups, my favorite. In fact I just made a pot of lima bean soup- dried beans I soaked overnight, celery, carrots and onions in previously frozen and thawed turkey broth. Last week i made cream of tomato and turkey vegetable soup. I do buy crackers occasionally- that’s one thing I don’t make from scratch. Also, I buy butter and cheese. I usually have oatmeal and FF milk for breakfast. Leftovers are my best friend!
I love leftovers too! My husband couldn’t stand them, but that meant more for me.
And I could eat soup every.single.day 365 days a year 😀
That cauliflower looks good! I would just call it cheesy cauliflower, though LOL.
One of the things with WW I found is that it is harder for people to count points with “real food”, so that is why there is such a reliance on packaged stuff with nutritional info on it. Not many people want to take the time to put foods into a calculator, particularly recipes.
Yes. I agree with this! 20 years ago I was a WW leader – back when you counted categories of food and people still relied on either WW or Lean Cuisine frozen boxes because right on the box it would say 1 starch, 2 veg., 1 protein. Not to mention that WW really pushes their snacks and stuff. It’s my biggest gripe about that program.
Well, since there is pasta in the recipe, I kept the “mac” part – but it is basically a cheezy cauliflower dish. 😀
I agree – but it doesn’t take that long to enter food, and if you eat some of the same stuff you can always save that info.
Recipe looks awesome! I may try it tonight! I have cauliflower and pasta so I’m all set! Thanks for the recipe!
I actually love the cauliflower taste 😀
While I am sure I would love the cauliflower mac and cheese I see my family violently shaking their heads with their mouths shut tight and refusing to give it a try. I try to limit processed food as much as possible. I do find myself scurrying around at the last minute some nights but that is my own fault for not planning better. Since I try to limit my husband’s sodium intake, processed foods are something to steer clear of. Sadly, he really likes canned veggies. He picks on our daughter and me by saying the way we eat our veggies (al dente) we may as well just be rinsing them off fresh from the ground and eating them 🙂 I LOVE fresh!
That’s why I don’t think I only ate carrots and cucumbers growing up, because they didn’t come out of a can – I only ate them raw. 😀
I rarely rely on processed foods – BUT I will say on the days I come home with no energy to cook ordering delivery is WAY too easy for me to do. I’m trying to be better about it though! Also – you know I loathe eggs so breakfast is generally rough for me – lately I’ve been drinking shakeology because of the convenience and also Kodiak cakes (in the picture you posted of the haul) are SO good and relatively clean on the ingredient front!
Okay, I will give Kodiak cakes a try – I’ve actually never read the label before! Keep kicking ass! 😀
Yes Yes I do. I rely on a lot of processed foods. Unfortunately, that is the case at this point in life with our schedules among other things. I went thru a period of almost nothing but whole foods and cooking a lot. Something happened and I grew to hate the time and effort it took. Honestly — it’s a big resentment and argument between my husband and me. So I just stopped making the effort and switched to things as fast and simple as possible. Period. I try to get mostly organic and fresher, no preservatives, Costco super finds, etc. But still it’s a lot more processed than we should have. BUT — the fresh foods February campaign has piqued my interest! Also – things are just now beginning to slow down a bit for me and there may be more of a window opening up for me to cook a couple of times a week. Gotta get my mind in on this action. Definitely wanna try the cauliflower mac and cheese. =)
Maybe just start with one home cooked meal a week? Maybe have your hubs help so it makes it more fun and doesn’t seem like a chore?
I guess I am the weird one that doesn’t mind cooking from scratch pretty much every single night!
I think you are doing great so far!
I mostly cook with whole foods. I either cook from scratch or we go out, the only happy medium I seem to have is sandwiches.
I actually love a good sandwich! 😀