Cauliflower Crust Zucchini Pizza

Low carb, high veggie and lipid diet anyone?

Well, even if you're not, on the same night, we made a pizza without zucchini using a pre-made dough. Totally cheating, but certain members of my family were not up for trying the cauliflower crust pizza.

The Recipe: Cauliflower Crust Zucchini Pizza

• 1 head of Cauliflower
• 1 egg
• 1 cup shredded, Low Fat Mozzarella
• 1 Zucchini, sliced
• 3 tbsp shredded, Low Fat Mozzarella
• 2 tbsp shredded Parmesan
• 1 tbsp shredded Four Cheese Mix
• 1/4 tbsp dried basil
• 1/2 can Pizza Sauce

The Process: 

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with wax paper (Which ended up being a completely stupid idea...you'll see.)
• Boil the cauliflower on low heat for 30-45 minutes (Depends on your stove...I think I gave them too much water)
• Strain and mash the cauliflower
• Mix in the egg and 1 cup of Mozzarella
• Line a strainer with ample amounts of paper towels
• Allow mix to strain briefly, pressing lightly
• Wrap the mix in paper towels and slowly wring to remove excess water
• Refrigerate the mix for about 10 minutes (While cooking the other pizza)
• Pour the mix onto the baking pan and shape 
• Bake for 10-12 minutes to prepare the crust
• Spread on pizza sauce
• Sprinkle with dried basil
• Sprinkle with cheeses
• Arrange zucchini
• Bake until the crust becomes yellow/brown at the edges and the cheese and sauce begins to bubble (I ended up taking this one out slightly early because of problems I will explain in a moment)
• Allow to cool
• Slice into desired portions (Or make into pizza burrito...)
• Enjoy!

The Calories:

Cauliflower: 144 calories

Egg:             75 calories

Mozzarella:  431 calories

Parmesan:    42 calories

Four Cheese:22 calories

Pizza Sauce: 40 calories

Basil:            1 calorie

Zucchini:       52 calories

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TOTAL: 730 calories

This is slightly higher than 1/2 of an entire Connie's All Natural Frozen Cheese Pizza. To put things in perspective, wow. That's a healthy pizza. Despite all the cheese. 

Now let's talk about what happened here...

What went right: 

         Both pizzas were going great. They looked great, tasted great, and smelled great. The cauliflower I got to eat all of in the form of a burrito because I purposefully under-cooked it to combat the fact that...

What went wrong: 

         The normal pizza finished first, a shining thing of absolute beauty. And stuck to the wax paper, so was inedible in the regular fashion...we ended up attempting to pull some of the paper off and partially getting to eat some normally...the rest we had to toss or eat sort of face to cheese...don't ask! 

        For that reason, I under-cooked the cauliflower pizza in the hopes of getting it off the wax paper. I succeeded by folding the entire pizza over itself using the wax paper, pulling off one side, flipping the uncovered side onto a plate, and then pulling off the other side.

       I really want to try this again without the wax paper, since it all tasted quite nice :)

Will I do this in College?:
        We'll see how it comes out the second time, but I think I could make this happen pretty easily in college...it doesn't take that long once the cauliflower is boiled, and I can eat an entire pizza without feeling like I've eaten an entire pizza!

Overall, I really wish I hadn't used the wax paper...thanks to my dad making salads and my family being creative, we didn't have a totally ruined dinner. Stay tuned for Cauliflower Crust--Try 2!