Focus on Food! Cauliflower crust pizza Success!

Over the past 6 weeks or so, since going on the diabetic diet again, a large amount of my time has gone into researching food options, studying recipes, and just cooking from scratch to try things out.  Let me tell you ....it's not for the faint hearted.  Most of the diabetic recipes I've tried have been a flop the first time through.  Our local ingredients are different, my equipment is different, my oven is different ....so things just turn out....different.  One banana bread recipe I tried turned out looking (and tasting) like a Christmas Yule log and I wished I had a fire to throw it on.  Kudos to my husband, who hates to waste food, and did end up eating most of it.  Another chocolate zucchini cake I tried turned out about 1 cm thick, with the texture of a rubber tire, but indeed having some chocolate flavor -- it's only redeeming quality.  I have limped out of the kitchen many times, discouraged, hungry, and wondering if I would ever have a second installment for my Focus on Food series.   

Finally, after FOUR almost disastrous attempts, I finally have a success to to tell you about .....

CAULIFLOWER CRUST PIZZA!!!

I will refer you to the original blog post from Your Lighter Side, for the full recipe.   Please note from the photo above how the pizza is crisp enough to hold on the tip of the fingers.  It looks like real pizza!  I was immediately drawn to this recipe because, well, I love pizza.  It is so sad to give it up, because Pizza Crust can be so very high carb, even the whole wheat variety.  Yet this pizza crust has practically NO CARBS at all!

FIRST ATTEMPT

On a Saturday morning, we rushed to the nearby street market to find us some cauliflower.  As you can see, this was a few days after the horrible mosquito attack on Jonathan's face, which tells you how long I have been working on this project.  The lady who created the recipe simply uses frozen cauliflower from a bag.  We had a few extra steps:  washing, cutting, steaming.  Finally we could start the first step of the recipe!

We grated our cauliflower -- or tried to.  It was too mushy and kept falling apart. 

Then we mixed 1 cup of grated ("riced") cauliflower with 1 cup of cheese (we had to use cheddar although the recipe calls for mozz) and 1 egg.  Here's what it looked like.

The first attempt was baked in a pie pan, as it seemed like the best option at the time.  Well, I have no after pictures because discouragement set in as soon as it came out of the oven.  The first attempt was WAY too soggy.  I needed to drain the cauliflower, or even squeeze out the moisture before baking it.  So the result turned out being more like a casserole.  But the amazing thing is....although it was a casserole, it tasted fantastic! 

Jonathan ate his up.  We all ate it up, in no time flat.  So, not exactly pizza but the flavor was good enough to make me keep trying.

SECOND ATTEMPT

Here it is, all flattened out and ready to go in the oven.  I found an old pizza pan -- perfect!  Uhm, no.

Here is SECOND ATTEMPT finished product -- quite STUCK to the pan.  We had to hack it off, bit by bit.  The food that ended up on the plate still looked like ....a messed up casserole.  Again, amazingly, it tasted fantastic and nothing went to waste!  As for the pan, it took THREE DAYS of soaking and scrubbing to get all of the stuck-i-ness OFF!

THIRD ATTEMPT

This time I tried putting greased foil over the old pizza pan.  It looked so great coming out of the oven.  I almost cried when I tried to serve the first piece.  Hopelessly stuck.  Again.  Here is what we had to do, turn the whole thing over and detach the top of the pizza from the bottom of the pizza -- you can see how much was stuck on the foil.   So....casserole again, but still tasted good.

FOURTH ATTEMPT

Why couldn't I just be happy with a delicious cauliflower pizza casserole?  I really wanted to be able to PICK UP the pizza slice in one piece and bite into it, for heaven's sake!  I'm realizing more and more how much of food enjoyment has to do with texture and the tactile experience.  Casserole is not pizza.  So after the third attempt, a LONG, LONG while went by before I wanted to try again.

The fourth attempt was inspired by the acquisition of  a new pizza pan.  There is a long and dear story attached to this pizza pan -- about God's love, and His provision, and me not listening to His voice or looking for His hand in my life.  I will have to share it soon in another post on another day.

The fourth attempt came out of the oven looking just lovely.  This is before the toppings, of course. 

Best of all, check this out!  It is somewhat crisp on the bottom and IS NOT STUCK TO THE PAN!!!  Hope is alive!

You can actually pick it up and eat it!  And as with the previous three "casserole" attempts, Jonathan thought it was just fine!

I see relief in my face on this picture.  It was a long hard journey, but we finally actually ended up with pizza we could pick up and eat, that was made on a crust made of cauliflower.  My only complaint now is that it disappears far too quickly!

So folks, I really do recommend this recipe, in spite of all my troubles with it.  It won't be as hard for you -- I had a lot of challenges to adapt to.  It's not too terrible time consuming if you use frozen veggies from the store, and it's a great way to get those veggies into your family's tummies!  My number one tip:  Use a good pizza pan! 

Progress! Dave learning with a new tutor!

As the new school year approached, we were praying for a new language program for Dave.  The tutoring he was receiving last year just wasn't producing strong results.  For one thing, it all happened in the middle of his busy school day on campus. It was hard to focus.

We prayed for a specific person -- someone mature, male, with strong tutoring experience, and who uses a curriculum.  We followed a few dead-end leads before the Lord finally led us to Pak Sabto, who meets all of those criteria perfectly!  Pak Sabto is a full time home tutor.  He and Dave have been meeting for about 2 months now, and Dave is making progress!

Now Dave can hang out on the front stoop  of the corner store with the other men and say quite fluently "I can't speak Indonesian, but my wife can."  He's become so fluent in that phrase that people don't believe him anymore! 

Pak Sabto is 34 years old with a wife and newborn daughter.  He comes to the house on Tuesdays and Saturdays.  He has worked at language school in the past and even has written his own curriculum!

The funny thing is, Jonathan LOVES Pak Sabto also!  He calls him "Dahdo" and waits at the door when we mention that he is coming.  As soon as Sabto is in the door, Jonathan pushes a chair into the study room and sets himself in it, waiting for his lesson.  Sometimes Sabto will go over a few words with him before I lead him away and shut the door.  It's great to hear Dave and Sabto conversing diligently in the local language for their entire 1 hour lesson.

Jonathan waiting for his lesson with Pak Sabto. 

This day Jonathan got to sit in on the lesson for the first couple of minutes!  I guess he shares his daddy's love for learning!

P.S.  You see the couch in the picture?  I just have to share about the miracle that happened at our home last week.  It is the same couch -- an American hide-a-bed sofa given to us last year -- in the last video post of Jonathan dancing.  We just had it recovered -- very affordable -- and it looks brand new.  Best of all, whereas previously we were unable to fit this 83 cm wide couch through our 80 cm wide spare bedroom door, the upholsterer's assistants were able to fit it in after the work was done!  So the miracle is..... we now have a guest room!  Praise the Lord!  Let us know when you are stopping by!

Toddler dance moves!

Happy Sunday! 

Adventures of a big boy!

So what has Jonathan been up to lately?  Time for an updated photo album to show you how he's growing and some of the things he is learning!

Playing with playdough! 

Helping mommy whenever there is hand washing to do!  These are his wool diaper covers.

Hard at work!

Dave is slowly removing a old brick pathway from our yard and Jonathan is a faithful helper!

He is a good supervisor, cheerleader and .....

...is getting quite good at hauling bricks....

....and stacking them too!

I haven't gotten any pictures of him helping me with the dishes ...but when he gets tired of that he finds creative ways to entertain himself in the kitchen.

This picture is from a few months ago, but I had to throw it in!  He found his daddy's favorite shirt and put it on all my himself!  Tried to strut around the house in it ...but kept tripping!

It's a boy!

We are having another boy!  Praise the Lord!

Interpretation of a low definition ultrasound:  Baby's head facing down, neck and spine visible as long white curve. 

It will be very fun for Jonathan to have a little brother ....I can already see them playing together in the yard and running ahead of us wherever we go, despite our calls for them to SLOW DOWN!  I can see the dirty hands, smudged faces, and scraped knees.  I envision two friends sharing a room for most of their childhood, and a couple of sets of muscles to help me heft furniture around whenever I get the whim.   

Oh yes, Dave is already talking about trying for a girl down the road, but for now we are very thankful! 

So on Tuesday I went with a few friends to the big city to visit an OB doctor who has a fairly good reputation among the expats.

The FUNNY:  When he saw me, before even asking me any questions, he told me how much I look like a combination of Jennifer Garner and Hillary Swank!  Hmmm....I haven't heard that one before although when I was young people said I looked like Daryl Hannah off of "Splash," the mermaid movie.

The GREAT NEWS:  Our baby measured very well for growth and size.  Although the ultrasound was low definition, everything that we could see looked good.  He has all of his major parts.  The amniotic fluid is not too much and not to little.  

The AMAZING:  Because of our history of congenital malformations with Bethany, I asked the doctor to zoom in on the heart if he could.  It was difficult to see details, but I did see that many of the major parts are present, including a good septum, several chambers, and more than one valve.  However, knowing that his ultrasound machine was inadequate to give me a clear view, the doctor gave me a message to reassure me.  My friend taking pictures actually was able to record it.....

Okay, to interpret the video for you, it is a cross section of baby's chest where you can see his beating heart.
In the background you can hear the doctor talking, and here is what he said.  "We give this baby to Jesus Christ.  Because it is gift for us, and I am sure that he give to us the best gift for our life."  

We've wondered what this doctor's religious affiliation is, and this gives us a pretty good idea.  I appreciated his bold and tender words to me.  It was like a prophetic blessing for our child. 

The CONCERN:  I do have a low lying placenta, and doctor thinks it is a partial placenta previa.  This means the placenta is touching the opening of the cervix, which causes a bleeding risk.  Most likely, this condition will resolve as the baby grows, but in the meantime I need to be careful.  Please pray that by the time of my next ultrasound in 5 weeks, there will be nothing to worry about!

Focus on Food! Sugar's tragic history

Today I'm starting a new series inspired by my gestational diabetes.  I've been trying loads of new recipes and different foods in compliance with my healthy diet, and it motivates me to able to share some of it here.  It might help me from becoming too much of a whiner.  Please join me with some thoughts about SUGAR...

A History Book about Sugar?

As I was browsing the school library for something to read, I ran across this book.  I thought, “Hey, well, I can’t EAT sugar right now, I might as well READ about it.”

The book really became a page turner for me.  Sugar had a huge effect on world history – and I don’t even remember ever learning about it!  Much of it is very distasteful.  This did help tame my sugar cravings….for about 2 days. 

So just for fun, here are a few of the notable things I learned about sugar:

1. Sugar as medicine. When sugar was first refined from cane in the 600s in small amounts, it was used as a MEDICATION for illness!  Now this absolutely makes sense to me!  I can totally see how sugar could be a remedy for depression, sadness, weakness and even pain!  Too bad it’s effect is so temporary and the side effects so damaging! 

2. The bearers of sugar to the world were MUSLIMS!   As they conquered the Eastern worlds where sugar was first refined, they brought small amounts to other places they traveled, and understandably the demand quickly grew.  Before too long, they had designed and reproduced sugar plantations for rapid production of massive amounts of sugar.

3. I always wondered “What is molasses made of?”  When I look at the ingredient list it just says “molasses.”  So what is it?  Turns out, the process of refining sugar from cane into the white crystals we love so much is a long, many stepped, energy intensive one.   Molasses is merely one of the first products of the sugar refining process.  To quote from page 17 of the book, “What we call molasses is just a natural part of the first grinding of sugar cane into syrup.  Sugar refiners drain out the dark molasses to use by itself and are left with relatively white sugar."

4. White granulated sugar is a highly processed food.  It may be “natural”, but after reading the book, I’m not sure it has much of a benefit over corn syrup or other sweeteners.  Whether it be from cane or beets, the process involves multiple heatings and boilings and pourings before the white crystals are left.  I do think that brown sugar, raw sugar, and the Javanese sugar we use here are less processed options.

5. Slavery and sugar.   My understanding of slavery has previously been limited to America’s involvement with it in the South.  I watched Amazing Grace, the movie, about how William Wilberforce helped to abolish slavery in Britain.  I didn’t think any further.  Where were the slaves in England?  Britain had no plantations needing huge amounts of workers.  The slaves were overseas, in the tropics, stolen from Africa and sold and cruelly worked to death on sugar plantations, owned by wealthy aristocracy and gentlefolk back in England. 

6. Something about American slavery I never considered.   Although slavery in America was a horrible thing, it turns out that Americans treated their slaves better than other places in the world.  Of all of the people ever taken from Africa, 96% were sold as slaves in the Caribbean, Brazil, and South America, most to sugar plantations.  Only 4% were sold in America.  The reason for the disparity is that those other places literally worked their slaves to death in a very short amount of time, so they continually needed to resupply the manpower.  Whereas, Americans, although still cruel, fed and medicated and rested their slaves enough that they survived and married and reproduced, eliminating the need to import new slaves from overseas.  According to the book, only 500,000 slaves were ever brought to America, but there were 4 million slaves freed at the time of emancipation.  In contrast, over 2 million Africans were taken as slaves to the “sugar” islands, and only 670,000 were alive to be freed at emancipation.

7. How did so many Japanese and other Asians come to be in Hawaii?  Again, the answer is sugar.  As slavery was abolished, the sugar business moved to new places, including Hawaii.  Japanese, Philippino, Indians, and others went to Hawaii as (poorly) paid workers on sugar plantations.  Many never returned to their homelands.

8. Most sugar comes from beets now.  Sugar beets provide the same final product as sugar cane, and you don’t need plantations and slaves to produce it. 

”C & H, pure cane sugar … from Hawaii, sweetened by the sun….”  Do any of you remember this commercial ditty from the 80’s?  I’ve been humming it off and on my entire life!  But I will never think of those words in the same way again.  Thanks for letting me share with you about my enjoyable and lightening read!

Things that are diffferent: Idul Fitri date changed!

Imagine it’s 5:30 pm on Christmas Eve.  Family has gathered from out of town for a special meal -- the food is almost done and the table is set.   Kids, adorned in their new clothes, are excited about the festivities to come – whether marching in the Christmas Eve parade, or just spending time at home opening one special present or perhaps all of them!  Churches are putting the final preparations on their Christmas Eve services.  Some people are already on the road heading to church.  The next morning is CHRISTMAS – they can hardly wait!  Adults are a little frazzled with preparations but happy with a holiday glow. 

Then the announcement comes over the radio and the TV.... people start calling and texting each other immediately with the news!  Christmas has been postponed by one day!  Today is not Christmas Eve …..it’s the day before!   

I don’t know what everyone did ….whether they put the special food in the fridge or just ate it …and I don’t know how they felt ….

This is exactly what happened here last night.  The date for Idul Fitri are published on the calendar, but cannot commence until the moon is exactly right.  On the afternoon of Idul Fitri eve, Muslim experts all over the country peered at the skies for the sighting of the new moon….it didn’t appear and therefore the date was postponed.

Everyone was ready though, when the festivities finally started last night.  Jonathan was excited by the children’s parade that went by our house at 7 pm.  All of the kids were shiny in their brand new holiday clothes, singing and holding candles and marching to the beat of a big drum.  At dusk, the mosques started their all night broadcast.  The music continued until 7 am, when our neighbors gathered at the Mosque to worship and hear a special Idul Fitri sermon.  People are now officially breaking their month long fast with delicious food and will soon start visiting each other and asking forgiveness for any wrongs they may have committed over the previous year.  It’s Idul Fitri!