In our house, Taco Tuesday is a given. My husband waits for Taco Tuesday like a four year old waits for Christmas. If we could eat tacos in some form or fashion ever night, he would be in heaven. I like tacos, but currently I’m on a mission to trim the fat, and let’s face it tacos aren’t necessarily health food.
After talking with a personal trainer friend of mine, I decided to cut the carbs and see if I could utilize some industry tips and tricks to kick start my metabolism. His two recommendations: No carbs and interval workouts.
His rational makes total sense, and it aligns with what I’m currently learning in Yoga Therapy training. Essentially, we eat carbs and our bodies process the carbs through the digestive process and metabolize it into sugar. When the body gets dumped with a lot of sugar, a team of insulin is released to manage the sugar. Insulin’s whole job is to either burn the sugar for energy OR store it as fat.
My primary reason for starting a therapeutic yoga practice several years ago was to balance and stabilize my body. I currently manage hereditary high blood pressure through yoga therapy and medical supervision, and I know that my sugar levels already tend to be high. Given my physical manifestation, it’s a good idea for me to check in every so often to make sure I’m optimizing my health.
Monday wasn’t too difficult, but I was finding it challenging to come up with an alternative to tortillas that didn’t use corn flower. I decided to create my own concoction: Cauliflower Gorditas. I’m not a recipe writer (or a food photographer), so I’ll apologize for any formatting errors ahead of time, but they turned out so tasty that I wanted to share. Enjoy!
The Process: Cauliflower Gorditas
Cauliflower Gorditas
Serves: 4
1 half of a head of cauliflower chunked
1 hand-full of cilantro washed
1 tsp salt
1 egg yolk
1 tbs olive oil
Steam the cauliflower for 15 minutes or until tender. Transfer the cooled cauliflower into a food processor with cilantro, salt, and olive oil. Pulse until creamy and smooth. Add the egg and pulse. Chill for 15 minutes or until ready to cook.
Heat a flat iron skillet on low. Scoop our 1/4 cup portions of cauliflower mixture and cook like a pancake. Make sure to coat the skillet with oil to prevent sticking. Set cooked gorditas aside for assembly.
Set the oven to 350 and bake the gorditas and any other veggies you want to top your gorditas with. I cooked onion, beats, and red peppers. Once the gorditas are crispy, remove them from the oven.
Assemble the gorditas with refried beans, veggies, cheese, and any greens you like. You could even create different cultural variations. These low carb rounds worked great for Taco Tuesday, and honestly could be used for tons of other dinner ideas. I sincerely hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
Bon Appetit!