"Chicken" Sandwich on Cauliflower Almond Bun with Cold Beet Salad

Tonight I worked late, and I was walking home, thinking about what to make for dinner.  I considered stopping at Walgreens and getting some HALLOWEEN PEEPS (peeps are my favorite candy) and diet Dr. Pepper, because sometimes you just want candy for dinner and peeps are totally a good choice.  They are fat free and low in calories...


But I thought better and decided I wanted a sandwich instead, but I didn't have any bread, because I don't buy that crap, then I remembered this gluten free hamburger buns recipe I saw on pinterest a while ago.  I was like "please have cauliflower in the freezer, please have cauliflower in the freezer, please have cauliflower in the freezer!!"  Then I started thinking about some quick sides and I figured I would just throw something together with whatever kind of canned veggies I have.

So I arrived home and YES I HAD ONE BAG OF CAULIFLOWER LEFT!  Put that on a plate and started to thaw it in the microwave.  Then I turned the oven on to 400 and looked in the cabinet.  Green beans, of course, my favorite vegetable, but what else... beets?  Sure why not. I use canned beets to make awesome veggie salami, recipe next time I make it... maybe. Looked on pinterest for beet salad and found this recipe for Simple Summer Beet Salad. Corn... interesting, but canned corn is better than frozen, unless you're roasting it, and it's faster.  So I didn't have tarragon, so I thought French, Herbs de Provence?  Well, I'm out of that, but I had all the individual spices.  I added some basil, marjoram (I did have it!!), savory, and rosemary.  I left out the sage and thyme, that reminds me of poultry seasoning.  Beets, corn, green beans, spices, salt and pepper, olive oil, and red wine vinegar went into a bowl.  Put the lid on, sloshed it around, into the fridge to marinate.

So when the cauli was mostly thawed I put it on a baking sheet and into the oven to dry it out. Fake bread made of cauliflower always calls for fresh, raw cauliflower, but I like never buy fresh vegetables except carrots and onions (they keep foreverrrrrr), unless I have a plan to use them that day or the next.  I have thrown out a lot of rotten veggies (oops), but frozen veggies are just as good nutritionally and usually taste wise as well!  So frozen cauliflower - it will work, but you gotta thaw it and get it dry.  So when it was starting to get a little brown on the edges I took it out and pulsed it lightly in the food processor, just to get a little grind, not mushed.  I got about 2.5 to 2.75 cups of the processed cauliflower.  The recipe calls for 2 cups raw before processing, but cauliflower is all unevenly shaped and bulky and hard, one cup is not an accurate measurement!  So anyway I just used 2 cups of pulsed cauli, 2T almond meal, 1T ground flax, some garlic powder, little onion powder, little dried onion (like the trashiest ingredient ever but they work so well!), dried rosemary (I LOVELOVELOVE rosemary!  it smells incredible.  I found rosemary shampoo once and it made my hair smell intoxicating, but it also made my scalp bleed, ugh), salt and pepper, 2 eggs (not organic!  oh no, the recipe still worked - whew!), pulse all that up, work it into 4 buns with your hands (I am all about the hands), sprinkle some white sesame seeds on top, and put that bitch in the 400F oven for 15 minutes, carefully flip them, do another 5 min.

Ready to bake!

So while those buns are in the oven, take a "chicken" burger that you previously made and froze out of the freezer and cook it in a skillet.  Someday I will get around to finishing the veggie burger post...

Done on top!

Toasty bottom

When everything is done cooking, put it all together!!  Put dill pickles and spicy brown mustard and a fat free processed cheddar cheese slice (no judging) on the burger.  Mayo would be better than mustard, but I don't have any.  There is no soy free mayo and I'm too afraid of raw eggs to make my own....  So get the burger ready, stir up the salad one last time, then put a little on the plate, take several pictures, and enjoy!  It was pretty good and THE BUN STAYED TOGETHER!  It shocked me.  I was able to eat the burger with my hands!  Usually I gotta knife and fork 'em.  Impressive, this recipe is a keeper.  I think I will try making a grilled cheese with the leftovers tomorrow.  The salad was ok, but it needs more time to marinate.  It will probably be better tomorrow.

Bon appetite, bitches!

So overall, not a bad dinner, but it took forever!  I left work at 7:00, didn't get this plated until 9:00.  I need to work on making more premade dinners like I do for breakfast.  But it was tasty, and filling, too filling.  I ate half of the burger and I'm like ugh I'm done, I don't even want to touch the salad.  But I am super impressed with this "bread", I need to tweak it a little. Maybe separate the eggs and beat the whites to make it lighter and more breadlike?  Stay tuned...