Oceanside Californa (Part 1)

Justin and I had the pleasure of spending a week in Oceanside, California with all of Justin's family. We left on July 6th and made the easy trek to Oceanside. It's maybe a 7 hour drive but all down the mountain. We stopped in Las Vegas so Just could spend a hour or two in his favorite store, DXL! He doesn't get to go there as much as he would like and if we were going to pass it anyway... might as well stop. Justin got a few pieces that he needed to replace older clothes; a pink polo, two pairs of shorts, and a pair of hush puppies sandals. He walked out of the dressing room in his pink polo and bright blue shorts and I couldn't help but laugh. I wish I could of gotten pictures but I was laughing so hard! He looked like cotton candy. 

We stopped in Primm for lunch and Justin was craving his Mad Greek food. I've never eaten Greek, but I know what they serve. Justin got a gyro, I got a Greek burger, and we shared some fried cauliflower. Good food... Bad idea for eating in a car. The cauliflower and burger were easy to eat in the car, not so much the gyro. I had to take his gyro that had the meat falling out and attempt to put the sauce over it while we were driving. Then Justin's gyro came with rice... not like sticky Chinese rice... rice with butter and herbs. Good just not ideal for the car. I gave up trying to feed him with fork and told him to wait until we stopped at rest area to eat it. Nope... not Justin! He just reached his hand in started eating the rice. Apparently it was just that good!

 

 As we coasted down the mountain, we could feel the humidity increase and the temperature decrease! It was such a nice break from the high desert summers, especially since we were having a triple digit heat wave.

As soon as it got into the 70's we turned off the AC and rolled down the windows. I think we were the only car who had their windows enjoying the breeze and the cool air.

We pulled into Oceanside around 5:30, unpacked, and went up to the roof to enjoy the evening. It was so beautiful. We could see the ocean from the roof, hear it when we went to bed, and smell the ocean all the time. We grabbed dinner about 8:30 at a Mexican restaurant with Jen (Justin's sister) and her husband, BJ. Everything was so close that we could walk.

 

At least we got to sleep in a king bed, which is what we were use to. We pushed the two twins together :) 

 

The other lovely thing about being in California is the huge avocados! 

 

 And going from 6000 ft to sea level ... all of our bottles caved, including the unopened pringles can.

*Tear* at least they still tasted good!

Part 2 coming soon!

Recipe Post!!

                                                                    Cauliflower Pizza Crust

For those of you who don't know, I'm insulin resistant or pre-diabetic. I am always trying to find ways to cut out carbs of foods that I really like. I found a recipe for a cauliflower pizza crust so I tried it.The original recipe is posted here but I made just a few modification.

 Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower
1 egg
1/3 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper


As you can see... there is no cauliflower in this picture nor eggs. Yeah.. I can already riced the cauliflower and used the last egg that morning. So I replaced the egg with flax seed. Go me!

*Egg replacement
1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed
3 Tablespoons water.

Mix together. Equals 1 egg

                                                                               Preheat the oven to 450

 1) Cut off the florets from the head. Keep them in bite size pieces. 

 2) Using a food processor (Don't laugh at my tiny food processes) process the cauliflower until it looks like grains of rice.

This can be used as a replacement for regular rice

                                                                          

 3) Once the cauliflower has been all riced, place into a microwave safe bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with a lid or plastic wrap. Microwave on high for 6-7 mins. Do no add water. It will help to cut down on the cauliflower taste and smell.

If you have read some of my other recipe blog posts you know that we do not own a microwave. So I used our rice cooker and steamed the cauliflower.

Can you see it sitting on my rice cooker

 

4) Once the cauliflower has been steamed place the cauliflower in a thin kitchen towel and squeeze it to death! You want to get all the water out that you can!

I ended up using two kitchen towels. 

 The squeezed rice!

 5) Add in the cheese

6) Add in the seasonings

I didn't add in the fennel seed... because we didn't have any. We did though have this amazing Italian seasoning that Justin got from The Spice House.
We get all of our spices from there, cheap and amazing!  

 My replacement egg!

7) Add in the egg

 8) Mix all together

9) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

 10) Shape the "dough" into a pizza shape.. I guess. The dough did not make nearly as much as I thought. I tried to show my hand as a guide at how big it was. Keep the crust between 1/4-1/3 of an inch thick.

11) Bake for 15-20 mins or until the crust is golden brown. 

 12) Place all toppings on the pizza. They need to be cooked already since the pizza is going under the broiler.

13) Broil until the cheese is melted

14) Tada!! My pizza!
I wasn't too stoked that the edges burnt.

 It made enough for Justin and I to have two slices each. Was it amazing.. No. Would I eat it. Yes! Justin didn't like it because the crust wasn't "doughy." Well... Duh! It's cauliflower not flour. I think I'm going to retry it and use an actual egg and cook the cauliflower for longer to see if that helps. The crust tastes like the Italian seasoning which was wonderful and covered the cauliflower taste.

Double Date Night and Ryan's Graudation

A couple weeks ago we got together with our friends Dustin and Nicole and spend the evening bowling, playing in the arcade, and eating ice cream with fake mustaches!

That's right.. I won with a whole 105

Last weekend, Justin and I drove up to Provo to go to Ryan's graduation. I know I keep saying Ryan,  but everyone else knows him as Walter. I'm sorry, he will also be Ryan to me. :)

We drove up Friday afternoon and spent a few hours with the family. Then we drove to BYU and watched his graduation. We left early, we had already been there for a hour and a half and they had just gotten through Ryan's college only.... Yeah... we were ready to go. We were squished in the chairs in the Marriott Center and it was dinner time. Ryan snuck out too. All over a good day! Saturday my grandmother had a big picnic for all of the family and it was great to see everyone. Justin and I took Ryan with us and we went up to Ikea before we left for home. We needed a new kitchen table, one that wasn't so tall and big. We grabbed a few kitchen items that we needed too. All over a good day!

We were a little squished... Just a little

We were bored!

 Had to stop at our favorite restaurant that we can no longer go to because of how far away we are.

 You never eat the crust at a pizza buffet!

 Ryan... Silly Boy

 Bahahaha the sign at our ghetto hotel.

 Thanks for all those towels!

 Leslie at breakfast!

 

Ryan and I at the picnic!