A little step out of my comfort zone

It’s kind of been one of those weeks where I just didn’t have the time or energy to sit down and write so I apologize for the lack of posts this week. Last night as I thought about what I wanted to share in this post, I couldn’t help but giggle a little to myself. Yesterday, I stepped out of my comfort zone. I am thankful that my daughters and husband were not there to witness this, but I took a Zumba class at the Y. I have never in my life done Zumba. I just don’t do Zumba. This was not just a Zumba class, but a Zumba Step class so at least I had some familiarity of the Step portion. I was a little nervous and I know I looked like the most uncoordinated white girl on the planet for that hour, but I made it through. The instructor is a sweet older lady with a German accent that intrigues me every time I hear her speak. Watching her and trying to follow along with her Zumba moves to latino music was a little difficult for me at times. Well, pretty much the whole time. She was moving her little hips and shaking and flowing in ways that this girl just can’t. Maybe if they served margaritas before the Zumba class I may move a little freer, but I’m sure I’d still look awkward with slightly blushed cheeks and I’d be giggling even more at myself and picturing my grandma giving me a little lecture about how ladies aren’t suppose to dance in such ways. Overall, the class was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Along with the Zumba dancing, we did a lot more squats and a few kickboxing moves which I can confidently do. So it’s not the kicking and moving so much that I’m horrible at, it’s the shaking and wiggling and all the hip movement that these hips just don’t want to do. After the class, my friend who had talked me into the class asked if I’d do it again and it’s a definite maybe! Maybe I’ll get better! Maybe I’ll still look like a stiff soldier trying to samba, but either way, I had fun and got in a good workout and that’s what counts! I joked with her that I swore someone had to have recorded my awful dancing and it would be showing up on YouTube any minute! Ha!

I’m still treking along with my healthy eating efforts. I’ve had a few bad choices and some planned out purposeful bad choices, but overall for the last few weeks, I’ve eaten pretty well. One thing I’ve done to help me stay strong is having more veggies. I’ve snacked on sugar snap peas, carrots, and broccoli and sweet potato chips instead of the usual choices. One veggie that I’ve made a few recipes with but has never been one of my favorites is cauliflower. I know it’s great because it can take on the other flavors of your dish, can be transformed into a puree or even made into a low carb pizza crust, but I still don’t eat it very often. For veggies, I tend to choose green beans or broccoli so I needed to find a way to step out of the veggie comfort zone add more cauliflower into our menu. This Cheesy Cauliflower was just what I was looking for. I ate it a couple days in a row for lunch, finishing the last of it off yesterday and the leftovers were just as tasty as the first time around. It’s not necessarily low in calorie with the added cream, cheese, and bacon, but it’s still very low carb and you can always make adjustments to help lower the fat and calories to your preference.

Cheesy Cauliflower

Ingredients

1 head fresh raw cauliflower

1/2 of a small onion – diced

2 TBS Butter

1/2 C heavy cream

3/4 – 1 C shredded cheese – I used a combination of mozzarella, italian blend, and colby jack

4 strips of bacon

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Wash and chop your cauliflower

Fry up your bacon or cook in oven or microwave. Chop once cooled and set aside.

In a large skillet (I used a nonstick oven safe skillet), melt the butter and sauté the diced onions. You could also use a cast iron or anything that can be used on burner and in oven.