Better than the real thing

So it's been about a week now that Mr. Idiot and I have been paleo.

Well, it's been a week for me. Mr Idiot has been summoned by his country to do important training exercises, which I'm pretty sure primarily include learning how to lie in the mud and get rained on...tax dollars at work ladies and gents.

Anyway, they don't make paleo MREs so he's eating what he's given. But I've been (kind of) sticking to the paleo diet, and one of the most challenging parts of eating like a caveman is snacking. When I want a nibble throughout the day, I usually eat crackers, chips, toast, cookies, popcorn, none of which we're allowed to eat on this diet. So snacks have been a real struggle for me. Meals have actually bee much easier than I anticipated. And exponentially more delicious, but that's for another post.

I've been searching for all kinds of snack ideas to satisfy the cravings I get during the day, so here is a great one. If you've got paleo friendly snack ideas, please for the love of god share them, because extending my repertoire is going to be necessary to keep this diet going.

Cauliflower popcorn.

I was dubious about this when I tried it, but I was desperate for something crunchy and salty and it sounded worth a shot.

I was right, it was really really good. Mine got a bit burned, but I think that's because I cut it up too small. I used a popcorn recipe from food.com that I made some adjustments to.

1 head of cauliflower, with large stems removed

coconut oil (you can use any fat you like)

salt

garlic powder to taste

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Cut the cauliflower up into heads about the size of a ping pong ball. Don't do what I did and rip it into tiny little individual heads. Keep them fairly big, and cut the stems pretty short.

Combine your fat, salt and garlic (or whatever spice you'd like to use) in a bowl and coat the cauliflower in it.

Put the cauliflower in a baking tray, line it with parchment paper to save the cleanup, and put it in the oven for about an hour.

Check on it every ten or fifteen minutes to turn the cauliflower, and to make sure it's not burning.

Once it's golden brown and crispy, you're all done.

Mine is definitely burned, as you can see, but even then it was still so good. I'm going to put a little less salt in it next time, but those additions are really up to you and whatever you feel like. I'm pretty sure if you added cinnamon or another sweeter spice this would be equally good. 

This is fake popcorn. And I was of the impression that most fake things are bloody awful. Tofurkey is terrible, turkey bacon is an insult to real bacon, most of the time, the imitation is nowhere near as satisfying as the thing you're replacing.

This is an exception. This was just as satisfying, if not more so, than real buttery popcorn. It was extra good because it didn't evaporate in my stomach like popcorn does, it stuck around and I was hungry again until dinner time. Try this, even if you're not doing the paleo thing, it's very very easy, and surprisingly satisfying. I found myself wishing I had another cauliflower so I could make another bowl.