Adventure.

Cooking is always and adventure for me. I think amongst other things that I lack, is a general sense of knowing how to prepare food. Last night was no exception.

I started when I got home from working out. I saw the 2 delectable Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Baking Bars that were sitting on the counter. So I grabbed them and threw them into a bowl in the microwave. (You see where I'm going with this...) I also grabbed the not so sweet strawberries in the fridge and commenced to dipping them into the chocolate. Yum, yum! Well I ran out of strawberries, so I grabbed raspberries, clementines and bananas. I also dipped a couple of animal crackers to see what they would taste like. My plan was to have a few of these goodies for dessert tonight. Dark Chocolate + Fruit = primal dessert!

Then it was time to make some dinner. Normally after such a dessert making effort, I would have called Ryan and told him to "just pick something up" because I wouldn't feel like making anything. But nope, not anymore. I looked in the fridge and found some chicken, marinade, cauliflower and cheese. Now...what to make with these ingredients?

Baked Chicken with Stubbs Chicken Marinade
Flatten the chicken, cover in marinade, bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
Easy, tasty and done! 

Here's the tricky part and why I referenced my lack of cooking instincts.

Cauliflower Au Gratin (basic recipe from Emily at Joyful Abode)
1 head of cauliflower(outer leaves removed, washed, tossed with a bit of olive oil and roasted in 400degree oven for about 30 min)
1.5c shredded cheddar cheese
2-3Tbsp butter
Coconut flour
Heavy cream
Whole Milk

Okay just looking at this list of ingredients, it's a lactose intolerant person's nightmare! Anywho, the recipe said to melt the butter and then add the coconut flour until it makes a nice roux. I have NO idea what a roux is, but thanks to Wikipedia, I do now.

Second of all, my "roux" did not look like a roux, it wasn't creamy or smooth. So I figured I added too much coconut flour and it was too think. Then I added more butter. Then it said to add a splash of cream. What's a splash? I added what I thought was a splash and then my mixture got kind of lumpy...it's not looking good.

At this point I told Ryan that we might be having salad with our chicken instead.

I figured the mixture wasn't getting much better, so I just dumped the cheese in the pot. It begin to melt, but melted into a giant lump of cheese! There was nothing saucy about this. Add more cream, stir, add more cream, stir. Then I came to the culinary realization that I needed something to thin it out more. Ah ha! I have milk in the fridge...it's all in the same food family, right? So I madly keep stirring and pouring in milk. My arm was more sore from making this than doing the Filthy Fifty WOD at Atomic!

I finally had a cheese-ish "sauce" it was pretty thick. Dumped it on the roasted cauliflower, put more shredded cheese on the top and baked it for about 15 min in the oven with the chicken.

It actually tasted okay, but I think it was a little too rich for me! Ryan loved it, Ansley loved it, so I guess it was a success. Great alternative to using potatoes.

I did feel VERY full and uncomfortable after I ate it, which leads me to believe that I need to cut down on dairy. I might have to tackle that one next month!