I wasn’t sure if this should be titled Cauliflower, my new best friend! Or, Cauliflower, my new best friend? Or, …best friend 😭. Why? Because I do love cauliflower, but then I worry that loving it means so much more than just a vegetable choice. It’s my journey from one place to the next.

By now, I have fully embraced cauliflower in my life as the substitute for my once-relied-upon rice and/or filling carb. I am my no means strictly following a keto meal plan, but reducing carbs where I can, because I’ll be the first to admit I’m a lover of bread, potatoes and rice, in that order, and will overdo them all when given the opportunity.

About a year ago, at home, we were so set in our ways of having bread/potatoes/rice accompany protein + vegetables for dinner that I wanted to push ourselves to think differently. Eat more vegetables when we could.

So we started with the easiest entry into cauliflower as carb replacement: cauliflower fried rice. Basically all the ingredients you’d use to make fried rice, but riced cauliflower instead of actual rice.

And it was good! Maybe the first time I ate it, I thought it was a little weird and was missing the “real” rice. But, the next time, I didn’t really miss the rice at all, and that became our new way to eat “fried rice.” Jan, who’d probably put rice up higher on his carb love list than I, even came to like it.

Here’s the roasted cauliflower that he made to accompany yesterday’s New York Steak (Food Network Roasted Cauliflower). And yes, maybe it is my best friend because I’m not eating a giant pile of mashed potatoes, and that makes me feel good. Which is not to say I won’t eat a giant pile of buttery mashed potatoes again, I will just savor them like a treat and not an everyday staple. And in the meantime, task Jan with finding even more ways to enjoy cauliflower.