Hey Chicks,

We have a SUPER SPECIAL guest post recipe from one of our fave holistic nutritionist, culinary nutrition expert and all around healthy lovin rock star – Caitlin Iles. She creates amaang, delicious healthy concoctions (I am still addicted to her coconut milk/chocolate/chia pudding she made me!) and this one does not disappoint.  We promise it will become a “must eat” in your dinner rotation! Take it away Caitlin….

Perfectly baked!

GARLIC & GREEN ONION CAULIFLOWER WRAPS

Hello to all you beautiful and strong FIT CHICKS! I am so excited that Laura asked me to write a guest post for this amazing community. We met a little over a year ago when we were both lucky enough to take Megan Telpner’s Culinary Nutrition Expert Program together and totally bonded over a love of delicious and nutritious food! In keeping with our mutual adoration of all things edible and nutritious, I decided to share the following wickedly healthy recipe with you.

Now at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, I may have to say that these wraps are my favourite recipe that I’ve developed to date! Their list of benefits is as long as my arm and they’re the perfect savory accompaniment to any meal. You can use them as a wrap or flat bread, whatever your heart or stomach desires. They’re low carb and high in awesome plant fibre to keep you fuller, longer and prevent any nasty rises in blood sugar. Some of the fibre in these wraps is also prebiotic, which means it’s a delicious and nourishing food for the good bacteria in our digestive systems. If we keep our bacteria healthy and happy, we’ll also be happy and healthy, as these little guys help us digest our foods and are part of the first line of defense in our immune systems.

Finally, these wraps are also wickedly detoxifying thanks to the sulfur compounds in the garlic, onions, and cauliflower, which means they’re the perfect food to incorporate into any cleanse* or detoxification program. So without further ado, lets take a closer look at our list of all-star ingredients before we get to the good stuff.

Healthy Bites

Cauliflower

This crunchy, delicious member of the Brassica family of vegetables is my absolute number one. It is so incredibly versatile and takes flavours so well that its uses in the kitchen are virtually limitless. Another reason it is one of my favourite veggies is because it contains a sweet compound called indole-3-carbinol that aids in the regulation of the inflammatory response in our body and helps our livers detoxify and eliminate harmful estrogen compounds. Estrogen in and of itself is a necessary hormone for human health, but when our bodies become imbalanced with too much of this hormone, we can suffer from a whole host of symptoms such as painful periods, PMS, endometriosis, and weight gain to name but a few. Eating cauliflower (and other brassicas such as broccoli, kale, & Brussels sprouts) can help keep our hormone levels balanced so we stay as bright, beautiful, and healthy as possible!

Eggs

If you’re not allergic to eggs, they can be one of the most healthful and delicious foods to consume. Like cauliflower they are super versatile and can be used to make protein-rich desserts, awesome frittatas, and even wraps! When we’re buying our eggs we want to look for pasture-raised eggs from hens that are fed an evolutionary sound omnivorous diet (yes chickens are omnivores, so vegetarian-fed chickens are actually not being fed the proper diet for their optimal health). A couple of great brands in Toronto are Rowe Farms and Small Flock, which you can get at Bloor Street Market and Whole Foods respectively. In terms of nutrients, eggs are a great source of choline, a B vitamin that is the precursor for acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that helps keep our memories sharp! They also contain pretty much the full spectrum of B vitamins, which are important for nutrient metabolism and energy production. As a source of high-quality protein and healthy fats, it’s hard to beat the humble egg.

Garlic:

This delicious little fella packs quite the nutritional punch. Thanks to its sulfur content in the form of allicin, which is responsible for garlic’s deliciously pungent odor, this bulb is jam-packed with great anti-bacterial and antiviral properties and totally helps boost antioxidant activity. These same sulfur compounds also help regulate inflammation in the body by inhibiting specific enzymes, lipoxygenase & cyclooxygenase, that generate inflammatory prostaglandins. Sciencey terms aside, garlic is generally just great for your body J

Onions:

Like garlic, onions of all varieties contain sulfur and we already know how good naturally occurring sulfur-phytonutrients are for our bodies. Onions are also a sweet source of chromium, a trace mineral that your body needs to produce glucose tolerance factor. This mineral helps your cells respond to insulin and is, therefore, critical for blood sugar management. If we want to be fit and powerful chicks we have to make sure that our blood sugar is stable, otherwise we could end up too fatigued for our workouts!

Alrighty, so now that we know why we’re eating these foods, let’s take a look at the how, shall we?

Ingredients:

• ½ head of cauliflower—unless it is giant, in which case 1/3 will do
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 1 spring onion
• 2 pastured eggs
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 2.5 tbsp. arrowroot powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Roughly chop cauliflower into florets
3. Put cauliflower into a steamer until tender enough to pass a fork through. Approximately 5-8 minutes.
4. While cauliflower is steaming roughly chop garlic and onion and set aside.
5. Once cauliflower is steamed remove and put into a clean tea towel. LET IT COOL! I cannot emphasize this step enough as I have burned the palms of my hands several times due to my impatience. It does not feel good.
6. Once cool, squeeze all the water out of the cauliflower. When you think it is all done, turn the tea towel the other way and squeeze again. You will be amazed at how much water comes out of the cauliflower. This is the most important step to ensuring your wraps don’t crumble when you try to wrap them. Protip: I like to save the water from the steamer and the water that I squeeze out of the cauliflower and use it as the base for a bone or veggie broth! It’s full of minerals and nutrient goodness, which we don’t want to just throw away.
7. When as much water as humanly possible has been wrung from the cauliflower, put it in a blender with the garlic, onion, eggs, sea salt, and arrowroot powder. Blend until quite smooth. It will likely turn slightly green from the onions. Protip: Lightly run a kitchen knife along the tea towel to remove all cauliflower!
8. Line a baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and using a 1/3 of a cup measure scoop the cauliflower mixture into separate little piles. A large cookie sheet can hold about 2 comfortably. You may want to grease the parchment paper with coconut oil to make it easier to remove the wraps later, but it’s not necessary.
9. Using a spatula or knife spread the mixture out until it’s thin, but not so thin that you can see the parchment through the wrap.
10. Place in oven and bake for 15-17 minutes, until the edges are browned and the middle seems solid, but pliable. I recommend checking the wraps at 12 minutes due to the temperature variance in different ovens.
11. Remove from oven and cool upside down on a wire rack.
12. Serve and enjoy the same day!

Note: The mixture can be prepared in advance and stored in the fridge for a couple of days. It’s easiest to spread if you let it come to room temperature first.

Great for:

• Wrapping around hamburgers, sausages, or hot dogs (natural, pastured raised ones of course!)
• Scooping up delicious homemade dips
• Wrapping around veggies and dipping in vinaigrette

Well thanks so much for joining me today ladies! I’ve had a blast developing this wicked recipe for you and hope you enjoy eating it as much as I enjoyed making it 🙂 Have a wonderful week!

Cheers,

Caitlin xo

*When I say cleanse, I mean something where you’re still eating real food: organic or grassfed meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Any cleanse that suggests you subsist on sugar water (fresh squeezed fruit and vegetable juices), lemon cayenne water, or has you eliminating any of the macronutrients—carbs, fats, or protein— for any extended length of time is not a healthy way to support your body during detoxification, especially if you have any sort of blood sugar balance issues. By all means, incorporate fresh squeeze juice into your diet, but please do not make it your primary source of calories

About Caitlin Iles

Huge thanks to Caitlin for this awesome recipe and info! We will def be adding this one to this week’s dinner 🙂

PS – March “FIERCE in 8” classes are now online for registration – woot woot!  Enter code fiercespring to SAVE $50 OFF your registration by Feb 20th…countdown to summer is on!!