Eating “Keto” has been so much easier than I expected. I don’t miss bread, I don’t miss pasta, I don’t miss rice or chips… I get to eat meat, seafood, desserts, CHEESE.

Last night I made a Cheez-It snack that tasted just like the real thing… (see instagram post) and it satisfied my need for salt and crunch.

This recipe satisfied the need for comfort food, all packaged up in individual sized portions with cheesy goodness from the meat to the creamy cauliflower.

You Will Need:

* Ground Beef (80/20 or Ground Turkey if you prefer)

* String Cheese (your favorite brand)

* Shredded Cheddar Cheese

* Sour Cream (or heavy cream)

* An Egg

* Salt and Pepper

* Dried Rosemary (or dried basil or Italian seasonings if you don’t like rosemary)

* Toasted Sesame Seed Oil

* Cauliflower Florets (or a head of cauliflower)

Start by prepping your meat.

Take your ground beef and place it all into a mixing bowl with salt, pepper, your chosen seasoning and the egg. Combine. Roll into balls as close to each being the same size as you can. Depending on how many meatballs you set aside, cut your string cheese into the same amount of pieces.

Make a little hole inside of each meatball and place the piece of cheese, then cover the hole and set the meatball aside on a pan you first put some oil (or your preferred method of fat) in so the meatballs can brown and not stick.

Go ahead and brown each side and then place them on a baking sheet (I used what I had at the time: a pizza crisper tray we no longer use for pizza) and cook them on 350 for 30 mins. Check periodically to see if they’re done to your liking before that. Mine oozed out some cheese and they smelled amazing…

Here’s where I should tell you that you can cook these ahead of time and just reheat them… When I made this dish, I cooked the meatballs first and just ate them as a snack, saving some for the meal. I made the cheesy cauliflower and when I went to serve this, I plated and reheated everything till it combined in the oven on 350 for 20 mins. Keep that in mind… These will be heated again.

Basically, the reason I am writing this is because I personally don’t like underdone food. I don’t like pink in my meat… If you do, keep all this in mind and play around with your baking times.

Prep your cauliflower. Cut down the cauliflower or pour out the precut (frozen or not) heads onto a baking sheet and drizzle with your toasted sesame seed oil. Cook the cauliflower florets at 400 degrees for 40 mins. If you’re doing this all at the same time and have a small oven you can use an Air Fryer while the meatballs cook.

If using an Air Fryer, reduce the cooking temp by 25 degrees and reduce the cooking time.

When the florets are done, immediately salt and pepper the cauliflower.

Then, place them in a food processor with the remaining sesame oil from the pan, some sour cream (to taste), salt, pepper and some shredded cheddar cheese. After you blend everything, taste it. You may want to add more of something.

When you go to plate everything, place some of the cheesy cauliflower in a small vessel and top with some meatballs. Put cheese over everything and place in the oven to melt the cheese into the food. If it’s all being reheated, bake on 350 for about 20 mins.

Keep an eye on your food. If you’re not reheating, it won’t need much time to melt the cheese on top.

Before serving, add just a little “finishing oil” (last min drizzle of olive oil or sesame oil for sheen and moisture).

Long live Keto

Pots are from Ballarini. Napkins are Pier 1.