Recipe: Mashed Cauliflower

I love mashed potatoes! Unfortunately, they're a terrible choice if you're trying to have a clean diet.

The side dish tastes best when it's loaded down will all kinds of fattening ingredients -- like butter, sour cream and gravy. And even if you leave that stuff out of your recipe (which I wouldn't) white potatoes are a fast-burning, starchy carbohydrate, the type of food that the body processes into fat.

Here's an alternative: mashed cauliflower. First of all, forget about taste here. If you try mashed cauliflower while thinking that it's going to taste exactly the same as mashed potatoes then you're going to hate this dish.

But, it is a good alternative if you're having a mashed potato craving, but don't want all the extra calories.

Here are the numbers (approximate) for a 1 cup serving of each dish:

• Mashed potatoes (no gravy): 237 calories; 9 grams of fat; 35 g of carbs; 3 g of fiber; 4 g of protein.
• Mashed cauliflower: 106 calories; 5 g of fat; 15 g of carbs; 6 g of fiber; 5.5 g of protein.

When you're trying to lose a few pounds, substitutions like this make a huge difference toward meeting your goals.

And remember, having a clean diet means thinking of food as fuel for the body, not a source of pleasure.

Also, swapping out high-calorie, high-fat foods for choices that are cleaner-burning (and, yes, less tasty) throughout the year means that you can have the foods you like at a fancy dinner or when the holidays come around. Who wants to pass on -- or feel guilty about eating -- mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving or Christmas? (Not me, that's for sure.)

Finally, with mashed cauliflower, who knows? You might really like it.

Check out this recipe from http://www.cookinglight.com/.

Tiffiany Moore is a certified personal trainer and NANBF figure competitor. Check out her site at www.trainertiff.blogspot.com. Questions or comments? E-mail trainertiff@hotmail.com.