Cauliflower Breadsticks: Fail

I try to prepare healthy food for my family. I don't consider myself a "health nut". I enjoy sweets and other not-so-healthy foods, but I'm careful. I rarely buy soda, candy, cookies, or potato chips, although we keep a pretty steady supply of ice cream in our freezer. I often open a can of veggies or pull out some carrots, peppers, or celery to go with our meals. But I don't usually try anything unique or time-consuming with vegetables. A while ago, I saw a recipe for Cauliflower Breadsticks. This was my thought process:

'Ooo, breadsticks! I love breadsticks. Surely this won't taste just like regular breadsticks. After all, it does have cauliflower in it, but it'll still satisfy my bread cravings AND it'll have a vegetable in it... And look, it has high reviews. I am going to make this! I feel so proud of myself for making something new that's super HEALTHY!'

I gathered the ingredients and began making Cauliflower Breadsticks. Yum! The first step was to chop cauliflower and put it in a food processor. Well, my food processor/chopper can only handle about one cup at a time. Processing a whole head of cauliflower into teeny tiny pieces was taking a long time. And I was getting really hungry. Before I knew what I was doing, I pulled out a bag of Ranch Doritos and started munching on them while I worked with the cauliflower. 

All the cauliflower was finally to the size it needed to be. The next step was microwaving it, and then putting it in a dish towel. I then spent several minutes squeezing out all the excess moisture.

Still munching on Doritos. Yum.

I finished preparing the cauliflower and added the other necessary ingredients. I smashed it all down on a cookie sheet and popped it in the oven. When it was done, I cut it into breadstick-sized pieces. I proudly served the cauliflower breadsticks onto everyone's plates. Breadsticks! With healthy cauliflower inside! With great anticipation, I took my first bite and it tasted--- like cauliflower. It tasted like cauliflower, with cheese and some spices. I was disappointed.

Lessons I learned:

1. The purpose of making a healthy dish is defeated when it takes so long and you get so hungry, you break out a bag of Doritos to tide you over. (P.S. I really do rarely buy Doritos. Because when it's in my house, it's way too tempting.)

2. What kind of a cruel joke is it to call something "Cauliflower Breadsticks" when it doesn't taste at all like breadsticks? Maybe I'll make some Radish Garlic Candy for you. It looks like candy, but has the health benefits of radishes and garlic. Yum, right?!

I now realize the "breadsticks" in "Cauliflower Breadsticks" was referring to how they look, not how they taste, similar to "brownie pizza". Even the nomenclature of the breadstick refers to bread shaped like a stick, not flavored like a stick. I should have known better. But still. I was hoping it would be one of those cake/applesauce things, where you can replace the oil with applesauce, and it tastes about the same, but is healthier for you. Which leads me to my next lesson....

3. I need to take a closer look at the ingredients. If something is 90% cauliflower, it'll probably taste like cauliflower.

4.  It actually wasn't a bad recipe for cauliflower. I was just expecting something different.

5. But apparently it wasn't a good enough recipe, because no one wanted leftovers, and I ended up throwing half of it away. Sigh.