Slow Cooked Pork Shoulder

Talk about a lot of meat for your money! I bought this 8lb pork shoulder at Stop & Shop for $12.71 and made enough for four meals. Amazing, it makes my inner cavewoman very happy. I trimmed the skin off, which probably brought it down to 7lbs and cooked it on high on my crockpot for 8 hours. It just melted off the bone. Now, my crockpot is from 2001, and it only has two settings - lo and high - well 3 setting if you include "off". :)  So, this would have to be adjusted to your own slow cooker.

Just to give a reference, the bowl this is sitting in is a huge serving/salad bowl. I wanted to pick it up Flinstones-style from the bone and have at it.

I did a dry rub on the pork of cumin, cayenne, chili powder, and salt and pepper. Covered the entire piece of meat with the rub. Then put into the slow cooker with 1 chopped onion, and two small cans of green chilies. Once that is all in the cooker, add enough chicken broth to just cover (if you can) the meat. Turn it on to high (or adjust for your cooker) and walk away for 8 hours. The meat could not be covered in my crock pot so I did turn it over in the pot for the last two hours.

It just melted off the bone. We had it the first night with cauliflower rice and again last night as tacos. And I still have two bags of it in the freezer for two more meals. Bang for the buck.

Sunflower Seed Pesto - nut free and stores in the freezer

Pesto is a staple item that I keep on hand at all times. When I am short on time for dinner I will bake or grill some chicken or fish and spread the pesto on top and serve with veggies. Pine nuts are amazing, but are also expensive, so when I came across Primal Palate's recipe for nut-free pesto that uses sunflower seeds instead of pine nuts, I made it that night.

I am really big on preparing as much as I can in double or triple batches when key items are on sale so that I am not only saving money but making the nighttime rush a little easier by freezing extra portions. I just used a frozen portion that I made over two months ago and it was still incredible.

The picture below will be part of an upcoming post on a paleo pizza, but you can see how good the pesto looks even after being frozen. That reminds me, I have those leftovers for lunch today. Lucky me!

Visit Primal Plate for the Nut-Free Pesto Recipe. I didn't, and wouldn't change a thing.

Starting Paleo with a Food Processor

One of the first things I realized I needed when starting Paleo was a decent food processor. I had a mini one to chop nuts, or make a small sauce, and my blender, but with all the chopping and shredding of veggies and the larger quantities of fresh food I needed a power house.

After reading a lot of reviews, I decided on the Hamilton Beach 14-Cup Food Processor, that purchased from Amazon. Worth every penny so far. It came with 3 blades; the traditional chopping blade that sits down in the bottom of the bowl and then a shredding/slicing blade and french fry blades that side up on the top of the bowl that makes slicing and dicing a breeze. The french fry blade is a total bonus - especially for making sweet potato fries. Even my toddler will eat those.

The base has suction cups that secure it to the counter and keep it from shaking and all the parts can go in the dishwasher. no, I am not getting any side kicks for reviewing the processor, I just really love it and have found it to be really dependable.

That's it!

Items in this post:

Baking Bacon - How To and Tips

Just the title of this post makes me happy. My family loves bacon, even my toddler as a treat. It is true that bacon makes it better, but what I don't like is getting left with the clean up, and figuring out to get rid of the grease.

My mom introduced me to baking my bacon in the oven. And besides having lovely, flat, crisp, slices of bacon as the reward, if done right, you have no mess to clean up at all! Too good to be true, right?

You will need:

• a rimmed baking sheet
• parchment paper
• bacon
• timer
• patience to wait to eat the bacon (toughest part).

1. Preheat the oven to 400℉.
2. Line the rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper - make sure it goes up the sides to trap the bacon grease.
3. Cook 20-25 minutes - without turning to desired crispiness.
4. Remove the bacon from the pan and drain on paper towels.
5. Take a few used paper towels and place on top the parchment paper to soak up the grease and after the pan has COMPLETELY cooled (please do not burn yourself) throw the parchment paper away and you should have a clean pan.

My Mom takes it one more step and places a wire rack on top of the parchment paper so that the grease drips down and away from the bacon. This is probably a healthier option, but one more item to scrub. 

Freeze Meals Without Holding Your Dishes Hostage

I love to have freezer-fillers because working full-time and commuting a long journey both way, and then getting my toddler fed, bathed, and to bed leaves me with so little time during the week, that my schedule alone was what made me think that following this lifestyle change would be impossible. And while it is really difficult, it isn't impossible. Yey, love even just saying that. Makes me feel better since I was seriously grumpy spending a good portion of my weekend planning, shopping and cooking for the week.

Anyway..... doubling recipes are a great way to make those impossible nights better. But what about that pyrex dish - the one that is sitting in the freezer and needed for your dinner tonight? Argg.

This Shepards's Pie is all set except for adding the cauliflower mashed potato topping. Instead of freezing this in my coveted 8x8 Pyrex dish for weeks waiting to eat, I lined my dish with parchment paper filled the 8x8 dish the same way I would to go into the deep freeze, but took it out a day later to remove the entire casserole with the paper out of dish and place it into a labeled plastic ziplock bag to live in the freezer. 

Most likely, you will need to let your dish sit on the counter for a few minutes before you will be able to remove the casserole from the dish. And when putting the dish into the freezer do not tuck the paper into the top of the casserole because you won't be able to get it out once frozen. Below is the frozen casserole removed form the baking dish in the parchment paper.

Lastly, when putting into the ziplock bag be sure to label it with the name, date, and any comments on what it needs. Stacking these is much easier and takes a lot less room in the freezer once out of the dish.

As a side note, I looked all through my pins, email, and bookmarks and for the life of me can't remember who told me about this. In the off chance that any of friends or family read this, please tell me and I am more than happy to give credit where it is due because this method is really helpful