SUPER EASY recipe for Paleo Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Oy vey.  This week has been a little rough.  I got seriously worked this week!  Me, along with the rest of the country it seems, is plagued in a major way with either a cold, a virus, or some god-forsaken horrible strain of the flu.  Thankfully I only got a cold, but yikes getting sick is no fun is it?  So pardon me for not posting this week.

However, this post is a revelation.  Pulled pork in the slow cooker?  We've all seen and heard about it.  But really, can it be just as good as the pulled pork from the barbecue joint?  How could it be?  Without a smoker, rotisserie, or hours and hours spent marinating in a secret rub.  But it's true.  You can make incredible pulled pork in your slow cooker or crock pot.  It will be delicious, it won't take you ages to prep, it doesn't cost a fortune, you don't need any sophisticated gadgets, and you'll get quite a bit of delicious broth out of it too.  Still a skeptic?  Look at this pic of gorgeous, glorious, dark, shredded porky goodness.

Now do you believe me?  No?  Well, pork shoulder, or pork butt, is super cheap.  So try it anyways.

Paleo Slow Cooker Pulled Pork, Easy and Delicious! (serves 2-4)
2 1/2 lb pork shoulder or pork butt
1 yellow onion, sliced
enough veg of choice to cover bottom of your pot, carrots, brussel sprouts, peppers, etc (just keep in mind they will cook for quite awhile and become quite mushy)
Garlic Powder
Kosher salt

Toss your sliced onions and vegetables into the bottom of your slow cooker.  Trim excess fat from your roast (trust me, there is enough fat as it is, you won't miss it) and then cover with generous amounts of garlic powder and kosher salt.  You want the roast to be thoroughly covered.  I purposely did NOT marinate the roast because I wanted to see if it would be good without it.  It was.  Feel free to skip that extra step too!  Place the roast on top of your sliced onions and veggies, and turn your slow cooker on to high.  Let your roast cook for about 5-6 hours on high.  At this point, carefully pour off all the stock (it will probably be about 1/4 to 1/2 way full of juice) and put it in the fridge so you can skim the fat off later.  I think this step is crucial to creating a nice crunchy outer layer on the roast.  It will be super moist even so, so don't worry about it drying out.  Put the pot back in the slow cooker and set it to low for another 5 hours.  When it's finished, remove all the veggies and use forks to shred the pork.  It will be falling apart at this point.  I ate mine sprinkled with a bit of sea salt, but if you have some paleo bbq sauce, go for it!  It is sooooo freaking good peeps.  And you've got your veg and protein all in one pot, no extra work required!  Can't complain about that!?

Most recipes I saw for pulled pork called for roasts about twice the size.  As it is, this amount could have fed 4 people, or three very hungry people.  But if you want to use a larger roast for lots of delish leftovers, you will need to cook it longer.  About 14-16 hours total.

I know changing the temperature halfway through might be a pain.  But IMO it really helps get a nice sear on the outside.  It probably would not matter much if you cooked it on low the entire time, but again, you'll need to increase the cooking time by about two hours or so if you're going this route.  Who cares though?  It's in the slow cooker.

Many of the recipes I found took the extra time and care to stuff garlic cloves into little slits in the meat. Again, not necessary.  Get some good quality garlic powder and coat it liberally and you're good to go.

Need a good paleo bbq sauce recipe?  Here you go!

In non-pork, non-illness related news, S hit a major milestone this week, all by herself and without me even in sight!  She used the potty at preschool!  This came totally out of left field.  We have been working on going potty for months and she sits on it all the time but has never used it.  Not only did she use the potty, but she specifically asked the teacher to take her to the potty first.  Unreal.  Of course, the event has not been replicated, but I am overjoyed and full of pride nevertheless.  I wish I had been there to see it.  Does that sound idiotic?  I'm sure any mom reading this would share my excitement!

Lastly, after falling off the bandwagon last week pretty badly with off-limits food choices, I am finally now, a week later, feeling back to normal in terms of digestion.  Cutting out sugars/sweeteners has really helped.  Yup, it seems being on some kind of permanent detox is what works best for me.  I wonder if I will ever be able to have fruit or treats again.  sigh.  I guess in the grand scheme of things there really is no comparison between feeling your best and eating a little sugar.  

I'll bet a bunch of you are doing detox/diet clean ups right now too.  How's it going?  Any tips or recipes to share?

XoXoGFG

Whole30 Week 3 Eats/Update

I am going to be totally 100% honest here.  How am I doing on the Whole30?  Good and bad, in equal parts.  Here is the good:

-I have finally broken free of my desire for sweetened coffee!  This is huge, probably the biggest thing for me.  I don't care to sweeten my daily cup o' joe anymore and I am truly ecstatic over this.  Some cinnamon and cream and I am good to go.
-I am totally dunzo with peanuts and beans, and don't miss them in the least.  They make me uncomfortable and give me crazy nausea.  Good riddance.
-I'm fine with drinking water, tea, or decaf coffee, whereas I used to crave  diet drinks.
-I do not miss treats, cookies, etc at all.
-I do not miss cheese at all, goodbye cheese.  (I do continue to use cream and butter though.)
-Starch is a big problem for me, intestinally.  Anytime I ingest any amount of starch I pay for it big time.  I have felt much better eliminating starches from my diet.

The Bad:
-8 weeks of absolutely nothing sweet at all has been rough.  It was fine the first 6 weeks or so, but now I am just dying for a little dried fruit.  That's all I want!  No cookies or treats, just some dried fruit as a snack.  I have had some here and there and then felt really guilty.  I have been able to stop myself, but a few times I have soooo wanted to go to town on something and just barely been able to walk away.
-I am tired of snacking on nuts and I overindulge and then feel gross.  It is annoying to only be able to snack on protein and nuts.  I keep lots of veggies in the house but they need some sort of preparation/thawing and that is not really what a snack is, essentially.  Snacks are my downfall!
-I have not done as good a job as I hoped I would.  Taking bites and tastes of things I shouldn't.  However, I have been 100% faithful to the no peanuts and no beans.
-My blood sugars have been a little wacko, I can't pinpoint why exactly.  I feel like things I used to ingest without issue are now giving me a lot of trouble.  I'll have to continue to monitor this.  I have not been using any sweeteners of any kind, so I know it's not that.  It could just be my diabetes progressing, who knows.
-My tummy has actually been kind of bothering me.  No discernible pattern to it, it could be anything, I could have a bug, not be drinking enough water, I don't know.  I'm not sure why, but I felt amazing during my sweetener detox, and then now that I am doing Whole30 I've had some problems.  It very well could be that I was super strict on my detox but once I got into Whole30 mode I relaxed a little, and that's whats bothering me.  I am going to try to be way more compliant and see if that helps.

All in all, I'm still pretty happy with where I am.  No sweetener in my coffee is great, and I think I've broken my treat-addiction, which is thrilling, for serious.  I'm not sure there is a way I'll be able to incorporate any amount of fruit back into my diet without some major blood sugar issues, but I'll try, once Whole30 is over.  I am also stoked to have successfully rid my diet of cheese, beans, and peanuts.  That is major improvement for me.

Annnnyyyways folks, lets talk Whole30 eats shall we?  This week is an interesting one!  I whipped up some cod with an onion curry sauce on Monday, and some crazy good spiced carrots.  These carrots will change what you think of carrots forever.  Make them ASAP!  Here is the recipe.   The cod was super simple.  Saute some onions until browned, sprinkle about 2 tsp of curry powder over, pour in two tbsp of broth, reduce, and pour over sauteed cod (which I also sprinkled liberally with curry powder).  Takes maybe 20 min. tops.

We are also going to have some Nom Nom Paleo inspired bacon-avocado sammies with a fried-egg topped salad, and tomorrow I am super pumped to make some slow cooker ribs with my own Paleo Barbecue Sauce recipe.  The sauce is simmering on the stove right now and smells awesome.  With the ribs I'm going to make a quick side dish of sauteed cabbage and 'shrooms.

And that's about it folks.  I am thrilled to officially be on vacation through 1/3!  I'll be in Chicago with family for a wedding for about a week, so I'm not sure how much cooking I'll be doing, but hopefully I'll have some fun posts and positive Whole30 updates for you.  I also need to do a Justus Drugstore restaurant review, an amazing locovore farm-to-table nose-to-tail joint located in bumblef*ck Smithville, MO.  Truly an incredible meal.  I'll do a recap when I have a bit more time.

Lastly- some stupid fun pics.  What do you think- have I gone off the deep end?

Nom Nom Paleo's Korean Shortribs

Ever read Nom Nom Paleo?  Great blog.  Cool new iPad app too.  I recommend it!

Last weekend I bought some grass-fed short ribs at the farmers market.  Stupidly, I bought 1 measly pound, not realizing most of it would be bone.  Amateur move folks.  But, the few morsels we got were pretty damn tasty.  I made Nom Nom Paleo's sauce, with a few deviations, but cooked them differently as I did not want to drag out the slow cooker for a pitiful lb of meat.  For the full instructions on nom nom's ribs, click here.

Here's what I did:

Covered ribs with S&P and broiled about 7 minutes per side.  In a dutch oven, throw a bag of frozen asian veg in with some S&P, a few whole green onions, and some carrots.  Lay seared meat on top.  Reduce oven temp to 350.  Pour sauce over top, and cook for about 90 minutes.  I did not make the sauce exactly as in the link, so here's what I did in case you are lazy like me.

Delish Asian Shortrib Sauce
1 whole pear, cut up
1 cup water
1/2 cup gluten free soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 green onions
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp vietnamese garlic chili sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp kosher salt
1 inch of ginger, don't bother peeling, cut up into bitty chunks

Blend this whole thing on high until smooth, and pour over your meat and veggies.  Into the oven they go until nice and tender!

Try it!