Savory Comfort Food: Pulled Pork

The best savory comfort food I know of is Pulled Pork.  Even better, it's easy, easy, easy in the slow cooker. You don't even have to sear the meat (score!) Once upon a time my pulled pork was basically a dessert. In the last couple of years I've learned to make it with only a hint of sweetness and it is still delicious.

Ingredients:
2-3 pounds bone in pork butt or pork shoulder (these are the same thing)
1/2 cup water
3 Tablespoons Bragg's apple cider vinegar
1 rounded Tablespoon (preferably raw and locally sourced) honey
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons paprika

Here's the easy part

Put the water, vinegar, and honey in the slow cooker, then add the pork roast. Add all the spices in a little ramekin or bowl and mix it all up. Pour the spices over the top of the roast. Cover and set the slow cooker to low. Ideally you will cook this for 10 to 12 hours. You can get away with 8 hours, though it will not be as tender.

Of course you can cook a larger roast and adjust the spices accordingly. I've doubled and even tripled this recipe at times. Most of the time I am only cooking for one or two so I go small. Even with two pounds we end up with some leftovers. My dear hubby even likes this recipe. Although, being on a different path than I, he tends to add both sugar and ketchup to his bowl... sigh. At least we can share the meal though.

I like to serve it with some kind of non-starchy vegetable on the side. Surprisingly I don't really love it with salad though. Surprising, because I eat salad with most anything. This evening I went with diced summer squash with a hint of red bell pepper and the green part of scallions cooked in bone broth.

Save the bone(s) and you can use them to make bone broth later. I put them in the freezer until there is enough to make broth. Later you can use the broth to enhance another meal.

Hold the (Old School) Mayo

Yes you can make mayonnaise at home!

I cannot say enough about mayo. It's a love story for me. I mean egg salad, tuna salad, tomato sandwiches, egg sandwiches, deviled eggs...need I go on? Sadly, all that mayonnaise in my past was apparently not doing me any favors.  After reading Deep Nutrition by Dr. Cate Shanahan, commercial mayonnaise is simply no longer an option. It is loaded with unhealthy oils such as canola oil. So now, it's a thing of the past for me.

Fortunately, we have options.  Primal Kitchen makes a great avocado mayonnaise that you can buy-- for a price. The price might take your breath away... though it offers convenience.  It's not easy to find the Primal Kitchen Mayo, at least on the East Coast, so I buy it online through The One Stop Paleo Shop. You can also find it on the The Primal Kitchen website. I have found it on Amazon, but the last time I looked it was nearly double the price of other sites.

Even better? Make your own mayo.
It's pretty easy.

Ingredients:

• 2 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup avocado oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon mustard powder (or yellow mustard)
• 1 teaspoon Braggs apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions:

I start by washing the eggs as I use regular eggs. You can choose to buy pasteurized eggs if you are concerned about food contamination. Separate the egg yolks using an egg separator. I avoid using the egg shell to separate the egg as the yolk and avoiding touching the yolk to the shell is best.

Put the yolks and all ingredients except the oil into a food processor and blend. Then while it is blending you will SLOWLY drizzle the oil to the mixture. I spend three to five minutes adding the oil. Usually a start a timer on my phone to remind myself to slow down. As you are adding the oil it will slowly start to thicken up and before you know it, it resembles mayo!   This particular recipe comes out a bit yellow and tastes a little tangy.

Put into jars and refrigerate. Jelly jars work great! I label the expiration date to be the same as the date on the eggs. I use a Sharpie and write directly on the jar or the lid. Later you can take it off with a little olive oil.

Now go back to enjoying all those old favorites without all those nasty oils!

Great Simple Green Smoothie

I am not a huge green smoothie fan, but now I found one I LOVE. Additionally, cucumber is also not high on my list.  Despite all this, I do love this smoothie with the main ingredient of cucumber-- life just gets curiouser and curiouser. Try this:

Large peeled cucumber
3/4 stick of celery
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger (adjust to taste)
Stevia to taste
A little water (maybe 1/4 cup)

Put all ingredients in a Ninja, a Bullet, or other good blender. Enjoy!

Look Mom - (Virtually) No Eczema

Another benefit of my lifestyle change has been a marked improvement in Eczema. I have had eczema on my legs since I was pregnant with my daughter 18 years ago. It did not get better with just low FODMAPs. It improved about 50% after a few months on the Body Ecology Diet. It seemed to really start getting better when I added kefir to my diet.

Next, it took all of my bravery to stop using cortisone cream on it. At that point, it got worse again. I read in a couple of other people's blogs that there can be a rebound effect when cortisone cream is stopped. So I waited a few nail-biting weeks and then it started to settle down again.  It didn't completely go away so I tried one more thing.

It occurred to me that much of the Body Ecology diet is about getting rid of bad yeast for healing and that yeast is a fungus.  I tried using Nizoral (ketoconazole) cream on it. I also knew that the anti-fungal Nizoral shampoo really helps my scalp and the cream keeps seborrheic dermatitis away from my face. I figured chances were good it would help the eczema on my legs.

And the results are in...

Stevia, Stevia the Wonderful "Food"

Stevia comes from a plant. In the past I dismissed it as being rather bitter and well, mostly disgusting. If you give up sugar completely, stevia grows on you quickly... I promise. Please be aware there are different kinds of stevia. The quality really varies.

For the best, look for liquid stevia suspended in glycerin (alcohol is not recommended). My absolute favorite is Better Stevia. I buy it on Amazon, though I have found it in some healthfood stores. It is stupidly expensive, but hey, it lasts a long time.

If you buy the larger quantity (8 ounces), find a little bottle with an eye dropper to use for manageable serving sizes as it tends to come out too quickly from the larger bottle.

      

Salad, Green

Salad without croutons or cheese can be really good with other ingredients for flavor.

GFCF Croutons can be made by spreading olive oil and garlic and salt on GFCF bread, cutting into one inch squares and frying in frying pan until crispy.


Nuts also make a nice substitute for croutons... especially sunflower seeds or cashews.

Canned corn adds a lovely flavor to salad.

Other options that are great include mandarin oranges, black olives, sliced or chopped avacado, boiled eggs, kidney beans, tomato, cucumber, artichoke hearts, radish, carrots... not neccessarily all at the same time, but experiment.

Choose a dairy free dressing... many honey mustards are okay, raspberry vinaigrette, olive oil and GF vinegar (beware of malted vinegar), olive oil and juice of a couple lemon wedges, etc.