Slow Cooker Paleo Pulled Pork over Cabbage with Sweet Plantains

Tags

crock pot, dinner, healthy, pernil, pulled pork, recipes, salad, slow cooker, sweet plantains

If you are new here, welcome! If you are a seasoned visitor, you know how much I love and use my slow cooker. It was one of the first appliances I ever purchased for my apartment. I loved my slow cooker so much I upgraded it and didn’t have the heart to get rid of the first- so I have two. And I have zero regret over it.

I find the slow cookers to be very versatile and a true life saver.

As promised, since I have completed my initial 30 days on Paleo, I am sharing some paleo and some non paleo dishes. This particular dish is paleo. And was so comforting on a pretty painful day. I had had several injections in my lower back to treat some back pain and knowing this was already in the slow cooker comforted me and really took the pressure off getting dinner on the table.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Over Raw Cabbage Slaw and Sweet Plantains (serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

1 boneless pork shoulder (about 3-4 lbs) trimmed of visible fat/skin

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp onion powder

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 head of cabbage, sliced into thin strips

2 ripe plantains, sliced into 1/2 inch slices pieces

Directions:

The night before cooking, season the pork shoulder liberally with onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Place the pork shoulder in the slow cooker vessel covered and allow to sit overnight. When ready to cook, place the slow cooker vessel in the base and cook on low for 8-10 hours. No need to add water. No need to add anything.

After the desired cooking time is reached, turn off the slow cooker. Using a fork or tongs, shred the pork. It should shred effortlessly! There will be a liquid in the slow cooker, use this liquid to keep the pork nice and moist.

Once the pork is shredded, prepare the cabbage slaw by slicing the cabbage thinly. Set aside.

Prepare the sweet plantains by either frying, boiling or baking. I fried them in coconut oil for 2-3 minutes on each side over a medium-low heat.

 

 

 

In a bowl, or a plate- whichever you choose, serve sliced cabbage and plop a heaping spoonful of pulled pork and all its juicy glory on top of the cabbage. The drippings from the pork act as a sort of “dressing”. Serve some sweet plantains on the side to make up for the lack of rice and beans that would naturally go with this kind of meat.

We dug into this and loved it. Its filling and it makes enough to freeze half and still have lots of leftovers (unless there’s more than just you and your significant other).

This dish is paleo and you dont have to be on the paleo diet to enjoy it. Its healthy and delicious… oh and easy too- thank you slow cooker!

Turkey cheeseburger salad

Tags

dinner, healthy, lunch, recipes, salad

Behold! A very delicious and unphotogenic salad. All the elements of a burger  and fries but on a bed iceberg lettuce.

Wanting to satisfy a burger craving, I decided to follow a lead via the Weight Watchers website on a turkey burger salad.  This salad was satisfying and tasty. I surely enjoyed leftover for lunch and felt guilt-less enjoying such a hearty “burger”.

Ingredients: serves 4

1 lb extra lean ground turkey

1 small onion, diced

salt

8 oz white button mushrooms, sliced

4 ounces reduced fat cheddar cheese

2 large red potatoes, baked

8 cups iceberg lettuce

In a large skillet, heat 1 tsp oil over a medium flame and saute the onions until translucent, about 5-6 minutes. Then, add the mushrooms and cook through, about 3-4 minutes. Set the mushrooms and onions aside and add ground turkey to the skillet, season with salt to taste. Break up with spoon as you cook to make crumbles.

When the turkey is cooked, serve on a bed of lettuce, sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Add 1/2 a baked potato (roughly chopped) to the plate and add onions and mushrooms. I drizzled the potatoes with some ketchup and viola. The recipe this was inspired by called for balsamic vinegar but I wanted this to remind me of a real burger (minus the bun) and this was great.

I might have had two servings.

No, I definitely had two servings.

Tuna Nicoise Salad in a “Jar”

Tags

clean, healthy, lunch, recipes, salad

I have an obsession with my jars. I have been collecting jars and using them for leftovers or making things specifically to store in jars. One of my fave things on Pinterest lately are the salads in a jar! So gorgeous. And seems so revolutionary in salad storage! Call me a dork but I shied away from packing salads over the years because I packed my salad dressing and protein in separate containers making my salad heavier than a salad should be… so I stopped.

And while eating clean, a hearty healthy salad (in a jar) had to happen. But then as I was filling my jar, I realized that all the extras would take away from all the crispy crunchy lettuce leaves in the salad. And leaving that out is stupid.

I’m pretty sure I am not the first person to think of out the jar here and assemble the salad the same way, just in a bigger vessel. But why have I been so ignorant? How did I not know how to do this?

I made 4 salads. Two for me, two for BR. Two days of lunch. Boom.

From memory, I assembled our bomb ass salads:

Ingredients:

8 cups of romaine lettuce

2 cans of solid albacore tuna in water, drained

1 large tomato

2 hardboiled eggs

2 cups of green beans

2 small baked potatoes

1/2 cup honey mustard vinaigrette (not the traditional one used in nicoise salads but this is our fave)

To assemble one salad “jar”:

layer One: 2 Tbsp honey Mustard Dressing

Layer Two: 1/2 cup green beans

Layer Three: 1/4 of tomato

Layer Four: 1/2 hard boiled egg, sliced

Layer Five: 1/2 baked potato, roughly chopped

Layer Six: Half a can of tuna

Layer Seven: 2 cups of lettuce

When you are ready to eat, turn it upside down for a few minutes to let the dressing trickle down through the entire salad. This salad is hearty, filling, and delicious.

I am really excited to be jumping back on the salad bandwagon… now? I just need to find the perfect jar for it.

Mediterranean Farro Salad

Tags

farro, feta cheese, healthy, raisins, salad, sides

About a year ago, I hosted a potluck in my Queens apartment. We had a great lineup of dishes and we ate like piggies. My friend, Evan, brought over a dish that he claimed to half-ass and apologized profusely over; but it was delicious. So much so that after a year I was still thinking about the dish. It was simple and had great texture that kept me reaching into the bowl for more. I briefly recall it was a Mediterranean Farro salad.

When some Farro fell into my lap, I started looking for recipes that reminded me of Evan’s Farro salad. While I was searching I found some awesome facts about Farro. For starters, farro is a grain. It reminds me of a wheat berry, only less chewy. It has double the amount of fiber and protein that the more modern whole grains. Also, its an ancient grain.

Freakin awesome.

Anywho, back to the salad. This awesome recipe served as a guide of sorts to recreate the salad Evan brought on that awesome night.

Ingredients:

3 cups of cooked farro (1 cup of farro to 2 cups of water, cooked the way you cooked rice)

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup reduced fat feta, crumbled

squirt of half a lemon

cracked black pepper

When the farro is cooked, allow it to sit and cool for a bit and combine the feta, raisins, pepper and lemon. Toss lightly. Serve room temperature.

I served this salad with a piece of salmon and steamed broccoli. The salad was just as good as I remembered. And even better now that I know how to make it! The raisins with the feta give it a nice sweet and salty thing going on that’s not over powering. The farro are plump and slighlty chewy- which I love.

Its filling. Yet, I still went back for seconds of this salad.

MOAR FARRO SALAD PLEEEZ!

Spring Onion Kimchi

Tags

healthy, korean, salad, scallions, sides

By the powers that be, I discovered a new blog and this blog, Food in Jars, has ignited a slight obsession with canning. Canning is a process I am somewhat familiar with having friends that grow their own produce. It’s the process of preserving fresh fruits and vegetables that seems to have made a comeback from waaaay back in the day.
For me, the obsession is not about having a stock supply of preserves (although that is a bonus) but it was a use for the dozen or so mason jars that I have in my possession. There is something very beautiful about mason jars. Their simplicity, their design, and their multiple functions! I have been toying with the idea of using my mason jars as vases but when this wonderful site came into my Google Reader, I became obsessed with canning.
Most canning is pickling. Pickled vegetables and fruits are probably the easiest procedures for a novice canner. The advanced stuff (for me anyways) involves pressurizing things and can be scary if not done right. The results of a fucked up canning process is botchulism. Not wanting any of that, I am sticking to pickling.
So, this Spring Onion Kimchi recipe looked perfect! Actually, it a ramp greens recipe but Food in Jars swapped ramps for scallions.

 
I only had two jars to fill so I halved the recipe.
Ingredients:
1 bunch scallion greens, sliced into ½ inch slices
½ T sea salt
¼ t cayenne pepper
¼ t paprika
½ T minced ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
½ T soy sauce
½ t sesame oil
 

Directions:
1.     Place the scallions in a large bowl and add all of the ingredients. Toss to coat.

2.     Distribute evenly into the two jars.

3.     Let sit at room temperature overnight

4.     Place in the fridge the following day and for the next five days shake the jar.

5.     It will decrease significantly, so feel free to transfer to one jar. You can now enjoy it with white rice, eggs, by itself or however you like kimchi. Its very flavorful! And can last in the fridge for months!

 

I have made 3 different jars of kimchi after the success of this recipe! But I use English cucumbers now and enjoy cucumber kimchi with an eggy breakfast or as a side salad. I will definitely be making kimchi more often. And its healthy too!

Bulgur Salad

Tags

bulgur, healthy, salad, sides

I discovered a very interesting aisle in my grocery store last weekend. An aisle very close to the produce section. Dried spices, like star anise, jars of jerk seasoning, bottles of the cheapest coconut oil I have ever seen, and bags upon bags of grains and flours. But not just regular old grains and flour, soy flour, rice flour, etc, etc. All for amazing prices. I have no idea what the deal is with those prices… but I was in heaven.

I picked up this bag of bulgur. Its pretty hefty. Especially for $3.99. It’s a lot like quinoa or cous cous and the nutritional content is pretty great. For that price, what harm could it do if I didn’t love it?

I did some research and found that bulgar makes a great warm side or a light salad of sorts. When I came home to my beautiful basil plant that is thriving right now, I was reminded of a salad I had at a party. It was light yet robust in flavor. And the basil was definitely looking to be my muse.

I decided to incorporate the basil into the bulgur with some feta cheese that had no purpose in my fridge. (please note the pool outside my window! Oh Brooklyn, I love you) I snipped a few basil leaves off of my plant and got to work.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup dry bulgur

1 cup chicken broth

6 basil leaves, sliced

1/2 cup fat free/red. fat/ regular feta cheese

2 T olive oil

juice of 1/2 a lemon

fresh black pepper, to taste

Prepare bulgur by bringing chicken broth to a boil. Once it boils, add bulgur, remove from flame and cover. Let sit covered for 5 minutes.

I love chopping basil. So I did that while the bulgur was cooking.

When the bulgur was done, I fluffed it with a fork.

It’s a lot like cous cous.

Then I combined all of the ingredients and tossed.

I really loved this. It was nice and light. Had a lot of flavor and was a great healthy side dish. I paired it with a mango lemon chicken (post coming soon).

This salad tastes great warm but I did eat it cold the following day because I don’t have a micro.

With regards to bulgur, I like it. It will become part of my regular rotation.