Delicious & Easy Pulled Pork

Having been married to a Tennessee boy for almost 7 years (next Monday!), learning how to make a good pulled pork has been essential.  I'm not gonna lie -- I enjoy it too!  I recently learned that I have an "allergy" to beef (this has flabbergasted me!), so I've been pulling together all my non-beef recipes I have to make sure good protein recipes are in the rotation.  This is definitely one of our favorites and I give ALL credit for the delicious dry rub mixture from Kevin & Amanda's Perfect Pulled Pork recipe.

Delicious & Easy Pulled Pork

Ingredients:

4-7lb Boston Butt OR Pork Shoulder Roast (with OR without bones is fine)

1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp ground pepper
1 tbsp paprika
1/2 cup brown sugar (optional)

Mix the dry rub all together in a small bowl, rub it generously all over the pork shoulder/boston butt, even into the creases. Any dry rub that is left over can be used to season the pork after it's cooked.

After you massage in the dry rub, refrigerate the pork for 4 hours up to overnight.  (Sometimes when I am in a hurry I skip this! Still turns out fine!)

Then, toss pork with the layer of fat on TOP in the slow-cooker on high for 8 hours.  After 8 hours, shred with two forks, and if necessary, add more of the remaining dry rub to season.  Used reserved juices to moisten the meat.  

Enjoy!

3 simple meals in 30 minutes or less

Bacon & Sweet Potato Hash
Photo by thebittenword.com at flickr

I like simple. And I like fast.  So this week while we've been sharing a car as one is in the shop getting some repairs, my typical late afternoon meal prep time has been squashed so that the kids & I can pick Greg up from work. We've enjoyed the time together in the car, but it means dinner must be made fast.  Slow-cooker meals would definitely work in these instances, but our mornings have been so busy too I haven't had the chance to throw something in there earlier in the day!  So, fast meals it must be.

These meals can be adapted for various diets, and you can go so far as swapping the type of ground meat, bacon or potatoes that are required in a few of the recipes.  

Here are 3 simple meals you can make in likely under 30 minutes!

Real Simple's Speedy Sloppy Joe's

(Potential modifications: using ground beef instead of ground turkey; using homemade salsa; using a different biscuit, bun or breading or opting out completely if grain-free.  We made them Monday night with hamburger buns instead of the tube of buttermilk biscuits.)

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey; 1 cup of fresh salsa; salt & pepper; biscuits or buns

Serious Eats Bacon & Sweet Potato Hash

This is our new favorite and go-to meal!  We modified by only making the bacon and sweet potato hash; we did not make the eggs or avocado cream, but for even a more filling & complete meal you certainly could!  

Ingredients: 

1lb bacon; 1-2 sweet potatoes; 1 medium onion; butter; salt & pepper to taste

Modern Alternative Mama's Quick Beef & Potatoes

Very similar to bacon & sweet potato hash just variations on the ingredients list!

Ingredients: 
1 lb. ground beef (preferably grass-fed); 4 – 5 medium potatoes, thinly sliced; 4 tbsp. butter; 1 tsp. onion powder; Sea salt 

For any of these meals, I may steam or saute a veggie on the side, which hardly takes any time as well. 

What are your favorite quick & easy meals?

Real Food Changes: Salt

Almost every food belief I ascribe to these days probably flies in the face of modern conventional health, but if today's health scene doesn't delight you (and it probably shouldn't, seems like there are loads more diseases and obesity problems today than there were a century ago), then it might be worth a shot to start looking at some other options.

Salt has been giving a bad rap; it raises blood pressure, throws things off, and contributes to cardiovascular disease.  This is definitely true if you are using regular table salt, which is simply 97 to 99 percent sodium chloride, but may contain additives (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt).
(I know, why can't the normal things we normally use just be safe?!)

But guess what, the solution isn't hard.  If you live near me, then you definitely have access to the best kind of salt, REAL sea salt, just a few minutes down the road at your health food store. You might even be able to find it at Super Target (I did once & did an internal happy dance)!  It is delicious, full of minerals, and is all-natural.  If you are reading this blog then I also assume you have access to the internet and you can find it online at Amazon.com as well! Link here: Redmond Real Sea Salt.  Redmond also sells as these major retailers: http://realsalt.com/find-real-salt/.

Why this kind of sea salt?
According to The Healthy Home Economist, "celtic sea salt contains over 80 minerals, including iodine, and is part of a healthy diet [...] helps normalize all functions in the body that require salt to take place such as protein and carbohydrate digestion, brain development in children, and optimal functioning of the adrenal glands" (source: choosing a healthy salt).
If your salt is purely white, it means that most of the nutrition and minerals have been removed!

I love throwing this salt on my savory dishes, and using it in baking.  It is delightful on popcorn, scrambled eggs, or mixed in with ground beef to make hamburger patties.  You can even order little travel-size shakers of Real Sea Salt so you never have to dine without it!  Horses love it too.  (Just ask my brother Luke.)

What's your favorite kind of salt? Have you ever tried the pink salts? Himalayan? Real sea salt?

I'm craving something salty now...off for a quick snack!

Soaked Oatmeal: A hearty, simple breakfast

Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

One of the first things that went out the door when we started transitioning into real food was boxed cereal.  Now, it's only an occasional treat or is purchased when a brand I like is on sale and I need a little help in the food prep department (or let's be honest, I have a major craving, which is actually now quite rare). I began learning how boxed cereals really aren't that good for us and I realized I often was hungry soon or had a sugar-crash after having a bowl of cereal - it just wasn't nearly as filling as bacon and eggs, or say, my dad's Sunday morning specialty: oatmeal.

Oatmeal is filling. I used to eat it a lot during my first pregnancy with Mia. It was more of the instant variety, but I do remember it keeping me full for a while.  There are always gradual transitions into real food, because now I never get the instant kind and I always get...

Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free* Old Fashioned Rolled Oats.  (It doesn't have to be this brand, it's just a brand I recognize and trust.)

Life Insurance You Eat - Good Motto
This package contained 4 bags of oatmeal**

*A note about gluten-free:  Oats are naturally gluten-free, as you might already know, but they are often produced in facilities where they might come into contact with gluten and be contaminated. So if you or someone in your family needs to avoid gluten, your best bet is to find a brand that certifies their oats are processed in a GF facility.  No one is specifically GF in my family but I just like to know what I'm getting :D

So, anyway. Back to oats. My dad used to make oats every Sunday morning before church. I ate them most of the time, I think, but I couldn't always finish my bowl because they are just so...satiating!  It doesn't take much.

The neat thing is is that there's an easy way to do oatmeal simply that will also hugely improve its nutritional profile as well, and as an added bonus, will result in faster cooking!

As a grain, oats can still be hard to digest if not soaked or sprouted.  Either of these methods help unlock the nutrients in the oat by reducing phytic acid (an anti-nutrient) and allowing your body to assimilate the actual nutrients in the grain.

How to soak?  Glad you asked.  It's really quite simple.

You'll need (per Nourishing Traditions):

• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup warm filtered water
• 2 tablespoons of an acidic medium (i.e., whey, yogurt, kefir, buttermilk, or for lactose-intolerant, lemon juice or apple cider vinegar)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon flax seeds (optional)

2 cups oats -
(I usually make more and reheat leftovers the next day)

Directions:
Mix oats with the warm water and 2 TBSP of acidic medium in a bowl. Cover and leave for at least 7 hours or overnight.

In the morning, bring 1 cup of water and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt to a boil, and add the oats & water & acidic medium mixture.  Reduce heat, cover and let simmer.  Once cooked (should probably only take about 5 minutes!), you may add ground flaxseeds if you'd like for additional nutrients.

2 cups of oats + 2 cups of water with
2 TBSP acidic medium

Make sure to serve with plenty of butter, coconut oil or cream if you prefer. We like to add butter, cinnamon and maple syrup or raw honey over here!

**Frugal Tip: If you're an avid oatmeal eater, I'd highly suggest participating in Amazon's Subsribe & Save options they provide for groceries. You sign up to receive these rolled oats on a regular basis (you select the frequency) and because you are a subscriber, you save between 5-15%! It also ships free!  The last time I ordered oats from Amazon, I paid $16.69 total for 4 packages.  That's a little over $4/package.  I should be receiving another shipment soon (the box lasted me quite a while!) and Amazon let me know that the price has dropped and I'll only be paying $12.75 with my discount.  That's $3.18/2-lb package, and if you are soaking these bad boys, you'll probably go through the package more slowly as soaked oats tend to be more filling.  This means this can be a very filling and frugal breakfast route!

Hate Grocery Shopping? I did too.

When I was a wee one, I used to enjoy going to the grocery store with my mom. I remember being bummed if I somehow missed out on a trip to Cub Foods.  (Anyone from Minnesota? Holla at yer girl.)  I enjoyed rolling through the store, anticipating the foods we were going to put into our cart next, and looking at all the different colors.  Grocery stores are wonderful for the senses.  They can also be murder for the pocketbook if you're not careful, because there are literally deals and sales at every turn and on every aisle.

As I got older, those sales often threw me for a loop. I was talking with a mom today at Stroller Strides and the infamous buy-one-get-one-free (BOGO) deal came up.  What do you do with two, if you don't have the storage for it, or more importantly, don't even know how to use the ingredient?  Common sense says "skip it" but for some of us more sales-challenged people, it's hard to "pass up a good deal."

It is now much easier to avoid these temptations if I stick to my guns on two very simple reasons.
Want to know how?

How to love grocery shopping in 2 simple ways:

1. Have a meal plan.  
I'm using Plan-to-Eat now on a free trial subscription, and as I'm figuring it out I'm realizing I'm liking it quite a bit!  You plug in a recipe (either from a website or type it in), it mashes up all the ingredients for you and spits it into a shopping list.  It also lays it out on a calendar, which you can sync with iCal for Mac users.  I often grab recipes or menus from what I see on the internet, so using an online service for this just makes it a little bit easier. You can do the same thing with pen & paper, but what I like is that it grabs all the ingredients from your meal plan and organizes it by section of the grocery store. You can also edit your list if you already have those ingredients at home.  This could really cut down on planning and prep time for a busy mom.

2. Know what ingredients you tend to use, and what ingredients you always need to replenish.  
If there's a special stock-up sale on spices, butter, my favorite bread, or cheese (you name it), it's easy for me to justify the purchase. I will use these things.  But if there are special sales for dog food or cat litter, that's an obvious no-no (unless you're buying on behalf of someone else or donating to a special cause).  Or a type of food I've never really tried before, or a cereal I know my family probably wouldn't like ... unless you're feeling brazen, there's no need to feel like you must take advantage of the sale.  That's the store or the manufacturer trying to get YOU to buy THEIR food.  Just push your cart along and move on.  Sometimes, knowing what you need to have in your pantry requires a little research and prep-work.  I like following lists from certain websites or cookbooks that give you suggestions for what to stock in your pantry so you can make a meal almost anytime without having to run to the store.  It might also require almost knowing a few recipes by heart, at least, what ingredients are a part of it.

Photo Credit:
followpics.com

One of my favorite cookbooks, Everyday Paleo, lays out what you should keep on hand in order to cook paleo. If you're not sure what paleo is, in a nutshell, it's a whole foods based diet that avoids grains, dairy, and legumes, but puts lots of emphasis on grass-fed or pastured meats, nuts, fruits, veggies, and good fats.  Here's an example of how to stock your fridge or pantry with this kind of diet:



Not all my recipes are strictly paleo, but I think it's a good starting point for someone trying to clean up their diet or branch out a bit.  It's devoid of processed foods, which to me, is like Public Enemy #1 when it comes to healthy eating. If you can get the processed foods out of the way, you are making great strides in my book!

To branch out beyond that may require shopping at some places other than your typical grocery store (maybe a health foods store, or on Amazon.com - yes they sell groceries!, or through a food co-op). You can get fresh dairy, whole grains, bulk spices, farm fresh eggs, local or organic produce and more all through various co-ops in your area.  If you're local to South Florida contact me and I'll try to get you started, but eatwild.com and localharvest.org are just two places online you can start!

(Note: I have no affiliations to these websites, but I just know they help numerous people get their bearings when making the switch to real foods.)

Learning to enjoy grocery shopping also came along with learning to enjoy cooking and baking real foods. It is so much easier to shop when I know these foods are providing real nutrition for my family and are going towards our overall health.  Beforehand, when it was just a bunch of snacks or packaged foods, it really wasn't as fulfilling.
Now, for the most part, almost all the items I put in my cart serve a purpose, and because many of them are perishable, it encourages me to use them up before they go bad - which means more homemade cooking.

Man, I never thought I'd write a blog about grocery shopping, but here I just did it.

What has helped you become better at grocery shopping? How do you shop sales or the weekly ads? Do you only stick to your meal plan or do you veer off dependent on sales? Share below!

3 really easy real food habits you can start NOW

Photo Credit: Faux Runner @ Blogspot

You have heard the infamous quote, "The hardest part of any journey is taking that first step."  I have often written about things we have changed here and there in our diet to improve our health and nutrition, and I know the task of revamping your family's diet, budget, and food philosophy can be nothing short of overwhelming and intimidating.  We feel the challenge and sometimes we recoil at it -- but, why?

Sometimes it's good to analyze what it is about it that's bothering us or holding us back.  And sometimes, enough analysis or pause is enough and it is just simply time to move on and make change! 

If you have been afraid to make a change for any reason, let me provide you with 3 simple things you can do to help you make the transition from eating nutrient-depleted food to real, nourishing food!

1. Source the best whole chickens you can find on your budget (maybe that means the organic chickens at the supermarket, pastured chickens at Whole Foods, or finding a local farmer who can sell you pastured chickens), and roast your chickens for dinner, for lunch meat, for soups, enchilada fillings, chicken pot pie, etc.  SAVE THE BONES to make chicken broth, and use that broth in your soup recipes, in place of water for boiling rice, beans, and the like, or for when someone in your family starts to feel a little ill.  The healing properties of "chicken soup for the soul" are not just literary!  It's the real deal.  (If you're in my local area and need help finding a chicken farmer, check out The Makers Farm.  They're awesome!)

Photo Credit: HenryWatson.com

2. Use butter in place of margarine. No exceptions!  Have you ever looked at the ingredients in margarine? I was no chemist in 3rd grade, but we always had both margarine and butter at our Sunday dinner table growing up to put on our rolls (family likes options - what can I say), and I just had this intuitive feeling butter was better.  I always wanted the butter instead of the margarine, regardless of naysayers talking about its fat content.  Yes, I stepped away from the butter for a while as an adult for easy spreadable butter substitutes, but now that I have a butter box, I can safely keep my butter on the counter where it's soft and spreads easily at any time!

SAY NO to imitation buttery spreads!  Photo Credit: HealthTalkLive.com

Worried about which butter to get?  Like chickens, there's a good, better, and best option here.  

A good option which I often rely on for budgetary reasons is pasteurized butter from the store - organic or not is up to you. A better option is Kerrygold Irish butter which is grassfed but not raw (minimally pasteurized).  The best kind of butter is fresh, raw grass-fed butter.  You can learn how to make your own butter from cream here!

But what about the saturated fat?? Hey guess what?  The poor guy has been victimized: It's not bad for you after all. 

Photo Credit: Dave Sommers, via Food Renegade on Facebook

3. Cut out the sodas and gradually step away from the processed foods.  Okay, maybe I lied, and this one isn't as easy as it sounds.  Sodas are addicting, and so are processed foods, and just simply removing them from your diet isn't as easy as turning a switch, but I guarantee it will GREATLY improve your health.  Looking at the ingredient list on most processed foods you will easily find ingredients you cannot pronounce nor do you know from what they are derived.  Doesn't exactly sound like the best fuel for our systems, does it?  If you don't know how to pronounce it, chances are your body doesn't really know how to DIGEST it.  

Photo Credit: GT's Synergy Drinks

If this step intimidating for you, try swapping out sodas for tea (sweetened or not is up to you), 100% fresh fruit juices, or the like, and/or adding mint or herbal infusions to your water. Just take baby steps to reduce your sugar consumption. If you are missing the fizziness of a soda, you might really like kombucha or water kefir soda!  You can find kombucha at places like Whole Foods or your local healthfood store, and you can even brew it at home (super inexpensively, I might add)!  The benefit to kombucha or water kefir sodas are that they are honestly really good for you and provide a probiotic kick.  I personally find flavored kombuchas extremely tasty - just go easy on them as drinking too much can cause detoxification headaches if your body isn't used to all the probiotics.  

So, not as scary or crazy as it sounds, huh?  The thing is - you can do it, and chances are you have access to so many things already to start making or sourcing healthy food - just ask around!  Generally speaking, people who love eating real food also love talking about it because it just makes them feel so good so pull up a chair, grab a kombucha and fire away! ;)

Santa Fe Chili - real foodified

One of our favorite chili recipes was introduced to us by our friend Jenn M. on the very day we moved into our house almost 4 years ago! It was so yummy, I immediately asked her for the recipe the next day and shared it with my mom as well.  We enjoy making this every year, but the more I have learned about food and additives, the less I have wanted to use the taco seasoning and ranch seasoning packets it calls for.  Thanks to Pinterest, google, and the interwebs, it fortunately hasn't taken me long to find easy homemade substitutes that DO NOT contain the abominable MSG or maltodextrin.  *Phew!  So now we can consume this chili guilt-free and without the neurotoxic side effect.  I sure hate getting headaches when I eat, don't you!?

photo credit: tasteofhome.com

Here's the recipe, which I found is originally from TasteofHome.com:

• 2 pounds ground beef (grass-fed if possible)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• the equivalent of 2 - 15oz cans of kidney beans, soaked (*rinsed & drained)
• the equivalent of 2 - 15oz cans of black beans, soaked*
• 3 cans (7 oz each) white shoepeg corn
• 1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can diced tomatoes & green chilies (e.g., Rotel)
• 2 servings of homemade ranch seasoning
• 2 servings of homemade taco seasoning
• 2 cups water (or homemade chicken stock)
• Optional garnishes:
• sour cream, non-GMO corn chips, shredded cheddar cheese

Brown the ground beef, drain.  Add in chopped onion and cook until the onion is soft.  Add in the beans, corn, tomatoes, chilies, seasonings, and water/stock.  Cover & cook on high for about 2 hours.  Serve in bowls with additional garnishes if desired.   

*I soaked and cooked dry kidney beans and black beans to include in this recipe.  I used 1.5 cups of soaked beans to substitute for 1 can of beans.  So therefore, I used 3 cups of each type of soaked beans. That's a lot of beans!!!

The general rule of thumb is: 

1 15-ounce can of beans equals

• 1/2 cup dry beans, before cooking

• 1 1/2 cups beans, after cooking 

Read more at Dried to Canned Beans conversion.

Enjoy!

Guest post!

I'm not a mom of school-aged kids yet but I have packed a few lunches in my day for playdates, appointments, and such (thanks to my mom for teaching me how!) ... and today, I'm (*gulp*) doing my first guest post over at Modern Alternative Mama!  Come check me out! 

Hint: this does NOT involve Lunchables.