Category Archives: Recipes

Home Cured and Smoked Pork Belly

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Shortly before Seth deployed – we purchased our first (electric) smoker! We were somewhat excited and ambitious about it, so we immediately smoked a giant rack of ribs and a 7 lb pork butt. Needless to say, I ate pork for weeks after he deployed.

One of my biggest frustrations/annoyances/pet peeves, whatever you want to call it, is that it’s very hard to locally source quality bacon without additives/corn/sugar. It drives me nuts. So, I decided I would try my hand at home curing and smoking pork belly to make my bacon, where I control the ingredients. I’ve always tended to buy uncured bacon, and I’d like to eventually do uncured bacon at home, however, this being my first time and for food safety reasons, I bought curing salt. After all the reading and research I did – I think I’m fine with a 1/4 teaspoon of curing salt, because it kills salmonella and you rinse the pork belly well before smoking.

That said, I followed this recipe from SlimPalate for my first attempt. I love his story and really enjoy his blog. He does some amazing, beautiful things with food. I did add the optional coconut sugar, again, because most of it gets washed right off in the rinse. I let it cure for 7 days in the fridge, and then smoked it for about 2 hours at 200 degrees. My first few fried slices = heaven. I could not believe the differences! Not only, does it not sizzle/pop as much as store-bought bacon, the grease is so much cleaner (a different color even), and the flavor is just night and day! IMG_7260[1]IMG_7277[1]IMG_7289[1]

My second batch is now curing in the fridge, and I tried my own cure this time: Kosher salt, curing salt, black pepper, garlic, and coconut sugar.

Crockpot Sweet and Spicy Shredded Chicken

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Cooler temperatures (although short lived it would appear) always give me the urge to cook and roast more food, and lately I’ve been doing more with the crockpot (hi, easy!). This past weekend I had two packages of good quality chicken that needed to be used (boneless skinless tenders and breasts), so I decided to make something I could eat throughout this week.

In addition, I don’t typically use condiments anymore. Chemical shitstorms that I personally prefer not to eat, and when I left them behind I realized I didn’t really miss them all that much. I’ll consume some quality condiments free of refined sugar, corn, soy, canola, etc. occasionally, but really not that often. My deployed sailor left me with three opened 1/2 full bottles of (good quality) bbq sauce – one sweet, one spicy and one in the middle. I wanted them out of my fridge, so there we have it, crockpot sweet and spicy shredded chicken!

Crockpot Sweet and Spicy Shredded Chicken

  • 2 2-2/12 lb packages of chicken – really you could choose whichever you prefer
  • 3 large sliced jalapenos
  • 1 red onion diced
  • 8 garlic cloves diced
  • Random bbq sauces…probably totaling 1 cup worth
  • 1/4 cup grade B maple syrup
  • Fresh ground salt and pepper
  • TBSP garlic powder
  • Generous sprinkling of ground cinnamon

Throw everything in the crockpot and cook for 6-8 hours on medium heat, then shred with a fork. A couple notes: if you don’t like spice, use 2 jalapenos, this is spicy with 3. In my defense, I just made a recipe with 2, and there was next to no spice. LOL. I covered the top of the crockpot with a nice layer of ground cinnamon. I did not stir anything up, just left it as is and let it simmer.

I had it with over-medium eggs yesterday for breakfast, with avocado for lunch on Sunday and on a salad for lunch today.

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Simple Avocado Cream Sauce

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This was my very first attempt at making a “paleo” cream sauce, without dairy! I totally winged it…and it was fabulous not to mention easy. Put it on eggs, steamed veggies, zoodles (or any other vegetable noodle), paleo biscuits, meat, seafood, etc.! I suppose you could eat it as a soup too, it’s rich. It’s very versatile and keeps well.

Avocado Cream Sauce

  • 2 cans coconut milk
  • 1 1/2 avocados
  • 6 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1 pkg baby crimini mushrooms, chopped
  • 2 TBSP garlic powder
  • Ground black pepper
  • Himalayan pink salt

Add the 2 cans of coconut milk to a saucepan and heat over medium heat. Add the 1 1/2 avocados (I would’ve added 2, but the 1/2 of the 2nd avo was no good), and let the avo soften in the heat for a few minutes. With an immersion blender, blend the avocados into the coconut milk – took about 3 minutes. Add the garlic cloves, and all spices. Saute over medium heat for 15-20 minutes continuing to stir then add the chopped mushrooms. Continue sauteing over medium heat until the mushrooms are soft to your liking (I don’t like mushy mushrooms, but it’s taste/texture preference here).

Tip: If you use a quality coconut milk, you won’t taste any coconut 😉

First, I put it on my zoodles – which, don’t really look like “zoodles” because the gargantuan zucchini didn’t exactly want to work with my spiralizer. Haha. There was zucchini flying everywhere and puppy Lucy was happy about that.IMG_7139[1]IMG_7140[1]IMG_7143[1]

Collard Pastrami Wraps

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This meal was inspired by several things: 1) My obsession with reuben sandwiches, 2) this amazing post a friend of mine shared: The Un-deli: 10 Over-the-Top Breadless Sandwiches, 3) The fact that I cannot commit to buying Thousand Island dressing, 4) I don’t really do gluten-free bread, and last 4) The store was out of corned beef (what?), so pastrami.

And now…I’m kind of becoming obsessed with different wrap options…large collard green leaves have got to be the easiest wrap ever, not to mention, nutrient powerhouse. Fill them with whatever you want!

Collard Pastrami Wraps

  • 1 collard green
  • Sir Kensington’s sriracha mayo
  • Pastrami
  • TJs raw sauerkraut
  • Diced red onion
  • 1 thinly sliced kosher dill pickle

Wash collard leaf and pat dry, then layer the remaining ingredients in the order above on the leaf. Wrap and eat.

Holy shizz! I made a second, and therefore probably had about 5,000% of my daily value of vitamins K and A, oh!IMG_7130[1]IMG_7132[1]

Smoked Pork and Pickle Salad

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I love pickles, could eat them all day. Seth hates them and won’t let me near him for pickle kisses.

It’s still been kind of warm/muggy (for San Diego) lately, which is when I crave salads the most. Last night I just wasn’t feeling my usual all veggie filled salad, so I used random things in my fridge, and I loved my salad!

Smoked Pork and Pickle Salad

  • Butter lettuce
  • Diced red onion
  • Cut up smoked pork (we have a ton from our inaugural smoking)
  • Grilled garlic (also leftover from a big batch I put on the grill)
  • Fresh pickles
  • Tessemae’s Zesty Ranch dressing
  • Sprinkle salt/pepp

Ta-da!

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