More Meals for the Week – Paleo Comfort Style

You know the old saying, ‘Life provides you with everything you need in the moment.’ Honestly, these last few weeks have made us incredibly grateful for our new cookbook. The last year of refining and developing quick and easy recipes has armed us with the tools to make super tasty, incredibly nutritious food in very little time. We’re in the midst of getting ready for our book tour (starting next week). This coupled with getting everything squared away at the gym and lining up media for the upcoming tour has left little time to dig into one of our favorite things…cooking. With all that on the table, somehow this week I (Charles) managed to grab about three hours with one of our dear friends at Local Three for a pig butchering session. You’ll have to check back on our site next week for the lowdown on how that went and the cuts (and recipes) that we made. I will say that taking the time to butcher your meat yourself gives you a much deeper appreciation for the animal and the role it plays in feeding your family.

One of the nice things about learning the craft of butchery from a pro is that NOTHING goes to waste. The pig weighed in at 89.5 pounds (dressed and cut in half) when we started. When I finally got home with the cooler of meat, the first thing Julie and did was weigh everything out so that we could know how much each roast, butt, chop and hoof weighed.  The net result of my three hours was 79 pounds. Not too shabby. Most of the meat is now in the freezer. I pulled one shoulder roast out (for this post) and the rest is going to have to wait until we return from our book-palooza tour. I’m probably most excited about the porchetta di testa I get to tackle in a few weeks.  What do you think, sous vide or smoked?

 

Menu for the Week

—-Proteins—-

Southwestern Shepherd’s Pie (8 servings) – the recipe is in our new book, but Shape.com was nice enough to put it online. Note that they say the whole thing takes an hour. For us, we were able to make this start to finish in 30 minutes.

Pickled Shrimp (6 servings)

Pork Shoulder Roast (8 servings)

Sausage Frittata (8 servings)

Bacon & Egg Scrambles  (4 servings)

Grilled (or smoked) Salmon (6 servings)

—-Carbohydrates—-

Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts (oh yes, they are back in season!)

Baked Sweet Potato

Spaghetti Squash

Cabbage Noodles

—-Fats—-

Guacamole

Homemade Mayonnaise

Almond Butter

 

Shopping List

—-Proteins—-

2 pounds ground turkey or ground beef (for the Southwester Shepherd’s Pie)

2 pounds medium/large shrimp

3 pound pork shoulder roast, skin on

2 dozen eggs

1 pound ground pork sausage (for the frittata)

1 pound bacon

1 ½ pounds salmon steaks

—-Produce—-

3 white onions

1 pound Brussels sprouts

4 large sweet potatoes

1 head red cabbage

1 small celery bunch

2 red bell peppers

3-4 ripe pears

1 bunch cilantro

1 medium red onion

1 head garlic

1 head bib lettuce

2 jalapeno peppers
1 spaghetti squash

4 avocados

1 pound almonds

1 bag mixed greens

1 medium tub blueberries

—-Pantry—-

Olive oil

Vinegar

Capers

Ghee

Various Spices (pickling spice, paprika, pepper, salt, etc)

—-Special Equipment—-

Pressure cooker

 

 

Day 1:

Breakfast – Scrambled eggs, bacon, sliced pears and almond butter

 

Lunch – Pork tacos with guacamole

 

Dinner – Salmon with sautéed Brussels sprouts

 

There is some heavy lifting on day one.  You’ll cook your breakfast from scratch.  Use some of your eggs for this and cook them any way you prefer. Reserve your bacon grease for the Brussels, which will get tossed in those and oven roasted. Additionally, make your almond butter that morning while the eggs were cooking (put the almonds in a food processor or high-powered blender and let it go!). After breakfast, season your pork roast and get the pressure cooker out. You can get that sucker going ASAP (recipe below).  While the pressure cooker is doing its thing (about 45 minutes), you can oven roast your Brussels, bake your sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash and also boil your shrimp.  You can also brown your sausage and save it for later. I realize this sounds like a ton of work.  This can all be done (including cooking/eating breakfast) inside of 2 ½ hours. The oven is on anyway, right? You’ll take a break after lunch (porkfest).  If you’re so inclined, you could prepare the shrimp for pickling. Since the shrimp tastes that much better when left to marinate overnight, go ahead and start it.

 

Finally, for dinner, you’ll grill up your salmon steaks and serve them with your Brussels sprouts.

 

Pressure Cooker Pork

Ingredients

–       3 pound pork shoulder roast, skin on

–       2 tsp caraway seed

–       1 tsp salt

–       ½ tsp onion powder

–       ½ tsp smoked paprika

–       ¼ tsp black pepper

–       1 Tablespoon bacon grease

Directions

–       Combine spices in mini blender and blend together

–       Coat pork with the exception of the skin side

–       Heat bacon grease in medium frying pan and brown meat side of pork

–       Place skin side down on tray in bottom of pressure cooker

–       Fill with water until roast skin is slightly covered by water

–       Cook on high for 45 minutes

–       Turn off heat and allow cooker to return to normal

–       Remove roast and place skin side up on a cookie sheet

–       Score skin with knife in small squares

–       Place under broiler for around 10 minutes (or until skin puffs up)

–       Remove, allow to cool a bit and then serve.  Consider the skin a chef’s treat as you can peel it off and snack on it

 

Day 2:

Breakfast – Mix up a little salmon in a few eggs, sautéed with onion and pepper.

 

Lunch – Pickled shrimp on top of mixed greens with avocado slices.

 

Dinner – Cook up your cabbage noodles (cabbage sliced thinly to create “noodles”) in ghee and serve them with pork leftovers chopped and served on top

 

While you have your frying pan out for the noodles, sauté up some onion and one red bell pepper. Combine that with your cooked sausage and a dozen eggs to make your frittata.

 

Day 3:

Breakfast – Frittata, blueberries and almond butter

 

Lunch – Leftover pork and chopped salad on mixed greens with olive oil dressing

 

Dinner – Shepherd’s Pie

 

Note that you’ll be cooking the Shepherd’s pie this evening for supper and keeping leftovers. You can also whip up your batch of Paleo Mayonnaise that you can use for your salmon salad tacos tomorrow.

 

Day 4:

Breakfast – Frittata with guacamole

 

Lunch – Salmon salad tacos in bib lettuce

 

Dinner – Shrimp over leftover cabbage noodles

 

Day 5:

Breakfast – Frittata with sweet potatoes and bacon

 

Lunch – Shepherd’s pie

 

Dinner – Finish the pork and Brussels sprouts

 

Day 6:

Breakfast – Shepherd’s pie with pears and almond butter

 

Lunch – Frittata and guacamole

 

Dinner – Out with Friends

 

Day 7:

Breakfast – Finish spaghetti squash with shrimp on top

 

Lunch – Dining out with friends

 

Dinner – Finish Shepherd’s pie

 

As always, these are merely our suggestions, and hope that you find something in here helpful in how you go about tackling your meals for the week!

PaleoComfort

Julie and Charles Mayfield are the co-authors of Paleo Comfort Foods, Quick and Easy Paleo Comfort Foods and the e-book The Paleo Summer Survival Guide. They live in Athens TN with their two children, Scott and Adelyn.

Charles spends much of his day helping his customers manage risk at Athens Insurance Agency and weekends running Mayfield Pastures, a startup regenerative farming enterprise on his family's farm. Julie is a stay at home mother and manages the day to day tasks of their Paleo Comfort Foods cookbook line.

They both enjoy the outdoors, gardening and helping others in their community find a clear path to a healthy lifestyle.