Curtis Stone’s total meal cost: $8.87
Slowly cooked pork shoulder with braised cabbage

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2-pound pork shoulder
• 1 carrot, peeled and cut and diced into 2-inch pieces
• 1 onion, peeled and cut and diced into 2-inch pieces
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 stick of celery, cut and diced into 2-inch pieces
• 2 bay leaves
• Sprig of thyme
• 1 cup of red wine
• 2 cups of veal or chicken stock (brown)

For the braised cabbage

• 3 ounces applewood-smoked bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced diagonally
• 1 leeks (white and pale green parts only), halved lengthwise then cut crosswise into 3/4-inch pieces
• 8-ounce head of cabbage, cored, cut into 1/2-inch ribbons
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 1/2 cup chicken stock or vegetable stock
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• Sprig of thyme

DIRECTIONS

To prepare the braised cabbage:
Sauté the bacon in a heavy large wide pot over medium heat until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a plate. Add the carrots, onions and leeks to the same pot and sauté until the leeks soften, about 3 minutes.

Separate the cabbage leaves, add the garlic and thyme and add them to the pot. Cook until the cabbage wilts, stirring often, about 12 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the sherry and simmer until most of the liquid evaporates, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Add the stock and bring to a simmer.

Cover the pot and simmer over medium-low heat until the cabbage is tender, stirring occasionally, about 12 minutes. Stir in the cooked bacon and season the mixture to taste with salt and pepper.

To prepare the pork shoulder:
Place a large cast-iron casserole dish over a high heat, season pork with salt and pepper, place fat side down into the hot pan. Brown all sides. Remove from, the pan and pour off excess fat. 

Add the onions and sauté for 2-3 minutes until soft, add the garlic and herbs and sauté for a further 2 minutes. Add the carrots, celery and cook for 2-3 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and add pork. Deglaze with red wine and reduce for 5 minutes. Add stock and cover and slowly cook for 2-3 hours until pork literally falls apart when picked up.*Remove from pot and strain, discard and remove vegetables. Strain and remove jus. Place a small saucepan over a medium heat and jus for 10-15 minutes. Place a large nonstick sauté pan over a high heat. Once the pork is cool, break into 4 pieces. Place the pork into a hot pan and sauté until the outside is crisp. Remove from the pan and serve with braised cabbage.

*Does this remind anyone of Ryon’s post?

The Paleo Food Pyramid (from The Paleo Diet)

I hate the word diet.  I know even saying that is cliche in and of itself… everyone claims their diet is not, in fact, a diet… it’s a lifestyle.  But let’s face it, Zone, Skinny Bitch, Nutrisystem, South Beach, Atkins, the list can go on… those are diets.  No one ever ate like that.  There are not cultures of people who do this regularly.

Paleo is different.  We, as a species, used to eat like this.

In thinking a little more about this Paleo diet, and see its popularity beginning to rise, I hear people’s concerns about how boring it may be, or how hard it may be.  This site, and all of us, are here to tell you the otherwise.  If you’re willing to accept the simple fact that the Standard American Diet (based on the Food Pyramid) is not the best for you, then you’re most of the way to mentally accepting Paleo.

What it comes down to is shedding the notion that you’re eating for weight loss, nourishment, or performance, and instead eating because you like good food.  Seriously, you can’t tell me the Paleo diet is bad, or boring food.

To show that, let’s outline what I’ve eaten so far this week:

• Breakfast: omelet muffins. use a muffin tin and create muffin-shaped turkey, pepper, onion omelets.
• Lunches: Bison meatloaf, using almond milk as a binder instead of bread.  Almond milk, cabbage, onion, garlic.
• Dinners: grass-fed flank steak salad, more bison meatloaf, almond meal crusted pork chops, carmelized broccoli.
• Dessert: coconut milk ice cream, dark chocolate with sunflower seed butter.

Tell me this list does not sound good.  None of these meals took me more than 30 minutes to prepare.  For most of them, I made enough so I can use them as leftovers for lunch.

Eating like this is not only good, it’s good for you.  I have more energy, I don’t crash after my meals, I’m shedding body fat and setting PR’s in the gym.  In the words of Robb Wolf, I look better, feel better, and perform better.

When I eat tons of processed carbs, breads, lots of sugar, I get an instant headache.  I crash within an hour of eating.  We were not meant for this.

I like what Dutch has to say about cheating, and more importantly, about eating in general.

First of all lets talk about why I do the things i do.
I drink Coffee black for the caffeine.
I drink Tequila on the rocks for the alcohol.
I eat beef, barely cooked and with little seasoning for the nourishment.
I lift heavy weights so i can be strong.

Why do you do the things you do?  Why do you eat what you eat?

But that begs the question… should it ever end?  Kind of.

Certainly after 30 days of pretty strict eating, I am going to loosen up the diet a bit.  But I also want to focus on the point of this blog, and the point of this challenge (IMHO)… sustainability.

First off, I’m going to come clean… I ended my challenge on Saturday evening, around 6pm, at 24 Diner.  I tried to eat paleo at this place, and it’s certainly possible (they serve breakfast all day, most of their food is locally sourced, and there are a few things that are greenlit for us).  I had the no bean chili, and I asked for mashed sweet potatoes, but it came out with regular mashed potatoes and a slice of cornbread.  And I stared at it and thought, let’s see what happens.  So I ate the chili — excellent.  The mashed potatoes, not as life-changing as I wanted them to be.  And the cornbread, simply no interest, just didn’t work.  I rounded out my first cheat meal with a slice of chocolate pecan pie.  And I felt my heart beating through my chest for the rest of the night, which I can only attribute to the glycemic load I just threw at myself.  I did not feel awesome, and the expense didn’t pay off with a culinary dream like I was hoping (not saying anything bad about 24 — the food is great).

I actually returned to 24 two more times in the following 24 hours.  One drunken brunch (fried chicken and waffles, with chocolate syrup), and one post-workout brunch (fried egg sandwich).  I figured I can cheat for about 1 day and just go big.  All in.  And then… back to clean eating (dinner was lettuce wrapped brisket with guacamole and 1/2 sweet potato with cinnamon).  We’ll save the cheat meal concept for another post.

Before the paleo police arrest me, let’s hold our judgment, because I want to highlight a few things.

1. Did I fail?  Hell no.  I proved to myself that I can create an easy model for eating and living over 28 days, that included traveling for work and some stressful times.  All I need to do is think about how I feel and perform when I’m eating clean.
2. Is this (or any) cheat meal going to completely derail me?  I don’t believe so.  I like eating paleo.  It tastes good, it makes me feel accomplished because I actually cooked something (most of the time), and I know how much better I operate on it.  Moreover, I have a great support network of like-minded friends.  The Team TLSP dinners need to continue.  And we should have a Team TLSP brunch soon.
3. Do I consider this a success?  Totally.  Not only have I improved my life in an operational sense (I always have food in the house, I spend less money on food, and I’m never stuck trying to figure out what to eat), I have actually lost about 5-6 pounds of body fat, and I’m stronger than I was a month ago.  Rock on.

So TLSP, how was week 4?  What’s your plan for cheat meals… or do you have one?  Personally, I think having a plan is going to help us stay on track, because if you can plan for it, you can plan around it.

Happy eating!