More answers to your questions!
What theme do you use? It’s awesome! I love your recipes.
-studio1270blog
Thanks – I use a modified version of the “Savory” theme by Style Hatch.
Where do you find the time to work, cook awesome looking Paleo food, raise two kiddies AND do CrossFit…I get tired just imagining doing all of this!
-Anonymous
I’ve gotten a lot more productive after I stopped watching TV – it used to suck up hours of my day (those damned “Real Housewives” shows are more addictive than carbs!), and now I just fill in that time with cooking, photography and blogging. And CrossFit workouts actually take up a lot less time than the chronic cardio I used to do!
Oh, I should mention that our house is a pigsty. I don’t clean. Ever.
Hello! Absolutely love your blog. I have spent literally hours drooling over it. I’m a recent Paleo convert (due to auto-immune thyroid disease and terrible muscle inflammation) and I was wondering what it is that pigs are meant to eat? I am looking for a pork supplier over here in Australia and I haven’t had much luck so far…the one I found (Otway Pork) ticks the right boxes when it comes to the treatment of the animals, but they are fed grain. Appreciate any advice!
-Allison
Pigs aren’t ruminants like cows – they’re omnivores like us, and will eat pretty much anything. I don’t know about Australia, but in the U.S., 99 percent of pigs are factory-farmed in conditions so awful that the animals are put on antibiotics just to keep them alive. Of those, the vast majority are raised on a diet of corn and soybeans (because the stuff is super-cheap due to government subsidies), which gives them a much-higher Omega-6 fatty acid profile. Even when you manage to locate a farm with fully-pastured pigs that are allowed to root around and eat grubs, roots, nuts, etc., the pigs’ diets are usually still supplemented with hog feed that contains grains.
In the end, if your goal is optimal health, the best-quality pork isn’t going to beat the best-quality beef. But for those of us who love the taste of swine, pastured pigs are the best available option. (And unlike grass-fed beef, which doesn’t have the same melt-in-your-mouth tender/fatty texture as the grain-fed stuff, pasture-raised pigs actually taste – in my opinion – better than their factory-farmed counterparts.)
I am considering buying a Sous Vide Demi for my family of 3. My hubby is actually capable of burning water, so I am hoping this gadget will make getting healthy food on the table possible when I am not at home. I am also a nurse and I work 1-9:30 Monday through Friday, so it’s rare I am home to cook dinner. My hubby CAN cook hamburgers in a pan without too much risk of burning down my kitchen, so I am assuming he will be able to sear fully cooked meats without much difficulty. Here is my question however…
Would it be at all possible to roast veggies like brussel sprouts, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower so they have that toasty roasty flavor, cool them, then freeze then in vacuum sealed pouches to be reheated in the sous videwhile reheating precooked meat? Obviously the other alternative is microwaving to reheat those, but microwaving cooked veggies to get them hot seems to over cook them in my opinion. Thanks for any words of wisdom you may have on this!
-J
I’ve never tried it, but in my experience, the Sous Vide Supreme has been awesome at reheating just about everything I’ve stuck in it without overcooking. (Note that cooking raw vegetables require higher heat – around 185 degrees or so – but reheating already-cooked veggies while your meat cooks at a lower temperature should be just fine.) You may not get the toasty crunch once your roasted vegetables have been vacuum-sealed, frozen, and then reheated, but they should still taste great! Another option: Stock up on Cascadian Farms winter squash puree – they come in frozen packets that you can either nuke or dunk in your sous vide bath. Quick and easy – even for kitchen-phobic husbands!
