Sunday, September 15, 2013

Beyond Bacon

Zach has always been a cook. He loves getting in the kitchen and creating and trying recipes. I, on the other hand, have not always enjoyed cooking. It wasn't until we received Practical Paleo, by Diane Sanfilippo, that I really started to enjoy cooking. Ever since we got her cookbook we have really enjoyed getting Paleo cookbooks and trying as much as we can from them. While I was out on maternity leave, Beyond Bacon from the PaleoParents came out. As I was sitting at home all day and a baby boy sleeping, I just kept noticing all the post and hype that was going on about Beyond Bacon. I finally got my debit out and ordered us a copy! We had tried a few of the recipes here and there since we got the book and they were all delicious!

A week or so ago, the PaleoParents posted on their blog a giveaway and the prize was to win a half hog! I, immediately, sent Zach the link and told him we had to participate. Who doesn't want to win free meat?!?!?! Maybe a vegetarian but Zach and I far from vegetarian! We love meat!

The rules for the giveaway-
Cook from the cookbook, take pics, post it to Instagram, Facebook or Tweeter, and #beyondbacon.

That's it! Too easy not to try and plus you get to try all the yummy recipes! Zach and I started planning what all we were going to cook! Since we have already tried a few recipes we got a head start. We started our cook off last weekend with some delicious chicken...
How awesome does that look?!?!? We cooked 2 and I ate on them for several days. We also cooked plantains, and bacon sweet potato pancakes...
I really want to win this half hog so Zach and I started planning what we were going to cook this weekend. We went through the book and planned each dish out. 

Disclaimer: we ALWAYS cook a weeks worth of meat on the weekend and then we eat on it all week. I get up at 2:45 am and Zach gets up 5:00 am (if not earlier), by the time we get off and get home all we want to do is play with Knox. We don't want to worry about figuring out what to cook. This works well for us although it may not work well for others. Yes, it looks like a lot of meat but if you eat 3-4 meals a day its just the right amount!

Zach figured it out that we could try 12 more savory recipes and 4 more sweet recipes. I was all game! Go big or go home, right?!?!

We got to work....
The Perfect Pork Chops
Porktastic Frittata
Shaken and Baked Pork Chops
Grilled Cubed Pork Kabobs 
 Cajun Rubbed Pork Loin 
Smoked Pulled Pork Shoulder
Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder
Italian Tomato Pork Chops
Bacon Wrapped Dates
Salted Caramel Bacon Sauce
Triple Chocolate Freezer Fudge
Baconnaise
Apple and Bacon Stuffed Pork Chops
Kale and Pistachio Stuffed Pork Chops
Apple Ginger Tenderloin 
Maple Bacon Frozen Custard
We put dark chocolate chips in the custard and Zach topped his with bacon, dates and the Salted Bacon Caramel Sauce.

We also tried The Best Brownies and Sauteed Cabbage as soon as we got the book. 

 Nothing and I mean NOTHING that we have tried isn't good! We sampled each thing we made this weekend and packed it up for the week. It is all delicous!!! If you are a pork lover, I highly recommend this book! Who knew there were so many different ways to cook pork chops, tenderloins and pork shoulders. Beyond Bacon also talks about how to order a hog, about pastured pork, the science of pork and saturated fat, how pork affects your blood work and of course much more. 

So here is to Beyond Bacon!

Order it here!!!

Keep your fingers crossed that we win! The winner will be selected on Thursday Sept. 19th. We successfully have 21 entries! Hopefully one of them will be good enough!!!

Respect the Hog! 

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