Here's an old favorite that I cooked up last night. It's a "mom" recipe (except for my own stylings) and I've been doing it for years. This is very high on the comfort food scale. It has only four primary ingredients: two long polish sausage (polska kielbasa, preferably gluten, soy & HFCS free and uncured), a large yellow onion, two cans diced tomatoes (or equivalent of fresh; I like the canned so I can get ones with the spices included, which I vary or mix/match), head of green cabbage. Takes a half hour to make, tops, the advantage of using a pre-cooked meat. Easy, inexpensive, fast, and wonderfully nutritious. [Later: thanks to Jack for emailing. Yes, you add water, but only to about an inch below the chopped cabbage. As water is released from fiber, you'll have plenty. Boil down to desired consistency.]
This time, in addition to salt & lots of black pepper, I did quite a sprinkling of Italian seasoning and herbs de provence. Also, a bit of crushed & dried mint. For the final "secret" touch, a teaspoon of curry powder. Over the years, I have found no end of great uses for curry powder. The secret is to get it just on the edge of being able to say "hey, curry." My favorite unconventional use is in mayo-based tuna or chicken salad.
So, here's dinner.
And, a slotted spoon makes for a great addition to eggs for breakfast. Eat with a spoon and do that yolk good. This was fine, but after I had a small bowl with the broth and decided that breakfast tomorrow will be a bowl of this and bacon. The broth is amazing, and it's primarily the tomatoes that do that.
It's a big pot and I'll probably be digging into it throughout the day today and tomorrow.
Eat Well, Eat Real: Friday Food Pics
Primal Chili Dogs
That's very much like a stewy soup I make called Transylvanian Stockpot – the difference is mostly in the spices spices, my version uses a lot of paprika. I just made some a batch the other day, which was very handy to have in the fridge when another family ended up staying for an unplanned dinner Friday evening. I almost always have Polish sausage in the freezer (fast to defrost and slice); the other ingredients are also pantry staples, and cabbage lasts a long time in the crisper drawer of the fridge.
I love making a big pot in about an hour or less (45 minutes is simmer time), and reheating bowls of it for a simple complete meal later in the week, adding more broth and sausage if necessary to extend the servings. Mmmmm…
Is there anything inherently bad about cured sausage or ham?
My position is that it's probably best to keep cured meats and cured meat-products at a low level in the diet. However, it's possible to get uncured ham, bacon, sausage, franks and other products that are normally cured. Then, at that point, the trick is to ensure — in the case of meat products like sausages and franks — that it's gluten / wheat / grain free, soy free, and corn syrup free.
Once accomplished, I not only think these foods are OK, I actually think they are great, optimal, because of two things:
1. high fat percentage, and in the case of sausages and franks, most of the fat stays in the tube and doesn't end up in the pan.
2. you're going to get a wider spectrum of nutrition, since parts you might not normally eat are ground up, so it's more primal. For example, organ meats like liver, heart, kidney. Many people could never eat those things by themselves, but would have no problem eating them in a sausage.
If anyone knows a source for sausages, franks and similar products that meet the criteria above, please post a comment.