Paleo Cooking with Shang Dynasty Convenience

Besides the fun insulin addiction, one of the things which makes high-glycemic carbohydrates attractive is that they frequently come in formats that store easily for long periods and, when you do cook them, you can make a lot and eat on the leftovers for a day or so. When you first dive into eating Paleo style, this can be a little harder to do.

Enter some clever Chinese potters in 1600 BCE, whose development of porcelain led us to that most wonderful of inventions for easily preparing a lot of food with relatively little labor, the crock-pot.

Crock-pots are just stupidly awesome; rich flavors, fantastically tender meats, meals practically designed for easy re-heating are the treasure yielded by these little electric pots-o'-gold.

We have a very nifty crock pot which has 3 separate crocks, the largest of which is 6 quarts. When we make a meal in that sucker it'll feed us for 3 days! I once had a massive 10 quart crock pot, but that was lost somehow when I moved back to Indy from LA and is a tragic loss I shan't dwell further upon.

Paleo cooking is generally quite easy once you get the hang of it; your ingredient list is categorically restrictive but offers huge variety, and you can throw virtually any combination of vegetables, meat, spices, and a dash of olive or coconut oil into a pan and whip up a stir-fry (thanks again, China!).

Crock-pot cooking is not quite as care-free, but almost; a meat, some veggies, spices, a bit of stock and presto! A few hours later you have stew.

If you own one of these things, and don't bust it out regularly, start taking advantage!

Here's a spot of comfort food from my childhood which, OK, is not technically paleo as it's a cured meat, but it's close. And tasty (if you like cabbage).

Smoked Sausage and Cabbage (clever name, huh?):

2lbs Smoked Sausage, cut into 1" pieces (obviously, the more quality sausage you use, the better)

1 head of cabbage, chopped

3 large onions (I like Vidalia best for this)

1 clove garlic

Carrots, Parsnips, Turnips (whatever combination you want)

Chicken Broth

Salte & Pepper

Cut up the sausage, chop the cabbage and garlic, cut the onions into quarters and put all that into the crock-pot. Chop up enough of the root vegetables into bite-sized chunks and put enough into the crock-pot that it's filled 3/4 of the way. Fill with enough chicken broth to cover, put it on low, and leave it for 4 hours.

Note: You'd better like cabbage or you'll probably hate this. :)

Here are a load of other recipes to keep you going (or get you started, if you in fact do not like cabbage):

Paleo Chili

Marvelous Meatballs

Simple Paleo Crock-Pot Recipes @ Paleohacks.com

Paleo Crock-Pot Roast

Crock-Pot Pork Loin