Tomatillo Pulled Pork

I love tomatillo salsa. I only discovered it last year, and since then I've made it many times. I saw something somewhere online, I can't remember where, about someone making a roasted pork butt with tomatillos and I knew I had to try it. Unfortunately, it's not tomatillo season, so I couldn't buy any fresh ones at the grocery store. Luckily, I know I really enjoy frontera's tomato salsa, so I figured I'd give their tomatillo salsa a try in this dish.

To start, I took one jar of frontera tomatillo salsa and added in about 8-10 jalapeño slices to a food processor along with about a cup of cilantro leaves, the juice of two limes and one large shallot and pulsed everything together. I wanted my pulled pork to have a little heat, so I added the jalapeno's. If you don't like heat, omit that. I also wanted a little extra zing, hence the extra lime juice.

I poured the sauce over a pork shoulder and covered it in foil and cooked it at 325* in the oven for seven hours. Unfortunately, it wasn't done and I had to go to bed. I took the pork and refrigerated it and two days later, when I knew I was going to have it for dinner that night, I put it in my crock pot and turned it up to high for another six hours. If I were to do this again, I'd do the whole thing in the crock pot for 8-10 hours to see how it turned out.

To serve, I added a bunch of meat to a soft flour tortilla along with some cheese, tomato salsa and sour cream. Next time I might try some fresh tomatoes too. I think I might add a few more jalapeno's as well since I would have liked even more of a kick since it was only slightly there. Use your discretion based on what you enjoy for heat level. 

Roasted Cauliflower

One of my go-to side dishes is my roasted cauliflower. It's super easy to make and I can use ingredients I always have on hand - frozen cauliflower, a little oil and some salt and spices.

I will often use fresh cauliflower when I have it on hand, but I found out a few years ago that I can easily make this with frozen cauliflower and it tastes just as good. As a result, you will almost always find several bags of cauliflower in my freezer at any given point in time. 

All I do to start is toss the cauliflower in a little bit of oil and some salt and pepper. I stuck with my trusted spicy garlic salt that I use on practically everything. I used a vegetable oil here instead of olive oil because we're cooking at about 425*, so we need an oil that can withstand being cooked at a high temperature for a long period of time. I have used olive oil, and it works, you just need to cook at a slightly lower temperature for a longer period of time. 

I roast the cauliflower for about 35-45 minutes at 425*, turning it every now and then. Some of the really tiny heads of cauliflower might burn slightly during this process, but just ignore those and eat the rest. 

Sometimes, if I'm feeling up for it, I'll sprinkle on a little bit of of parmesan cheese during the last five minutes of cooking. I didn't this time, but it's a nice way to mix things up. 

I served the cauliflower this time around with a piece of swordfish that I seared in a pan with a little seasoning and squeezed lemon on top. This was a simple yet delicious spring-like dinner.

Simple Vinagerette

Last night I swung by one of my favorite local restaurants and snagged a salad to go after my physical therapy session. I got a simple garden salad with grilled shrimp. It's something I could eat multiple times a week. I got the lemon Vinagerette to go with it, but when I got home, I discovered they gave me some creamy dressing instead. Wanting something lighter and healthier, I whipped up the following dressing. 

I threw about a teaspoon of mustard and honey in a bowl and whisked it up. I then added about 1/4 cup of white balsamic vinegar and about the same amount of olive oil. 

I tasted it and added a splash more vinegar and mustard because I like it tangy. Definitely taste and adjust as necessary. Champagne vinegar works well in this too. Add in herbs if you'd like as well. 

Here's the salad with the dressing on it. As you can see, it's very light, but full of flavor. 

My Favorite Simply Grilled Shrimp

I don't profess to be a nutritionist or a dietitian, but throughout my weight loss journey, I ate a ton of seafood. It's one of the things that I attribute to my success. I always have a bag of frozen, UNCOOKED, shrimp in my freezer to throw together this quick shrimp dish.

To start, I defrost a handful of shrimp in some water. I've got eight shrimp in a bowl of water here and I change the water about three times over about a 10-20 minute time period to thaw them out. It takes no time at all and is easy to do when in a time crunch.

Once thawed, I remove the shells and place the shrimp on a paper towel to dry. If you don't place them on a paper towel, the shrimp will steam and not get a good sear on them.

I season my shrimp with this spicy garlic blend. It's a combination of dried garlic chunks, crushed red pepper and sea salt. I found this one at my local grocery store, but I've also seen these at places like TJ Maxx as well. 

I sauté the shrimp in a little bit of butter on medium high heat. I set my burner at around a 6 (out of 10) for shrimp. Make sure your pan gets nice and hot before you sauté the shrimp though.  If the heat is too high, the butter will burn. I like butter with the shrimp because it adds a nice flavor to it. I actually used a garlic parsley butter I got at my grocery store (about a teaspoon) this time around, but regular butter works just fine. Sauté about 3 minutes a side, or until you get a nice sear on the shrimp and they're nice and pink.

I served my shrimp this time around with a side of sautéed corn. I added about a teaspoon and a half of bacon grease (gasp!) to a pan and threw in about a 3/4 of a cup of frozen corn. I sautéed it with a little bit of that spicy garlic blend to tie it all together.

I know what you're thinking... I just made a meal with both butter and bacon grease. Yup. Like I said, I never claimed to be a professional, but I know what good food tastes like, and sometimes you need just a little bit of fat to make something taste really good. The key is that it's all in moderation. I don't use a ton of butter or bacon grease, just enough to add a little flavor and cook the shrimp and corn. You'll notice in the above photo that you don't see any of the butter or bacon grease on the plate. That's because I didn't use much. If you want to be even better, you could use some coconut oil with the shrimp or a little bit of canola oil instead. But the key to my success was to make sure I ate healthy while still enjoying the little things in life. If I didn't, I'd find myself splurging more often than not and down a path of destruction.

Enjoy!