Whole30: Day 8

Since transitioning to eating Paleo foods, I've found my love for meat. I don't mean that I enjoy eating steak, which I do. Meat now tastes different depending on where it's from, how it's prepared, and how multi purposed it is. As I've talked about before, we purchased a whole pig from my dad that we had processed here locally. We've also been buying between 1/4- 1/2 a cow for the last 3 years too. I honestly didn't think there was a difference in taste between store purchased meat and the stuff that I know where it comes from but I was very wrong. I still remember the first bite of pork chop I had from the pig we purchased. It was juicy, melted in my mouth, and I just wanted more.

When buying large amounts of beef and pork it's important for us to use it but also make it last until we can purchase another one. It seems like a lot of meat but if we were to eat our 1/2 a cow everyday, it would probably only last us 3 months. Being on a budget, I try to make our meals stretch as much as I can and ensure they all don't taste the same. One meal I make at least once a month is Juli Bauer's Barbacoa. I've cut the spice back a bit since Ethan doesn't sleep well after eating spicy food but other than that it's a wonderful recipe. What I really enjoy is that the meat is tender and juicy from adding tomato sauce, spices and green chiles to the shredded meat and then cooking it a bit longer.

We made the Barbacoa into tacos the other night with Brittany Angell's Soft Plantain Taco Shells from Every Last Crumb. I've made these taco shells 3 times, all of which turned out differently depending on the ripeness of the plantains. Either way, the flavor is killer and a slight sweetness to offset the spicy Barbacoa. I served them with our favorite street taco fixings of avocado, cabbage, onion, cilantro, radish, and olives.

What's great is that we have so much leftover we can eat it again for a lunch and repurpose it for a dinner as well. Later this week I will use the remaining leftover meat for BBQ Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with a coleslaw from The Paleo Kitchen.