Low Carb, High Protein Paleo Haluski

After a gluttonous Thanksgiving meal in which I consented to my first full blown cheat day after two months on the paleo diet, Black Friday has me excited to get back to my "eat like a caveman" mantra. However, you can't go right from gorging on a turkey-shaped chocolate ice cream cake to daintily picking around the cheese of a chef's salad. There has to be an intermediate stage where processed sugars and carbs give way to protein and animal fats. To whip up a return to diet meal that still satisfied, I used three inspirations: my Polish heritage, bacon, and of course Paleolithic man's dietary options. The result was Paleo Haluski, a staple of my childhood. Don't skimp on the butter and enjoy!

Ingredients:

Half a head of cabbage, cored, boiled and chopped

1 yellow onion, chopped

3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed or chopped

6 slices of bacon (preferably nitrate free if available)

8 medium eggs

1 stick of butter

1-2 tablespoons of pepper

1 tablespoon of salt

Directions:

If you have to boil your half head of cabbage, do this first. Cut out the core, place in pot of water on high heat, and remove the leaves individually from the water as they soften. For a shortcut, you can skip this step if you freeze the cabbage, and then defrost it in the fridge overnight. Once defrosted, the cabbage leaves will soften as if they were boiled.

First, fry up your bacon. I recommend fresh pork bellies to be truly paleo, but for my own household I went with turkey bacon since my wife doesn't eat pork. Don't fry the bacon too hard. You don't want it to burn. Cook it just enough to release the grease and get the bacon to a chewy consistency that will mesh with the cabbage. Pull the bacon out of the skillet to cool, but leave the grease.

In the pan, mix half of the butter in with the bacon grease. Then add the garlic and sauté for a few minutes. Next add your chopped onions and sauté some more. I recommend cooking on low heat for a long time as it gets the sugars in the onions to caramelize without burning them.

After onions are soft and starting to brown, add in your chopped cabbage and the rest of your butter. Let these flavors mix together, coating everything with the melted butter. Then break up the now cooled bacon and add the pieces back into skillet. Add salt and pepper and stir occasionally.

Finally, since my paleo research has told me that protein is better than carbs, I decided to add about 8 medium scrambled eggs in place of the traditional egg noodles. If you are not interested in keeping down your carb consumption, then add noodles in during this step. However, some nutritionists suggest that eating some fatty foods is acceptable if coupled with protein. With this in mind, scramble up about 8 eggs in a separate pan. Break into bite-size pieces and then add to your haluski.

Let it cool a little. Add more salt and pepper if needed and devour it like a neanderthal!