Before I get into the bacon jam recipe, let me give you a little back story. 2 1/2 years ago, JT was medevacced back from Afghanistan with extreme stomach pain. 6 months later they found a hernia. Well, that wasn't just it. He ended up having a lot of problems. I won't go into all of them right now. But about a year ago, he was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called ulcerative colitis. It is painful. I hated watching him suffer. I would try going gluten free, but that didn't help. I tried limiting leafy green and upping the starches, but that didn't help. I did so much research trying to figure out if I could help him out with food. What I read was that a diet change would not help and that medicine would (don't get me started on medicine, we are not friends right now). I watched documentaries researched online and determined that the best thing for all of us was to eat as clean as possible. Meaning cut of the processed food and put real food in. It didn't really do anything for JT, but at least we weren't eating junk food...most of the time. I am not super mom, I was sad when the twinkie wasn't being sold anymore.
I started following on lady of facebook, 100 Days of Real Food. There wasn't much I didn't know. There isn't much we all don't know. It is commons sense really, if you think about it. His last rounds of new medicines didn't work to control his UC, so we are at our next option, a chemo type drug. It has scared us because his immune system is already so compromised. He has been dreading this and so have I. Right about that time, 100 Days of Real Food posted a link to a lady whose cook book was about to come out. In the tag line, it read how she healed her ulcerative colitis. Say what?! So, of course I clicked the link. Her blog is called Against All Grain, and reading her story was so much like reading my husbands. As I read further, I saw she was on the Paleo Diet. She explains what that is, but basically, you eat meat, veggies, fruits, and nuts (no peanuts). No dairy. No grains at all. No lentils. No processed food. And as much as possible, eat organic and free range or wild caught. I have heard of paleo before, but never really did much research about it. But the further I researched this time, I read more and more people talking about how the symptoms of their autoimmune disease disappeared. It certainly grabbed my attention. I have watched my husband suffer day after day. I have watched his health decline. He is now being tested for another autoimmune disease. If at all possible, I would rather heal his body with food and not medicine.
When I approached him with this idea, he was very hesitant. He would have to give up his most loved foods. Who doesn't like a big greasy hamburger slathered in melted cheese? And lasagna? No more. He said he wanted to talk to his doctor about it. So, we did. And guess what? He supported it 100%, because he had been on it for the past 6 months. He said he has never felt better. We waited a couple weeks for JT to say goodbye to some of his favorite foods before hitting the Paleo. I was afraid my grocery bill would go up, but it stayed pretty much the same. I was not buying breads, dairies, and lentils...but replacing them with higher quality meats and organic produce. Our whole family has made this change. The kids still drink a glass of milk a day, because right now it is the best source of calcium for them until they eat more leafy greens. Although, they are coming around. Olivia chowed down on some organic raw kale a the farmers market. I am involving the kids in the meal planning, and I am educating them on food and what they put in their bodies. For the most part, they haven't complained. Now we aren't only Paleo, but we are about to be. I am ridding my pantry of not Paleo items. I am almost there, and I am replacing them with Paleo friendly items.
Is this helping? YES! My husband loves it. Even though he is still sad about giving up some foods, he loves how he feels now with Paleo meals. I love how I feel. I feel satisfied without feeling bloated or lethargic. And the biggest surprise is that Miss Sutton Grace as stopped throwing tantrums and whining as much. And her eczema is clearing up! I read not too long about that the Paleo diet can help with that too. I lost 3 pounds in the first week. JT lost 5. That was us doing nothing. We are both ready to go strict Paleo now. It really has made a difference in how we feel.
We are already planning our garden for next spring. We are stocking up our savings to buy some chickens and a whole hog from a local farmer. I can buy organic beef up here, so I probably won't buy a cow. We are also hoping to fill our freezer with a moose and caribou. We have a good stock pile of salmon and halibut...wild caught is the only way to eat fish! I will not buy it in the store. We have bought most of our produce from the farmer's market. I fill in from the stores. It is hard to buy a lot of organic produce up here, because it is Alaska, but we do what we can. For this diet to work the best, it is important that what we put in our bodies is as pure as it can be.
I did think it would be kind of boring, but I have found a whole new creative side to cooking. I love to bake, and I don't do that much any more. But my husband isn't a fan of baked goods anyways. I am though and so are the kids. We have just started on this new way of eating, but from the looks of it for the past 2 weeks, I think it will be a forever change.
So, enough back story, how did I find bacon jam? I follow several paleo people on instagram. And I see what they post as far as food goes and what not. I kept seeing bacon jam popping up. I knew the recipe was in this one cook book (Beyond Bacon) I can't wait to get my hands on, and I kept seeing people rave about it. I was intrigued enough to start looking for the recipe online. I found several recipes, but they weren't paleo friendly because of the brown sugar. I adapted the recipes to what I know about cooking, baking and paleo and came up with my own. Next time, I may add one more pound of bacon...still playing that one out in my head.
Bacon Jam
2lbs chopped bacon
1 large chopped onion or 2 small chopped onions
2 cloves minced garlic
3/4 apple cider vinegar
1/2 c. brewed black coffee
1/2 c. maple syrup
1/4 c. honey
dash nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
dash red pepper flakes
If you have organic of these, use organic.
Cook bacon in a cast iron pot on stove top. Stir constantly. Take out bacon with slotted spoon and drain on some paper towels. Pour all but 2 tbsp of bacon grease in a glass container. (You may need to add more at the end if it is too dry...I did not). Cook the chopped onions and garlic in the pot until translucent. Pour the vinegar, syrup, honey and seasonings in to the pot. Stir. When it starts boiling, put the cooked chopped bacon back in. Stir. Cover and cook for 2 hours. Stir every 30 minutes. The jam will be thick. Spoon into a jar or jars. It makes about 3 cups. It keeps for 2 weeks in the fridge.
It is wonderful on anything. I have put a small amount on boiled eggs. I threw in with sauteed kohlrabi and brussel sprouts (look mom! it only took me going Paleo to start eating "russell" sprouts). I have read of people even eating it on vanilla ice cream!
Some variations that sound intriguing are adding a tbsp of chocolate or adding bourbon. Bourbon is made from grains, so it would not be paleo friendly, but I have seen brandy substituted. If you want to make the non paleo version of this, use brown sugar instead of honey, 1/2 c brown sugar and 1/4 c of maple syrup.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. It is amazing and the kids went nuts over it!
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