Eggs and Bacon: the Perfect Quick Paleo Meal

Fresh bacon, eggs, and spinach provide a quick, nutritious, low-carb meal. All in one pan.

Bacon has been derided as a fattening, unhealthy food. Eggs have been linked to high cholesterol, and spinach has E. coli. Right?

But everything you've heard is wrong. Fresh bacon from a local farm is one of the best sources of high-quality monounsaturated and saturated fats, both heart-healthy necessary nutrients. Chicken eggs from a local farm provide pretty much everything you need to survive. It has been called the perfect food. And spinach is a source of vitamins and minerals that will feed and cleanse you.

But that's not to say that there are not problems. The horrors I listed are not a result of the foods themselves, but in how they are grown and processed. For example, bacon that has been mass-produced comes from pigs that are treated in conditions not fit for any living being. They live in each others filth and are fed enough antibiotics that virtually any bacteria, even the good ones, are gone. The meat is processed with toxic chemicals and packaged in a mass-produced fashion by people who hate their jobs.

The chicken has it at least as bad. She is fed a similar antibiotic regimen and forced to live in a cage barely large enough to stretch her wings. She is fed GMO corn meal and expected to lay at least one egg a day. She can't be very happy. No wonder yolks from these mass-produced eggs are barely a shade more yellow than the whites.

And the E.coli outbreak in spinach came from a big-ag farm that was polluted by toxic runoff from a pig-processing operation up stream.

So what's the lesson here? Avoid these foods? Believe the lies coming from government and media? No. The way to eat safe and healthy is to know where your food comes from. If you look around just a little bit, you can probably find someone in town who raises pigs and sells the meat. And it's sometimes even cheaper than the grocery store. And unless you live in a big city, there's probably someone within five miles of where you live that raises chickens and would love to give or sell you some eggs. Plus, the hens from these farms are happy and you can usually pick one up and give her a big hug. They like big hugs.

And you can grow your own spinach or find a local farmer who can provide it.

Step 1: Gather the Ingredients

First, we'll go out to the chicken coop and get some fresh eggs. Hello, ladies!

Next, we've got some bacon from last year's pigs, Oscar and Mayer. They were naughty little escape artists, but they always came back and always ate the best food. They went to "freezer camp" last November.

Finally, the spinach. It's the end of winter here, and so we have to get spinach from the store. We look for local, and buy certified organic whenever we can. Olivia's is a local company that gets their greens from trusted farmers at various locations depending on the season.

Be sure to use a non-stick pan. Your mother used teflon, a fragile space-age coating painted on an aluminum pan. She had to replace her metal cookware with plastic to avoid scratching it, but it always seemed to scratch anyway.

But your grandmother knew better. She used a cast iron pan that was well-seasoned and probably handed down from her grandmother. Cast iron doesn't mind scratching, either. In fact, it is best to use a flat metal spatula that can simultaneously clean and temper the pan. Warm water and a sponge (no soap, please) cleans it up, leaving it ready for the next meal.

And of course, Himalayan salt and fresh ground pepper.

Step 2: Mmmm...Bacon

When we processed the bacon last Fall, we added maple syrup that we made from our own maple trees. This was added to the brine solution and gives the bacon a yumminess that you have to experience to understand.

Fry four pieces in the pan, but keep the grease. It would be a shame to discard that loveliness.

Step 3: Wilt the Spinach and Scramble the Eggs

After removing the bacon, we throw a lot of spinach in the pan that still has that grease. The spinach will wilt down to a fraction of it's volume, concentrating all the vitamins and minerals and soaking up some of the bacon grease. A little bit of salt and pepper.

Next, in go the two eggs we just got from the hens. Look how orange those yolks are! After a second, we scramble things up a bit. But don't let the eggs cook too much. We like 'em nice and runny!

Then combine with the spinach.

Step 4: Super Healthy Meal Any Time of Day

Combine with a glass of raw milk and you have a healthy (mostly) paleo, definitely low-carb meal.

I've entered this Instructable in the egg and bacon contests. If you like it, please vote! And remember, if you know where your food comes from, you will live a long and healthy life!