Okay so this recipe is soooo not Paleo. Which I do follow most of the time, (about 80% of the time) but not always.  Sometimes a girl just needs a grilled cheese sandwich! I'm all for substitutes when they are just as good, but in this case I just went with the real deal.


A Word On Bread
You can try to make Paleo bread (without grains), lower grain bread (here is my recipe) or make or buy gluten free (made with grains) bread to make it healthier, but instead I used the sprouted bread I bought.  I use to make our bread about 10 months out of the year (with the exception of the peak of summer).  But making bread was turning into a chore rather than being fun.  I enjoy food that requires a lot of chemistry to go right (breads, ice cream, pizza,etc.) but not when it's labour intensive and something that I have to do.  So I've decided to only make bread in the winter (when it's nice to have a hot oven on in MN) and buy gluten free bread or sprouted bread (has gluten but is flowerless and higher nutrient content). 

A Word on Cheese
I prefer to use real cheese as opposed to vegan cheese.  Every package of vegan cheese I've looked at used bad oils (omega 6 plant based GMO (if it's not organic) oil like soy and canola) and had starch as a main ingredient.  Since starch turns to sugar in your body......that just doesn't seem healthier to me. Maybe there are healthy alternatives to cheese I just haven't found.  If you know any please let me know!

The problem many have with cheese is that it's an animal product and many people have problems digesting the casein (protein) and lactose (sugar) in cheese since we weren’t designed to eat cow's milk.  I totally agree with this and have as a result taken out all dairy where equally good substitutes exists, but honestly I can't imagine living in a world without cheese.  I just buy grass fed cheese and make sure to take digestive enzymes with casein, gluten, and lactose digestive enzymes. 

My Secret to Cooking from Scratch  
I typically cook all meals from scratch 5 days a week.  On Sat my husband and I often go out for date night or we do take out.  And on Sundays my husband cooks for me (usually lamb burgers or his sweet and sour chicken which is amazing (someday I'll ask him for the recipe and post) or we do take out.  My secret to cooking from scratch so often is I usually pick up a pasture raised beef or pork roast at our farmers market every week (or every other week and just freeze it) and we turn it into 2 nights of dinners ( I simply put the crock pot in the fridge after eating it and put it back on high for 1 hr before eating the next day).  I usually add a little wine or apple cider vinegar, some spices, and a little organic better than bouillon along with some root vegetables.  Lately I've been trying not to eat until I'm full to allow for better digestion so we have had more leftovers of our roast than usual.  So I decided to make a BBQ pulled pork cheese grill out of the leftovers one day, and I've been obsessed with it ever since.  Now I can stretch out our roast into 3 diners.  Easy peasy!

Pulled Pork BBQ Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Ingredients

• 1 1/2-2 tablespoon pasture raised butter
• 2 slices bread
• 2 slices grass fed cheddar (or 1/2 cup shredded)
• 1/2 cup left over pasture raised (you can get at your local farmer's market or coop) pulled pork, warm
• 1 tablespoon BBQ sauce (or to taste, make sure not to use any with high fructose corn syrup!  I used Trader Joe's)
• favourite mustard
• hot sauce to taste
• 4 sliced pickles (optional make sure it doesn't have food dyes!)

Directions

 In a small bowl mix the cook left over cooked shredded pork you plan to use with deisred BBQ sauce, a pat of butter (1/2- 1 Tablespoons), and hot sauce to taste.  Warm up the left over pork mixture.

Heat a pan over medium heat (I used a cast iron pan with a cast iron grill press as pictured below, if using a grill press heat that now too).

Butter one side of each slice of bread and spread mustard on the other side (or you could use BBQ sauce I choose mustard to cut down on sugar), place one slice in the pan with buttered side down, top with a slice of cheese, a layer of sliced pickles.


Then place the mixture of the pork and BBQ sauce (stir it in to the shredded pork, a pat of butter, and a dash of hot sauce), and the remaining cheese and finally the other slice of bread with buttered side up and mustard on the other side (or BBQ sauce).


If you have a cast iron grill press place it on the top.
Grill until golden brown on both sides and the cheese is melted, about 2-4 minutes per side.