The stuffed roast I made for dinner tonight was, according to my husband, the best stuffed roast I’ve ever made. When I start exploring with spinach, mushrooms and exotic spices to stuff pork with, we invariably find it way to heavy for us. So this time I just did it with 2 cups of very good leftover stuffing I had in my freezer (made with about 1/3 loaf of this tasty bread, a large patty of pork sausage leftover from breakfast today and ½ link of bratwurst, leftover from lunch yesterday. It was AMAZING! It roasted perfectly, was fork tender, moist, not heavy at all and made the best pan drippings for gravy! This is not suitable until the nuts and seeds rung of the Atkins OWL carb ladder. Primal diners that eat occasional cheese can have this if they omit the corn flavoring in the bread; Paleo eaters will want to omit the cheese and the corn flavoring from the bread. Of course you can always use YOUR favorite plan-suitable bread/stuffing, but you would then have to recalculate your carbs if you substitute. This dish boasts some impressive macronutrients!

INGREDIENTS:

2¼ lb. pork loin, center cut roast, boneless

Dash each salt and pepper

2 oz. bulk pork sausage, cooked and crumbled

2 oz. bratwurst sausage (½ link), removed from casing, cooked & crumbled

4 slices low carb bread (8-10 oz), crumbled (I used my Jalapeno Cheese Bread linked above)

2 oz. onion, chopped fine

2 oz. celery chopped fine

3 T. parsley chopped

¼ tsp. poultry seasoning

1 beaten egg

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 300º. Double butterfly the roast. I did this by slicing laterally right to left (not cutting the pieces totally apart) 1/3 down the meat thickness and laid that piece to the left. Then I cut 2/3 down the meat left to right (not cutting the pieces totally apart) and laid that piece off to the right. The result is one large rectangle of pork. I then pounded the pork with a meat cleaver to tenderize it a bit. Set meat aside and prepare the stuffing.

Crumble the bread into a bowl. Add sausage crumbles, finely chopped onion, celery and parsley (pre-sauteing veggies isn’t necessary since this will be baked so long). Add poultry seasoning and beaten egg and stir well. Add dash of salt and pepper to stuffing mixture. If a little dry and won’t hold together (breads vary), add a little water or chicken stock. Spread stuffing evenly over the meat either with a rubber spatula, fork or I used my hands. Roll the meat up carefully and place seam side down in a small roasting pan. Brush lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Pop into preheated 300º oven for 1 hour. Remove and baste with any pan juices. Add about ½ c. water around the roast, raise oven temp to 325º and place back in oven for 1 hour at the higher temperature. Meat should be at internal temp of 165º at 2 hours cooking, but check with a meat thermometer to be sure, as ovens vary. If the surface of the meat isn’t as brown as you like, turn oven to 375º and return meat for 15 minutes to brown it up a bit more. Let meat sit for 10 minutes before slicing into 8 thick slices. Slightly thicken pan juices over low heat with your favorite thickener if desired. Makes a wonderful gravy! Serve at once with your favorite green vegetable (I did steamed broccoli) or a green salad.

NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 8 servings, each contains (calculated using my cheese bread):

408 calories

24.1 g fat

4.43 g carbs, 1.94 g fiber, 2.39 g NET CARBS

42.7 g protein

295 mg sodium