Category — Venison Recipes

Today was the first day back to normal.  The kids have all returned to school, hubby went back to work (o.k., he retreated to the desk in the bedroom, but he was working), and I went back to being a housewife.  It was a good day; productive in that I got to clean a little bit around here, but also I spent some much needed time in the kitchen.  During the process, I discovered that my downstairs pantry and freezer are a mess and need some serious attention.  These projects excite me.  Tomorrow, I will put on my winter gloves and spend an hour digging around in the freezer coming up with all sorts of goodies and ideas!  I will place all the cans, bags, and boxes in little rows in the cabinets and I will feel peaceful and complete. 

It was dismal here today; warm, but rainy and grey.  Perhaps you could even say it looked foreboding outside.  Well.  When my kids got home today and dh turned off his laptop and called it a day, all hecky broke loose.  So much for my peaceful feeling.  Teen daughter was being a chaos monster, Aspie girl wet her pants at school and didn’t seem to even know where she was, and little one was hungry, coughy, and a bit snarky.

Dinner was a disaster.  Teen daughter threw a total fit because I made her eat a mushroom.  It was a major battle.  She’s still crying and it’s been over an hour ago.  You know that little saying “Pick your battles”?  It kept running through my head when that mushroom was sitting there on the end of her fork, but I had already picked this battle and quite frankly I’m tired of the constant food issues we have at the table.  I was aiming to win.

O.k., one thing you should know.  Dinner was a disaster, but the food was fantastic.  Give me my kitchen without hubby and kids poking in my way and I’ll work some magic.  Today did turn out that way.

So, lucky you!  You get the good part of dinner - the recipes.  I’ll keep the teenager, and her mushroom anger.

Crockpot Venison in  Mushroom Sauce - serves 6-8

2 pounds of venison, stew cut

1 pound of fresh mushrooms, sliced (I used white button)

1 can of cream of mushroom soup (I used the low cal, low fat version)

1 medium white onion, cut into rings

1/3 cup red wine

1/2 cup apple juice

1 package of dry onion soup mix

1 tsp. kosher salt (or to taste)

4 strips of bacon

Mix all of this together and cook it in the crockpot.  5-6 hours on high, or 7-8 on low.  I fished the bacon slices out at the end (these were just added for flavor, venison is very lean, which can make it taste ”gamey”, chewy, or bland).  You can leave the bacon in, but you really don’t need it.  This got thick and creamy and was super yummy.  I served it over egg noodles.  Now, if you aren’t lucky enough to be blessed with a freezer full of venison, use stew beef.  You won’t need the bacon if you use beef.

Oh, did I mention?  I also made a pie.  Hubby and I are dieting, so this is a lower calorie, lower fat option to Key Lime Pie.  And it’s good.  Make sure you make it the night before, or in the morning, because you serve it frozen and you don’t want to try to put this together right before you eat (unless you want soup pie).

Frozen Key Lime Pie

1/2 (0.3 oz) package of lime sugar free gelatin

1/2 cup of key lime juice

1 (14 oz.) can of fat free sweetened condensed milk

4 oz (half a tub) of fat free frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 graham cracker pie crust (reduced fat, of course)

Place the lime juices in a bowl and use a whisk to stir the gelatin into the juice, until it dissolves completely.  Then pour in the condensed milk and whisk until it’s all combined and light green.  Lastly, mix in the whipped topping.  Save the other half of the whipped topping to garnish the top of the pie later.  Pour the mixture into the graham cracker crust, cover the pie, and place in the freezer until completely frozen.  Cut into 8 pieces and garnish with whipped topping.  Oh, yeah, then call me up and I’ll come over for some!