Now before y'all freak out about eating Bambi, hear me out. If any of you have avid hunters like my husband, then you may have been introduced to deer meat already. Also, my dad, grandpa, and uncles all hunted when I was younger, so I grew up around it. But, I never really thought about cooking it all the time until my husband brought home a nice buck this year. Once I thought about it, a light bulb went off. I was going to be saving so much money as well as having a healthier option. We got all our venison butchered for about $250. (We had a doe given to us that a friend didn't want, too). So here is what we got: 10- 2-4lb roasts, about 10lbs stew meat, about 20 steaks, about 15lbs tenderloin plus one 2-3lb whole tenderloin, almost 40lbs ground meat, 4lbs breakfast sausage and 2- 2ft rolls of summer sausage. Now, I don't know about you but I think that's a heck of a deal!!
Now for the nutrition part. I did some research on this and found a nice website that broke it down. Feel free to check it out on you own (www.livestrong.com). I love this website!! I go there all the time for nutrition facts! If you have never checked it out, you should! Okay, back to my venison ;) So I pretty much knew that venison was leaner than beef (it has about a fifth of the fat and a sixth of saturated fat than beef!) But it has so much more to it then that. One thing that I really like is that you know deer have all natural diets, so you aren't going to be getting any hormones or chemicals and you will be getting all natural minerals and vitamins! Also, it has fewer calories and more protein!
So, now that I've given you a little health lesson, lets get to the yummy stuff ;) Tonight I made Teriyaki Steak Stir Fry (mmmm, I could eat more right now just thinking about it!) So, I thawed out 2 venison steaks. Now, you are more than welcome to use any steak you like, as I know not everybody has venison laying around ;) Then, I trimmed them and sliced them in about 1/4 in. think strips. Put them in a Ziplock Baggie and poured in my teriyaki marinade. Now this is one of those items that I buy off brand. It's Kroger Brand (see pic) and it tastes just the same! I love these marinades! They have like 20 different flavors and are about half the price! Anyways, I let that marinate over night or you can just let it marinate all day. It's a 30 min. marinade so that that will do just fine. Oh and save a little marinade for later. Then I cut and slice an onion, green pepper and red pepper about 1/4 in. thick. Now, I use a cast iron skillet but you can use whatever you have. Put 2 tbsp veg. oil and heat on med-high heat. Throw in your veggies, season with salt and pepper and if you want (and have this ingredient), sprinkle in some Chinese Five Spice (love this spice in Asian cooking!) Sauté for about 15-20 mins or until veggies are tender. Remove and set aside then add your meat and cook for about 10-15 mins. Now while my meat is cooking, I prepare my rice. Yes, it only takes ten minutes to make my rice cause I like to cut corners ;). And yes I buy the boil-in-a-bag rice AND I buy the off brand. It's cheap and easy AND I use the microwave method. If you have younger kids, you understand ;). So, back to the meal...after you rice is done and your meat is cooked, throw the veggies and rice back in your skillet with the meat and pour in a little extra marinade, stir to coat and whala! Dinner is done! So, I hope you've enjoyed this chat tonight and learned a little something! Don't be afraid to try new things and give some cows some love by steering away every once in awhile (you see what i did there...hehe). Well have a good night/day and I hope to see you back!
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