My little man and I returned to GA on Monday after almost 3 months at my mom's. WOW! Long time, right? And she and I only got into one minor tussle the whole time. I was so thankful that mom and her husband Rob let me and Eli disrupt their day to day for so many weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated all the help with Eli since Rusty has been gone since January. Obviously my return home means that his return home is drawing near as well, so YAY for that!
One advantage of being back home however, is that I control what is in my kitchen. Bye-Bye temptation of vanilla wafers and Nutella. So long to the call of the Moose Tracks ice cream in the fridge. And adios to the days where I would just cave and have a sandwich because my mom offered to make one for me. Nope, in this house there is no bread, no sweets, no grains of any kind actually. No CAFO farmed beef. No Perdue or Tyson chicken here.
What I do have a lot of is ground venison from a deer a friend of mine killed. I love ground meat of any kind because its ususally the cheapest cut. But it can get redundant. A few days ago I concocted a lovely dish of what I had on hand and it turned out superb. I'm calling it Venison Hash, and it's easily modifiable to whatever veggies you prefer. Also, I don't really measure when I cook, so I may guess or tell you to wing it.
1.5 lbs of ground venison
1/2 vidalia onion, diced
2 tbs coconut oil
1/2 bag frozen green peppers, diced
1 bag of frozen cauliflower
chili powder and sea salt, to taste
a few handfuls of fresh spinach or mixed greens of your choice
1/2 avocado
As many of my favorite recipes start....heat the coconut oil in a large skillet. Add onions and peppers (if using fresh peppers, do not add until after meat is browned), saute until limp. Add venison and cook until it is brown all the way through. Add chili powder and sea salt to taste (or something with a little more kick if you desire). While the meat is browning, boil bag of cauliflower for approx 5-8 minutes, or until you can easily pierce it with a fork. Remove from heat and transfer to a food processor or blender. Pulse until it has a rice-like consistency.
Transfer cauliflower rice to bowl, throw a couple of handfuls of spinach on the rice, cover with venison hash and top with diced avocado. I made this dish for me and Eli, so I waited to add my kick until I had my own serving. The Original Cholula sauce. Yum. Eli added his own garnish...he dipped his bites of hash in his applesauce before eating it. Cute kid. Sorry I'm lame and I never take photos of my food, but trust me, it was good. Besides, most of the time someone is clinging to my leg crying because he is hungry and ready to eat, so I am not really thinking about taking a photo of my food at that point.
Enjoy!
I was inspired to try bacon in a new way. Although the cookbook touts claims of meals in 30 minutes or less on the cover, you are warned in the intro that for those new to certain cooking processes, these meals may take more than 30 minutes. I was kind of bummed because being a single mom half of the time who happens to have a child with an ardor for food, I want something I can get on the table quick. That letdown accompanied with the fact that many of the recipes call for unusual or unique ingredients that are not every day household purchases was kind of lame.
