Meat, Meat and more Meat

Tonight I prepared a few meals for Brandon and I so that we would have enough meat for a few dinners and a few lunches. We have noticed that salads for lunch in the summer are fantastic but salads for lunch in the winter- Not Cutting It anymore. We want warm comfort foods and lots of food so we have been strategically planning our meals for lunch and dinner. Tonight we had Venison Tenderloin (crock pot style) and then we made Ground venison, I turned mine into venison meat sauce to top my spaghetti squash (see previous blog for that recipe) and I turned Brandon's into taco seasoned meat to top his salad for lunches tomorrow. We also marinated some steaks for dinner tomorrow (look out for my blog post tomorrow night on how to make the perfect Venison steak)
This seems like a lot of work but it really wasn't too bad knowing that you won't have to cook a lot throughout the week.
Let's start with the easy stuff-

Ground Venison

1- Put Venison in a skillet (frozen or thawed)
2- Turn temperature to medium heat and stand by constantly chopping and mixing the meat until it is light brown. Don't let it burn or get too well done.
3- Make a meal out of it- add taco seasoning, pasta sauce or whatever you would do with regular ground beef.
*Can be refrigerated for up to 3 days*

Venison Tenderloin

I used 1 12oz Venison tenderloin but you could use any size that fits in your crock pot. You may need to adjust the measurements if you have double the size tenderloin. :)

1 Venison tenderloin (or beef)
1 cup water
salt and pepper to taste
1 TBS fresh Rosemary
1 Tsp Garlic
1 Juice of whole Lemon

Place water in the crock pot. Turn crock pot on LOW. Add Tenderloin and all of the ingredients. Mix the broth and meat around a little so that nothing is clumped.
Allow to slow roast for 4-5 hours depending on the cook you prefer. Tenderloin should be brown but able to pull apart without a knife. Check it after 4 hours and go from there. If you are using a larger tenderloin you may need to cook for 8 hours. The key is to not let it overcook. If it starts to get blackened edges pull it out. I served this with some sauteed carrots and asparagus.

Sauteed Carrots and Asparagus
Place olive oil in a skillet, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan.
Place Carrots in the pan and sprinkle with Salt, pepper, old bay or Cajun seasoning (make sure you are getting sugar free if you are paleo!)
Once the Carrots are tender and a little browned remove them and throw in the asparagus and cook until tender- Brandon likes his mushy so we cooked his a little longer than most prefer.

MMMM! You could fry the meat leftovers up with an Egg tomorrow. ahahaha (a common statement made by my parents about leftovers, I believe this comes from our WV relatives- my dads Grandmother) Tonight I said this to my husband because we only had a few pieces of meat left. After I said this I thought- WHAT HAVE I BECOME!?!?! It might make a nice manly omelet though ;)

Question of the week:  What comfort foods are you craving lately? I really wanted Pizza so I made last nights Winter Classic Pizza recipe (see previous blog). I am also craving Shepard's pie and I will probably be trying that soon. Are there any comfort foods you want that I should try to make? I need a food challenges soon.